The story of Look-Ka Py Py begins with the Meters departing New Jersey in a beat-up Mercury. Two bad pistons provide a background rhythm over which the musicians lay an improvised beat and vocal chant for 850 miles, delivering the title track at an Atlanta studio and the album into music legend.
Classics such as 'Cissy Strut,' 'Look-Ka-Py-Py,' and 'People Say' are on most drum teachers' 'must-learn' list for their students. They certainly are on mine. Addendum: It is with great sadness that we mourn the very recent passing of Meters Founder and Frontman Art.
- Off The Funkify Your Life Album. Make sure to download this track on itunes or Amazon!!!
- In 1969, The Meters released Look-Ka Py Py, which would cement their reputation in New Orleans music history as one of the greatest. Produced by Allen Toussaint himself, Look-Ka Py Py featured Art Neville and his sinuous keys leading the four-piece of George Porter Jr. On bass, Ziggy Modeliste on drums, and Leo Nocentelli on guitar 12.
- Listen to Look-Ka Py Py by The Meters on Deezer. With music streaming on Deezer you can discover more than 56 million tracks, create your own playlists, and share your favourite tracks with your friends.
My brother and I were both too young to say that we 'experienced' the ‘60s, he of the massive Jew-fro and platform shoes, me with shoulder-length hair and Hush Puppies. We were unquestionably children of the ‘70s and its music. The differences in our appearances belied our shared musical tastes, save for the chasm between Disco and Punk that formed late in the decade.
My cousin Andrew gave me a poster that hung in the bedroom I shared with my brother in a Levittown neighborhood outside Annapolis, MD. As long and as wide as my twin-sized bed, it was a concert advertisement pinned to the wall above my headboard, a Bill Graham original taken from the concourse in Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, 1973: A SWELL DANCE CONCERT - THE GRATEFUL DEAD, the guy and gal dressed in ‘50s teen hip—He's 'Truckin',' She's 'Posin',' it said. I wanted to Truck.
Andrew and his brother genuinely were children of the ‘60s. The younger two of four boys from New York, they always sent me music-related stuff. Mostly albums. Boxes of them. Bowie, Talking Heads, Dylan, Lou Reed, Poco, Blondie, the Residents, the Band, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Parliament, and the Meters.
I loved my cousins for this gift— Chupulu kalasina subhavela serial episode 240 1. a foundational record collection that started a life-long love affair with music. It wasn't until I'd travelled my own roads alongside bands in the coming decades that I understood the impact these records had on the music I listened to.
My friends and I spread our records across the carpet of my parents' house and took turns wearing out our favorites on the massive console stereo in the living room no one used. Queen, Aerosmith, KISS, the Beatles, the Stones. Vinyl stacked high—33s, 45s, even some of my dad's 78s. You'd never heard such low-end! My neighbors did though, and with a rap on the aluminum frame of the screen door, they let my parents know that the music was not to their liking.
I was a regular at Waxie Maxie's, a record store in the corner strip mall where you could buy LPs for $8.40 a pop including tax, collect your orange ‘Free Records' coupon, and grab a Slurpee from 7-11 on the way home. Waxie Maxie's gave me my first job. 'We should just pay you in vinyl,' the manager once said to me. 'Every week I hand you your check and every week you hand it right back in exchange for records!' The easy life of a teenager. Biking home with a bag of records under my arm, one hand steering the bike in a wobbly path, dumping the bike in the front yard and bolting into the house, I'd unload my week's pay onto the bed, swiping the edge of each album cover across my jeans to burn open the shrink wrap, placing the needle of the department store record player onto side one with a staccato scratch, looking at every picture on the cover, reading every word on the sleeve, and losing myself in music for the afternoon.
This ritual followed me through junior high and high school, where the breadth of my musical library expanded along with my circle of friends. Open lunch, afternoons, and weekends were spent with my patchwork crew gathered in the parent-free home of Alan, the living room furnished with one chair and a stereo. There were seven of us and we'd each bring a contribution of vinyl and aluminum, drinking the afternoons away air-jamming to ‘70s Prog, Punk, Jazz Fusion, and what was even then Classic Rock. Rush, Zappa, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jaco Pastorius, the Clash, Beastie Boys.
During college I moved in and out of dorm rooms and apartments with little more than a bag of clothes, a turntable, and about 1,000 albums. Walking the hall of my first dorm was like turning the radio dial—the Who faded into Prince into Talking Heads into Madonna into Tears for Fears into the Clash. Among our floor mates, knowledge of bands and the ability to cite liner notes was played out in substance-fueled contests of one-upmanship. My roommate and I excelled. As a member of SEE Productions at the University of Maryland, I experienced my music up-close and personal, backstage with the Godfathers, Living Colour, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Jane's Addiction, Butthole Surfers, Fishbone, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Neville Brothers.
