"I Had A Good Time"
Eddie Holloway (Blast From The Past)
Composed by Eddie Holloway
Listen to Eddie Holloway singing "I Had A Good Time" on YouTube.
Listen to Eddie Holloway singing "Poor Boy" on YouTube.
Listen to Eddie Holloway singing "My Mind Is Too Strong" on YouTube.
Daddy B. Nice notes: Most writers take the long view and write after the fact. I write in the moment, so what you read below is just as it was at the time---contemporaneous---warts and all.
"Once I was up,
And I had so much good love,
Oh, but when I started falling down,
No one wanted to help me stay up.
Even though I'm down today,
All I can say is
I had a good time
And now I'm down."
One of the chitlin' circuit's most obscure yet revered artists (he's the kind of guy who says "women folks" without a trace of irony) Eddie Holloway is a throwback to such performers as Clarence Carter, Joe Simon, and--yes--even Hank Williams. He's just the kind of artist a newcomer to Southern Soul should become enthralled with: the epitome of the brilliant unknown.
No amount of sophisticated "urban" arranging can diminish the "country" in Holloway's masterful vocals, but Holloway is a much more effervescent personality than Simon. His melodies and chafing, mesmerizing rhythms brim with optimism and promise. It's a good thing, too, because when Holloway does sing a sad song (like Simon's "Nine Pound Steel") his voice evokes a misery that's almost unbearable.
Holloway's "I Had A Good Time" (from I Had A Good Time,Gucci, 1991) never fails to engage the listener on one or another levels, be it humorous, bemused, paranoid or tragic. There is something universal in the fear--so succinctly memorialized in "I Had A Good Time"-- of being kicked off "easy street" by Father Fortune.
Yet even more deeply embedded in the song's message is a conflict in philosophies of life: especially the live-for-the-moment philosophy of which "I Had A Good Time" is the chitlin' circuit's supreme specimen. The core of the song is:
"I'm down now,
But that's okay."
Also the composer of the majority of his tunes, Holloway's spare words express a benign resignation--of being at peace with one's spendthrift ways, be they of a sexual, spiritual or material nature. And one of the ways to that peace is remembering the good times.
"Once I had friends.
I was so proud.
My friends look at me today,
With a smile.
But that's all right."
And if you want to take "I Had A Good Time's" message to its ultimate level, it's a description of aging. We all must experience losing what we once had--youth, looks, love, money, mobility.
But "I Had A Good Time" isn't Holloway's only achievement. Launched by a mighty, high-flying, horn-and-synth arrangement, a precocious bass line, and Holloway's take-no-prisoners vocal, "Poor Boy" (also from I Had A Good Time) sounds as dynamic today as it did in the nineties.
"I was just a poor boy
Until you came along.
Your love made me richer
Than any man I've known.
You made me love you, woman,
And now you're gone."
Holloway's hero tells his woman to "keep on walking"--he's irate--and he keeps repeating the phrase. In fact, the energy level of the record seems to bubble up from the marital vengeance running through the verse. Whatever the source, the record motivates, and the musical symbiosis between the heavenly horns and the yelping, earthbound vocal make it one of the most unique recordings in Southern Soul.
"My Mind Is Too Strong" is yet another Holloway song that has taken a permanent place in the Southern Soul catalog. The arrangement is old-fashioned and orchestral, yet charmingly so. The energy is tremendous, springing from Holloway's great sense of tempo. Embellished with his whip-and-leather vocal, "My Mind Is Too Strong" becomes a foot-stomping anthem of the first order, and yet another reason to search for Holloway's hard to find I Had A Good Time disc.
Nearly invisible in the more obscure bayou mists of Southern Soul, yet never quite seeming to go away, Eddie Holloway has never captured the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of the music on his landmark 1991 LP. But the material on that album still burns with an intensity that anyone who loves rhythm and blues can't ignore.
--Daddy B. Nice
About Eddie Holloway (Blast From The Past)
So many talented Southern Soul performers have made their debuts in the new millennium that one tends to forget the ground-breaking efforts in the early 90's of artists like Eddie Holloway, whom time has not treated so kindly. Holloway's seminal CD, I Had A Good Time (Gucci/Hot Productions, 1991) was an early precursor of the adult R&B revival to come.
After his promising debut, years passed without much recording activity from Holloway. Hollerin' and Poppin' (Hot Records) came out in 1998, but is hard to find and--in light of the chitlin' circuit impact of I Had A Good Time--something of a disappointment, although diehard fans enjoyed "Slippin' On My Love," which concocted an exotic fusion of bluegrass and Southern Soul.
More recently, some Deep South radio stations have been playing tracks from another elusively marketed LP called Shake N' Bump (Hot JWP 2001). In particular, the radio single "I Came A Long Way" displays Holloway in a form reminiscent of his vintage material.
"Shake And Bump" and "We Have A Good Time (When We Get Together") recycle some of the musical qualities of "My Mind Is Too Strong" and "I Had A Good Time" respectively.
Holloway continues to be a draw on the chitlin' circuit, too. Fans were encouraged to hear him listed among the headliners in a Mississippi concert in July 2005, with such notable performers as Robert "The Duke" Tillman, Floyd Taylor, Luther Lackey, and Marvin Sease.
Meanwhile, deejays of the Deep South continue to play material from I Had A Good Time, particularly "Poor Boy," "My Mind Is Too Strong," and the inimitable "I Had A Good Time," which remains one of Southern Soul's most easily identifiable classics.
Eddie Holloway Discography:
I Had A Good Time (Hot Blues 1991)
Hollerin' & Poppin' (Hot Blues 1998)
Shake N' Bump (Hot JWP 2001)
Soul N' The Blues: The Greatest Hits (Empire Musicwerks 2005)
Song's Transcendent Moment
"Even though I'm down today,
I have to say,
I had my good times."
Tidbits
Re: EDDIE HOLLOWAY Follow-Up
it wasn´t a Roy C album by mistake in my Holloway jewel case. It was not, it was Holloway. I´m not too familiar with him, but it´s a great album. Great songs too.
RE: EDDIE HOLLOWAY
If You Liked. . . You'll Love
If you loved The Band's "The Weight (You Put the Weight On Me)," you'll love Eddie Holloway's "I Had A Good Time."
Honorary "B" Side
"Poor Boy "
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