Give the People What They Want

Released

It’s difficult to pinpoint where Sharon Jones peaked — she released so many phenomenal records with the Dap-Kings that it all just felt like a sustained, powerful welcome presence — but it’s not hard to pick a good candidate for when she sounded her most resilient. Released shortly after her first bout with the cancer that would eventually take her life in 2016, she sings with the gusto of a woman who slammed a door right in the Reaper’s face like he was an unwanted salesman, with every bit of defiance in her voice made poignantly vibrant by her survivor’s drive. And even if her pushback against the cruel authorities, wrong-doing lovers, and misdirected karma of the world on songs like “Retreat!”, “Stranger to My Happiness,” and “People Don’t Get What They Deserve” weren’t direct responses to her brush with mortality, they’re all the better from being sung by a voice that declares I’m still here, so what do you think you can even do to me?

Nate Patrin

Suggestions
Sylvester And The Hot Band cover

Sylvester And The Hot Band

Sylvester and the Hot Band
One Down cover

One Down

Material
With You in Mind cover

With You in Mind

Stanton Moore
Supa Dupa Fly cover

Supa Dupa Fly

Missy Elliott
Afrofilipino cover

Afrofilipino

Joe Bataan
Earthology cover

Earthology

The Whitefield Brothers
Still Hungry cover

Still Hungry

DJ Format, Abdominal
Culture Dub & Medley Dub cover

Culture Dub & Medley Dub

Errol Brown, The Revolutionaries