Mr. X Mark Safford (R.I.P.: Gone But Not Forgotten)
Daddy B. Nice's #65 ranked Southern Soul Artist
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Mr. X Mark Safford (R.I.P.: Gone But Not Forgotten)Daddy B. Nice's #65 ranked Southern Soul Artist |
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"Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Jiggle, Jiggle, Jiggle" Mr. X Mark Safford (R.I.P.: Gone But Not Forgotten) Composed by Mark Safford February 22, 2020: Mr. X (Mark Safford) R.I.P. (Gone But Not Forgotten) by Tony Gideon Daddy B. Nice,
Daddy B. Nice on Tony Gideon:I don't think any one e-mail music-submitter has frustrated me as much over the years as Tony Gideon. First, the e-mail submissions came in almost daily, clogging the box. Second, in almost every instance the mp3's were old music, music I was familiar with and had heard long before. Finally, the songs were often labeled "new" when they were really "old," and more than once I contemplated "outing" Tony Gideon for this practice. Now, reading his account of himself (82 years old and still passionate about the music), my annoyance has blossomed into understanding and admiration. I'm currently reading Denise LaSalle's autobiography (like eating candy) in her vernacular about all the music people in her life. It's made me doubly mellow about all the people in this business trying to "do what they do" the best they can. Even the story of Mark Safford's passing is somehow Tony Gideon-like, i.e. after-the-fact. When I first read the letter, I went through a thought process. "Did I know this? That Mr. X had died?"--and just forgotten? Obscure as he was, Mr. X's songs (first sold to Senator Jones and The Love Doctor) have really held up. And if I had known of Safford's death, I would have memorialized it in the Artist Guide to Mr. X.. No. Mark Safford's passing is "breaking news" in the Tony Gideon fashion, and we are the richer and more well-informed for it. DBN.
Daddy B. Nice's Original Profile:Everyone starts somewhere; everyone begins as an "unknown." Mark Safford, aka Mr. X, got his start in Southern Soul by submitting his songs to Lewis Clark, aka The Love Doctor, a fellow gospel singer who helped jump-start the whole Southern Soul movement in the early OO's with the compositions of another young man who went on to become a star: Sir Charles Jones. Jones wrote "Slow Roll It," the Love Doctor's signature tune.
However, by the mid-point of the new decade, The Love Doctor--a singer, not a writer--was already bereft of good new material. He had prolonged his career with the Jimmy Lewis-written vehicle, "Lies (You Said It, No I Didn't)," with the legendary back-up singer, Thomisene Anderson, in 2004. That same year he'd put out a gospel album, There's No One Like Mama, a collection of church hymns surrounding a title tune which may or may not have been scavenged from the Sir Charles Jones gospel-tinged song of the same time: "Take Care Of Mama." And a couple of years later, The Love Doctor would release a forgettable album of very poor material entitled Stupid (Hep'Me, 2007). But in between There's No One Like Mama and Stupid The Love Doctor discovered the songwriting of Mark Safford, an Alabama gospel singer who also had visions of making it in secular music. The results of this collaboration were Let's Have Some Fun (Hep'Me, 2005) and At His Best (Hep'Me), two Love Doctor albums that not only exclusively featured the songs of Mark Safford but in so doing extended The Love Doctor's career. The next year, 2008, marked Safford's "coming-out" party. On August 30th of that year your Daddy B. Nice posted the following: ALERT: Senator Jones has just issued a CD by an artist named "Mr. X." Many of the songs are taken track for track from the Love Doctor's At His Best and Let's Have Some Fun CD's. The arrangements are almost identical. Only the vocals are different. The singer is definitely not The Love Doctor. What's going on in Love Doctor/Senator Jones-land? Stay tuned. . . DBN A few months later, I posted the following: Update: January 10, 2008 (Re: Mr. X mystery artist re-recording The Love Doctor's songs) The artist Mark Safford has taken on the pseudonym Mr. X. He has already published two CD's, the first one Sit Down On It--described below--and the second one, Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle, making two new CD's in one year. Here is what I wrote about Mr. X in Top 25 Singles of 2008: "Talk about amazing debuts. Mr. X took a set of songs the Love Doctor had left as flat and wooden as Pinocchio and breathed fresh life into them. It was almost as if the Love Doctor and Senator Jones had handed the relay baton to Mr. X (Mark Safford) and said, "Go for it." "Make It Do What It Do," "Sweetie Pie" . . . All underwent incredible transformations, but that wasn't enough for the technically-breathtaking Mr. X. He released a second CD a few months later, with the wonderful, chitlin' circuit-friendly dance cut, "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle," that overshadowed anything on the first disc." In "This Little Place" Mr. X sings: "I know a place Where we can go. It sits out