『Love Ain't Nothin' But A Business Goin' On』は、ミシシッピ出身のブルース歌手Junior Parkerの名作で、1970年に別タイトルで発売された。彼の滑らかな声とソウルフルなグルーブが特徴で、ブルース、ファンク、ソウルバラードを融合している。アルバムにはビートルズのカバー曲『Taxman』、『Lady Madonna』、『Tomorrow Never Knows』も収録されており、特に『Taxman』はサンプルとしても有名。Parkerの音楽は、A Tribe Called QuestやDJ Shadowなど多くのアーティストに影響を与えている。

A1. Love Ain't Nothin' But A Business Goin' On
A2. The Outside Man
A3. Darling Depend On Me
A4. Taxman
A5. Rivers Invitation
B1. I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone
B2. Just To Hold My Hand
B3. You Know I Love You
B4. Lady Madonna
B5. Tomorrow Never Knows

Next up in Mr Bongo's Groove Merchant Records reissue series, sees an outing for a much-loved and heavily sampled funk/soul/blues album by Junior Parker. Originally issued under the title The Outside Man on Capitol Records in 1970 with an alternative cover, this reissue replicates the Groove Merchant release titled Love Ain't Nothin' But A Business Goin' On featuring the car cover released in 1971.

The Mississippi-born, Memphis-based blues singer, harmonica player and songwriter Junior Parker (aka Little Junior Parker) had a stellar career in music. Since the early 1950s he released records on labels such as Duke, Mercury, United Artists Records and more. Sadly though, Parker died at the young age of 39 during surgery on November 18, 1971.

Originally released under the alternate title a year before his untimely death, Love Ain't Nothin' But a Business Goin' On is drenched in Parker’s trademark buttery vocals and soulful grooves, swaggering between smokey blues, raw funk outings and orchestrated soul ballads (with sublime arrangements by Horace Ott).

The album also features three Beatles cover versions in the form of ‘Taxman’, ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. For 'Taxman', Parker completely reinterprets the song taking into a New Orleans funk realm, a sample of which was used as the main hook line on Cypress Hill's classic 'I Wanna Get High'. Elsewhere, 'Tomorrow Never Knows' is flipped into a tripped-out, psychedelic soul-swamp blues ballad, whilst 'Lady Madonna' is given a funky blues makeover.

As shown with Cypress Hill’s use of ‘Taxman’, since the ‘70s Parker’s legacy has been immortalised for future generations through the deep well of samples that his music has become a source of. Tracks from Love Ain't Nothin' But a Business Goin' On have been sampled by some of the biggest names out there, such as A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Shadow and De La Soul.

A seriously smooth album oozing with soul and emotion from a Blues Hall of Fame inductee, Junior Parker’s Love Ain't Nothin' But A Business Goin' On is a superb example of the early ‘70s crossover funk/soul sound.