The Meters started as a backing band, laying down the groove for New Orleans greats like Lee Dorsey and Earl King. And like Booker T and the MGs, who backed Otis Redding and Bill Withers, and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the Swampers, who backed Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker, the Meters were an unmistakable, but largely unrecognized, musical voice behind the Stars.
The Meters Look Ka Py Py Zip Codes
It was during that Neville Brothers concert in Ritchie Coliseum at Maryland that the Meters came back into focus and burst open my understanding and appreciation of ‘the groove.' The crowd was unforgiving, booing the opening act, Egypt, who were, in my opinion, delivering a scorching set of Meters-inspired, funked-up rock. How can you not strut when this is the soundtrack to your life? The groove of your gait?
On the first warm day of the summer, fifty-year-old me, that boy riding his bike while balancing a stack of albums, loads up his Jeep and heads north, open to the sky, with the Mighty Imperials' 'Thunder Chicken' providing the soundtrack. The beating heart of funk re-connects across the years along a vein that runs through my entire record collection. Think James Brown. Think Sly Stone. Think Aerosmith and Run-DMC. Think Ocean's Eleven. Think the Meters. Think cool.
—Jack Mevorah
Today keyboardist/vocalist Art Neville passed away due to natural causes at age 81. He is best known for his work with New Orleans group the Meters, who created one of the greatest bodies of work in the funk genre. From 1969's Look-Ka Py Py
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While Neville continued to further his legacy in the Funky Meters and the Neville Brothers, he also lent his formidable chops to records by fellow recently departed New Orleans legend Dr. John and to the funkiest sides by Robert Palmer, before the British singer became a pop star in America with 'Addicted to Love.'
On a personal note, Neville and the Meters have figured in many of my DJ sets over the last 20 or so years. It's no exaggeration to say that whenever I've dropped a Meters track, it always provokes smiles, nods, or dancing—sometimes all three. Check out a handful of my faves from his discography below. RIP, Art Neville.
The Meters Look Ka Py Py Zip Form
Classics such as 'Cissy Strut,' 'Look-Ka-Py-Py,' and 'People Say' are on most drum teachers' 'must-learn' list for their students. They certainly are on mine. Addendum: It is with great sadness that we mourn the very recent passing of Meters Founder and Frontman Art.
- Off The Funkify Your Life Album. Make sure to download this track on itunes or Amazon!!!
- In 1969, The Meters released Look-Ka Py Py, which would cement their reputation in New Orleans music history as one of the greatest. Produced by Allen Toussaint himself, Look-Ka Py Py featured Art Neville and his sinuous keys leading the four-piece of George Porter Jr. On bass, Ziggy Modeliste on drums, and Leo Nocentelli on guitar 12.
- Listen to Look-Ka Py Py by The Meters on Deezer. With music streaming on Deezer you can discover more than 56 million tracks, create your own playlists, and share your favourite tracks with your friends.
My brother and I were both too young to say that we 'experienced' the ‘60s, he of the massive Jew-fro and platform shoes, me with shoulder-length hair and Hush Puppies. We were unquestionably children of the ‘70s and its music. The differences in our appearances belied our shared musical tastes, save for the chasm between Disco and Punk that formed late in the decade.
My cousin Andrew gave me a poster that hung in the bedroom I shared with my brother in a Levittown neighborhood outside Annapolis, MD. As long and as wide as my twin-sized bed, it was a concert advertisement pinned to the wall above my headboard, a Bill Graham original taken from the concourse in Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, 1973: A SWELL DANCE CONCERT - THE GRATEFUL DEAD, the guy and gal dressed in ‘50s teen hip—He's 'Truckin',' She's 'Posin',' it said. I wanted to Truck.
Andrew and his brother genuinely were children of the ‘60s. The younger two of four boys from New York, they always sent me music-related stuff. Mostly albums. Boxes of them. Bowie, Talking Heads, Dylan, Lou Reed, Poco, Blondie, the Residents, the Band, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Parliament, and the Meters.
I loved my cousins for this gift— Chupulu kalasina subhavela serial episode 240 1. a foundational record collection that started a life-long love affair with music. It wasn't until I'd travelled my own roads alongside bands in the coming decades that I understood the impact these records had on the music I listened to.
