Comments (1)

By Larry, September 7, 2012 3:56 pm

Earl Grant

The wrong side of the LP, natch…

Listen/Download Earl Grant – Walk a Mile In My Shoes

UPDATE: Well, I just had my mind blown a little bit. I was over reading Red Kelly’s tribute to Joe South at the B Side, and gave the tune he posted  – ‘Shelter’ – a spin. As soon as it started playing I realized that I was hearing one of my favorite Tams records, and had no idea that it had been written (and also recorded by) Joe South!

I suggest strongly that you go check out Red’s tribute, and when you get a chance, dig into Funky16Corners Radio v.96 Condition Red, which includes that Tams version of that great song. – Larry

Greetings all

This is an unplanned post, but considering that I forgot to plug the Funky16Corners Radio Show (this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, also available as a download via iTunes or the Funky16Corners blog the day after broadcast) I thought it probably wouldn’t hurt.

The occasion – sad as it is – was new coming down the pike of the passing of the mighty Joe South, who slipped off this mortal coil at the age of 72.

I suspect that many people only know South via his own hits, ‘Games People Play’ (1969, not the Spinners song) and ‘Walk a Mile In My Shoes’ (1970, credited to Joe South and the Believers).

The whole story is a lot deeper than that.

South was first and foremost an accomplished songwriter (he wrote the Tams first hit ‘Untie Me’ in 1962), crafting songs like ‘Hush’, ‘Down In the Boondocks’ and ‘I Knew You When’ (all for Billy Joe Royal) and ‘I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’ (a massive crossover hit for Lynn Anderson in 1971).

He was also a performer, recording many excellent albums under his own name, as well as working behind the scenes as a guitarist (that’s his swampy lick at the opening to Aretha’s ‘Chain of Fools’) and producer.

South was a very interesting guy, weaving all of the various threads of Southern music including rock, soul, country and gospel (and even a little psychedelia) into a unique sound.

The tune I bring you today is an unusual (mainly because of the source) cover of ‘Walk a Mile In My Shoes’ by Earl Grant.

Grant was a vocalist and keyboardist (mainly organ) who had a number of hits – mainly aimed at the middle of the road – during the 50s and 60s. His tune ‘House of Bamboo’ is an exotica fave.

A few years back I was out digging and happened upon Grant’s self-title 1970 LP, and grabbed it because it included a couple of interesting cover versions, one of which you see before you today.

Sadly, the LP was the last thing Grant ever did. A few days after he completed the sessions he was killed at the age of 39 in a car crash.

He takes South’s ‘Walk a Mile In My Shoes’ at a slightly faster pace than the original, and does a pretty nice job, working it out on the piano as well as singing.

The rest of the album is a mix of contemporary cover material and even a few reggae-influenced instrumentals.

I hope you dig the tune and I’ll be back 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).

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 (2)

By Larry, September 6, 2012 12:24 pm

The Tams

Listen/Download The Tams – What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another week as we all watch the summer dissipate slowly.

This is cool (at least cooler) on our part of the map where summer often last a month or more past Labor Day.

Now’s the time of the year where the local gentry (including yours truly) get to settle in, enjoy a little bit of tourist-free elbow room and wait for the leaves to start falling.

This all puts me in a mellow mood, so I thought that today’s selection ought to do the same.

The Tams are one of those groups that I knew of for years before I actually heard any of their music.

Then, somewhere along the line I stumbled on one of their 45s and was compelled to dig a little deeper.

The tune I bring you today is that very 45, which struck a note with me because it was the original version of song I was already familiar with by Bill Deal and the Rhondels (who had their hit with it in 1969).

The Tams’ version of ‘What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am’ was their second hit, a Top 10 R&B selection in the fall of 1963.

Hailing from Atlanta, GA the Tams were a another product of the intersection of black and white musicians that created so much amazing music in the face of segregation.

“What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)’ was – like many of the Tams biggest records – written by a songwriter named Ray Whitley.

Whitley – like the late Joe South, who also worked with the Tams and went on to much success as a performer – was a protégé of producer Bill Lowery. He wrote or co-wrote several of the Tams biggest hits (Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me, I’ve Been Hurt, Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy) as well as working with pop singers like Tommy Roe and Brian Hyland.

