Song of the Day 9/8: Bobby “Blue” Bland, “I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)”

It’s impossible to satirize the stupidity of MAGAts because they’re stupider than any smart person can pretend to be. How else to explain the results of the recent poll of 2,200 dog owners found that 37% of them consider canine vaccines unsafe because – I’m not making this up – they might give their dogs autistm. So I suppose they intend to not treat their dogs the way they won’t treat themselves.

Bobby Bland might be the most successful R&B singer who failed to cross over to mainstream success. Only one single in his five-decade career reached the Top 20 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but he scored 23 Top 10 hits on the R&B charts.

Born in 1930 outside of Memphis, Bland dropped out of school in the third grade to work in the cotton fields, and never learned to read or write. Of course record companies took advantage of this – one early contract that he couldn’t read paid him just 25% of the standard rate.

His greatest success came in the early ’60s, but he stayed active, frequently touring with B.B. King, almost until his death in 2013. This tune, the second single from his 1974 album “Dreamer,” reached No. 3 on the R&B chart, his last appearance in the Top 10, but only No. 88 on the Hot 100.