Breaks: Archie Bell

The time frame around the hit and album entitled “Tighten Up” is pretty funny. Well parts of it. It isn’t funny that Archie Bell was drafted in 1967 after recording some of the cuts that would comprise this disc. And being shot in the leg isn’t really too funny either. But that’s what happened to Bell. And as he was convalescing a band member was able to hand the group’s single to a local deejay, who subsequently played it and found a rather receptive audience.

The album itself wasn’t fully completed and with Bell restricted to bed, a few supplemental tracks needed to be added to flush out what would become Tighten Up. And actually the initial release of the disc on an imprint called Ovide didn’t really do too much for the group. But after the single got some airplay, Atlantic reissued to disc. Again, though, the fact that Bell didn’t really have too much to do with this process only makes this all the more amusing. And it actually could be figured that the backing band, an instrumental soul group called the T.S.U. Toronados, could be credited with the popularity of the group as much as anyone.

Without a proper lead singer and a label that obviously wanted to cash in on a hit, various incarnations of the group sans Bell were sent out to tour. Hearing of this, obviously, necessitated the singer to spur himself into action. He received permission from the military to leave and tour with a properly assembled group.

But the fervor around the completion of the album really points towards the fact that as an art form, the album was still pretty young even in 1968. The hit off of Tighten Up, which as a single was a sole side of a disc, takes up about six minutes on the album. It’s split up into two sections without there being too big of a difference between the two sections. There’s more of a scatting approach to the vocals on part two, with the first portion of the track containing the majority of the lyrical content.

Being a soldier during this time, though, found Bell being prompted to write a song touching on the subject. Closing the disc out is “A Soldier’s Prayer, 1967.” And while military service mostly functions as a frame in which to comment upon romantic love, Bell does touch upon the fact that he might not return. Of course, that’s not too unique to Vietnam, but a few lines slip out where it sounds as if the band outright condemns the conflict. And with the inclusion of a line about the Captain not necessarily believing that his troops would return home, it might not be clear what political position Bell took. But regardless of his political stance, it’s more than easy to surmise that he’d rather not have gone. And with a few closing lines about how Bell doesn’t know how to peel potatoes and the he shouldn’t have to fight on Sunday, an almost comical air concludes the disc.