‘What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)’ is a classic of low-key soul, with a fantastic, raspy vocal by lead singer Joe Pope, classic backing harmonies and some thick, syrupy guitar (apparently none other than the late Joe South, a tip of the hat to the mighty Red Kelly for his informative memorial post to South) to remind you that the transmission was emanating from below the Mason-Dixon line.

The Tams went on to score a number of hits through the end of the 60s, eventually placing a few songs into the Northern Soul canon, as well as becoming a huge part of the Beach Music movement in the Carolinas. If you’re not hip to their sound, get out and start digging because their catalog is full of quality stuff.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all 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).

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 (10)

By Larry, September 4, 2012 9:32 am

Everybody get up and do the water damage!

Listen/Download Marvelle and the Blue Mats – The Dance Called the Motion

Greetings all

My name is Larry, and I am here to inform you that today’s record will very likely upset your shit, blow your mind and at the very least get your ass up out of the seat, and onto the street.

But first (there’s always a speed bump like this, isn’t there?) a bit of rumination on the passage of time.

Today is the day that I turn 50.

Yes, a half century of slacking, record collecting and life in the rear view mirror, with – hopefully – much more to come.

I’m not one of those people that normally obsesses about age, believing that you are as old as you feel.

I don’t feel 50, and my lovely wife keeps telling me I don’t look my age, and anyone with the opportunity to observe me in my natural habitat will tell you that I don’t act it either.

That said, I’ve found myself giving this particular milestone a little more thought that I would have expected, which is normal, and I suppose as long as I’m not out on my (real or virtual) front lawn embroiled in an impotent rage, shaking a stick at teenagers for any combination of offenses against culture (real or imagined) then I’m probably ahead of the curve.

So there’s that.

It helps that keeping Funky16Corners up and running has its own, odd rejuvenative (is that a word?) effects.

It’s just that, when I was a kid, back in the olden days (as it were), the thought of a person who was actually 50 years old conjured up images of stern “oldness”, a la my school pricipals (who probably weren’t close to 50 at the time), priests and the like, not some big tattooed record nut with two little kids running him ragged.

The good thing is (at least for anyone fretting about encroaching age) is that 50-ness is not what it used to be. Science may be keeping people alive longer, but culture – at least some of it, because I’ve encountered a contemporary or two who seem like they were in a huge hurry to get old, at least ideologically – if not actually keeping people younger, is at least adjusting the generational state of mind so that even though we may be watching the pages fly off the calendar, we are still in touch with the parts of our younger selves that need to be kept around.

So here’s to crafting a combination of youthful enthusiasm and the wisdom of age into a fresh state of mind.

I’m trying.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The world of record collecting has – like every other ‘market’ – its peaks and valleys, having almost everything to to with supply and demand.

Supply is usually determined by…supply, as is there are X number of known copies of any record available for sale, and the rarity (supposed or real) will cause a change in price.

Demand tends to fluctuate wildly. There are record collectors out there stepping all over each other to get their mitts on gospel records that nobody (maybe not even the people that recorded them) cared about ten or fifteen years ago and the same can be said (with the timeline adjusted accordingly) about records in almost any subgenre that had gained in popularity.

There are also records – within popular, collected genres – that gain currency for a variety of reasons, including being comped (always guaranteed to drive up the price), regional popularity on a dance scene (see Northern Soul) or use in an advert (which has blown up several funk and soul records in the UK in the last decade).

I only belabor thus point because the record I bring you today is an example of such fluctuations in real (or what passes for real) time.

I first heard Marvell and the Blue Mats ‘The Dance Called the Motion’ years ago on one of those quasi-bootleg comps that tried to do for soul and funk what Pebbles did for garage punk.

My wig was good and truly flipped, and I decided then and there that I NEEDED a copy of this particular 45.

Well…as soon as I started looking in earnest it became apparent that if I was to get one, I would have to fork over a couple of hundred dollars, which I did not have.

The few times I scoped out a copy on Ebay, the results were much the same.

Then – in the last year or so – some telling things began to happen in regard to the value of the 45.

Copies began to turn up (some with people I know) and then a buddy hooked me up with a seller (from whom he had procured his own copy).

The price quoted was very low (compared to a few years ago) so I forked over the dough and grabbed it.

