Always Smell the Tooth

"Grandpa, what does 'Always smell the tooth' mean?" my young grandchild asked me.

"What?" I replied, "On what topic is your interrogatory, youngster?"

"What?" the grandchild said. "What does 'Always smell the tooth' mean? Mom and Dad told me, 'Always smell the tooth.'"

"Ha," I answered, "your aural system misappropriated their words. The parental units told you, 'Always tell the truth.' You should do that but always with the proper jesuitical application."

"What?" grandchild said, then walked away.

But my answer to grandchild triggered my memory. "Tell the Truth"---man, I haven't heard that song in years. I think the rock-pop singers who have been the most successful in using electrifying but melodic screaming in some of their songs have been---no, not Liza Minnelli---but Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, and Janis Joplin. Cocker was influenced, of course, by Charles; Joplin too probably was. But it's Ray's "Tell the Truth" which, I think, has the most powerful, melodic screaming in a song. It's not a well-known work; as far as I can tell, he recorded it only once, that at a live concert in Atlanta around 1956. What a soul-shaking piece! Try to find and listen it . . . if I'm telling the truth.

-Old Gargoyle