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By Larry, January 1, 2013 3:08 pm

Miss Marva Whitney

Listen/Download Marva Whitney – It’s My Thing

Listen/Download Marva Whitney – Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)

Listen/Download Marva Whitney – This Girl’s In Love With You

Greetings all

It was just a few days short of Christmas (the very day that the Godfather of Soul slipped the surly bonds of earth but six years ago) that word filtered down to me that the mighty Marva Whitney had died.

Marva Whitney – one of the great divas of the classic era of the James Brown Revue – was born in Kansas City, KA in 1944, where she grew up performing gospel music.

It wasn’t until the mid-60s that she made the move to the secular side of soul, eventually joing James Brown and recording her first 45 with his organization in 1967.

During her tenure with Brown, running from 1967 to 1970, she recorded more than a dozen 45s and three albums (one unreleased) before moving on to record sides for T-Neck, Forte and Excello.

She left music for a time in the 1980s before returning to perform with various and sundry James Brown alumni, eventually working with Osaka Monauril (big ups to DJ Pari who was instrumental in her return to the studio), recording new music and touring extensively in the 2000s.

Whitney had one of the most powerful voices in the realm of classic funk.

Though she didn’t have much in the way of commercial success in her heyday, Whitney is treasured both by crate diggers, who verily worship her hard-hitting funk sides, but also by the hip hop side of things for heavily sampled tracks like ‘Unwind Yourself’.

The three tunes I’m posting today have all appeared at Funky16Corners over the years and are staples in my crates and playlists.

The first is my personal favorite. ‘It’s My Thing’ – an obvious “answer” to the Isleys – was her biggest hit, making it into the R&B Top 20 in the Spring of 1969.

It’s a killer from its opening notes, and right up there with the best singles of James Brown’s King-era. The instrumental backing is rock solid, yet fairly rudimentary, with Marva’s remarkable voice dragging the whole show behind her in the dust.

The second is another banger, which ought to be familiar to listeners of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, via the whole song, but also from the sample of her voice that graces so many drops. ‘Things Got to Get Better (Get Together)’ is a fast mover with a tasty horn chart that propels the song from the bottom up. There’s a fantastic live performance clip from he show ‘Music Scene’ in 1969, with Marva laying it down in front of the mighty James Brown band that must be seen,not just for the undeniable power of the music, but for Ms Whitney’s platinum afro, which is a thing to behold.

The last track is something extra special that I was introduced to some years back when Dave Withers guested at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions.

Marva Whitney’s ‘This Girl’s In Love With You’ (a distaff remake of the huge Herb Albert hit) from 1969 is one of those records that ought to be much better known. Every time I play it out I see the same reaction that I had the first time I heard it, that being “where has this record been all my life?”.

It is in turns sweet, funky and a remarkable contrast to the harder edged stuff in Marva’s catalog. I’m not sure who did the arrangement, but it’s fantastic and the fact that this record doesn’t seem to have charted anywhere just makes me shake my head.

Though some of Marva Whitney’s old-school vinyl can be hard to come by and costly, you can find her 2006 comeback LP with Osaka Monaurail ‘I Am What I Am’ in iTunes, and most of her classic tracks can be found on the ‘James Brown’s Funky Divas’ collection (along with a lot of other indispensable music).

I hope you dig the sounds, and when you get a chance, get down in memory of the great Marva Whitney.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (3)