The label was water damaged, but I’m not really a stickler for label condition if the vinyl is clean.

The record fell through the mail slot, hopped up on the turntable and once the needle hit the grooves, all was well with the world.

‘The Dance Called the Motion’ (maybe the funkiest thing ever to come out of Milwaukee, WI) opens with an explosive break and revs right up into a powerful, James Brown-y groove that is guaranteed to light up the sleepiest crowd.

So, curious cat that I am, I started to do a little bit of research, tracking the record through a couple of auction aggregating sites and two things became apparent.

First, ‘The Dance Called the Motion’ had been coming down in value for more than a year, leveling off at about a third of its peak value.

Second, and this was the kicker, most of the copies on the market (at least recently) had been originating with the same seller, i.e. the value had tanked because someone was flooding the market with product.

As someone who doesn’t really sell records with any regularity, this doesn’t bother me much, though I’m not sure I’d feel the same way if I’d gone for the record when it was at its most expensive.

As a buyer, and a collector concerned more with the intrinsic, musical value of a record, getting a record this good at a (relatively) low price couldn’t make me happier.

As a DJ, I’ve never had much respect for other DJs (or crowds) who gauge the power of a record by its rarity. When you’re trying to get people to dance (or keep dancing) what matters is how good it is, not how rare.

There are always trainspotters in every crowd (especially at some of the genre-specific nights) and there are certainly countless rare records that are also ass-kickers, but the same can be said of lots more, less expensive 45s, i.e. ‘The Dance Called The Motion’ is going to blow people’s minds whether it costs $250.00 or fifty cents.

Make of that what you will, but I will always say that if you spend all your time chasing five-hundred dollar records, you’re probably missing the forest for the trees, and lots of good music as well.

And that my friends is your lesson for the day.

Now dance.

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).

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 (0)

By Larry, September 2, 2012 10:57 am

(Clockwise from the top) Sarah, Patti, Nona & Cindy

Listen/Download – Pattie LaBelle and the Bluebelles – Always Something There To Remind Me

Greetings all.

I had something else lined up to go today, but over the weekend I heard of the passing of lyricist Hal David.

David, who collaborated on countless amazing songs/records with Burt Bacharach in the 60s and early 70s passed away at the age of 91.

I was going to repost Isaac Haye’s epic reworking of ‘Walk On By’, but decided to dip back into the archives (this record was first posted almost exactly a year ago) for this gem.

Here you get classic early LaBelle, and one of Bacharach/David’s finest songs presented in a great arrangement.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back with something new on Wednesday.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s been a few years since the mighty voice of Patti LaBelle graced this page.

LaBelle has always been an exceptionally powerful singer, but with the exception of some of the funky LaBelle (group) stuff, it is this writer’s opinion that her superior instrument was never put to better use than the time she and the Bluebelles were recording for Atlantic (1965-1970).

Today’s selection is an epic reading of the Bacharach/David classic, ‘There’s Always Something There To Remind Me’.
Famous in disparate versions, my personal fave was always the original recording by Lou Johnson, but as a fan of the UK Beat era, I always dug Sandie Shaw’s as well.

I think once you’ve heard the LaBelle version (recorded in 1966) all others will fade into the background.

Produced by Bob Finiz and Richie Rome (two names that show up on a lot of Philly records) the cut is a study in dynamics, opening quietly and then literally exploding in the chorus, eventually downshifting (but not quite all the way) in the following verses.

While I think it’s safe to say that nobody (sane) is going to try to dance to this one (I really dig the rhythmic change-up at the ‘Always be a part of me’ section at the end of the chorus), it’s fantastic to listen to.

Finiz and Rome (the arrangement isn’t credited) have built themselves their very own section of the Wall of Sound, except they managed to leave just enough space between the layers (Cake of Sound?) so that individual elements – lead vocal, backing voices, drums, strings, horns – all get to be heard properly.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back 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).

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, August 30, 2012 12:56 pm

Cliff Nobles

Listen/Download Cliff Nobles – We Got Our Thing Together

Greetings all

Welcome to the end of another week here at the Corners du Funk.

