{"id":11754,"date":"2012-01-22T19:44:37","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T00:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=11754"},"modified":"2012-01-22T20:08:14","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T01:08:14","slug":"you-ain%e2%80%99t-been-nowhere-%e2%80%98til-you%e2%80%99ve-been-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/you-ain%e2%80%99t-been-nowhere-%e2%80%98til-you%e2%80%99ve-been-in\/","title":{"rendered":"You Ain\u2019t Been Nowhere \u2018Til You\u2019ve Been In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/dugout-chatter-36\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dugout Chatter<\/em><\/a>, Mr.\u00a0Moderator mentioned the passing of two great names in music history: <strong>Johnny Otis<\/strong> and <strong>Etta James<\/strong>. I&#8217;d like to mention the recent death of another notable if minor artist. Born in Texas in 1940,\u00a0<strong>Dobie Gray<\/strong> started out in the 1960s as a soul singer. His most notable early hit was his 1965 cover of &#8220;The &#8216;In&#8217; Crowd&#8221; (written by <strong>Billy Gray<\/strong>), a manifesto of pre-hippie coolness that reached #13 in the Billboard Hot 100. His smooth singing was\u00a0beautifully\u00a0complemented by the counterpoint of the backing vocals and a big-sounding, punchy horn section.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/upwrq1QZKV8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Gray continued to record as the 1960s wore on without major success. He also became a stage actor, most notably in the Los Angeles stage production of <em>Hair<\/em>. However, lightning struck again for Gray in 1973 with his recording of <strong>Mentor William<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Drift Away.&#8221; With a gentle groove and a gospel-influenced chorus, the \u00a0song became a big hit in the late spring and reached #5 in the Billboard charts. This is probably his single most-popular song and it still gets wide airplay. It&#8217;s not hard to understand why.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NIuyDWzctgY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Though Dobie never scored another major hit again, he kept on performing and recording and his singles occasionally reached the Billboard charts. After &#8220;Drift Away,&#8221; he transitioned into becoming a country singer\u2014an unusual move for an African-American artist at the time. Gray also became a notable songwriter, providing material for country and mainstream\u00a0artists. He toured overseas as a performer with some success and became (at his own insistence) one of the first performers to appear before an integrated audience in apartheid-era South Africa. Gray kept on working over the next few decades. He died of cancer on December 6, 2011, at the age of 71.<\/p>\n<p>So there you have it. Dobie Gray might not be the most famous or most-remembered name in rock history, but he had two genuinely terrific classic hits in him. For that, he deserves a tribute here on <strong>Rock Town Hall<\/strong>. Rest in peace, Dobie, and we&#8217;ll do our part to make sure you&#8217;re not forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent Dugout Chatter, Mr.\u00a0Moderator mentioned the passing of two great names in music history: Johnny Otis and Etta James. I&#8217;d like to mention the recent death of another notable if minor artist. Born in Texas in 1940,\u00a0Dobie Gray started out in the 1960s as a soul singer. His most notable early hit was <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/you-ain%e2%80%99t-been-nowhere-%e2%80%98til-you%e2%80%99ve-been-in\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2106,"featured_media":11759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[170,293,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}