Muscle Shoals Meets the 70s rewind

Part 16: Monkee's in the house

Muscle Shoals Meets the 70s reminded me how music was all over the place in the "The Seventies." Radio raised me, y’all — thank you, Big River Broadcasting. Top 40 of my childhood was a wonderful amalgam representing a wide array of influences. Back then, great music lived in harmony on our favorite radio station. Think about it, popular genres ran the gamut from rock, punk, folk rock, easy listening, funk, soul, country, pop, and of course, disco.

Speaking of disco ... anybody down for some Monkee and the Sunshine Band? Yeah, I said it and you know it's true. Travis Wammack Jr. – affectionately known as “Monkee” to all twenty million thousand of his closest friends — made the Fiddleworms his "Sunshine Band" both nights during MSM the 70s. That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh. Yep. Had to be done.

You may have heard the 1970s called the "Me Decade" or maybe the "Lost Decade." I'm thinking we rename the 1970s to the “Monkee Decade.” Who’s with me? If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, ain't no party like a Monkee party, y'all. It bears repeating. There is no denying the power of Monkee time. When Monkee says, “You’ve got to get up to get down tonight,” the house gets up to get down.

What a joy it was to get a heaping double helping of Monkee during the MSM the 70s two-night stand. Good golly, y'all, I know we’re about the same age, but my hips and calves were hurting just watching Monkee dance up a storm. Those funky Polyester Horns had my heart doing backflips, too. I loved how Steve Vickery stood front and center backing Monkee and giving us bass for days. Mercy, friends, those Shoals Sisters bringing their silky-smooth sirens melted me with their hot coolness — it was absolutely a celebration for the ages. I don’t know about you, but I could stand an entire set of Monkee and the Sunshine Band … I mean, Monkee and the Fiddleworms (and friends) … giving us boogie-woogie goodness. Are you listening, universe?

Truth is, Monkee is even more of a showman now than he was in the early days of Monkee and the Spank Daddys. Yeah. Fight me on it. Talk about Shoals royalty, friends. All hail Monkee Wammack!

More to come … stay tuned.

Dig Worms, friends.

Photo credit: Angel DeAnn Pilati