The Meters: The Meters [MUSIC ON VINYL]

Why you'll love it

Music On Vinyl's 180g pressing of the record that set the pace for the New Orleans funk sound. "Cissy Strut" reached No. 4 on the R&B chart and "Sophisticated Cissy" No. 7, and the album climbed to No. 23 on the R&B albums chart.

This edition

• 180g vinyl

About the album

Before they made records under their own name, the Meters were the band behind everybody else's in New Orleans. Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr. and Zigaboo Modeliste were Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn's house band, backing Lee Dorsey among others, and Toussaint and Sehorn produced this debut for Josie in May 1969.

It's all instrumental and all groove. "Cissy Strut," cut at Cosimo Studios, is a funk cornerstone built from little more than a guitar lick, an organ stab and Modeliste's syncopated second-line drumming. "Here Comes The Meter Man," "Cardova," "Ease Back" and "Live Wire" keep the pocket deep, and they turn the Classics IV hit "Stormy" into a slow-burning simmer. Toussaint keeps the arrangements lean, Porter's bass and Nocentelli's guitar lock together like gears, and "Sehorns Farm" tips a hat to their co-producer.

In 2018 the band received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. "Sophisticated Cissy" is essentially "Cissy Strut" in a nicer jacket, and both are welcome at any party we'd want to go to.

Also at Kops: more The Meters on vinyl · browse Classic Soul

Tracklist

Listen

On Music On Vinyl (orig. Josie) (cat# MOVLP2195), a reissue of the 1969 album.