Next up in Mr Bongo's Groove Merchant Records reissue series, sees an outing for a much-loved and
heavily sampled funk/soul/blues album by Junior Parker. Originally issued under the title The Outside
Man on Capitol Records in 1970 with an alternative cover, this reissue replicates the Groove Merchant
release titled Love Ain't Nothin' But A Business Goin' On featuring the car cover released in 1971.
The Mississippi-born, Memphis-based blues singer, harmonica player and songwriter Junior Parker
(aka Little Junior Parker) had a stellar career in music. Since the early 1950s he released records on
labels such as Duke, Mercury, United Artists Records and more. Sadly though, Parker died at the
young age of 39 during surgery on November 18, 1971.
Originally released under the alternate title a year before his untimely death, Love Ain't Nothin' But a
Business Goin' On is drenched in Parker’s trademark buttery vocals and soulful grooves, swaggering
between smokey blues, raw funk outings and orchestrated soul ballads (with sublime arrangements by
Horace Ott).
The album also features three Beatles cover versions in the form of ‘Taxman’, ‘Lady Madonna’ and
‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. For 'Taxman', Parker completely reinterprets the song taking into a New
Orleans funk realm, a sample of which was used as the main hook line on Cypress Hill's classic 'I
Wanna Get High'. Elsewhere, 'Tomorrow Never Knows' is flipped into a tripped-out, psychedelic
soul-swamp blues ballad, whilst 'Lady Madonna' is given a funky blues makeover.
As shown with Cypress Hill’s use of ‘Taxman’, since the ‘70s Parker’s legacy has been immortalised
for future generations through the deep well of samples that his music has become a source of. Tracks
from Love Ain't Nothin' But a Business Goin' On have been sampled by some of the biggest names
out there, such as A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Shadow and De La Soul.
A seriously smooth album oozing with soul and emotion from a Blues Hall of Fame inductee, Junior
Parker’s Love Ain't Nothin' But A Business Goin' On is a superb example of the early ‘70s crossover
funk/soul sound.