You Ain't Never Too Old to Boogie

Jerry Williams (aka Swamp Dogg) put aside the proto-disco moves that occasionally dotted 1975's Have You Heard This Story? in favor of some tough, gritty Southern funk with a soulful edge for his next album, 1976's You Ain't Never Too Old to Boogie. Williams has said he originally intended for the album to be called "It's a Bitch," and political correctness aside, the down and dirty sass of that title suits this music -- with Travis Wammack on guitar, Williams on keys, and Bob Wray and Jimmy Evans on bass and drums, this is a no nonsense, high energy R&B session that's not afraid to draw some rock & roll sweat, especially on the high-energy title track. You Ain't Never Too Old to Boogie is less willfully eccentric than most of Swamp Dogg's work of the '70s, and most of the songs are worldly-wise meditations on the male-female relationship, though the long spoken coda to "Believe in Me Baby" will remind anyone listening that this is indeed Swamp Dogg, and the crazed braggadocio/music biz lament of "It's a Bitch" is both funny and telling. Swamp Dogg has made a lot of records more enjoyably twisted than You Ain't Never Too Old to Boogie, but it's as consistently funky and grooving as anything he ever cut, and it's one of the more underrated albums in his catalog. ~ Mark Deming