King Solomon

Listen/Download – King Solomon with the Lad Teens Band – Louisiana Groove MP3

Listen/Download – King Solomon with the Lad Teens Band – My Dream MP3

Greetings all.

I wouldn’t normally whip something this heavy on you at the beginning of the week (being that most of us need a little bit of lead time to get the gears turning) but I figured if I held onto it any longer I might get burned, so…

I have to shout out to my man Kris Holmes how turned me on to this 45 a while back. It was one of those instances where I was blown away from the first listen, and set out immediately to find my self a copy for my play box.

It took a little while, but I finally landed a nice, clean copy of King Solomon’s ‘Louisiana Groove’, and I pass it on to you today.

Billed as ‘King Solomon with the Lad Teens Band’, ‘Louisiana Groove’ is an explosive slab of soul-on-the-way-to-funk, propelled by a churning, relentless rhythm guitar and a cascading horn line that pushes the tune to another level..

There appear to have been (at least) a couple of musicians operating with the ‘King Solomon’ handle during the 60s. The one on this record recorded for a number of labels during the decade, including Checker, Don J, and Cadillac.

The common thread on all of these 45s seems to be a writer/producer named Frank Wedlaw.

King Solomon appears to have been a cat named King Sylvester Lee Melicious Solomon, who got his start in Louisiana, moved to Chicago and ended up out west in LA.

I haven’t been able to nail the date on ‘Louisiana Groove’ but it sounds like 67/68-ish to me.

This Cadillac Records (another instance of multiple labels with the same name) seems to have been a Los Angeles imprint, with its only other release being a 45 by the Lad Teens (no apparent relation to the NY boogaloo group, the Lat-Teens on Cotique).

All of that taken into consideration, ‘Louisiana Groove’ is a uniquely powerful disc, guaranteed to light up the dance floor, and your ears (of course).

I’m also posting the flipside, ‘My Dream’ only because it’s really weird and a severe contrast to ‘Louisiana Groove’.

Tuff City’s Night Train label issued a King Solomon comp back in 2005 (though neither of these songs was included).

I hope you dig the sounds and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.