General Crook

Artist: General Crook

LP: General Crook

Song: "Fever In the Funkhouse"

[ listen ]

Not to be confused with the spectacularly-bearded General George Crook of American Civil War fame, the musical General Crook (his birth name, believe it or not) was born in Mound Bayou, Mississippi in February of 1945. After graduating from high school, he moved to Chicago where he began working on a career in music. He found only moderate success, though this soulful and funky LP released on the Wand label in 1974 is just about as wonderful as anything I've heard from the era. You can read more about the life and career of General Crook on the AllMusic.com website here. Unfortunately, Crook often suffered from recurring bouts of ill health (fevers in particular), exacerbated by the fact that, despite Chicago's notoriously harsh winters, he transported himself solely by bicycle year-round...

...and he never wore any pants.