I wouldn’t have known who Eddie Floyd was had it not been for my 7 year old son. Let me quickly explain…
He likes music as much as I do and somehow, he ended up with a song called Big Bird by Eddie Floyd in his library. He likes the instruments and the song itself. At least once every few days, Niko turns into DJ Niko and he plays music for me, and when that happens, Big Bird always gets played. I didn’t know anything about Eddie Floyd besides this song.
So, a few weeks ago, we were at a used bookstore and I saw this book and I showed it to Niko. He grabbed it from me and wanted it. I don’t know if and when he plans on reading it, but I didn’t want to say no to books. Books are great and almost every night, we read a book together in bed before nighttime. Actually Nina reads it. I try to read, but he insists on Nina reading. Sometimes, we encourage him to read and he obliges.
After I read the description and the first few pages, I was intrigued and continued on in the book.
He was in a group called The Falcons in 1957, and a few years later, Wilson Pickett joined. How cool is that?
Eddie Floyd is a signer and songwriter, some his popular tunes are 634-5789 and Knock on Wood.
He was part of Stax Records which was known for Southern and Memphis soul. Just think of Isaac Hayes (as a songwriter for Sam and Dave and later a solo star), Otis Redding, Booker T. and The M.G’s, and Rufus and Carla Thomas.
As I was reading the book, I had to stop several times and have Alexa play a certain song. It kind of felt very interactive for me. I even watched a documentary called Respect Yourself, about Stax Records. It was neat to put names and faces together, and even Floyd got a brief appearance in it.
As for the song Big Bird, he wrote that after Otis Redding died in a place crash and Floyd was enroute to his funeral, and the plane he was in had some mechanical issues. After a delay, Floyd boarded and he thought of the chorus:
Get on up big bird, to my baby’s love
Get on up big bird, to my baby’s love
Get on up big bird
‘Cause I got to make it (bird)
Just get on up (big bird)
‘Cause I got to make it (bird)
Get on up
Floyd was even featured with The Blues Brothers and appeared with Wilson Pickett in the sequel for a rendition of 634-5789.
Overall, I enjoyed it.
