It wasn’t that Thomas didn’t have talent. Sure, working nonsensical dances into the hook of some earlier recordings might have worked against his quest for superstardom, but it also didn’t help that he had to compete with some of the greatest voices American music has ever provided. Though even with all that in mind, his influence and impact on soul music as a whole has been criminally undermined by the heavy hitters that came to prominence during his heyday. And his third child, Vaneese, reportedly spends her time these days recording vocal tracks for commercials. His son Marvell played keyboards on some of the most classic soul/R&B tunes ever recorded. His daughter Carla became a star that shone so bright, some argue she eclipsed her father.
As the years went on, the singer became somewhat of an elder statesman for the Memphis label. It’s hard to take an artist who penned four singles with such titles as “The Dog”, “Walking The Dog”, “Can Your Monkey Do The Dog” and “Somebody Stole My Dog” as serious as you would take, say, an Otis Redding or a Sam and Dave, two legendary acts that helped build Stax up to the legendary status it ultimately achieved.īut that doesn’t mean Thomas’s talents should be ignored.
Thomas’s knack for absurdity combined with his insistence upon gravitating toward novelty songs are probably the two most prominent factors. Why? Well, it’s a combination of reasons, really. There isn’t a single other artist who recorded at 926 East McLemore Avenue in the 1960s and 1970s that was as dismissed, discounted and disrespected as the man who gave Stax its first real hit with “Cause I Love You” in the ’60s. Rufus Thomas is the most overlooked, under-appreciated artist to ever come from the Stax imprint.
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