Rub Down
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Album Summary
Joe Tex laid down 'Rub Down' in 1979 on Epic Records, and baby, this was a man who had been in the trenches of Southern soul since the early sixties still showing up and showing out. Recorded deep in the funk and disco-influenced climate that was swallowing the late seventies whole, the album found Tex wrapping his unmistakable preacher-style vocal delivery around contemporary groove-oriented productions that reflected the era's dance floor demands. Tex, a foundational figure in Southern soul and a master storyteller at the microphone, brought his signature wit and warmth to a studio sound shaped by the rhythmic aesthetics of the post-Motown moment — proving that even as the landscape shifted beneath his feet, that voice and that spirit were not going anywhere.
Reception
- The album did not achieve significant mainstream chart success, arriving at a moment when Joe Tex's commercial peak had largely passed and the marketplace was crowded with disco-era competition pulling listeners in every direction.
- Critical reception was measured, with those who paid attention acknowledging Tex's enduring vocal charisma and storytelling instincts even as the surrounding production leaned heavily into late-seventies funk and disco conventions.
- Without a major crossover hit to carry it forward, the record found its audience primarily among devoted fans of Southern soul and funk who already knew what Joe Tex was capable of delivering.
Significance
- 'Rub Down' stands as one of Joe Tex's final studio statements before his passing in 1982, making it an essential and deeply human document of a founding soul voice navigating the final chapter of a remarkable recording career.
- The album reflects the broader tension that so many classic soul artists faced in the late seventies — the push and pull between a hard-earned artistic identity rooted in Southern church heat and the commercial pressures of a disco and funk-dominated industry.
- As a late-period artifact from one of soul music's most distinctive personalities, 'Rub Down' preserves the vocal character and narrative sensibility of Joe Tex within the transitional sonic era that bridged classic soul and the rhythmic foundations that hip-hop would soon inherit.
Samples
- I Gotcha — one of the most recognized Joe Tex recordings, with its infectious groove drawing the attention of hip-hop producers and earning a notable sampling legacy across multiple decades of rap and R&B production.
Tracklist
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A1 Rub Down 148
3:59
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A2 You Can Be My Star 93
3:57
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A3 Get It (And Get On Home) —
2:48
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A4 Get Back, Leroy 125
4:01
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A5 Be Kind To Old People 94
3:52
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B1 You Might Be Digging The Garden (But Somebody's Picking Your Plums) —
3:21
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B2 Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk —
2:54
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B3 I Gotcha 92
5:25
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B4 I Know How You Like Your Loving —
3:29
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B5 Congratulations (Where You Been, Girls) —
3:36
Artist Details
Joe Tex was a soulful, funky treasure out of Rogers, Texas, who came up in the early 1960s and carved himself a righteous lane in Southern soul with that smooth-talking, preacher-man delivery that made records like "Hold What You've Got" and "Skinny Legs and All" feel like a Saturday night revival and a house party all rolled into one. He was a founding father of what folks would come to call funk, right there alongside James Brown, blending gospel fire with bluesy grit and a sharp wit that made him one of the most original voices the South ever produced. Joe Tex never got quite all the credit he deserved, but his influence ran deep through the veins of soul and funk music, and every time that needle hit his groove, you knew you were in the presence of something genuinely, beautifully real.
