Song of the Day 3/5: James and Bobby Purify, “I’m Your Puppet”

Among their many desperate justifications for starting a war on Iran, Trump and Marco Rubio have slipped in the one that’s almost certainly true: Netanyahu made them do it.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties … And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”

It apparently never dawned on him to say, “Fuck off, we’ll make sure everyone knows you did it after we told you no.” Why? Because, as James and Bobby Purify sang, “Make me do right or make me do wrong, I’m your puppet.”

James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey were cousins; Dickey took Purify as a stage name. Their debut single, a Spooner Oldham-Dan Penn tune that Penn recorded in 1965 to little attention, became the Purifys’ biggest hit, reaching No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1966. It was nominated for a Grammy Award the next year.

When Dickey left the music business for a day job in 1971, James Purify recruited Ben Moore as the new “Bobby Purify.” Their re-recorded version with updated production made the charts in several European countries. Muscle Shoals veterans Oldham and Penn often performed “I’m Your Puppet” when they played as a duo from the ’90s on. This version was filmed in 1999.