Comments (4)

By Larry, March 24, 2011 9:31 am

Listen to him Lucy. He know’s what he’s talking about.

Listen/Download – F16C Soul Club Presents – Spindletop New Breed 76MB/256K Mixed MP3

Jimmy Hannah & the Dynamics – Leaving Here (Seafair/Bolo)
Frank Frost – My Back Scratcher (Jewel)
Bobby Powell – Why Am I Treated So Bad (Whit)
Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm – The New Breed Pt1 (Sue)
Richard Berry & the Pharaohs – Louie Louie (Flip)
Roy Thompson – Sookie Sookie (Okeh)
Mighty Hannibal – Jerkin’ the Dog (Shurfine)
Bobby Parker – Watch Your Step (V Tone)
Gene Waiters – Shake and Shingaling Pt1 (Fairmount)
Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Scatman Crothers – Golly! Zonk! It’s Scatman (HBR)
Derek Martin – Daddy Rollin’ Stone (Crackerjack)
King Coleman – Boo Boo Song Pt2 (King)
Billy Preston – Let the Music Play (Capitol)
Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto – In the Basement Pt1 (Chess)
Dottie Cambridge – He’s About a Mover (MGM)
Freddie Scott – Pow City! (Marlin)

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and I am in dire need of some form of stress relief, whether it’s extended, uninterrupted sleep, intoxication of some sort or just deep, silent meditation.

It’s not that this week has been extraordinarily rough, ‘cause it hasn’t, but rather some combination of not enough sleep (DJ-ing two hours away on a Monday night will do that), a cold (and/or the onset of seasonal allergies) and the normal slate of irritants, have all combined to do a number on my head.

That said, I’m going to take a tip from the Sims Twins and let a little soul music ‘Soothe Me’.

First, I’ll remind you that this Friday night at 9PM the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to Viva Radio with another hour of the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all straight from my crates to your ears. As always you can either tune in on the interwebs, or come by here over the weekend to pick up the show in its easy to use MP3 form. Either way, the sounds are equally excellent.

I had a gas on Monday spinning at Spindletop, and managed once again to capture the goings on with my handheld digital recorder, so that I might share some of it with you good folks.

I went through the musical fruits (no beans…) of the evening and carved out two sets of grooves, one of which I’ll whip on you today, the second which I’ll drop at the end of next week.

This time out I dipped into the crates and whipped out the best in hard-charging, soul party action, from gritty R&B, tough dance floor soul, right on to early funk.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating, that one of the prime reasons I love to DJ in a bar or club is the opportunity to hear really amazing records pumping out of a great big set of speakers. You can set the Mighty Hannibal loose in your earbuds, but it’s just not as cool as hearing him unwind his turban with ‘Jerkin’ the Dog’ shaking a room full of people like a minor earthquake.

Every single one of the records in these mixes is perfect for such an environment. I’d go as far as to say that gathered together like this, they might be too powerful for a Friday or Saturday, yet pack just enough musical TNT to set things off on a Monday.

If I was you, I’d pull down the ones and zeros, hit the liquor store, invite over some friends, roll back the carpet and turn up the stereo and do like Mr. Waiters says:

Jump back honey and let the New Breed by!

See you on Monday

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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 for some Laurel Canyon cool from Mama Cass.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 22, 2011 11:10 am

Melvin Sparks 1946 – 2011

Listen/Download – Melvin Sparks – Thank You Pt1

Listen/Download -Melvin Sparks – Thank You Pt2

Greetings all.

I had an excellent time spinning soul 45s last night at Spindletop @ Botanica in NYC. Once again my man Perry Lane was the host with the most, and some cool people (including my brother) came by to join in the fun. I recorded my sets again, and will be posting one of them on Friday, so stay tuned for that.

Late last week I heard via the Facebook grapevine that the mighty Melvin Sparks had passed, just short of his 65th birthday. The news was confirmed later that day.

If you’re a hardcore soul jazz fiend (like me) especially someone who really digs Hammond sounds, then his name looms large.

Born and raised in Texas, Sparks went on to be the go-to guitarist on late 60s/early 70s Prestige (and Blue Note) dates, working with heavies like Leon Spencer, Lonnie Smith, Charles Earland, Reuben Wilson, Rusty Bryant, Lou Donaldson, Caesar Frazier, Jack McDuff, Charles Kynard and Sonny Phillips among many others.

If you recognize a lot of organists in that list, it’s a testament to the fact that Sparks was a treasured sideman for the Hammond set, laying his licks deep inside the groove in a career that lasted more than 40 years.

Sparks also recorded a number of sought after albums as a leader for labels like Prestige, Eastbound/Westbound and Muse.
The 45 I bring you today (both extremely tasty sides) is his reading of Sly and the Family Stone’s ‘Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)’ (truncated here to just ‘Thank You’). It was recorded in 1970 with a tight group that included Idris Muhammad on drums, Leon Spencer on the organ (you really get to hear him cut loose on Pt2) and Virgil Jones and John Manning on horns.

Sparks’ style was economical, soulful and right in the groove. Listen to his sustain at the end of the verse phrases, and the way he builds complexity gradually, never flashy, but always solid.

Part one sees Sparks soloing, with Spencer comping in the background, the two masters switching places in part two.