By Larry, December 30, 2012 3:45 pm

Bobby Hollaway – Cornbread, Hog Maws and Chitterlins (Smash)
Ben E King – What Is Soul (Atco)
Nina Simone – Save Me (RCA)
Pieces of Eight – Come Back Girl (A&M)
Len Barry – I Struck it Rich (Decca)
Papa Don Association – Souled Out (Amy)
Vibrations – Expressway To Your Heart (Neptune)
Russell Evans and the Nighthawks – Send Me Some Cornbread (Atco)
Shirelles – Last Minute Miracle (Scepter)
Garnet Mimms – Prove It To Me (UA)
Exciters – Blowing Up My Mind (RCA)
Etta James – I Got You Babe (Cadet)
Billy Preston – Greazee Pt1 (Derby)
Freddie Scott – You (Got What I Need) (Shout)
Lloyd L Williams – Be Mine Tonight (ABC)
Marvelle and the Blue Mats – The Dance Called the Motion (Dynamic Sound)
The Poets – She Blew a Good Thing (Symbol)
Titus Turner – Soulville (Enjoy)
Betty Harris – Mojo Hannah (Jubilee)
Dean Parrish – I’m On My Way (Laurie)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners 2012 Year In Review Mix – 93MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

What you see before you is the Funky16Corners 2012 Year In Review Mix, in which we take a look at the tracks that I consider to be the finest posted here since January.

You get all manner of soul and funk (mostly of the 45RPM variety), breakbeats and grooves of all kinds.

I gave this a listen the other night and came to the conclusion that this has been an especially good year.

My memories of recent digs, as well as the “to be blogged’ folder indicate that there’s a lot more where that came from.

I hope you dig the mix, and I’ll be back next week with some more groovy gravy.

Don’t forget to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or, if you can’t be there at airtime, subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 for the archive here at the blog.

Happy New Year,

Keep the faith

Larry

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, December 24, 2012 11:36 am

The LP (above), Miss Dorothy Ashby (below)

Listen/Download – The Soulful Strings – Jingle Bells

Listen/Download – The Soulful Strings feat. Dorothy Ashby – Merry Christmas Baby

NOTE: This year – as in years past – the run up to Christmas will be filled with re-postings of some of my (and your) fave soulful and funky holiday tunes.

This gives you all a chance to catch up on some soulful Christmas jams, and gives me time to rest my blogging muscles and enjoy the holiday.

There are also two previous years of Funky16Corners Radio Christmas Specials (12/24/10 and 12/23/11) as well as this year’s show (12/21) in the Archive.

This will be my final post for the week, so here’s hoping that those of you that celebrate have a very Merry Christmas, and that for the rest of you, things stay mellow as a cello.

This post is dedicated to the memory of the mighty Miss Marva Whitney, who passed away a few days ago. I will most definitely be paying tribute to her in the coming weeks.

Enjoy!

Larry

Originally Posted 12/2007

Greetings all.

As I’ve stated repeatedly in the past, I’ve never been much of a holiday music collector. However, once in a while a personal obsession of mine also happens to have a Christmas record. In the case of Richard Evans and the Soulful Strings, their 1968 LP ‘The Magic of Christmas’ is a real gem.

The first tune I selected was the obvious choice (at least for me) because I can’t think of another version of ‘Jingle Bells’ that opens up with an honest to goodness drum break. I’m not sure who’s laying it down here (though I’m guessing that it is in fact Morris Jennings Jr.).

The second selection is a lush, sublime reading of Charles Brown’s classic ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ which features the brilliant Dorothy Ashby on harp. If you aren’t familiar with Ashby – I included her ‘Soul Vibrations’ on my collab with DJ Prestige ‘Beat Combination Pt2’ (check out the Flea Market Funk Mixes page)– she was one of the few harpists who could actually play jazz on the instrument, and the three albums she recorded for Cadet between 1968 and 1970 (in collaboration with Evans) are brilliant.

If your nerves are frayed (like mine) and the consumerist madness of the holiday season has you down, give this version of ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ a listen and all will (at least for a few minutes) be well, as it is positively sublime.

I’ll be taking the next week off to enjoy the holiday with my family and do a little visiting. I will most definitely be back with something for New Years Eve, so hang tight, enjoy your Christmas and I’ll see you all soon.<<

Peace

Larry

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 23, 2012 12:04 pm

Clarence Carter

Listen/Download – Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa

NOTE: This year – as in years past – the run up to Christmas will be filled with re-postings of some of my (and your) fave soulful and funky holiday tunes.

This gives you all a chance to catch up on some soulful Christmas jams, and gives me time to rest my blogging muscles and enjoy the holiday.

