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I was used to the Al Kooper version, with a lot more production. But I was out hiking in the mountains listening to the Spotify playlist I created for the “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” missive and when it slipped into the Johnnie Taylor version of “Toe Hold” I truly got the lyrics for the very first time. Funny how that works, it’s half a century later and suddenly you get the meaning of a song. Sometimes I was just oblivious, other times I was too young to understand at the time, and I’ve always marveled at how these musicians/songwriters were so insightful at such a young age, hell, Jackson Browne was sixteen when he wrote “These Days.”

Now I always thought the original “Toe Hold” was too naked compared to the Al Kooper cover, but the other night…

The thing that truly amazed me first was Johnnie Taylor’s voice and delivery. Like most people I knew him most from “Who’s Making Love” (to your old lady, while you were out making love), another soul hit on the AM Top 40 of the day. But listening again, this guy is utterly fantastic, amazing, positively a legend whose reputation needs to excavated, studied and admired. You can’t get this on a singing competition show. The passion, the intensity.

Now the truth is we’ve got to give Kooper notice for excavating “Toe Hold,” which was a b-side to “Little Bluebird” in 1966. I never heard it on the radio, I only knew it because Kooper covered it.

But he was not the only one, the same year as it was included in “I Stand Alone,” Wilson Pickett did a version. And Pickett deserves all the props he’s received, but here he’s going through the motions compared to Taylor on his take, Pickett’s just Pickettfying the song, whereas Taylor is at his wit’s end, he’s telling us a tale from his soul, you truly believe it.

Now Ellen McIlwaine covered “Toe Hold” too. I’d like to tell you it’s delicious, but at best it’s interesting. She’s received a lot of press recently, but her take pales in comparison to Taylor’s too. The only one who comes close is Kooper, because he throws everything into the song, it’s a white man’s take on the song with horns providing the emphasis that Taylor delivers purely with his voice.

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“All my life I’ve been a poor boy
It’s been hard to get a dime
Everything I got
I had to pay for it on time, but that’s all right”

ON TIME! When I was fifteen I knew he wasn’t talking about paying on a certain date, but I wasn’t wise enough to know what it was like to pay for something on time, not having enough cash to pay for it right up front.

“Long as I got a toe hold
Long as I got a piece of you
Long as I got a toe hold
I can make it through”

That’s all he’s looking for, he’s not asking for much, he only needs a toe hold. This is the opposite of the braggadocio of today, when everybody’s a winner, displaying their wealth. This is the truth, but sans pessimism.

“I said I went to my doctor
First thing he talked about is malnutrition
I’m not tryin’ to be a fat man
I got to look after my ambition”

The doctor takes one look and sees that this guy is struggling, he doesn’t have enough of the right food.

Yet Johnnie is not focusing on the negative, but the positive. He doesn’t want to focus on the pitfalls, but the opportunities.

“A lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’ toe hold
A lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’, lil’ toe hold”

This always stuck out to me in Kooper’s take, but it was the sound, the delivery, the way he got all the “lil'”s out. But when Taylor sings it… There’s a combination of desperation and internal strength at the same time. He believes in himself, he can make it through.

“So baby if you’re with me
Let the whole world be against me”

It’s like by singing the song Taylor has convinced himself, with her he can succeed, screw all the forces against him.

“I don’t expect to ever get rich
You may find me diggin’ in a ditch”

All he’s looking for is a toe hold, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get by. It all works as long as he’s got her by his side.

Now with this delivery, it wouldn’t be hard to be convinced. And women were. Taylor had six acknowledged children and three others by three different women.

You’ve got the He-Men of the Universe with all the money in the world, but they haven’t got the game of the guy singing this song. That’s the power of music.

And one can say that fifty years ago the Black man was a second-class citizen sans the opportunities of today, that it’s a breakthrough to be able to boast, however…

Most people are not winners and the truth is as long as you’ve got a modicum of ambition you can cobble together a life, you can get by. And more important than the money is love, relationships, life.

Tell me all you want about Sam Altman, I’d rather be Johnnie Taylor.

The truth is back then musicians were the winners. Because of the music they created. It was right there baked into the grooves, in an era where you had to have the chops to make it, when being a nepo-baby opening for a star was not enough to garner an audience. When all that dreck of today fades away Johnnie Taylor will still be around to triumph, convincing listeners with his music.

This guy is utterly fantastic. I’d like to point to someone in today’s hit parade who’s even in the same league, but I cannot.

Although “Toe Hold” was written by Stax greats Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Johnnie Taylor truly makes it his own.

“Toe Hold” is a showstopper. One listen would inspire greatness…

And cause a plethora of wannabes to call it a day.