So now I have moved on from Celtic punk to American funk. The Meters are an old school funk band based in New Orleans. This is a greatest hits CD, as you may gather from the title, "The Essentials". Many of their songs are instrumentals with the standouts in the songs being the keyboard and the funky guitar and bass. The music is groovy and the beats are righteous.
My favorite songs from this CD are "Cissy Strut" and "Hand Clapping Song". The first one is all instrumental and was pretty familiar to me even though I had never heard of The Meters. It is a groove that is very recognizable and you can easily get down to. The latter song, "Hand Clapping Song," has vocals but not a lot. The song consists mostly of the band singing "clap your hands now, people clap your hands" over and over again as well as lots of hand clapping. It's a pretty simplistic song but it gets the job done. You can't help but sing along and clap your hands.
Who knows why Ross bought this CD but I know why he liked it. It is right up his alley: the funky grooves, the riffs that go off for awhile and don't really have an ending, and the fact that you could just listen to this all day long and never get tired of it. I'm sure he was almost tempted sometimes to put on a polyester leisure suit and boogie when he listened to it. I can't give this CD away. It is just another one of those classics I feel I need to add to my collection. Like I have said before, I feel like I am receiving my musical education posthumously. Slowly, I am beginning to recognize when a CD is something that must be treasured because the music on it was important to the era from whence it came. It is music that has meaning and has lasted the test of time.
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