Don’t forget to twist the knobs on your wireless set this (and every) Friday night at 9PM when the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there for the broadcast make sure to subscribe to the show as a podcast in the iTunes store (free) or pick up an MP3 at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is another one of those sleepers that I picked up (many) years ago during my Philadelphia-mania, and never really gave its due.

Cliff Nobles is known to soul fans far and wide as the man behind ‘The Horse’, or at least the very groovy (underrated in my opinion) vocal version thereof, ‘Love Is Alright’.

The Alabama-born Nobles, was singing in and around the Philly area for years before he hit with ‘The Horse’.

He recorded a few 45s for J-V and Atlantic before Cliff Nobles and Co. jumped on the charts with ‘The Horse’ in 1968.

Phil-LA of Soul released a grip of singles and a LP by the group, with most of their material written and produced by Jesse James.

Cliff Nobles and Co his the R&B Top 40 twice in 1968 and 1969, but after that Nobles was largely at loose ends.

It appears that James tried to have him ride out the ‘Horse’ craze a few times, but to no success.

The 45 you see before you today is evidence that Nobles had one last intersection with the charts.

Oddly, it wasn’t with this side of the 45.

The much mellower ‘This Feeling of Loneliness’, with a southern soul feel made it to #42 on the R&B charts in June of 1973.

The flip – which I bring you today – is the much funkier (and cooler) ‘We Got Our Thing Together’ is not only a better song/performance, but also sports a very funky arrangement and some tight drums as well.

I find it odd that ‘We Got Our Thing Together’ didn’t hit, but there are any number of possible reasons it didn’t make it (including the likelihood that it didn’t get promoted at all).

After this one Roulette single, Nobles never recorded again, and was out of the music industry by the mid-70s.

He passed away in 2008.

I hope you dig the tune, 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).

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 (0)

By Larry, August 28, 2012 2:49 pm

Titus Turner and Aretha Franklin

Listen/Download Titus Turner – Soulville

Listen/Download Aretha Franklin – Soulville

Greetings all

Take a trip with me, will you, to the mighty metropolis of Soulville.

We will circumvent the downtown area (apologies to Chuck Edwards) and take in the city from a wider perspective.

Soulville, existing solely as a state of mind is of course only as real as your brain and your dancing feet) can make it, and it doesn’t get any realer than going back to the OG (plus one, natch).

The song ‘Soulville’ has been a fave of mine since back in the garage/soul days when the Secret Service used to blast it from stage of the Dive.

It was a little while before I got hip to the version by Aretha, and then even longer before I found my way to Dinah Washington and the ur document by Titus Turner.

I included the version by Miss Washington in Funky16Corners Radio v.45, back in 2008, where I pegged hers as the OG.

The song is credited to Titus Turner, Henry Glover, Morris Levy and Dinah, and if I had to bet some scratch on it, I’d bet that Titus and Henry are the only two that had anything serious to do with the creation of the song.

The last version that actually found its way into my hands was that by Titus Turner, and it is a killer.

I had seen some listings that placed Turner’s 45 before Dinah Washington’s, but the fact that her name appears in the credits of his record suggest to me that she was first out of the gate.

That said, Turner’s ‘Soulville’ is a revelation.

Where Washington and Franklin take the tune at progressively more rapid tempos, Titus lays back, with the bass and the sax stamping out a big, fat groove.

Turner is one of those guys that is better remembered as a songwriter than a performer, but his records are excellent. His baritone might run a little slow and thick sometimes, but he had a way with a tune.

When Aretha Franklin lit into ‘Soulville’ for Columbia in 1964, she had no interest in taking any prisoners.

She takes the tune to church (dig that opening) and the band is hot.

The side was produced by Robert Mersey who was a Columbia staff producer in a wide variety of pop genres (including stuff by Andy Williams and Johnny Mathis), which I mention only to point out the unexpected nature of the heavy drum sound on this record.

Franklin’s version is the most exciting rendering of the tune – by a mile – and a highlight of the soulful end of her pre-Atlantic years.

I hope you dig both versions of the tune (why on earth not??).

See you later.

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).

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 (0)

By Larry, August 26, 2012 3:01 pm

Major Harris

Listen/Download The Nat Turner Rebellion – Tribute To a Slave

Greetings all

It’s good to be back in the saddle here at the Corners.

The fam and I spent the week on vacation, half of which saw yours truly sick enough to go to the doctor.

