Eddie Harris

That Is Why You're Overweight / Eddie Harris

Listen: That Is Why You’re Overweight / Eddie Harris EddieHarrisOverweight.mp3

Back in ’74, I became quite friendly with the Buffalo WEA salesman, Jack Rhelie. At the time, the labels he repped were the absolute holy grail. He’d bring me massive boxes of promo singles – instead of tossing them. Glad I mentioned my 45 fetish to him – and he was glad to give them a decent home. I was an ardent jazz hater up to this point. Always joked jazz should be a controlled substance (the arrogance of youth). Many of the traditional jazz guys were incorporating funk into their newer material, and when edited, they’d occasionally make for potential single releases. So I started appreciating them more, essentially not sounding like jazz at all, they weren’t much different from Bobby Byrd or Fred Wesley tracks actually. And I loved that stuff. Eddie Harris caught my ear first with his ’74 track ‘Is It In’, getting a juvenile kick out of the title and lyric. Always a sucker for songs with food twists, I totally fell for ‘That Is Why You’re Overweight’. A nice period piece too. Another jukebox staple.

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