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By Larry, March 26, 2013 5:27 pm

Listen/Download – Henry Lumpkin – Soul Is Takin Over MP3

Greetings all.

For the next week or so, while the F16C fam get in a well deserved bit of rest and relaxation, I’ll be republishing some of my favorite tunes from the Funky16Corners Archives. I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back soon.

Larry

Originally posted 11/09/2008

I hope all is well on your end and you found the weekend to be both restorative and fun-filled (not always the same thing, y’know).

I figured I get the week started with something lively, raw and soulful.

The tune I bring you today is one of the last 45s recorded by Mr. Henry Lumpkin.

Lumpkin was one of the early lights of Motown, recording two 45s for the label in 1962. One of those 45s happened to be the original version of the R&B/soul standard ‘Mojo Hannah’ later covered by Larry Williams, Betty Harris and Tammi Lynn among others.

Lumpkin’s time at Motown was over almost as soon as it got started, but it was there that he made an important connection, that being songwriter and producer Robert Bateman.

Five years after his stint with Motown he hooked up again with Bateman, and the man who was by then Bateman’s partner – and a big favorite here at Castle Funky16Corners – Mr. Lou “Hot Butter’n’All” Courtney.

It was with Bateman and Courtney (as co-composers and producers) that Lumpkin made what is perhaps the greatest record of his career, 1967s ‘Soul Is Takin’ Over’.

If you’ve been sitting around, wasting away, wondering when your next dose of soul clapping was going to arrive, I’m here to let you know that Dr. Soul is about to fall by with your prescription.

‘Soul is Takin’ Over’ is a dance-floor pounder from the git go, with the aforementioned soul clapping, throbbing bass, guitar, piano and drums, all dragged around the studio by Lumpkin’s razor sharp delivery of the anthemic chorus. If ever a soul 45 was seeming engineered specifically for use as a drunken sing/dance-along, ‘Soul Is Takin’ Over’ is it.

Unfortunately, no matter how good the record is – and it is, good that is – it’s yet another example of a fantastic 45 that got lost in the shuffle, ultimately doing nothing to advance its singer’s career.

Lumpkin would make one more 45 for Buddah, and the promptly fell off the face of the earth.

No matter.
Make sure you pull down the ones and zeros, and the next time you have the gang over for a rug-cutting session, get’em lit and throw this one on, open the windows and piss off your neighbors.

I hope you dig it.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 24, 2013 3:15 pm

The lovely Miss Mary Wells

Listen/Download – Mary Wells – Can’t You See (You’re Losing Me)

Greetings all.

For the next week or so, while the F16C fam get in a well deserved bit of rest and relaxation, I’ll be republishing some of my favorite tunes from the Funky16Corners Archives. I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back soon.

Larry

Originally posted 10/19/2010

Once again I’m neck deep in a busy week, but what better time for an invigorating and restorative shot of soul?

Like anyone who tuned into an oldies station in the 1970s (or 80s, 90s or 00s) Motown looms large.

Unfortunately – and I’ve spoken on this issue at length in the past – what you basically get in that format is the same dozen of so songs by the label’s biggest artists, repeated ad infinitum to the point of nausea.

It was just such a situation that turned me off to the wonders of Motown for a long time, until many years later, when the sounds of Northern Soul came into my life.

Though the phrase Northern Soul, used as a descriptive can be unbelievably wide-ranging, were you to approach it from the broadest possible angle, what you’re hearing is musicians and singers, in and out of Detroit making an effort to duplicate the soul sounds coming out of that city, in and out of Motown (and I say in and out because so many Motor City records on other labels were played by the same general group of musicians creating the magic for Berry Gordy).

One of those oft-repeated songs was ‘My Guy’ by Mary Wells. A big hit in the Spring of 1964, that song cemented Mary Wells in the minds of a generation (and beyond).

What a lot of folks don’t know, is that Wells left Motown soon after, and spent the rest of the decade bouncing to 20th Century Fox, Atco and Jubilee, making a few minor dents in the charts but nothing like her time at Motown.

Despite that fact, she continued to make great music, including today’s track, recorded in 1966 for Atco.

I first heard this tune via my man Agent 45, who had picked it up on a mispressed/labeled 45. When I heard ‘Cant’ You See (You’re Losing Me)’ I flipped my wig.

What a fucking stormer!

Not only is the song a bit of Northern Soul genius (that honking baritone sax is the shit!), with a powerful, propulsive dancer’s beat, but the song itself is a killer.

Written by none other than Barrett Strong (another tie back to Motown), and recorded in Chicago with a brilliant arrangement by Sonny Sanders, another former Detroiter who had worked on a number of classics at the Golden World label, ‘Can’t You See (You’re Losing Me)’ is yet another example of a record that should have been a huge hit, yet only finds its reward in the hearts of soulies decades on.

‘Can’t You See (You’re Losing Me)’ has since become a staple of my Northern Soul box, and always brings someone up to the decks to see what’s playing.

Love, love, love this record.

I hope you do too,

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.