Fortunately I made a snappy comeback and we managed to have to some fun, and I even got in a very fruitful dig in on the way home (digimatizing in the background as I write this).

I hope the new week finds you all well, and that you’re ready for something heavy from my Philly crates.

Every once in a while (though not so much anymore) you stumble upon a very groovy 45 with a name conjures up images of “one-off”-ness, i.e. the single recorded effort of a groovy but obscure/lost band/artist.

The first time I found a disc by the Nat Turner Rebellion, I instantly thought this was the case.

The record in question – ‘Tribute To a Slave’ on the Delvaliant label – popped up while I was excavating the hinterlands of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. It looked cool, sounded even cooler and took a place of pride in my Philly crates.

That was more than ten years ago.

Over the course of the next few years, I found two more 45s by the group on two more labels (Philly Groove and Philly Soulville), and started to recognize some familiar names on the labels.

The fist of these was Major Harris (the group is sometimes listed at the Nat Turner Rebellion featuring Major Harris), a singer that would have a huge hit in 1975 with’Love Won’t Let Me Wait’.

The other was Joe Jefferson, Philly area songwriter/producer/label honcho (he ran the Del-Val imprint).

As it turns out, Major Harris and Joe Jefferson were in fact brothers, and cousins of MFSB guitarist Norman Harris (who produced and co-wrote at least one of their 45s).

It took me a while to reconcile the vocalist on the Nat Turner Rebellion sides with the singer of ‘Love Won’t Let Me Wait’.

Where the latter is the ne plus ultra of mid-70s, late night, bedroom soul, the Nat Turner Rebellion sides are funky, and sometimes militant (the group name having its own racial/political meaning), sounding like the product of an especially hip Blaxploitation soundtrack.

The cut I bring you today, ‘Tribute To a Slave’ is a tiny bit more subdued than the flip (the very cool ‘Plastic People’ which can be heard in Funky16Corners Radio V.1 – Funky Philadelphia) but the vocal interplay in the group, in the Temptations stylee, is outstanding, as is the guitar/electric sitar riff running through the record.

The lyrics are a tribute (natch…) to the group’s namesake, calling out to him in the racial climate of the early 70s, closing with the repeated chant of ‘We ain’t slaves no more!’.

The production is first-rate, and I’m more than a little surprised that the group – especially with this record – didn’t make more of a splash.

Since Major Harris left to join the Delfonics in 1971, the assumption is that most of the NTR tracks predate that departure.

There are at least four different 45s on three different labels, and rumors of others as well.

If anyone has any info on the other members of the group, please drop me a line.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you later.

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).

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, August 23, 2012 4:31 pm

Funky16Corners – Honey Trippin’
BT Express – Express (Scepter)
Louie Ramirez – Do It Any Way You Wanna (Cotique)
Cymande – Anthracite (Janus)
Virtue Orchestra – High Horse IV (Virtue)
Mystic Moods – Honey Trippin’ (Soundbird)
KC and the Sunshine Band – Let It Go (TK)
Instant Funk – Philly Jump (TSOP)
Jay Berliner – Getting the Message (Mainstream)
Love Child’s Afro Cuban Blues Band – Love and Death in G and A (Roulette)
Gene Faith – Lowdown Melody (Virtue)
Doc Severinson – Soul Makossa (RCA)
Soul Searchers – Boogie Up the Nation Pt2 (Polydor)
Philly Sound – Waitin’ For the Rain (Phil LA of Soul)
Mongo Santamaria – What You Don’t Know (Vaya)
Philadelphia Society – 100 South of Broad Street (American)
Larry Page Orchestra – Erotic Soul (London)
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Virgo Red (Polydor)
Barrett Strong – Stand Up and Cheer For the Preacher (INST) (Epic)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Rewind: Honey Trippin’ – 110MB Mixed Mp3

Greetings all.

It’s time for the final installment in Funky16Corners Rewind week.

But first, I should remind you that this (and every) Friday night at 9PM, the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs on Viva Radio. If you can’t hang at broadcast time, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, where the weekly episode will pop up on Saturday, or grab a download here at the blog.

The final rewind mix this week is another personal fave of mine.

‘Honey Trippin’ is an hour of disco, disco funk, funky disco and all permutations thereof.

