It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Shotgun” by Junior Walker and the All Stars
March 17, 1965
“Shotgun” by Junior Walker and the All Stars
#1 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart, March 13 – April 2 and April 10-16, 1965
Berry Gordy founded Motown as a way to bring black music to a white audience without sacrificing its soul, in both senses of the word. Motown’s clean sound cut crisply through the airwaves and fit into the established pop mold, yet it also warped that mold slightly to its own shape. The quintessential Motown record is polished and peppy — even the ballads, often — and marked by a clear, strong beat. The songs are sung by young ladies in satin gowns and gentlemen in tailored suits, who move with precise choreography and behave like they just graduated finishing school at the top of their class.
But beneath the pressed jackets and false eyelashes lay Motown’s ragged edges, the artists who were a bit too spiky or loose-limbed to be mistaken for the Supremes and the Temptations. One such case was Junior Walker and the All Stars, a group heavily steeped in jazz, but who played with an R&B spirit. (Just check out the cover of the Shotgun LP: its vibrant colors and stylized shapes resemble a warmer version of something pressed by Blue Note.) Unlike the Detroit-area acts who played for Motown, Junior Walker was from the South — Arkansas, to be specific. He sang in a raw, bluesy style, and he and his band played the kind of deeper soul that often gets described with terms like “gutbucket” and “greasy licks,” a sound more in common with Stax Records in Memphis or the Atlantic artists who recorded at Muscle Shoals.
In fact, Walker and the All Stars more or less ended up at Motown by accident. The group was originally signed to one of musician/producer Harvey Fuqua’s labels (also named Harvey), but were merged into the Motown stable when Fuqua left to work for Gordy in 1964. They were one of the first artists whose music was released through the Motown imprint Soul Records, a haven for less crossover-oriented, more groove-centric musicians like Shorty Long (whose “Devil With the Blue Dress On” was the new label’s first release). Unlike the Motown vocal acts, the All Stars were a mostly self-contained band. As a result, their records bore a markedly looser, funkier sound than those accompanied by the label’s house band, the Funk Brothers.
The group’s first single for their new label was “Shotgun,” a one-chord wonder that purports to be one of those dance-craze tunes popular in the early-to-mid ’60s. But while Walker references other popular dances (“do the jerk, baby!” “I said it’s twine time!”), there’s a streak of dark weirdness that runs through the song, best encapsulated by a line from its chorus: “shoot him ’fore he runs, now!” Walker doesn’t provide any clues to this supposed dance’s moves; instead, he pushes the wordplay into rather literal directions: “I said buy yourself a shotgun now / We’re gonna break it down, baby now / We’re gonna load it up, baby now.” It’s as if “Mashed Potato Time” featured a trip to the grocery store and precise instructions for how much milk and butter to mix in with your spuds — and the chorus advised you to lace it with cyanide before your dinner guest catches on.
Yet the music is so joyous and carefree, like an ideal party in full swing, that the possible homicidal implications just add a flash of danger and sex appeal instead. True to their name, the All Stars are so talented that they make even a simple one-chord groove sound exhilarating. According to legend, Walker wasn’t originally supposed to sing on “Shotgun”; the saxophone player/bandleader only stepped up to it when the hired gun never showed for the recording session. Yet its his earthy, impassioned cries are as integral to the texture of the record as Victor Thomas’s organ stabs, Willie Woods’ fluid funk guitar, and his own wild yet melodic sax.
“Shotgun” shares little in common with “My Girl,” its predecessor at the peak of the R&B charts, besides a record label. Nevertheless, it did nearly as well as that Temptations hit, reigning at #1 for four non-consecutive weeks and crossing over to #4 on the pop charts. Walker and the All Stars would go on to score several hits in the decade, including the groove-alike “(I’m a) Road Runner”; a party-vibe take on “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”; and the mellow “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love),” the last of which exactly matched the placement of “Shotgun” on both the pop and R&B charts. The group’s success not only brought a different, jazzier sound to soul radio, it also served as a proof that Motown could produce appealing pop records without sticking to its usual formula.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
