If this doesn’t reach you, your dick doesn’t get hard and your pussy doesn’t get wet. Daryl Hall and his band lay down a groove so funky, so in the pocket, your body can’t sit still, you can’t help but groove to the music.

What made that Alabama Shakes was that one live video of "Hold On". Now Allen Stone has his clip.

I thought maybe I’d missed it, maybe I had it wrong. So I went back to Mr. Stone’s website and played the studio version of "Celebrate Tonight" and it was a distant facsimile of this live take. Sure, it was the same song but it didn’t occupy the same groove, it lacked dynamics, it didn’t get up and grab you, didn’t force you to pay attention.

Once upon a time, in the pre-Internet era, only the studio version mattered. You cut a song once, and that was it. Didn’t matter if you played it a few hundred more times live and grew into it, all anybody knew was the studio take. But in the YouTube era it’s no longer one and done, you keep getting more bites at the apple, you get a chance to get it right.

Live is now everything. Despite so much of the Grammys being canned. The audience knows this, that’s why there’s a burgeoning club business. Dedicated music fans know if they go to the show they can experience something living, something changing, something they can be part of.

Don’t confuse this with the extravaganza business. In arenas, on tape, with dancing. That’s akin to Broadway. This is all about music.

Music is not something you see, but something you hear, something you feel. "Celebrate Tonight" infects you, great music is a disease, that you just can’t cure.

I stand by my original critique. Mr. Stone’s songs are not quite there yet. But here the performance is so riveting that it makes up for some of the song’s deficiencies.

Credit Daryl Hall and his seasoned band of players. This is what experience teaches you. Daryl, et al, are the antidote to all the dinosaurs on the road playing the hits, trapped in a pre-Internet paradigm.

You only grow if you take risks. And it’s fascinating to see Mr. Hall play with the legends, but to see him put his expertise into backing new talent is to see one plus one equal three. With his usual suspects, Allen Stone is a journeyman. With Daryl Hall, he’s a star.

You can watch the intro, but it’s best to go to the heart of the matter. Click here:

Live From Daryl’s House – Allen Stone

Below the video window you’ll see the word PLAYLIST

Click on: "Song – Celebrate Tonight"

Then go to:

http://www.allenstone.com/

In the player on the left, click on "Celebrate Tonight" to hear the original version. It’s close, but the vocal’s just a bit too mannered and the players are so busy getting it right they’re unwilling to wallow in the pocket. It’s close, but no cigar.