Joe Tex was one of the greatest soul musicians ever. People know his music, but they don’t tend to know him. One of the reasons is that he died so young — just 47 years old. But he also lived and performed in the shadow of James Brown. But it is hard to argue that Tex wasn’t just as great as the Godfather of Soul. The two of them had quite the rivalry. I explained this last year in post about Tex:

This reached a peak in 1963, when Tex opened for a Macon, Georgia homecoming concert for Brown. “Tex, who opened the show, arrived in a tattered cape and began rolling around on the floor as if in agony, and screamed, ‘Please—somebody help get me out of this cape!'” Brown was understandably not pleased, but as much as I admire Brown, that’s funny as hell. Allegedly, James Brown found Tex later and shot at him.

Anyway, here is “I Gotcha,” which is a pretty great way to start a day: