Comments (0)

By Larry, March 11, 2014 11:04 am

Hank Ballard

Listen/Download Hank Ballard – Blackenized

Greetings all

One of the great things that James Brown was responsible for (in addition to the one, true, superheavy funk) was the rebirth of Hank Ballard’s career.

Ballard, an R&B pioneer who had a string of hits that stretched from 1953 (‘Get It’ with the Royals) to 1961 (several classics as the leader of the Midnighters) was an major influence on JB.

By the time he started recording with Brown in the late 60s, Ballard had been away from the charts for half a decade.

Working with Brown, he had his comeback hit in 1968 with ‘How you Gonna Get Respect (When You Haven’t Cut Your Process Yet)’ which made it into the R&B Top 20.

He recorded a string of excellent 45s (and an LP) over the course of the next few years.

Today’s selection ‘Blackenized’ (written by Brown) was released in 1969.

Like his previous hit, ‘Blackenized’ works the same black empowerment angle, with a funky band (dig that flute) and a great vocal/recitation by Ballard.

There are times where Hank crosses the line from the sublime into the ridiculous – such as his exhortation ‘You don’t have to be like an Oreo cookie, Brother. Black on the outside and white on the inside’, but it’s such a groovy track you kind of roll with it.

The flip side ‘Come On Wit It’ (co-written by Ballard, Brown and Bud Hobgood) is a more conventional JB/’69 funk outing.

I hope you dig the track, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, March 9, 2014 3:45 pm

The Staple Singers

Listen/Download The Staple Singers – Step Aside

Greetings all

I hope that the new week finds you all well.

While I really dig gospel music – especially old school – I have never really been a collector of the sound.

It’s a genre that I don’t know much about, so while I may dip my toe in every once in a while, I have yet to fully immerse myself.

That said, even though their early recordings are firmly in the gospel tradition, I like to think of the mighty Staple Singers as sui generis.

This has everything to do with the guitar of Roebuck ‘Pop’ Staples.

Listening to the group’s pre-Stax recordings is like witnessing a mystical collision of the sacred and the profane, with Pop’s Delta guitar lines winding in and out of the rich harmonies like an interloper.

There are other instruments present (bass, drums) but they’re marked by a plain-ness and subtlety that renders them practically invisible.

Listening to Pop’s guitar (with it’s roots in the masters he heard as a young man, including Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House) amble through the songs it almost as if the ghosts of those roadhouse men are being chased down a dirt road by the holy spirit.

The song I bring you today is an unusual one that has become a firm favorite of mine since I first heard it.

‘Step Aside’ – written by Pervis Staples – is an almost dirge-like number, with lyrics that cast the struggle for civil rights as a battle (the references to ‘foreign soil’ and ‘foreign land’ are particularly stark).

The moments where Pop steps in with his high tenor to cry ‘Step aside!’ it sounds as if he’s raising his hand and crying out from the amen corner.

It is a remarkable piece of music, that like everything else they did during this period transcends both gospel and soul, turning into something else entirely.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 6, 2014 11:38 am

Betty Davis

Listen/Download Betty Davis – If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and so the time is near for your weekly dose of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, coming to you via the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always keep up with the show by subscribing as a podcast in iTunes.

The tune I bring you today is something a little hard and funky from which to launch yourselves into the weekend.

I suspect that many more people have heard of Betty Davis than have actually heard her (excellent) music.

Davis, a singer, songwriter, model and muse to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis (to whom she was married) recorded three very cool, well-regarded (if not big selling) albums between 1973 and 1975 for the Just Sunshine and Island labels (as well as a fourth album that would remain in the can until 2009).

Davis had spent the 60s moving between music (where she worked with Lou Courtney and the Chambers Brothers) and modeling, recording a couple of rare 45s in the process.

She recorded her first, self-titled LP in 1973 with a cast of San Francisco-area heavies, including several members of Sly and the Family Stone (drummer Greg Errico produced the album), Santana,  Merl Saunders the Pointer Sisters and Sylvester.

Today’s selection, the hard-hitting ‘If I’m In Luck I Just Might Get Picked Up’ was Davis’s first charting single (R&B #66 in the summer of 1973) and is typical of her hard-edged, sexually frank vibe.

What is especially groovy is that the song rocks as much as it funks (if you will) thanks not only to the instrumental end of things but also to Miss Betty’s vocals.