It’s a fantastic example of the Prestige jazz funk sound, and an all-around great 45 with which to groove.

Melvin Sparks was a giant and he will be missed.

See you on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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 for some Laurel Canyon cool from Mama Cass.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 20, 2011 1:45 pm

The Velvelettes

Listen/Download -The Velvelettes – A Bird In the Hand (Is Worth Two In the Bush)

Greetings all,, and welcome to the working week.

Before I get started I want to remind you that I’ll be spinning 45s at Spindletop @ Botanic in NYC Monday night (3/21) starting at 10PM. If you’re within driving distance, try to fall by and say hello. It’s a very groovy scene that Perry Lane has going there, and you could spend your Monday night doing a lot less interesting things than getting down to rare soul with a delicious cocktail in your hand.

The tune I bring you today is one of my favorite 45s by my all-time favorite Motown group, the mighty Velvelettes.

Interestingly, though this is the very first thing I ever heard by the group (on a late 80s Motown Rarities comp) it’s the last 45 of theirs I found, picking it up on the cheap at one of the Asbury Lanes record shows.

Formed in the early 60s as the Barbees, then changing their name and releasing their first VIP 45 ‘Needle In a Haystack’ in 1964, the Velvelettes – working almost exclusively with the legendary Norman Whitfield – recorded only five 45s during their existence. That these are uniformly excellent, representing the best that the Motown girl groups had to offer explains why I dig them so much.

Though most civilians have probably heard a Velvelettes song or two (possibly via the wan Bananarama cover of ‘He Was Really Sayin’ Something’), their 45s are coveted by soul fans, who recognize a great record when they hear one.

Their material was written by a Who’s Who of Motown greats, including Whitfield, Eddie Holland, Mickey Stevenson, Sylvia Moy, Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua, and though the group only managed minor hits, as I said, the few records they made are unbeatable.

The tune I bring you today, 1965s ‘A Bird In the Hand (Is Worth Two In the Bush)’ is a storming dancer with a typically fantastic vocal by Cal Gill. It’s worth checking out for the bass line alone, which pretty much drives the record. I really dig the way the intro builds its power as well.

It’s always worth mentioning how good a singer Gill was, especially since when you ask most people, the female singer on Motown they remember is Diana Ross, probably the weakest vocalist in their stable, behind powerhouses like Martha Reeves, Brenda Holloway, the alternating leads of the Marvelettes, and ultimately the mighty Gladys Knight.

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

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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 for some Laurel Canyon cool from Mama Cass.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 17, 2011 1:11 pm

The Ohio Players

Listen/Download -Ohio Players – Find Someone To Love

Greetings all.

I hope you’re all ready to shed the week and slip on into the weekend.

Before we wrap things up, I’d like to remind you that I’ll be back in NYC spinning the 45s with soul this coming Monday at Spindletop @ Botanica. It’s a very groovy scene and I assure that I only bring 100% USDA certified soul 45s, guaranteed to move your feet, and under the proper circumstances, strengthen your pimp hand.

You should also tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio, this Friday night at 9PM for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl sources. As always, if you are otherwise occupied at the time of broadcast, you can always fall by the blog over the weekend and pick up the show in convenient MP3 form.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

Now, about the funk…

The tune I bring you today is a bit of instrumental genius from the early days of the mighty Ohio Players.

With a lineage that goes back to 1959 (when the group came together as the Ohio Untouchables), on into their mid-decade rebirth as the Ohio Players, after which they worked in New York as the house band for Compass Records (releasing two singles for the label in 1967 and 1968).

They were working with producer Johnny Brantley’s Vidalia productions when they hooked up (for one album) with Capitol Records.

The tune I bring you today comes from that partnership.

Interestingly, their recording from this period, for both Compass and Capitol had been recirculated on the exploit/ripoff label Trip/Upfront as the album ‘First Impressions’, which is where I first heard ‘Find Someone To Love’. Their Capitol LP, ‘Observations In Time’ isn’t incredibly rare, or expensive (copies go for between 40 and 100 bucks) but it doesn’t show up that often.

The group’s vocal material from this period has always reminded me of the Parliaments stuff from the mid-60s, with a slightly more raucous edge.

‘Find Someone To Love’ features Sugarfoot Bonner’s wobbly, deeply funky guitar prominently, as well as hard hitting drums, droning organ and the band’s horn section. It’s a much deeper, grittier groove than the flashy, fonky stuff they’d hit the charts with a few years later.

Not exactly the Love Rollercoaster, more like the funhouse on the way there.

I dig it a lot, and I hope you do too.

See you on Monday (either here or in NYC).

Peace

Larry

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 for some insane surf instros.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 15, 2011 10:15 am

Pat Rhoden

Listen/Download -Pat Rhoden – Boogie On Reggae Woman

Greetings all.

I hope all is groovy in your neck of the interwebs.

As I mentioned on Monday, my wife, the little Corners and I will be walking in the 2011 Monmouth/Ocean County POAC (Parents of Autistic Children) Walk for a Difference on April 2, 2011.

Thanks to those of you that have already donated.

I’ll be keeping the donation link in my posts (click on the logo below) until the date of the walk (4/2). If you can afford to toss a few bucks into the pot to advance a very important cause, please do so. It is greatly appreciated.

