The Meters: Trick Bag : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

With the current ascendance of funk in pop music, the Meters lack of success remains a mystery. Along with the eminent James Brown, Dyke and the Blazers and the Watts 103rd St. Band, the Meters were modern funk pioneers in the late Sixties, providing alternatives to Stax and Motown's more constricted rhythm approaches. But during their association with Warner Bros. the group's sales have dwindled, reaching a nadir with their last single, "They All Ask'd for You," a Cajun novelty that never climbed to the bottom of the soul charts. And yet the Meters remain one of pop's most adventurous and innovative bands. On Trick Bag, the group has made a number of commercial concessions, which only underscores the dilemma faced by many jazz musicians.

"Disco Is the Thing Today" is an attempt to reach the faltering disco audience with a simple, repetitive hook and a heavy, hi-hat drum mix. It's the dance formula at its most basic, but oddly enough the song isn't without appeal, though it seems a curious way to break an all-out funk band like the Meters. Drummer Zig Modeliste's scattershot, polyrhythmic tendencies are kept under wraps throughout the album; "I Want to Be Loved by You" is the closest he comes to opening up, but the song is marred by an unnecessary wash of strings and a gimmicky vocal mix.

Much of Trick Bag's material is less than judiciously chosen. There are two revivals of old Meters songs, "The World Is a Little Bit under the Weather" and "Chug-a-Lug," but neither is as strong as the original. The medley of "Hang 'Em High" and "Honky Tonk Woman" is awkward and the jazzy arrangement of James Taylor's "Suite for 20 G" lightweight. Among the best is a remake of New Orleans veteran Earl King's "Trick Bag," highlighted by Art Neville's piano and a guest vocal by King himself.

Much of Trick Bag suffers from a lethargy that bespeaks a group desperately trying to adapt itself to an elusive market. If the Meters continued to stake out the ambitious, energetic funk that characterized Rejuvenation, their 1974 album, the hits would probably take care of themselves.