Dan Penn – Keep On Talking b/w Uptight Good Woman – Ace 7″

The songsmith’s own interpretations of two songs he wrote at Fame, finally revealed to be every bit the equal of the covers that made those same songs anthems amongst the Southern Soul cognoscenti, the topside, is aimed squarely at the dancefloor, boasting a similar groove to the classic Northern Soul version by James Barnett which followed the Dan’s original version almost to the very phrase. His treatment of the powerful ‘Uptight Good Woman’ is as down, dirty and soulful as he got at Fame with the same basic arrangement familiar from the Spencer Wiggins single on Goldwax, but Dan’s pipes on this cut plead and beg in their own inimitable way, the Joe Tex-styled recitation alone is worth the price of admission.