I should also mention today that I will be returning to Spindletop @ Botanica with DJ Perry Lane this coming Monday 3/21. I’ll be bringing a mixed bag of soulful sounds with me, including hard charging party soul, Northern, Hammond grooves and maybe even a little bit of early funk for your feet. Drop on by and say hi if you’re in Manhattan.

The tune I bring you today is something I happened upon a few years back.

I don’t know much about Pat Rhoden, other than that he seems to have been a journeyman ska/rock steady/reggae singer.

He recorded for a variety of labels, including Ska Beat, Trojan, Attack, Pama and Horse between the mid-60s and the early 80s as a solo, and also as part of the duo Winston and Pat (with Winston Groovy of ‘Please Don’t Make Me Cry’ fame) for Bullet.

He recorded his cover of Stevie Wonder’s big hit ‘Boogie On Reggae Woman’ for the Trojan subsidiary Horse. The date on the label says 1974, but Stevie didn’t hit with it until the very end of ’74, so unless he was sending his demos over to Pat, I’m going to go with 1975.

I thought this was a groovy bit of circle-closing, that being a Jamaican cover of Mr. Wonder’s tribute to the sounds of the island.

Rhoden takes things at a mellow – ever so slightly funky – pace, and I really dig the drums at the beginning.

He also did a very cool cover of Stevie’s ‘Living For the City’ which I’ll have to post sometime in the future.

I hope you dig this one, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

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 for some insane surf instros.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 13, 2011 3:04 pm

Haiiiiii-YA!

Listen/Download -Jimmy Ruffin – 96 Tears

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end.

Before we get started this week, I would like to let you know that the entire Funky16Corners clan will be walking in the 2011 Monmouth/Ocean County POAC (Parents of Autistic Children) Walk for a Difference on April 2, 2011.

As you may have gleaned via mentions here over the past few years, or by the prominent link in the sidebar, my wife and are the proud parents of two sons with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We are extremely fortunate that they are both high-functioning, and all-round wonderful kids.

We are also very lucky to have an organization like POAC operating locally. They provide information, training for professionals and parents, as well as a wide range of activities for the kids.

The walk (held again this year at the local minor league baseball park) raises money to help make sure that POAC can continue providing much needed services to the kids and their families in our communities.

If this sounds like something you can get behind, click on the this link (or the logo above) and you will be taken to a secure donation page for the team we’ll be walking with and donate whatever you can afford.

Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated.

That all said, how about some music?

While I’ve known of Jimmy Ruffin since I was a kid (who among us hasn’t heard his 1966 hit ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’?), and later learned that he was the brother of David Ruffin of the Temptations, I never knew much beyond that.

Then late last year I’m out digging and what should I pull out of a moldy box but an LP with Jimmy Ruffin on the cover whipping a little soulful martial arts on the kids.

That album, 1968’s ‘Ruff’n Ready’ was initially of interest because it contained his version of one of my favorite Motown cuts, ‘Lonely Lonely Man Am I’, also recorded by the Velvelettes (as ‘Lonely Lonely Girl Am I’, by far the finest version of the tune) as the Temptations.

When I got the record home and gave it a spin, I discovered that among its many treasures was a smoking cover of Question Mark and the Mysterians ’96 Tears’.

The tune, a grungy epic in its original Mich/Mex garage-a-delic form has been covered a number of times – seldom successfully – the finest (that I’d heard before) being Big Maybelle’s recording on Rojac.

Interestingly, most of the material on ‘Ruff’n Ready’ wears the influence of 1968 on its sleeve, moving in a vaguely funky direction, yet ’96 Tears’ sounds like it could have been recorded two years before, with a pulsing, almost Northern beat, opening with one of those patented Funk Brothers snare/rack-tom combos that adorn countless Motown recordings.

It is very groovy indeed, highly danceable and manages to do justice to the OG.

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

Peace

Larry

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 for some insane surf instros.

Comments (5)

By Larry, March 10, 2011 11:12 am

The Eyes of Blue

Listen/Download – The Eyes of Blue

Greetings all.

The end of a very long week is here, and despite pounding out more than my quota of words and such, I’m still ready and raring to go.

But first this update from the Funky16Corners newsroom…

This Friday night at 9PM the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns once again to Viva Radio, with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all brought to you with the hot wax squeezed through the digital meat grinder and transplanted onto the throbbing airwaves of the interwebs. This week we have more of the groovy gravy you have come to know and love, including some cool new arrivals.

As always, if you are otherwise occupied during our normal time slot, you can always fall by the blog over the weekend to collect your very own MP3 copy of this week’s show that you may insert onto the pod-like thingy of your choice.

Oh, and this…

I mentioned that I’m all fired up, and the record I bring you today is the reason why.

I can say with some certainty that the Eyes of Blue version of ‘Heart Trouble’ made its way into my ears some time during the mighty mod days of the mid-80s, courtesy of the tape-making mania of my man Mr Luther. From that moment it was lodged in my brain like the thorn in the foot of Androcles lion, nagging at me for decades until the day when a copy this very 45 and yours truly finally intersected.

I had copies of the song on tape, and then CD, but as any DJ worth their wax will tell you, when a record really knocks you out, until you have a copy in your box to whip on the groovers (which I will be doing when I return to Spindletop on 3/21), nothing else matters.

