5 YEAR REWIND: THE INTRUDERS
posted by O.W.
(As part of our 5th year anniversary, we're revisiting 20 key songs. This post was originally published on April 16, 2007).
The Intruders: Together
From The Intruders Are Together (Gamble, 1967). Also on Cowboys to Girls: The Best Of.
(Original notes:) "Had a grand time at Bumpshop over last weekend. Here's the thing you have to understand: Bumpshop might start up around the same time (10pm) but they go until 4am. As routine as this might be for any NYer, it's damn near incredible for folks like me, stuck in cities like SF and LA where most nights begin winding down around 1:30am since the bar staff doesn't want to stay there a minute past 2am if they help it.
Better yet, the last 30-40 minutes of Bumpshop winds down all the uptempo funk and just rides out on sweet soul and hand-clapping goodness; some tracks just leave you, head bowed, in reverent contemplation. As you'd expect, resident DJs Chairman Mao and Jared kilt it (you have to respect DJs hardcore enough to put a song - not otherwise available on vinyl - onto acetate, just so they can spin it out. CD lovers will no doubt shake their head at such things).
In any case, there's nothing like listening to four straight hours of soul/funk/jazz/Latin to really 1) bring out the trainspotter in one (, I have no shame in admitting that I was giraffing over the DJ booth more than few times) and 2) make you realize how much insanely good music there is out there. Thus inspires today's post.
...
I had more or less forgotten the Intruders' classic "Together" until Jared played it last night (backed with a cover version that's now parked at the top of my want (nay, need) list) and good god, what an insanely great song. The chorus, especially played loud, is incredible. On a related side note: for many years, I pushed this kind of soul to the background but in the last year or so, it's all I really crave. Musical tastes are strange that way, no?"