There are also two years of Funky16Corners Radio Christmas Specials (12/24/10 and 12/23/11) in the Archive.

Enjoy!
Originally Posted 12/2006

Greetings all.

As I’ve gone over a few different times, I’ve never been a big collector of (any) holiday themed funk and soul. I may pick up a piece here and there – when it turns up – but I don’t generally seek it out. This is the main reason it may take a decade or so before you see me post a Christmas edition of Funky16Corners Radio. I just don’t have the raw material at my disposal.

That is not to say that I would ever let the time of year go by unnoticed, and this time out I have a couple of excellent funky yule logs for ye, one you may have heard, and another that you almost certainly haven’t.

The former may very well be my all time favorite funk/soul Christmas record, by one of the truly great voices of 60’s and 70’s soul. The singer, Mr. Clarence Carter, the song, ‘Back Door Santa’.

First off, I suspect that someone, somewhere in the funky blog-o-sphere will be dropping this chestnut, and I don’t care, on account of I love this record, and you should too, and much like spinach and yams, more than one serving will only serve to improve your overall well being.

That said, Clarence rips it up here, whipping every last bit of funk they had hidden at Fame studios on you (as well as jingle bells and egg nog), with all the good Santa-related double (hardly) entendres money can buy. Get this on thy-Pod post haste, so that over the weekend, when some wet blanket tries to throw ‘Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer’ (or, God forbid that thing where the dogs bark out ‘Jingle Bells’) on at the Christmas gathering, you can parry (and thrust) with this big, jangling set of Christmas balls and really get the party started.

I mean, seriously…how can your ears suck up this groovy gravy, and your butt fail to respond– in the words of the great Lee Dorsey (without whom everything you do can’t be funky) – with the make-a-shake-a-make-a-hula, or however it is you likes to shake it (but don’t break it).

By the way, if some youngster starts tugging on your scarf when this starts playing, it’s because he heard this songs very essence sampled by none other than Run DMC (It’s Christmas in Hollis Queens! Etc etc).<<

Peace

Larry

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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, December 16, 2012 2:20 pm

Listen/Download Bobby Hollaway – Funky Little Drummer Boy

Greetings all

I should get things started by noting that the next week or so will be filled with soulful and funky Christmas music.

I will be posting new stuff (like you see today) interspersed some old faves.

Here’s hoping that you dig it all, and that those that celebrate have themselves a groovy Christmas.

It was way back in February of this year that I featured the absolutely incendiary flipside of this biscuit – ‘Cornbread, Hog Maw and Chitterlins’ – in this very space.

Funny thing is, the record was first recommended to me (by the mighty Midnight Cowbwoy) for the side you see before you today.

I was in search of some groovy, soulful Christmas ish, and he suggested that Bobby Hollaway’s ‘Funky Little Drummer Boy’ could be had for not much scratch. So, off I went in search of said 45, found it, coughed up my ten smackers and eagerly awaited it’s arrival here at the crib.

Well, when it fell through the mail slot, I played the Christmas side, dug it and thought “Well, that was ten bucks well spent!”

Then I flipped it over.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a body cast (not really).

However, the ‘Cornbread…’ side is as deadly a bit of organ driven instro-soul as has ever rolled down the pike.

The Christmas side is a cover of a song thathas never really done much for me in its original form.

However, it seems to be the kind of song that lends itself to particularly interesting soul and funk interpretations, like the George Conedy and Lenox Ave versions you have seen/heard in this space previously.

Mr Hollaway does yet another stupendous take on ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, picking up the tempo considerably and laying a whole lot of soul on what started out as a decidedly un-soulful tune.

I have yet to discover anything about Bobby Hollaway – what little I was able to glean can be picked up in the earlier post – and I wish I knew more.

If anyone has anything to add to the story, please drop me a line.

