I am struck by the number of Scotty Moore–produced 45s from the late 60s/early 70s that are not available for preview on YouTube due to their relative obscurity — most especially the rare Otis Redding tribute “We’re Gonna Miss You, Otis” b/w “Macon,” whose B-side was actually written by Moore, whose spirit left us four weeks ago today.
Fortunately, that’s not the case for a memorable garage rock 45 from 1966 on tiny little label, Down Home, that bears production credits by Scotty Moore, along with session keyboardist, songwriter, publisher and producer Jerry Smith (who played piano on Dick Curless’ 1973 Live at the Wheeling Truck Driver’s Jamboree album). Check out the heavy rockabilly guitar break in the middle of “Ain’t About to Lose My Cool” by The Original Dukes:
“Ain’t About to Lose My Cool” The Original Dukes 1966
Charles Best: Organ & vocals
James Hickman: Guitar
James Sonday: Drums
Richard Martin: Bass, Sax & Harmonica
Not much seems to be known about The Original Dukes, other than they hailed from Indianapolis. Prepare to fork over a little dough should you decide to own an original copy of this 45.
Note the (unintended?) wordplay of the song’s authorship — “Sonday/Best.”
“Ain’t About to Lose My Cool” would make the lineup for Volume 3 of the Greg Shaw-curated Pebbles series of indie garage 45s taken from his own collection of over one million records.
