As with past UARB the Sons of Fred, I learned about this month’s Under-Appreciated Rock Band, the Soul Agents through the albums in the English Freakbeat Series. The English Freakbeat, Volume 2 CD includes a song made famous by Muddy Waters, “I Just Wanna Make Love to You” plus the flip side of a later single, the organ-driven instrumental “Gospel Train”. The English Freakbeat, Volume 4 CD has three more songs, “Don’t Break it Up”, “Mean Woman Blues” and “I Just Wanna Make Love to You” again. Apparently the intention was to include “Let’s Make it Pretty Baby” on the earlier CD (it was included on the English Freakbeat, Volume 2 LP); Greg Shaw says that it was his favorite among their songs in the liner notes for the English Freakbeat, Volume 2 CD.
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On June 2, 1964, the Soul Agents released their first single on Pye Records, “I Just Wanna Make Love to You” b/w “Mean Woman Blues”. “Mean Woman Blues” is also an oft recorded song; Elvis Presley included “Mean Woman Blues” in the soundtrack for his 1957 film, Loving You (his first starring role in a movie), and “Mean Woman Blues” was the flip side of Roy Orbison’s immortal “Blue Bayou” when the song was originally released in 1963. In the U.K., Cliff Richard and the Shadows had released “Mean Woman Blues” in 1959.
(May 2014)