on The side of the road. We can party All night and day. 24 hours The music will play. Grown folks party At this club. Don't need no gangsters And don't need no thugs." You know you're getting the guy-next-door, not the the teenager-next-door, when you listen to Mr. X's music. Mr. X has the chitlin' circuit running like blood through his veins. Listen to Mr. X singing "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle" on YouTube while you read. "Girl I like the way you move When you're dancing on the dance floor. The way you move your sexy body Oh, it puts me in the mood. "You got on your red dress, baby And you're stepping in your high-heeled shoes. I don't know how you do it, But I sure like the way you move. --Mr. X sings in "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle." Musically, Mr. X songs seldom fail. "Wiggle" is straight, classic, Motown-inspired r&b with a relaxed Southern feel, a hybrid you never hear nowadays outside the South, and therefore all the more precious. "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle" features a vocalist in the mode of Marvin Sease, not hyper-talented but on the other hand perfectly calibrated for accessible, everyman-friendly performance. "Sit Down On It" is cut from the same mold. The vocal is strong and clear but never overblown or intimidating. Both songs highlight a whiskey-toned tenor that never breaks its hammer-lock hold on the simple things in life related in simple, direct fashion. "Sweety Pie" adds a touch of amorous vulnerability to Mr. X's oeuvre, although his habit of delivering notes without vibrato or modulation of any kind (a technique he borrowed from The Love Doctor) keeps the song grounded and somewhat one-dimensional. "This Little Place" features the same simplistic style in praising a "hole-in-the-wall" juke joint. It's possible the lack of ornamentation in Mr. X's vocals may deter some potential fans. As with The Love Doctor, Mr. X is searching for a rough-hewn, throwback style, a style that couldn't be further from the dominant urban R&B of the last two decades, from Luther Vandross to R. Kelly. Mr. X's "Make It Do What It Do" grafts this country-R&B style to the salt-of-the-earth experience of common people in a way that is guaranteed to separate fans from detractors: "We've been together For so long. Don't want you to ever Leave me alone. Gotta make our love Last for a lifetime. Hold it together, Don't let it unwind." This is straight-ahead love and commitment. No satire, no irony. "I gave you everything, Everything that you want. And I gave you everything That you need. We've got to hold on, We've got to be strong, And learn not to never Treat each other wrong." Then comes the chorus, a phrase that pulls together all of the confounding ambiguity and reverse-elitism and dark mystery of the poor Black South. "Make it do what it do. Make it do what it do. Just me and you. Make it do what it do, Me and you. Make it do what it do. Just me and you." Then come the really illuminating stanzas: "Makes no difference If the sun don't shine. I'm gonna keep you From the welfare line. Keep clothes on your back, And shoes on your feet. Keep food on the table For the kids to eat. I'm going to do All of these things Because I know you're so sweet And I don't want to ever See you out on the street." It's sad to think that only a handful of current Southern Soul stars could write lyrics this unashamedly blue-collar: Unckle Eddie, Bobby Rush, Ms. Jody. And nothing could obviously be farther from the bling-bling, Benz consumer gratification of most mainstream urban r&b. "Makes no difference If the sun don't shine. I'm gonna keep you From the welfare line." This is one of the most vivid and uncompromising couplets in contemporary rhythm and blues. --Daddy B. Nice About Mr. X Mark Safford (R.I.P.: Gone But Not Forgotten) Mark Safford, aka Mr. X, was born and raised in Selma, Alabama, an area rich in traditional gospel groups. A longtime Gospel singer, Safford was (and remains) lead singer and manager of the Selma-based trio The Joyful Sounds.
Song's Transcendent Moment "Hey, fellas in the club,
Tidbits 1. Mr. X On YouTubeFebruary 22, 2020:Listen to Mr. X singing "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle,Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "Sit Down On It" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing ""Doing The Watusi" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "Good Time" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "She Put A Stroke On Me" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "Roll It Slow" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "Make It Do What It Do" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "He Don't Love You Like I Do" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "Keep On Talking" on YouTube. Listen to Mr. X singing "Baby Come Back Home" on YouTube. If You Liked. . . You'll Love If you liked Tyrone Davis' "Banging The Headboard," you'll love Mr. X's "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle."
Honorary "B" Side "Sit Down On It" |
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