Song of the Day 1/1: Little Bob and the Lollipops, “I Got Loaded”
This one’s for all those who overindulged on New Year’s Eve, assuming that’s still a thing.
Back when this song was released in 1965, a guy could sing about drinking to excess without worrying about moral scolds harshing his vibe — a remarkably upbeat vibe for someone who polishes off a bottle of hard stuff every night.
Songs like that were common in the Louisiana dance halls where singing drummer Camille Bob’s band the Lollipops played from the ’50s into the ’80s. This was among the tunes he released in the ’60s as Little Bob for La Louisianne, one of several local labels he recorded for over the years. Though his last record was made in 1980, he performed until about 10 years before his death in 2015.
The British Northern Soul movement and periodic covers by popular acts like Robert Cray and Los Lobos have kept “I Got Loaded” alive. It’s a regular part of the Wood Brothers set list, sometimes in its original form, but it works best when they slow it down.
As James Taylor demonstrated with “Handy Man,” a lot of those early upbeat rockers work quite well when given a more contemplative reading. Here the Wood Brothers perform it in a mule-drawn wagon on the Sunday morning streets of New Orleans, with Oliver Wood giving it a hint of ruefulness that Little Bob never copped to.