My friends and I spread our records across the carpet of my parents' house and took turns wearing out our favorites on the massive console stereo in the living room no one used. Queen, Aerosmith, KISS, the Beatles, the Stones. Vinyl stacked high—33s, 45s, even some of my dad's 78s. You'd never heard such low-end! My neighbors did though, and with a rap on the aluminum frame of the screen door, they let my parents know that the music was not to their liking.
I was a regular at Waxie Maxie's, a record store in the corner strip mall where you could buy LPs for $8.40 a pop including tax, collect your orange ‘Free Records' coupon, and grab a Slurpee from 7-11 on the way home. Waxie Maxie's gave me my first job. 'We should just pay you in vinyl,' the manager once said to me. 'Every week I hand you your check and every week you hand it right back in exchange for records!' The easy life of a teenager. Biking home with a bag of records under my arm, one hand steering the bike in a wobbly path, dumping the bike in the front yard and bolting into the house, I'd unload my week's pay onto the bed, swiping the edge of each album cover across my jeans to burn open the shrink wrap, placing the needle of the department store record player onto side one with a staccato scratch, looking at every picture on the cover, reading every word on the sleeve, and losing myself in music for the afternoon.
This ritual followed me through junior high and high school, where the breadth of my musical library expanded along with my circle of friends. Open lunch, afternoons, and weekends were spent with my patchwork crew gathered in the parent-free home of Alan, the living room furnished with one chair and a stereo. There were seven of us and we'd each bring a contribution of vinyl and aluminum, drinking the afternoons away air-jamming to ‘70s Prog, Punk, Jazz Fusion, and what was even then Classic Rock. Rush, Zappa, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jaco Pastorius, the Clash, Beastie Boys.
During college I moved in and out of dorm rooms and apartments with little more than a bag of clothes, a turntable, and about 1,000 albums. Walking the hall of my first dorm was like turning the radio dial—the Who faded into Prince into Talking Heads into Madonna into Tears for Fears into the Clash. Among our floor mates, knowledge of bands and the ability to cite liner notes was played out in substance-fueled contests of one-upmanship. My roommate and I excelled. As a member of SEE Productions at the University of Maryland, I experienced my music up-close and personal, backstage with the Godfathers, Living Colour, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Jane's Addiction, Butthole Surfers, Fishbone, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Neville Brothers.
The Meters started as a backing band, laying down the groove for New Orleans greats like Lee Dorsey and Earl King. And like Booker T and the MGs, who backed Otis Redding and Bill Withers, and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the Swampers, who backed Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker, the Meters were an unmistakable, but largely unrecognized, musical voice behind the Stars.
The Meters Look Ka Py Py Zip Codes
It was during that Neville Brothers concert in Ritchie Coliseum at Maryland that the Meters came back into focus and burst open my understanding and appreciation of ‘the groove.' The crowd was unforgiving, booing the opening act, Egypt, who were, in my opinion, delivering a scorching set of Meters-inspired, funked-up rock. How can you not strut when this is the soundtrack to your life? The groove of your gait?
On the first warm day of the summer, fifty-year-old me, that boy riding his bike while balancing a stack of albums, loads up his Jeep and heads north, open to the sky, with the Mighty Imperials' 'Thunder Chicken' providing the soundtrack. The beating heart of funk re-connects across the years along a vein that runs through my entire record collection. Think James Brown. Think Sly Stone. Think Aerosmith and Run-DMC. Think Ocean's Eleven. Think the Meters. Think cool.
—Jack Mevorah
Today keyboardist/vocalist Art Neville passed away due to natural causes at age 81. He is best known for his work with New Orleans group the Meters, who created one of the greatest bodies of work in the funk genre. From 1969's Look-Ka Py Py to 1975's Fire on the Bayou, the Meters had one of the strongest runs of any funk outfit on the planet. What distinguished them was their economical dynamics, precision grooves, and the use of space between beats. Their less-is-more approach manifested in extravagant listening and dancing pleasure. Hearing them at their peak helped you to understand what soulful Southern hospitality sounds like when it's translated to the musical realm. The Meters is some of the most disciplined party music ever created.
Support The Stranger
While Neville continued to further his legacy in the Funky Meters and the Neville Brothers, he also lent his formidable chops to records by fellow recently departed New Orleans legend Dr. John and to the funkiest sides by Robert Palmer, before the British singer became a pop star in America with 'Addicted to Love.'
On a personal note, Neville and the Meters have figured in many of my DJ sets over the last 20 or so years. It's no exaggeration to say that whenever I've dropped a Meters track, it always provokes smiles, nods, or dancing—sometimes all three. Check out a handful of my faves from his discography below. RIP, Art Neville.