Until then, I hope you dig the tune, and Merry Christmas.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 11, 2012 4:25 pm

Myra Barnes aka Vicki Anderson

Listen/Download Myra Barnes – Super Good (Answer to Super Bad) Pt1

Listen/Download Myra Barnes – Super Good (Answer to Super Bad) Pt2

Greetings all

How’s about some of the dead on the one, super heavy funk to help you get on up and over the hump?

The record I bring you today is one that I was seeking for a long time, before it ultimately turned up in a box of cheapies at a record show.

It looked a little distressed, but for three bucks I could not pass it by. When I got it home and dropped the needle it was immediately evident that I had made the right choice.

That said, this 45, released in 1970 and credited to Myra Barnes (and then parenthetically to Vicki Anderson, who is Myra Barnes and vice versa…) is a killer.

It is prime, funk 45 era James Brown-and associated action, with interjections by the king himself and some cool, fuzzed out guitar (which you get to hear a lot more of in Part 2) as well.

The thing that always puzzled me, is why the double billing?

Myra Barnes is the birth name of Vicki Anderson, one of the great divas of the James Brown organization.

She recorded for a variety of labels, under both names, but oddly enough not in chronological order, i.e. even though there are ‘Myra Barnes’ 45s released on the King label in 1970 and 1971, there are also Vicki Anderson 45s released before and after those (from 1967 to 1971).

Was James trying to break Myra/Vicki in any way possible, and playing any card available? Certainly the vocals on the Myra/Vicki 45s sound like the same person, so it’s not like she was working separate personas.

There was some fluctuation in the position of ‘main female singer’ in the James Brown revue with Myra/Vicki preceded by Anna King, replaced by Marva Whitney, and then returning to the fold before being replaced by Lyn Collins.

To complicate matters even further, she recorded again for Brown’s I-Dentify label under the name ‘Mommie-O’ in 1975.

In the end, Myra Barnes/Vicki Anderson/Mommie-O laid down some of the finest records of the classic funk era, and JB himself reportedly considered her to be the finest singer he ever worked with.

I hope you get down, dig the sounds, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 6, 2012 1:00 pm

Ernie K Doe

Listen/Download Ernie K Doe – Fly Away With Me

Greetings all

Welcome back to the Corners.

The end of another week is here, and so it is once again time for the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there to check it out at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an mp3 download here at the blog the day after it airs.

I was on another one of those periodic, internal digging expeditions, in which I probe the contents of my own crates for sounds neglected, when I pulled out Ernie K Doe’s self-titled 1970 LP.

Known to most as the source for sought after funk of ‘Here Come the Girls’, the album, produced and almost entirely written by Allen Toussaint (with the instrumental assistance of the mighty Meters), ‘Ernie K Doe’ is uniformly excellent.

One of my favorite tunes on the album, is ‘Fly Away With Me’.

Now, we have spent a fair amount of time discussing the nature of funk, and things funky, acknowledging along the way that the terms embrace a wide range of tempos and “feels”, and this song is prime illustration of that.

There is certainly a built-in quota of funk in any truly New Orleans-ian music, and when you’re talking about the intersection of the talents of Toussaint, K Doe andMeters, they could all be asleep and the snores, tossing and turning would still be funky as hell.

‘Fly Away With Me’ gets its start in a easy rolling tempo, with plenty of Toussaint piano, as well as great harmony vocals (also, partly Toussaint). There’s a laid back, almost churchy feel to things until the 2:05 mark when they pick up the pace and dial up the funk for the rest of the record.

K Doe is in rare form (an underrated singer indeed) and the playing and production are typically, effortlessly amazing.

Another hidden gem on an LP that ought to be much better known.

I hope you dig it and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (2)

By Larry, December 2, 2012 3:51 pm

Eddie Kendricks

Listen/Download Eddie Kendricks – Son of Sagittarius

Greetings all

Welcome to another week here at the Corners…

The tune I bring you today is something very groovy from one of the greats of 70s soul (as a solo, that is), Mr. Eddie Kendricks.

After helping to create the sound of the Temptations in the 60s, Kendricks departed for a solo career in the early 70s.

