Those words don't exactly make sense, but that's what I heard back then--same for when I became a huge Cooke fan a decade later. That's my sound and I'm sticking to it.
So it was a bit of a shock to catch a video of Sunday's tribute show at the Wonder Bar in New Jersey celebrating the life of Clarence Clemons. The Sensational Soul Cruisers and C.C.'s vocalist J.T. Bowen were joined onstage by Bruce Springsteen to perform "Shake," and when they got to the "so loose" part, Bruce distinctly sang, "Come on and loosen up your shoulder!"
Okay, that must be the correct line, but I honestly can't dicipher it on Cooke's original--and Sam Cooke had beautiful diction, not to mention a set of pipes that has never been surpassed in popular music. So call me deaf already. Cooke also vocalized, "move your body like a whip" on that song and Otis Redding never got it right on his rendition; Redding sang, "move your body like your hip." Maybe we mangled the lyrics because we got caught up in the excitement (Cooke's playful singing and Earl Palmer's tom tom-infested drumming, for starters).