Davis was a genre-bender, which helped to make her music intriguing, but also made it hard for the listening public to get with the program. This is not to say that other artists mixing and matching rock and soul weren’t embraced – the 70s were after all the decade of P-Funk – but rather that there was something about Davis’s particular recipe that didn’t gel with a wider audience.

Too bad for them, since the records she made are rightly regarded as classics today.

All of her 1970s recordings have been reissued by Light In the Attic and can be picked up in hard copy or digitally.

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, March 4, 2014 6:53 pm

Nolan Porter

Listen/Download NF Porter – Keep On Keeping On

Greetings all

If you – like moi – spends an inordinate amount of time listening to, thinking about, researching and digging for music, it is easy to become jaded, or at least top have your senses dulled to a certain degree.

As a result, it’s easy to miss some of the subtler wonders out there, which is why you have to engage in periodic reappraisal.

That said, the other side of the coin is that the truly remarkable records cut through that fog in remarkable ways.

I first heard NF Porter’s ‘Keep On Keeping On’ years ago when it was included on a comp of favorites from the storied Golden Torch soul club in the UK.

That collecting included a lot of amazing records, but none stood out more starkly than ‘Keep on Keeping On’.

It’sone of those records that I have often found myself spinning repeatedly, letting the vibe sink in a little more deeply with each play.

Recorded in 1971 by Nolan Porter (billed at different times as Nolan, NF Porter, and Frederick II), the record made it into the R&B Top 40 at the end of 1971, Porter’s second such hit that year.

Porter came up in Southern California, getting his start as a classical singer, before meeting producer Gabriel Mekler’s sister while in college.

Mekler signed him to his Lizard label, where he would record the ‘No Apologies’ LP in 1971*.

Porter was backed in the studio by various and sundry members of the Mothers of Invention and Little Feat (Lowell George, Jimmy Carl Black and Roy Estrada) as well as Johnny Guitar Watson.

‘Keep On Keeping On’ – co-written by Porter and Richie Flowers but originally only credited to the latter – is a record of unique power.

Though Porter’s delivery is purely soulful, there is an underlying foundation of rock and even psychedelia to the song (dig the backward guitar) that imbues it with a certain darkness.

The ominous, propulsive rhythm guitar and the tom-toms create a thick, often thunderous platform from which Porter launches his high tenor into the stratosphere.

Its strong beat has made is a perennial favorite with the Northern Soul crowd, as is his (much rarer/more expensive/excellent) 1972 ABC single ‘If I Could Only Be Sure’ (a US R&B Top 30 hit).

Porter recently ended a long, self-imposed retirement to return to the stage in the US and the UK, and recent video demonstrates that he is still in fine voice.

I hope you dig this amazing record, and I’ll see you all on Friday

Keep the faith

Larry

*Porter would also compose ‘Funky LA’ for labelmates Paul Humphrey and the Cool Aid Chemists

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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 2, 2014 1:18 pm

Roger and the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Professor Longhair – Big Chief Pt2 (Watch)
Bobby Marchan – Shake Your Tambourine (Cameo/Parkway)
Diamond Joe – Gossip Gossip (Sansu)
Eddie Bo – Hook and Sling Pt1 (Scram)
Lee Dorsey – Four Corners Pt1 (Amy)
Dixie Cups – Two Way Poc A Way (ABC)
Earl King – Street Parade (Kansu)
Meters – Cardova (Josie)
David Batiste and the Gladiators – Funky Soul Pt2 (Instant)
Bobby Williams – Boogaloo Mardi Gras Pt2 (Capitol)
Curly Moore – Sophisticated Cissy (Instant)
Ernie K Doe – Here Come the Girls (Janus)
Larry Darnell – Son of a Son of a Slave (Instant)
Explosions – Hip Drop Pt1 (Gold Cup)
Rubaiyats – Omar Khayyam (Sansu)
Warren Lee – Funky Belly (Wand)
Willie Tee – Sweet Thing (Gatur)
Danny White – Natural Soul Brother (SSS Intl)
Lee Dorsey – Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further (Polydor)
Oliver Morgan – Roll Call (Seven B)
Eddie Bo – Can You Handle It (Bo Sound)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents Boogaloo Mardi Gras! – 85MB Mixed Mp3/192K

Greetings all.

Hey everybody!

Guess who paid attention to the calendar and was prepared for Mardi Gras this year?

That’s right, ME!