There are some old, familiar faces, some more obscure selections, and hopefully a couple of surprising left turns.

I hope you dig it, thank you for your indulgence in this week of recycling, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

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 (0)

By Larry, August 21, 2012 6:22 pm

Lou Courtney – Me And You Doing The Boogaloo (Riverside)
Jackie Lee – The Shotgun & The Duck (Mirwood)
Spinners – Sweet Thing (Tamla)
Fontella Bass & Bobby McClure – Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing (Checker)
Formations – At The Top Of The Stairs (MGM)
Young Holt Unltd – California Montage (Brunswick)
Ethics – Look At Me Now (Vent)
Volcanos – Storm Warning (Arctic)
Jackie Wilson – I Get The Sweetest Feeling (Brunswick)
Henry Lumpkin – Soul Is Taking Over (Buddah)
Maurice & The Radiants – Baby You’ve Got It (Chess)
Broadways – You Just Don’t Know How (MGM)
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Going To A Go Go (Tamla)
San Remo Golden Strings – I’m Satisifed (Ric Tic)
Lorraine Ellison – Call Me Anytime You Need Some Lovin’ (Mercury)
Fascinations – Girls Are Out To Get You (Mayfield)
Darrell Banks – Our Love Is In The Pocket (Revilot)
Billy Butler & The Chanters – Nevertheless (Okeh)
Cooperettes – Shingaling (Brunswick)
Bernard Williams & The Original Blue Notes – It’s Needless To Say (Harthon)
Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers – If You Love Her Let Her Go (Gordy)
Marvelows – I Do (ABC)
Olympics – Good Lovin’ (Loma)
Rex Garvin & The Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor) (Like)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Rewind: Baby You’ve Got It – 83MB Mixed Mp3

Greetings all.

Welcome to the middle of Funky16Corners Rewind week.

This time out we have an old fave of mine, a Northern Soul mix that I did for the good folks at the Hook and Sling blog back in 2008.

‘Baby You’ve Got It’ (title take from one of my personal Top 5) is one of the first Northern-style mixes I did, and I still dig giving it a spin now and then.

You get stops in Philly, Chicago, Detroit, LA and several other points on the map.

The set list is packed with classics from beginning to end.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back with some funky disco on Friday.

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 (2)

By Larry, August 16, 2012 11:54 am

Miss Nina Simone

Listen/Download Nina Simone – Save Me

Greetings all

The end of another week is upon is, and so – as is always the case – is the regular Friday night get together known as the Funky16Corners Radio Show, broadcast on Viva Radio at 9PM. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast, you can always head into iTunes and subscribe to the show as a podcast, or head over to the archive right here at the blog where you can pick yourself up an MP3 of the show the day after it airs.

The song I bring you today has been sitting on ice for almost two years, from right around the time we last paid tribute to the greatness of the legendary Miss Nina Simone.

If memory serves, I scored both of the 45s in question at around the same time, and didn’t want to post them too close together and ended up hanging onto the second of them (the one you see before you today) for way too long.

As has been addressed here today, the song ‘Save Me’ has a long and interesting history, starting out as ‘Help Me (Get the Feeling)’ by Ray Sharpe, moving on to its best-known incarnation in the version by Aretha Franklin (the first as ‘Save Me’), then on to be recycled as the rhythm track to King Curtis’ ‘Instant Groove’ and then again as ‘Help Me’ by Jamaican singer Owen Gray (all the same rhythm track with none other than Jimi Hendrix on rhythm guitar with the King’s band).

Miss Nina Simone didn’t step into the fray until 1969, but when she did, she came correct.

To say that Nina layed out the definitive version of ‘Save Me’ would not be – as they say – speaking out of school.

The arrangement, whipped together by no less a light than Weldon Irvine (who I suspect is also playing the organ) is tight and funky.

The drums are just heavy enough, the rhythm guitar – which carries the ‘Gloria’-esque riff – has a bright, live sound and Nina is in rare form.

Where Aretha Franklin, a singer of prodigious technical gifts might have aimed right for the stratosphere,  Nina Simone, possessed of a deft, artist’s touch, takes her time, working a masterful turn of phrase. Like a great boxer, she bobs and weaves around the lyric, hitting sparingly but when she does, stinging like a gunshot.

