Hard Act to Follow
E.C. Scott
1998: Blind Pig Records BPCD 5044
I found this album while doing a casual web-search to see what Eurythmics songs had been covered by other musicians, and the idea of hearing “Missionary Man” done by this woman intrigued me so I bought a copy right away. When I got the CD, I was thrilled to find it was mostly great fun, a politely rambunctious strut of classic R&B style although most of the songs were by Scott herself. Her cover of “Missionary Man” is good but doesn’t stray from the original one bit, even in its tempo: I checked this out by playing the Eurythmics video for it while listening to Scott’s recording, and it matches exactly.
Probably “Don’t Touch Me” is my favorite track on this, with “Queensize Bed” a strong contender. Scott has a fine, powerful voice—just gravelly enough to give it the authentic R&B stamp—but she’s clearly in control of it and can bring it down to a very emotive softness as on “If You’re a Good Woman.”
Maybe it’s as unusual as it seems to me, but doesn’t it strike you as uncommon that an 11-track R&B/Blues album should feature 4 songs that are downright celebratory? p.s. Best throwaway line in an outro here: “German chocolate cake!” ROTFL.
Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.