Day 247: Isley Brothers – Go for Your Guns

It’s always fun to find out what band or artist you’ve mispronounced throughout your life and then do the usual precursory run through of memories if you’ve ever discussed said band or artist in public and lost credibility as a dork. Today that was Isley Brothers – eyes-lee, not isle-y – who I had that wonderful moment with. No better reason to get more acquainted with them, I chose their 1977 release Go for Your Guns.

The Isley Brothers were formed as a gospel group in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1954 by brothers O’Kelly, Rudolph, Ronald and Vernon Isley. They’d been touring churches and winning singing competitions, but they disbanded after Vernon died. Their parents eventually convinced them to keep going, so they reformed in 1957 and moved to New York to chase success as a rock n roll group. In 1959, they got a record deal with RCA Victor and landed a massive hit with “Shout”, which was featured in the film Animal House.

The Isley Brothers have had a long career where they’ve reinvented their sound several times, and Go for Your Guns represents them at a rock-inspired soul-funk phase. Occasionally you can hear how their former guitarist Jimi Hendrix had impacted their sound, which is obviously phenomenal. And then there’s the instantly recognisable "Footsteps in the Dark", which to my generation is probably better remembered as the sample in Ice Cube’s "It Was a Good Day".

The slower, seductive and meandering rhythms are less to my tastes than big stomping floor fillers, so as much as I like "Climbin' Up the Ladder (Part 1 & 2)" it’s probably not an album that I’ll reach for again. But it’s good, I’m glad I heard it and I even listened to it twice today. It’s still a very conservative 7.5/10. It’s not an 8 if I can’t see myself listening to it again.