He was hugely successful, both artistically, and chart-wise.

1973’s ‘Boogie Down’ LP brought him his second #1 record with the title cut (#2 Pop) and continued his association with the late Frank Wilson. It was the songwriting team of Wilson, Leonard Caston and Anita Poree (with Wilson and Caston producing) that worked with Kendricks to create his influential and ahead-of-its-time disco funk sound, starting with 1972’s ‘People….Hold On’ LP.

It would be an understatement to say that Kendricks broke through in a big way. I was a 10 year old suburban white kid when he started his run of solo hits and they are still favorites of mine, drilled deeply into my brain.

Oddly though, I have no recollection of today’s selection, which was Top 5 R&B and Top 30 Pop in the Spring of 1974.

That’s too bad, because ‘Song of Sagittarius’ is a fantastic bit of dance floor magic.

My first instinct would be to classify it as ‘mid-tempo’ but there’s something in the throbbing bass drum, and the way the arrangement fluctuates between a smoother feel and slightly rougher funk that makes it feel more propulsive.

Plus, you get to listen to one of the greatest falsetto’s in the history of soul for almost four minutes, so there’s that too.

I hope you dig it (and dance to it) and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (3)

By Larry, November 29, 2012 3:20 pm

Rex Garvin (ctr) and the Mighty Cravers

Listen/Download Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – Soul Food

Greetings all

We’ve all made it to the end of another week, so raise your glass and dig (the music, that is).

You simply must join me this (and every) Friday night at 9PM for the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio. If you can’t hit us up at airtime, you can always pick up the show by subscribing as a podcast in iTunes, or by picking up an MP3 download in the Radio Show Archive here at the blog.

The tune I bring you to close out the week is an early one from the catalog of one of my all-time favorite soul groups, Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers.

Mr Garvin and his fellow cats were in fact responsible for one of my soulful Top 5, that being ‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor)’, one of the mightiest of all soul 45s, and a record guaranteed to get me shaking like a tomato aspic.

Today’s selection hails from nineteen and sixty three, when Rex was waxing heaters for the Keynote label.

While it is not the relentless head-banger that ‘I Gotta Go Now’ is, it is still quite groovy, mainly because it is a fine addition to the long list of “soul food” records.

That is in fact entitled ‘Soul Food’ only shortens the distance between two point, that being the space between the internet and your hungry ears.

While Rex engages in a somewhat reckless rhyme scheme – matching up ‘potato salad’ and ‘drive me mad’ –  the buffet he lays out is a tasty one indeed.

You can file this one on the big bridge between R&B and pure soul (leaning in the later direction), and I assure you that were you to drop this for a room full of well lubricated dancers your efforts would be rewarded with flights of terpsichorean madness.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, November 25, 2012 2:03 pm

The Intruders

Listen/Download The Intruders – Every Day Is a Holiday

Greetings all

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to another week here at the Funky16Corners thing.

Things are getting cool and crisp outside (and hopefully in here too) so I thought I might open things up this week with some smooth, delightful soul harmony from the great city of Philadelphia.

I have sung the praises of the mighty Intruders in this space a number of times over the years.

Led by Sam ‘Little Sonny’ Brown, the Intruders hit the charts no less than two dozen times between 1966 and 1975.

They were one of the biggest hit delivery machines in the Gamble/Huff stable, and their success provided a lot of the juice needed to launch Philadelphia International Records.

If you are not wise to the sounds of the Intruders, you need to get out and dig because their singles are by and large fairly easy to find, affordable when you find them, and uniformly excellent.

As I mentioned a long time ago, the Intruders were a bridge between the old-school Philly sound (Volcanos, Harthon et al) and the slicker, smoother sound that would become known the world over as ‘Philly soul’.

The tune I bring you today, ‘Every Day Is a Holiday’ was released both on the 1968 ‘Cowboys to Girls’ LP and as a single in 1969.

Its chart impact was minimal, though it’s a-side “Old Love” made it into the R&B Top 40.

