Injoy [Original recording remastered]

The Bar-Kays | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 13, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1979
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Hip-O Select
• ASIN: B000BPN1QY
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,999 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

If "Move Your Boogie Body" isn't one of the best calls to get your tired behind out of the chair and onto the dance floor, well, we don't know what is. The Bar-Kays came to prominence, and also nearly to conclusion, as Otis Redding's backup band at Stax. Made up primarily of studio musicians, the Stax/Volt doppelganger for the Funk Brothers was almost entirely wiped out in the plane crash that claimed the life of Otis Redding just as he was having his signature hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay." Upon regrouping, the Bar-Kays kept a fairly steady profile on the R&B charts as a primarily instrumental soul/funk unit. They accompanied Isaac Hayes on his breakthrough Hot Buttered Soul album, but gradually realized that their horizons would widen only if they branched into vocals. In 1971, they brought in Larry Dodson as their vocalist, and the following year they scored their biggest chart hit since Soul Finger. Flash forward to 1979: the Bar-Kays have departed their bankrupted label (Stax) for Mercury's greener pastures. Actually, the pastures were lined with gold: all their Seventies Mercury albums (with one exception) went gold or platinum. Injoy leaped onto the R&B album charts explosively, reaching #2 (it hit #35 on the pop charts). Seamlessly amalgamating their earlier funk with the Euro-dance sounds being popularized by the likes of studio wizard Giorgio Moroder, the Bar-Kays set themselves up for half a decade of continued success with this album.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars cool album, January 29, 2006

By 

A customer "mistermaxxx" (usa) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Injoy (Audio CD)

I always dug me some Bar Kays. they were fun on Record&Brought it even more live on stage."Move your Boogie Body' was my joint. Larry Dotson brought the Pain.together with Producer Allen Jones they would incorperate what was happening on the radio&play on top of that. please read that last part because some People think People taking things here&there is something new,but if you will&the Bar Kays are talented cats,but this was in part a pre-cursor to what puffy,Dr.Dre&others do. the difference between what allen Jones&the bar Kays did in the studio was actually play Live.you heard traces of P-funk,Earth,wind&Fire,Rick James&others but the Bar Kays were a Happening act.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OMG!! OMG!! OMG!!!, October 22, 2008

By 

M. Thomas "Muzuk Mann" (Metropolitan Area MD,) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Injoy (Audio CD)

OMG!!! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! I've been in search of this one forever.

I first heard the entire album on the "Melvin Lensy" Quiet Storm (in Wash. DC) and recorded it onto my hand held cassette recorder.

I have loved this one forever, every song is all that, and I can't wait to play it over n over as i did back in da day, shewwww i'm so excited!!

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Bar-Kays, with a more polished sound, August 10, 2008

By 

Michael O. Johnson "funkaholic by choice" (Shelby, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Injoy (Audio CD)

The Bar-Kays always had a wildness in their sound, but with "Injoy" the band's sound is more polished for public consumption. It's definitely funky, but producer Allen Jones and the group locked in on the grooves that started with the "Too Hot to Stop" and "Flying High on Your Love" albums.

"Move Your Boogie Body" is straight gut-bucket funk with some P-Funk-inspired keyboard riffs; it's one of those songs that's so infectious you'll be grooving to it before you catch yourself. "More and More," "Up in Here" and "Loving You Is My Occupation" featured some strong horn riffs commonly heard in the late '70s and a disco/dancefloor beat, but the funk is there to give them some swagger.

New member Sherman Guy sings lead on the ballad "Running in and out of My Life," complete with some Phillip Bailey-like falsetto vocal spikes. Larry Dodson slows things down on the somewhat sappy ballad "You've Been" and the break-up song "Today Is the Day," to show even the hardest funksters have some sensitivity.