As I said, the song blew my mind but got even better when I found out that the song in question had originally been recorded by the Parliaments.

In fact, the Parliaments version is the rarest of their 45s, pulling in a few hundred smackers when it shows up.

The original version by Mr. Clinton and his pals was released on Detroit’s storied Golden World imprint in 1966. Written by George Clinton and Sidney Barnes, the original version (which can be heard here) is not only one of the group’s finest songs, but a certified Motor City soul classic. The lyrics would resurface years later in the Funkadelic song “You Can’t Miss What You Can’t Measure”.

That said, the Parliaments never got its due, and remains as obscure as it is good.

Which begs the question where did the Eyes of Blue, the pride of Neath, Wales get their hands on it?

While Northern Soul hadn’t really happened yet, there was certainly a soul scene in the UK, and it seems entirely possible that the Eyes of Blue heard the song in any number of clubs, or even played on the radio.

Ultimately, what matters is that they not only met the Parliaments on their own musical turf, and I would go as far as to say bested them when they waxed the tune for Deram in 1967*.

How do I arrive at this somewhat controversial conclusion?

Well, there are a couple of reasons, first and foremost being that the Eyes of Blue (ironic name for what might be termed blue-eyed soul, a subgenre we will henceforth refer to as – in the words of reader George Macklin – “equal opportunity soul”) version of ‘Heart Trouble’ is without any question one of the two or three finest mod soul covers ever recorded, up there alongside numbers like the Action’s epic version of the Radiants ‘Baby You’ve Got It’ and the Artwoods take on Solomon Burke’s ‘Keep Looking’.

It has a sonic power that the original lacks, and a fantastic vocal by Gary Pickford Hopkins sounding like a rougher-edged Paul Jones.

The Eyes of Blue version record is every bit as danceable as the Parliaments and then some.

Where the original has a more complex vocal mix – with female backing singers and a powerful male bass vocal – as well as strings (a role taken in the Eyes of Blue version by piano), the cover builds its power in an entirely different way. The beat is constructed on powerful snare drum hits, which are the mimicked by the tambourine, piano chords and pumping bass guitar.

Whenever you run into a cover of a soul tune by a white band, there are always perceived issues of authenticity, with ‘perceived’ being the operative term.

Our friends in the UK had a serious jones for US soul and R&B, and there were tons of such covers recorded with widely varying levels of success. When I tell you that I first fell in love with the song ‘Our Love Is In the Pocket’ when I heard the version by Amen Corner, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you while it’s groovy in its own way it doesn’t really stack up favorably with the versions by Darrell Banks or JJ Barnes and the same could be said for the Alan Bown Set’s cover of Edwin Starr’s ‘Headline News’.

However, every once in a while you get the perfect pairing of band and song that manages to transcend a soul original, and this is one of those times.

Oddly, the Eyes of Blue, which got its start as an R&B/soul band, recorded one more 45 for Deram, the excellent ‘Supermarket Full of Cans’ before signing with Mercury and morphing into a much heavier, prog/psych concern, with members of the band ending up in groups like Man, Gentle Giant and Wild Turkey.

I hope you dig this one as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*What you see before you is a US issue of the 45. Go to this 2004 article in the Funky16Corners web zine for a gander at the UK pressing.

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 for some interesting late 60s pop.

Comments (8)

By Larry, March 8, 2011 12:32 pm

Dixie Cups (above) and Billy Vera (below)

Listen/Download – Dixie Cups – Two-Way-Poc-A-Way

Listen/Download – Billy Vera – Big Chief (Tu-Way Poca-Way)

NOTE: After you’re done reading, make sure to check out the comments for additional information on the roots of these songs.

Greetings all.

Here’s yet another unscheduled post, brought on by some deep thinking, spawned by a lack of same on my part, but ultimately remedied (at least I think so, but you’ll have to decide for yourself).

When I posted Billy Vera’s ‘Big Chief (Tu Way Poca Way)’ yesterday, preceded by a few weeks by the Dixie Cups record of the almost identical title, ‘Two-Way-Poc-A-Way’, it didn’t occur to me to think anything other than that both songs were drawing water from the same well, i.e. Mardi Gras Indian tradition.

The Indian Tribes are a New Orleans-based African American tradition that goes back to the mid-19th century, likely born out of the shared minority experience of blacks and native Americans.

The celebrations by these tribes are centered around several holidays climaxing with Mardi Gras, the final day of celebration prior to the Christian feast of Lent (which itself ends with Easter).

The tribes dress in fantastically ornate feathered costumes and parade through the city, doing symbolic battle for primacy.
If you are a big fan of New Orleans music, you have certainly heard, through countless versions of ‘Iko Iko’ (itself based on Sugarboy Crawford’s ‘Jock-A-Mo’, a situation that led to legal action which saw Crawford leave without gaining authorship of the later record, yet being given monetary rights to the Dixie Cups recording), as well as tunes like Professor Longhair’s ‘Big Chief’ words and phrases with a direct connection to the Wild Indian tribes, like ‘big chief’ ‘spy boy’ and ‘flag boy’, as well as a wide variety of seemingly meaningless, rhythmic phrases (check out Professor Longhair’s ‘Tipitina’ for a master class in same*).

