She WAS Right Next Door, After All

Album: Robert Cray, Strong Persuader, 1986

Acquired: I bought this cassette at the Little Creek Amphibious Base Navy Exchange. My first ever job was in the warehouse there. I may even have spent some of my first paycheck on Strong Persuader. That would make me cool. I'm cool, right? Cool.

Best Track: "Smoking Gun"

Lasting Memory: The first time I saw the video for the quasi title track for this album, "Right Next Door (Because of Me)," I thought there could never be anything cooler than what Mr. Cray was pictured doing -- sitting alone in chair and riffing on a Fender guitar.

I never learned how to do that. I made half an effort to learn how to play guitar, but that was unsuccessful. Like all half efforts are.

What Strong Persuader did teach me was that dumb excuses are the right excuses. Sure Cray regrets having broken the marriage of his MILF neighbor, but, c'mon, what did she expect being right next and all? As Cray -- the next not Hendrix from Seattle -- explained:

I can hear the couple fighting right next door
Their angry words sound clear thru these thin walls
Around midnight I hear him shout "Unfaithful woman"
And I knew right there the axe was gonna fall

It's because of me
It's because of me

So, yeah. Opportunity equals sin. Who are you to argue? Or resist?

But the cuckold will have his revenge, as Cray makes clear in "Smoking Gun":

I get a constant busy signal
When I call you on the phone
I get a strong uneasy feeling
You're not sitting there alone

I'm having nasty nasty visions
And baby you're in every one, yeah
And I'm so afraid I'm gonna find you with
A still hot, smokin' gun

Maybe you want to end it
You've had your fill of my kind of fun
But you don't know how to tell me
And you know that I'm not that dumb

I put two and one together
And you know that's not an even sum
And I know just where to find you with
A still hot, smokin gun

I'm standing here bewildered
I can't remember just what I've done
I can hear the sirens whining
My eyes blinded by the sun

I know that I should be running
My heart's beating just like a drum
Now they've knocked me down and taken it
That still hot, smokin' gun
Yeah, still hot, smokin' gun

Yes, they've taken it
Still hot, smokin' gun
Oh, they've taken it
Still hot, smokin' gun
Knocked me down
Taken it

The moral is, as always, don't cheat on a blues musician.

Up Next: Credence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle, 1976

P.S. Happy New Year! Whom ever thought there would be a 2008?