Digging for Covers: Sharon Jones funks up Kenny Rogers

Songwriter Mickey Newbury wrote the song "I Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In" as a warning against the use of LSD. However, its groovy and psychedelic textures served more as a complement than a hinderance to drug use.

Jerry Lee Lewis took the first stab at recording the song in 1967, but he rejected that version and it was instead popularized by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition a year later. The song, which at one point was a favorite of Jimi Hendrix's, was revived in 1998 by the Cohen brothers when they used the track for the Dude's hallucinogenic bowling sequence in The Big Lebowski. 

Here, Sharon Jones and her Dap-King funk machine turn up the tempo on Newbury's classic while cutting a few of its more far-out corners. The song's original wavy guitars are turned sleek while drifting melodies now swiftly pop from the Dap-Kings brass section. Make sure to catch the solo at the 1:30 mark. (Poster art by Mark McDevitt at Methane Studios)

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings — "Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In" (from Hot Funky & Sweaty)