When the Dixie Cups recorded ‘Two-Way-Poc-A-Way’ for ABC in 1965 (following their success with ‘Iko Iko’ on Leiber and Stoller’s Red Bird label) they were working with the same basic material, albeit in a much rawer way.

Billy Vera recorded ‘Big Chief (Tu-Way-Poca-Way)’ in 1974, creating his own bit of Mardi Gras funk, borrowing the main phrase from the Dixie Cups record or, and this is entirely likely considering the obscurity of the Dixie Cups recording, from a separate ‘third party’, i.e. Mardi Gras Indian tradition, or earlier R&B source itself.

When I posted the Vera 45 yesterday, a commenter stated that although he liked the record, it was merely an imitation of the Dixie Cups recording. I also had a brief exchange of e-mails on the subject with the mighty Dan Phillips of  Home of the Groove.

I rolled this around in my head for a little while, and since I was out running errands when the comment came in, bounced back and forth between the two songs on the iPod, which in the car is a huge (and potentially dangerous) pain in the ass.

When I got home, I decided that the only way to get to the bottom (or at least close to the bottom of the situation) was to do my best to transcribe both songs and compare.

I’m not qualified to do this on a melodic level, but I do have enough of an ear to see that the Dixie Cups record is almost melody-free, more of a chant than a song. It has a sui generis feel that is both mysterious and extraordinary, where Vera’s record is straight ahead funk.

Lyrically, my assumption was that any similarities I was hearing were likely the result of, as I said before, both artists pulling phrases from the same tradition, which predated both recordings.

When I finally got both sets of lyrics typed out – and I hope you’ll forgive me if some of the words are incorrect – it would appear that aside from the title (which I can’t trace beyond the Dixie Cups record, which may in itself be a problem with countless spelling and punctuation variables) and a pair of common two-line phrases (placed in italics below), the songs are not the same.

There are certainly several common motifs, i.e. the Big Chief, spyboy (or spy), the second line and the battle fire (all of which appear in Professor Longhair’s ‘Big Chief’, which was itself written by Earl King) , but what you end up with is two songs about the same basic set of events (the meeting of the Indian tribes), which include many similar details.

Whether Vera lifted the repeated phrases (rhyming ‘on the bayou’ and ‘world on fire’ and then ‘tambourines ringing’ and ‘second line singing’) directly from the Dixie Cups record, or if they also arise from a third source that I am unaware of (which is also possible) I do not know.

If any of you do, please let me know and I will make note of it in this piece.

That said, there’s also the question of whether or not Vera, a California native, was engaging in a form of stylistic carpetbagging by drawing so heavily from these sources. If he’d recorded his record in 1966, I might say so, but ‘Big Chief (Tu Way Poca Way)’ was recorded in 1974.

Vera was an R&B/soul vet by this point, already familiar with the sounds of the Crescent City. As I mentioned in the previous piece, he is not only a musician with an almost 50 year long career, but also a historian.

As has been displayed in the space for the last six years (and in the web zine before that) the music and culture of New Orleans is brilliant, very deep, and very, very contagious.

My only visit there was as a teenager almost 35 years ago, but every time I put on a record by Professor Longhair, Eddie Bo, Dr John, the Meters, Huey Piano Smith and the Clowns, Irma Thomas, Eldridge Holmes, Roger and the Gypsies or any of the other NOLA artists that I hold so dear, I feel New Orleans in the room, and I can’t really think of any other American music that transports the listener to a region with as much ease.

I’d like to think that Billy Vera was trying to recreate that feeling when he wrote and recorded ‘Big Chief (Tu Way Poca Way)’.

Either way, he created a great 45.

The Lyrics: Note – I omitted repeated uses of the title since I’m not much of a typist, and I fear I may be approaching my lifetime quota on hyphens.

______________________________________________

Dixie Cups – Two-Way-Poc-A-Way
Early in the morning
Indians coming
Go and get the Big Chief
Big Chief ready
Down on the bayou
World on fire
Lord ain’t he pretty
Talkin’ bout big chief
Talkin’ bout big chief

Spy met a gang now
Spy went the signal
Big chief holla
Spy boy walla
Straight on to me

Go up fast now
Tell everybody
Goin on down
Down town

Spy boy leaving
Big chief holla
Second line follow
Tambourines ringing
Second line singing

Sun goin down
Sun going down
Jump all around now
All fall down
Goin’ on in now
Goin’ on in now

______________________________________________

Billy Vera – Big Chief (Tu-Way-Poca-Way)
Onda wondo wonda day
Onda wondo wonda day
Onda wondo wonda day
Onda wondo wonda day

Big Chief march out to the bayou
Dance around the battle fire
Say at night it can’t be done
Won’t come back ‘til battle is done

Goin on in now
Big chief leaders
Across the river

Where my spyboy Big Chief holla
Goes behind the second line follow
Enemy see your see turn tail
Tribes is fighting tooth and nail

Keep on fighting
Big chief leaders
On the bayou
World on fire

Battle is won we go downtown
Big parade when the sun go down
I want to paint my face turn green
Try to find my voodoo queen

Bayou bayou
World on fire
Big Chief holla
Second line follow
Tambourine ringing
Second line singing
See my queen now
Yours is green

Peace

Larry

*Much of this language has roots in Creole and what is referred to as Mobilian jargon

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By Larry, March 7, 2011 3:29 pm

The mighty Billy Vera

Listen/Download – Billy Vera – Big Chief (Tu Way Poca Way)

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today – in a very special early mid-week post – is something very cool that I picked up last year.