This is as real as it gets, and – in one of the great bonus deals of all time – also manages to be danceable.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, 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).

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 (0)

By Larry, August 12, 2012 11:32 am

Carl Davis

Clockwise from top left: Major Lance, Walter Jackson, Jackie Wilson, Billy Butler
Below: The Artistics

Listen/Download Billy Butler – Right Track
Listen/Download Billy Butler – I’ll Bet You
Listen/Download Major Lance – Too Hot To Hold
Listen/Download Walter Jackson – Funny (Not Much)
Listen/Download Jackie Wilson – I Get the Sweetest Feeling
Listen/Download The Artistics – What Happened

Greetings all and welcome to another week here at the intersection of all things soulful.

It was near the end of last week that I heard that the great producer Carl Davis had passed away.

If you’re a fan and/or collector of classic Chicago soul, his is a name that looms large (and appears constantly at the bottom of 45 labels).

Davis was one of the first black A&R men and one of the most important producers involved in soul music during the 60s.

He produced countless classic sessions for the Okeh and Brunswick labels, both crucibles for the development of the Chicago “sound”.

While I would not classify myself as an expert on Chicago soul, I am without any shadow of a doubt a huge fan and devotee thereof.

Many of my favorite soul 45s came out of the Windy City, and Carl Davis was the producer on many of those.

Davis worked with a wide variety of performers, solo artists and groups, and his style was marked by the ability tomake records that were simultaneously lush and economical.

Few had Davis’s ability create records so full of life and dynamic range yet utterly uncluttered.

He could layer rhythm sections, horns, strings and vocals and still manage to have the various elements inhabit their own distinct spaces.

His productions were bright, exciting and sometimes even explosive.

Though Davis produced some of the biggest hit records to come out of Chicago, I’d like to feature a couple of lesser known killers as well.

Davis worked extensively with Major Lance and produced ‘Um Um Um Um Um’, but my fave Davis/Lance collab is ‘Too Hot To Hold’, which made it into the outer reaches of the R&B Top 40 in 1965. Check out the way the smoothness of the female backing vocals almost (but not quite) clash with the over-the-top-ness of the male voices, especially the ‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’s.

Billy Butler has always been the connoiseur’s choice when it comes to Chitown soul singers. While never as successful as his older brother Jerry, he did manage to place four sides into the R&B Top 40 between 1965 and 1971.

‘Right Track’, from 1966 is rightly regarded as a soul anthem. It features a unstoppable arrangement that builds gradually, never overwhelming Butler’s vocals.

A year later, Butler would record one of the best versions of the oft covered George Clinton/Sidney Barnes/Theresa Lindsey classic ‘I’ll Bet You’. Whereas later versions (Funkadelic, Jackson 5) take the song at a slow, almost sinister tempo, Butler’s version moves along at a brisk pace, which made it a favorite on Northern Soul dance floors. The production is wonderful, but the recording of the drums especially is remarkable. Limited largely to the closed hi-hat and the snare (with occasional handclaps and congas) , Davis kept the drums high  in the mix, allowing them to drive the record without smothering the rest of the band.

It remains one of my favorite sides on Brunswick.

Davis also did a lot of work with balladeer Walter Jackson. Though he’s not as well remembered as many of his contemporaries, Jackson chocked up a significant number of R&B hits between 1964 and his untimely death in 1983.

I first heard ‘Funny (Not Much)’ some years ago on a comp, and promptly fell in love with it. I’m not surprised that the record – from 1966 – didn’t chart. The jazzy, supper club arrangement sounds about 10 years past its prime, but is undeniably beautiful. The arrangement is lush with strings, yet Davis lets the piano, guitar and vibes pop up into the mix just enough to lend the record an air of intimacy. Jackson’s voice is remarkable, yet just flawed enough to be interesting.

The best known record featured today is a longtime favorite, Jackie Wilson’s ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’. Grazing the R&B Top 10 (as well as the Pop Top 40) in the summer of 1968, ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ is the biggest hit of the Davis productions on this list.

‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ is two minutes and forty three seconds of absolute perfection. One of those soul records that is soulful yet almost pure pop, lush yet also danceable, and featuring one of Jackie Wilson’s finest vocals. ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ is also an example of a perfectly produced side.

