The Left Rev McD : EUGENE MCDANIELS HEADLESS HEROES OF THE APOCALYPSE

yeah, thank you for that! the whole channel is modestly watchable. he seems really content through all of it. that video you posted is rather inspiring. makes me feel like i could start a publishing company and end up with a #1 record - of course i don't know les mccann!

never did get around to polling outlaw.

I have been wondering what the story was on his early 60s stuff for a while. Just found out its on Spotify. I was wondering when he arrived at that more naturalistic style of singing with approximation of notes etc.
If that is him singing at the end of the clip it does sound like he unlearnt how to sing or learnt how not to sing or something cos I think there may even be a difference between Outlaw and Headless Horsemen in terms of the conventional tunefulness of his singing. I thought it was unlikely that a singer in the style of Headless Horsemen would get signed as a vocalist 10 years earlier. Would think that even someone like Chet baker was only getting to sing because it was a side thing he did on top of playing trumpet. & Astrid Gilberto was married to a famous player.
I thought he had some material out but not sure what looks like its several lps from the early 60s.

the early pop stuff definitely seems like an anomaly in retrospect. and, as far as what he arrived at in the 70s, i really don't know where that style came from - think i mentioned elsewhere that he christened himself a reverend for a reason; that was his preacher voice. that's the only way i can make sense of it because it is so singular.

sidenote: not only is the early pop stuff on spotify under "gene mcdaniels", so is the mid-70s quiet storm(-ish) full length natural juices. fairly rare in the original, what a treat to have it so readily listenable. also the headless heroes era non-lp single "tell me mr. president" is on there under "eugene" - check it out, very righteous.

xp Stevo, it's funny because it's "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" that popped into my head this morning and which prompted me to go looking for videos on Youtube. that one's pretty tame.

but on "tower of strength" you can hear him kind of growl and shout in a way that is reminiscent of the Atlantic records. he's clearly hamming it up here, but i kinda like it. you can hear he's having fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKyitdO740c