I’m not sure I recall exactly how I came upon this one, but I suspect I was digging through the wilds of the intertubes for vinyl by one of my all-time favorite  soul men, the mighty Billy Vera.

Though folks of a certain vintage may only be familiar with Vera’s huge 1987 #1 Pop hit ‘At This Moment’, he had a long history before that. I’m a big fan of his 1960s duet work with Judy Clay (Storybook Children, Country Girl City Man etc) as well as one of my all-time favorite 45s (billed as a Billy & Judy duet but actually just Vera and his band) ‘Really Together’.

He worked through the 60s and 70s as a songwriter and performer, recording for Cameo and Atlantic, as well as a number of smaller labels.

He’s also an actor, and most importantly (at least to me) a serious record collector who has annotated several reissue projects.

Up until I scored this killer, I had no familiarity at all with his 70s stuff, and no idea that he had ever worked in Memphis with the legendary Steve Cropper.

The real reason for whipping ‘Big Chief (Tu- Way Poca-Way)’ on you is that this Tuesday is Mardi Gras.

A while back, when I dropped the Dixie Cups’ ‘Two Way Poca Way’ (no relation, or is there?? See my 3/8 post above), I mentioned that I had another interesting side in the to-be-blogged file that was both funky, and filled with Mardi Gras Indian lingo.

This is that very record, and a funky one it is.

What you’re getting is Mr. Vera leading a very tasty band (dig the guitar and keyboards) with the Mardi Gras chants. The atmosphere within the grooves is clearly aimed at a partying crowd and the dancers in the room.

The cool thing is that Billy namechecks the Wild Magnolias indian tribe the same year (1974) that the band of the same name hit (featuring members of the tribe along with a NOLA all star band with the Turbinton brothers of the Gaturs and Snooks Eaglin) with ‘Smoke My Peace Pipe’*.

How Billy Vera ended up in Memphis with Steve Cropper at the board, I do not know, nor am I familiar with the Orange label. This appears to be the only record he recorded for the label.

If any of you good folks know anything more, please drop me a line in the comments.

That said, this is a great, great record, and certainly fitting for any Mardi Gras celebration you might have planned.

I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

*There is also a local 1970 recording/issue of ‘Smoke My Peace Pipe’ (the flipside of ‘Handa Wanda’) on the Crescent City label

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By Larry, March 6, 2011 3:01 pm

My copy of the 45 (above) and two more variations (below)

Listen/Download – The Touch – Pick and Shovel

Listen/Download – The Touch – Blue On Green

Greetings all.

I hope everyone had themselves an exceptionally groovy weekend.

I just want to take a second to mention that I took some time this weekend to clean up the blogroll. There were a number of blogs that had either gone dark (for a variety of reasons), including a few faves, as well as a number of others that hadn’t had a new post in six months or more. There was also one that appeared to have been compromised with malware, so that got the axe too.

If your blog was taken off in error, i.e. I caught you during a temporary break (I don’t get to go through the whole list all that often), please let me know.

I figured I’d get things started this week with something funky, that’s also a bit of an intriguing mystery record.

I grabbed ‘Pick and Shovel’ by the Touch off of a set sale list a while back, mainly because it’s one of those meat and potatoes funk 45s that always seems to turn up on DJ playlists as well as the various and sundry places where groovy labels get posted for perusal on the interwebs.

Unfortunately the copy I got had the exceptionally dull-looking Atlantic-distributed version of the 45. The original local issue on the Lecasver label is very cool (seen above).

I mentioned intrigue because, though it is omitted on my version of the 45, the OG indicates that LeCasVer (an amalgam of the label owners names, Leanzo, Castellano and Verrico) bears an address in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

There’s also the matter of the creativity-associated names on the labels (the flip is a cover of Booker T and the MGs ‘Blue On Green’), including John Frangipane and Vinnie Corrao.

Both of those gentlemen were NY-area session players, Frangipane on keyboards, and Corrao on guitar.

The tune itself is a wild, off kilter Meters-esque affair with lots of wailing organ, choppy guitar, unusually animated bass and hard hitting drums.

The flip, ‘Blue On Green’ is very faithful to its source material, with Frangipane approximating the Booker T organ sound very well. I actually dig the Touch’s version more than I do the original. It has a warmer, more relaxed feel.

As far as I can tell ‘The Touch’ wasn’t a measurable hit anywhere, but I do know for a fact that there are at least three different pressings of this 45, i.e. the one I have, the one with the groovy lettering, and another one with a dark blue label and very simple lettering, so it was clearly getting around.

I wish I knew more about the band, especially if they (like the label) were NJ-based, and whether or not they were merely a studio project or actually played out.

The world may never know.

However, there’s a fair amount of funk packed into the grooves, so I hope you dig it.

I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

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 for some interesting late 60s pop.

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By Larry, March 3, 2011 10:15 am

The Gene Ludwig Trio

Listen/Download – The Gene Ludwig Trio – Mr Fink Pt1

Listen/Download – The Gene Ludwig Trio – Mr Fink Pt2

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end, and that my ramblings this week haven’t put you off your soul.