Davis brings in the vocals, strings, drums, backing vocals and horns, maintaining the perfect amount of space between them all, allowing Wilson’s voice to ride effortlessly atop the whole thing. The record is bright and open, without ever going over the top, restrained without ever making you think your missing something.

Like all of the finest records, the ultimate intersection of art and craft.

The final record I bring you is in many ways the most experimental, progressive 45 on this list.

The Artistics were around on the fringes of the Chicago scene, working as backing vocalists on Okeh sessions for Davis, eventually recording a handful of singles for the label.

They moved on to Brunswick in 1966 and hit the charts a few times over the next five years.

‘What Happened’ was released in 1967, and as I said when I first wrote about the record back in 2009, it is one of the finest examples of baroque, almost psychedelic touches working their way onto the soul palette. Davis (who produced with Eugene Record) brings in fuzz guitar, string quartet, organ and piano to lay down a foundation for the Artistics build their mighty harmonies on.

It never fails to amaze me that a record this good failed to chart.

Carl Davis went on to form the Dakar and Chi Sound labels, eventually working with – and making hits for – almost every major Chicago-based artist.

He was a master and he will be missed.

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).

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 (2)

By Larry, August 9, 2012 1:52 pm

Listen/Download Nicky and the Magnificents – Pasame el Hacha

Greetings all.

Welcome to the end of another week here at the Corners.

I should remind you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the intertubes this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also pick up an MP3 of each week’s show on Saturday, either via iTunes as a podcast, or as a straight download over at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is an example of one of the oddest mysteries in the world of 45s (at least as far as I’m concerned).

It was some years back, during one of the Asbury Park 45 Sessions that my man Jack the Ripper dropped the needle on a tune that had me running up to the decks as fast as my legs would carry me.

While it didn’t grab me immediately, after about 15 seconds it was obvious to me that I was hearing a cover version of Roger and the Gypsies ‘Pass the Hatchet’.

Thing was, I had no idea that the song had ever been covered, and so the story begins.

The version he played that night, is the same one you see before you today, by a South American band by the name of Nicky and the Magnificents.

It would be years before I’d manage to score my own copy, but by then things had become even more curious.

I have gone on the record several times – in this space and elsewhere – that the OG version of ‘Pass the Hatchet’ is probably my favorite record of all time.

As far as I knew, it was probably little-heard outside of the New Orleans region when it was first released.

What I didn’t know until I was much deeper into the game, was that the Roger and the Gypsies 45 was issued again in South America in 1970, where, if bits and pieces of internet chatter are to be believed, it was a localized “hit” of some kind.

This would go a long way in explaining why ‘Pass the Hatchet’ was covered at least twice by South American groups, first by El Comite on the the Microfon label, and then later by Nicky and the Magnificents.

Though I haven’t been able to find out anything about either group, the sound of the records give up a hint or two.

The El Comite version (which seems to be Colombian Argentinian*) is closer in sound to the original recording, and seems to date somewhat closer to the 1970 SA issue of the Roger and the Gypsies 45.

Nicky and the Magnificents, in which the pressing of the record, if not the band itself hails from Argentina, dates to 1977 and sounds like it too.

If I had to venture a guess (especially factoring in the sound of the flipside, an upbeat cover of the Human Beinz ‘Nobody But Me’, en Espanol, natch) I would think that Nicky and the Magnificents were something more along the lines of a New Wave/Power Pop band.

The synthesizers and the flanged guitar, as well as a somewhat more laid back feel (my inclination would be to pitch it up +5 if I were playing it out) have a much later sound.

Either way, it’s fascinating to me that a record out of the Southern US, which was never a hit of any kind, managed to get released a few years after the fact in South America, and then get covered at least twice.

If anyone with deeper South American crates/knowledge has any more info to flesh out this saga, I’d love to hear it.

Until then…

Keep the faith

Larry

*Brian Harris aka DJ Midnite Cowbwoy informs me that El Comite were in fact from Argentina

NOTE: The authorship credits on the songs/labels are reversed, with Theriot, Oropeza and Leon getting credit for ‘Nobody But Me’ and “R. Osley”/ Isley  getting credit for ‘Pass the Hatchet’.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

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.