The new HBO series Vinyl explores the seedy underpinnings of the music business in the 1960s and '70s. The show, whose executive producers include Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, has been resurrecting and recreating great songs from those days in each Sunday night episode. One of the exciting "cover" tunes done for next week's show is "Watch Your Step," an R&B song made famous by Bobby Parker in the summer of '61. Here it's covered by The Arcs. When we asked Dan Auerbach why the band played this song, he answered in a way that mimics the show: "What Marty wants, Marty gets."
"Watch Your Step" is a tune whose influence — in particular Parker's guitar line — would be heard again and again in music in the early '60s, particularly in George Harrison's guitar line to The Beatles "I Feel Fine" and Jimmy Page's performance on Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick." The song was a moderate hit in the U.K.
There's an 18 track collection of songs from the series that came out when the show launched, but Vinyl also has a series of mini soundtracks it releases each Friday tied to Sunday's episode. Along with The Arcs, here's what's on this week's show, and available as EP Volume 1.5.:
1) Rosco Gordon – Let's Get High
2) The Arcs – Watch Your Step
3) Alison Mosshart – My Time's Coming
4) Iggy Pop – I Dig Your Mind
5) Julian Casablancas – White Light White Heat (rock n roll animal live era version)
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