In programming notes, I will remind you now that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the intertubes this Friday night at 9PM at Viva Radio, where the elite meet to beat the heat. I have lots of classics lined up for you this week, as well as something new and groovy, so make sure to tune in, or fall by this very blog over the weekend to pick yourself up an MP3 copy of the show to dig on your computer or the iPod like device of your choice.

It was last summer that we got the sad news that the mighty Gene Ludwig had passed on suddenly at the age of 72.

You all know that I practically bathe in Hammond organ sounds on a daily basis, and Mr Ludwig created some fine examples of that genre during his five decade career.

He was first and foremost a jazz player – with the chops to back up that designation – but he also soaked his fingers in groove grease as well, laying down some particularly groovy soul jazz.

Gene was also, and this is the most important thing, artistically vital until the day he left us, playing live and recording at the top of his game.

Today’s post is – as is sometimes the case – a celebration of the old, as well as the new.

The record you see above, is one of my favorite two-siders in Gene’s discography, 1962s ‘Mr Fink Pts 1&2’ on Pittsburgh’s LaVere label.

Recorded with the classic Gene Ludwig Trio, with Gene on Hammond, Jerry Byrd on guitar and Randy Gillespie on drums, ‘Mr. Fink’ amounts to a skoshi under six minutes of the finest, smoky tavern Hammond wailing, soulful burning that anyone has ever packed onto two sides of a tiny vinyl record.

Aside from the epic ‘The Vamp’, this is by far my favorite of Gene’s 45s for both its elemental fire, and as a showcase for his keyboard skills. If you’re a stone Hammond junkie – like me – there’s something exceptional about hearing a master’s fingers fly over the keyboard, really making that huge hunk of wood and wires sing, and it doesn’t get much better than ‘Mr Fink’.

What I’m really here to rap about though is the fact that Gene Ludwig laid down one of the finest albums of his career just before he passed, and it has just been released.

The CD ‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’, recorded with a very tight quartet (with two different drummers) is without exaggeration, up there with the finest organ jazz of the classic era. A collection of the finest love songs to flow from the pen of the legendary Cole Porter, many classics of what the cliché machine has designated the ‘Great American Songbook’, ‘Love Notes…’ sees (hears) Gene and his band, Mark Strickland on guitar, Lou Stellute on tenor and Thomas Wendt and Billy Kuhn alternating on drums (all very good), working in the classic Prestige/Blue Note style, and when I say that I’m not just blowing smoke.

The late 50s and 1960s saw a lot of different varieties of practitioners recording on the Hammond organ, from purely soul/R&B based cats working it out on now rare 45s (like Louis Chachere, RD Stokes and Leo Valentine), post-bop visionaries like Larry Young, and the cats running in the mainstream like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and Groove Holmes, all of whom were widely recorded with widely varied results.

During the early part of his career, Gene Ludwig didn’t have the opportunity to record as frequently as many of those that I would consider his peers. Whether or not the consistently high quality of what he did record was merely a matter of conservation, i.e. never having been pressured to create more accessible/less inspiring records, or because all he had in him to create was pure class (I lean toward the latter) his legacy is smaller, and dare I say better.

That his final album reinforces that assessment is worth noting.

‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’ is every bit the equal of the best, swinging bop and soul organ sessions of the instrument’s (and Gene’s) golden era.

‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’ is also a gift to remind us that age need not be an impediment to a musicians growth. People do a lot of lip service to concepts like ‘maturity’ and ‘experience’, but listening to Gene wail and swing on this session one is treated to the sound of 70 years of technical prowess, seasoned by good taste and above all soul.

Another great thing about ‘Love Notes…’ is that alongside of well known material like ‘Night and Day’, ‘You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To’ and ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’, bona fide standards, covered hundreds of times by all manner of instrumentalists and singers, Gene works out on less familiar, but also exceptional numbers from Porter’s catalog like ‘I Love You’ and ‘Dream Dancing’.

This is serious, wonderfully played jazz and a fitting final statement from one of the great practitioners of the art.

You can pick up ‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’ directly from Big O Records, or over at CD Baby, where you can get it as a CD or as an MP3 download. You can hear samples of the album at both sites. It’s also available at iTunes, but make sure you search by the title, as a search of ‘Gene Ludwig’ only returns his older albums.

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

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 1, 2011 1:09 pm

Callen Radcliffe Tjader

Listen/Download – Cal Tjader – Gimme Shelter

Greetings all.

I hope all is well in your neck of the interwebs.

I mentioned in Monday’s post that I had a rather interesting weekend (or more specifically, Saturday) and that I’d fill you all in today.

This is the kind of tale that some would be tempted to refer to as a comedy of errors, but since it was all error and extremely light on the funny, I will refrain from doing so.

The day started out on an optimistic note when my lovely wife informed me that instead of taking my son to a birthday party, I could instead head up to Jersey City for the Record Riot.

This was very groovy, so I got my record bag and some crumpled up dollars, hopped in the Funky16Corners-mobile (a major player in this story)  and hit the road.

Now, I haven’t spent a great deal of time in Jersey City since the days of visiting my brother there when he lived there almost a decade ago*, but I know some folks who live in the area, and was expecting to see some of them at the show (hey, Pat).