That said, ‘Every Day Is a Holiday’ is first rate Gamble/Huff action, with a sophisticated melody, tight harmonies and a radio-friendly arrangement.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (3)

By Larry, November 18, 2012 2:08 pm

Papa Don Schroeder

Listen/Download Papa Don Association – Souled Out

Greetings all

Welcome to another fine week here at the Funky16Corners.

The tune I bring you today is one of those records that I knew of, but hadn’t heard until very recently, when it turned up in a friend’s sale list.

If any part of the name Papa Don Association rings a bell, it might be because the man behind the record is in fact famed southern soul producer/songwriter Papa Don Schroeder.

Known to soul fans for his work with artists like James and Bobby Purify and Mighty Sam (and his familiar PDP logo on their 45s) Schroeder was a significant presence on the southern scene during the 1960s.

Released in 1968, the sole 45 by The Papa Don Association featured the song you see before you today – ‘Souled Out’ (credited to Schroeder) – and a reworking of Procol Harum’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ on the flipside.

‘Souled Out’ is a certifiably mighty piece of funky southern soul.

The opening bass (some goddamn funky bass!) and drum combo out to be in some kind of hall of fame, and the rest of the song has a muscular, Booker T and the MG’s edge to it.

If you get the chance, slap on the headphones and turn up the volume and really listen to the drum sound. The back and forth between the snare roll and the bass drum (which almost echoes) is really something else.

I have had no luck in discovering who the ‘Papa Don Association’ actually was, but my suspicion leans in the direction of the American Studios crew in Memphis, with whom Schroeder worked extensively during the period. There’s a similarity here to Rosie Grier’s ‘Slow Drag’ that pushes me in that direction as well.

This is one you want to slap on in the heat of a particularly sweaty dance if only to kick things up just a little bit more. The pulse of ‘Souled Out’ conjures up the image of any number of fine frames being shaken and stirred vigorously.

This is a heater indeed, and I hope you dig it as much as I do.

See you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, November 13, 2012 1:22 pm

The Hesitations

Listen/Download The Hesitations – Summertime

Greetings all

I hope the day finds you well.

Though I know that a lot of my fellow soul heads are strictly in a 45RPM bag, I find myself buying fair amount of long players when and where I find them.

This has everything to do with my natural curiosity, never-ending hunger for new sounds, and the combination of the two that leads right here to the Funky16Corners Blog.

Soul and funk LPs are often a fantastic source of undiscovered/underappreciated treasure, as well as being a great, cheap way to pick up songs on vinyl that would break the bank if sought on 45.

Few things make me happier than grabbing an LP and finding a great song that never made it onto a single, especially interesting cover versions.

The Hesitations were an Ohio-based soul harmony group that hit the charts several times in the late 60s, often with big ballads like ‘Born Free’ and ‘The Impossible Dream’.

They were also capable of some excellent, upbeat dance floor stuff like the Northern Soul favorite ‘I’m Not Built That Way’.

I pick up their records wherever I find them, and did so last year when I found the ‘Where We’re At!’ album at one of the Asbury Lanes garage sales.

The big discovery for me on that disc was the group’s absolutely searing cover of the old Gershwin/Heyward classic ‘Summertime’.

Now, the natural inclination would be to be suspicious of anyone covering that particular song who wasn’t named Billy Stewart.

His version of the song was a Top 10 R&B and Pop hit in 1966 and is as close to definitive as an cover, of any song has come.

So, when I see that the Hesitations did their own version, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot.

Silly me…

As it turns out – which you’ll hear as soon as you pull down the ones and zeros – the Hesitations version of the song is presented in a completely different (and smoking) arrangement.

Their ‘Summertime’ is an exciting, fast moving take on the song, complete with soul clapping and great harmonies (natch..).

I dig the way lead singer George ‘King’ Scott lays into the ‘TIME!’ in ‘Summertime’, over and over again, pushing the outer edges of his range.

It is a very groovy number indeed, and since the Hesitations LPs aren’t too expensive, accessible.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you on Friday.

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.