The Bar-Kays – Soul Finger

Some of the most gleefully funky recordings ever made, bar none.

Sadly, the backstory isn’t so gleeful. This was the only album released by the original Bar-Kays line-up, prior to four of the original members being killed in the same plane clash that took Otis Redding away from us—he’d chosen them as his backing band, and they were all en route to a concert in Madison, WI when the plane went down.

The Bar-Kays were, like Booker T. & The M.G.s, essentially a session group, and also like Booker T. and co., they were part of the whole Stax thing in the 60s.

This album was in fact recorded at the Stax studios in Memphis, and as noted, it is indeed gleefully funky, with the title track being one of the great old-school funk instrumentals of all time. If you haven’t yet dug it, dig it.