I got up there (about a 90 minute trek) and the first thing I noticed was that seemingly every other street sign in the city had been removed, making it extremely hard to locate the record show.

When I finally got there (the show was being held in a studio space behind a big shopping center) I ended up circling the area looking for what ended up being a non-existent parking space, eventually deciding to park in a lot that appeared to be shared by the shopping center and the light rail station (I should note here that not being a complete numbskull, I did survey the area for anything that would indicate that parking was prohibited. I did not see anything, and the proximity to the rail station now leads me to invite both the city of Jersey City, and the fine people at BJ’s Wholesale Club to go fuck themselves**).

There were no yellow curbs, no fire hydrants and the car was parked between two painted white lines, a tableaux that immediately brought to mind the time worn phrase, “parking space”.

I went into the show, which though not spectacular (very short on 45s) managed to yield some cool stuff.

I figure I was in there for about an hour, at which time I decided that I’d spent enough money and headed back to my car.

What I soon discovered was that I was in fact walking back not to my car, but rather to the spot where my car HAD ONCE BEEN.

Now I’m a big dude, but I am not too big to admit that my initial reaction came perilously close to tears.

I’m not sure how long I stood in the empty, oblong spot that once harbored my car, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before a tow track came tearing into the lot and started backing up to the car in the spot next to mine, preparing to take it away.

I banged on the window of the truck and discovered in short order that he had just finished taking my car to the impound lot. He also pointed out the small sign that I had missed that not only indicated this was an area where parking was prohibited (unless of course you were a customer of the warehouse store, and given the opportunity, I would have gladly gone inside and purchased a palette of toilet paper in order to bypass the towing nightmare), but was also courteous enough to include a schedule of penalties as well.

I was momentarily relieved that my car had not (technically) been stolen.

That didn’t last long.

He agreed to take me to the lot, and informed me that I would have to cough up 225USD, but there was an ATM machine right by the place.

Now, when I tell you that the further we got from the record show, the more bleak the landscape got***, I am not exaggerating.

When we got to the block where the lot was he instructed me that I’d have to walk a few blocks to the bodega where the ATM was located.

When I got there (after being yelled at by a guy across the street who apparently didn’t think I belonged in the neighborhood) I discovered that the door to the bodega was locked. The gentlemen at the gas pumps – after initially ignoring me  – eventually let on that their benefactor was likely indisposed on the bowl and would be returning in a few minutes.

He materialized shortly and let me into the store where I immediately withdrew cash from the machine, all the time wondering if I was going to be able to make it back to the garage without getting robbed.

The fact that I’m writing this now should indicate that I did in fact get my car back and made it out of the city in one piece.

I was shaken, but not because Jersey City was any more dangerous than any other city but because it was utterly unfamiliar.

Having Google Maps at your disposal makes it much easier to get to a destination, but is no help at all in granting egress once someone has made off with your vehicle.

I’ve spent a lot of time in New York City over the last 30 years, and were the same situation to occur there, it wouldn’t bring with it the immediate sense of disorientation I felt in JC. I also suspect that it would be much more difficult (and expensive) to get my car back in NYC, but that’s neither here nor there.

Needless to say, I will not be returning to Jersey City any time soon, unless of course one of you good sports offers to drive, in which case I’ll be glad to wait at the record show while you retrieve your vehicle from the impound lot.

That all said, I was planning on posting today’s selection long before the above events transpired, but once again, a more superstitious individual would see this song choice as the hand of fate at work.

I on the other hand am more inclined to attribute the whole clusterfuck to Murphy’s Law, and the coincidental song selection to its inherent high quality.

I can’t recall where I first heard Cal Tjader’s amazing cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ but I do remember digging it immediately.

Getting my hands on my own copy wasn’t quite so easy, but as is often the case time, luck and a little bit of money took care of that.

If you’ve spent any amount of time here (or more specifically in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive) you already know that I am a huge fan of the vibes in general, but most especially Mr. Tjader.

He was a master of Latin jazz, branching out into exotica and what would become known as rare groove.

Tjader’s version of ‘Gimme Shelter’ appeared on his 1971 ‘Agua Dulce’ LP, during a period where electric instrumentation (aside from his own vibes, natch) were taking a more prominent place in his band. Here you get synthesizers (employed tastefully), electric piano and the master himself working it out.

I think a few years ago if you’d suggested to me that a song like ‘Gimme Shelter’ would have worked within Tjader’s style I would have reacted with suspicion, but as the cats in the powdered wigs liked to say, the proof is in the pudding.

While much of the chaos and menace of the Stones**** version are missing, Tjader’s interpretation still has a certain something that comes on almost like a distant echo of the original.

Groovy indeed, and I hope you dig it.

With any luck I will avoid tragedy until I return on Friday.

Peace

Larry

* A time when his car was stolen from in front of his apartment.

** Though I’m sure there are those among the towing service sector who like to think of themselves as providing some kind of public service, I prefer to think of their business as a unique combination of car theft and extortion. The fact that the tow truck driver was a creep on a whole other level didn’t do anything to change this opionion.

*** Aside from travelling down one street where I had a perfect, almost poetic vista of the Statue of Liberty

**** Or Merry Clayton’s

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some fuzzed out, crunching garage punk.