O.V. Wright - The Bottom Line

I picked this up as a cut-out at JiFS records in the early eighties, purely on instinct. It’s probably been in my top 5 soul albums since.

Until today, I’d always assumed that Wright had been quite old when he recorded this, based on his fragile, old-man-with-ill-fitting-dentures-losing-his-life-savings-to-an-online-pig-butchering-scam sounding vocals. The power of the internet tells me he was thirty fucking eight when he released this.

He had lived a bit of a hard life and had spent the mid-70’s banged up in prison for drugs offenses. He then signed to Hi Records for his final three albums, of which this is the first. He died of a heart attack whilst at work in 1980 and was buried in an unmarked grave, until funds were raised for a headstone nearly 30 years later.

The great Willie Mitchell does a spectacular job on production. It’s both beautifully lush, with horns, strings and backing vocals galore, but still very southern and raw.

Also, can I just bring your attention to the record label in the above picture, where the blue had holds the spindle? Class.

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