As a result I dipped back into the archives and resurrected one of my fave mixes, ‘Funky16Corners: Boogaloo Mardi Gras!’

This one is packed from start to finish with a grip of Crescent city killers, including a number of second line favorites. There is a LOT of heat in this one, and if you are inclined to crack open a brew or two  and get your New Orleans-style party on, this should provide a more than adequate soundtrack.

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

Keep the Faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, February 27, 2014 1:06 pm

Joe Thomas and his lady friends…

Listen/Download Joe Thomas – Chitlins and Cuchifritos

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so it’s time for our regularly scheduled announcement that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be return to the airwaves of the interwebs Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join me at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes.

The record I bring you today is another one from way back when I first started getting my fingers dusty in the crates of the hinterlands.

Of course, back then I was digging without a portable, and depended on my as yet undeveloped Spidey-sense, as well as a grab bag of visual/verbal clues to lead me down the funky path.

Working with even that somewhat spare tool-kit, it was nigh impossible to pass up a record like Joe Thomas’s ‘Chitlins and Cuchifritos’.

First of all, that title, y’know?

Second, there’s that very groovy Today records label with the big peace sign on it.

How could I pass it up?

Good thing I didn’t, because when I got it home and slipped it under the needle I discovered that the record in question combined some of my favorite flavors.

Number one, it’s funky.

Number two, funky flute! You all know I dig some funky flute, and Joe Thomas (an artist with whom I would become much better acquainted over the years) was one of the best.

‘Chitlins and Cuchifritos’ is a delightful bit of atmospheric Latin-influenced funk, with all of the above listed ingredients wrapped inside a very funky bass line, as well as a chorus singing the title over and over again.

It is, like the Willie Bobo number we opened with this week, very nice for the ears and the feet (should you choose to dance) as well.

I’ve had this record in my crates for a long, long time and I still dig it the most.

I hope you do too, and I’ll see you all next week.

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, February 25, 2014 2:21 pm

Listen/Download Chet Poison Ivey and his Fabulous Avengers – The Poo Poo Man

UPDATE: DC Soul authority Kevin Coombe informs me that Bee & Cee was a Washington, DC label, and evidence points to Chet Ivey having operated out of the DC area during the 60s

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another soulful week.

The track I bring you today is not just very groovy, but part of a larger, as yet unsolved (at least to me) puzzle.

I first encountered the dulcet tones of Chet Poison Ivey and his Fabulous Avengers back in the early days of my funk 45 safari when I picked up a copy of their 1968 Tangerine 45, ‘Shake a Poo Poo’.

Now, you can be forgiven if the title of the song gave you pause (as it certainly has to many others over the years), but my mind finds its way to the gutter easily, so much so that a record with the phrase ‘poo poo’ is a good thing.

That the record was – a good thing, that is – is the truth.

Now, scatological assumptions aside, I am inclined to believe that the ‘poo poo’ in question has something to do with a dance, or at least the movement of a shapely posterior in the execution thereof.

I choose to believe this because I can’t imagine a legitimate record label (Tangerine was after all Ray Charles’s operation) releasing a record about actual ‘poo poo’, but then again it was the late 60s and everyone was getting freaky and letting it all hang out, so anything is possible.

On the other hand, I have evidence in hand – that being the record you see before you – that Chet was in fact trying to create a dance craze.

There’s not much information out there about Chet Ivey, aside from the obvious discographical stuff, indicating that he started recording R&B in the late 50s, jumping from label to label (ATCO, Arock, ABC/Paramount, Bee & Cee, Tangerine, Fretone and Sylvia) over the course of the next decade and a half.

Though I haven’t been able to date his Bee & Cee sides definitively, there are clues in ‘The Poo Poo Man’ to suggest that it was a follow up/continuation of ‘Shake a Poo Poo’, which would place it at the end of the 60s.

There is some evidence (that being Maurice McKinnies and the Champions ‘Sock a Poo Poo ‘69’) that Chet and the Avengers were not alone.

That said, the records I have (and have heard) indicate that Ivey was a more than capable soul singer/songwriter (the flipside of this 45, ‘Soul Is My Game’ is very groovy indeed) and the band was tight.

Like many journeyman artists, he seemed to have followed the artistic flow of the day, from R&B, to soul and on through funk, departing from the world of vinyl sometime in the mid 70s.

There are also some clues (label info and a recorded tribute to Jerry ‘The Geator’ Blavat) that old Chet may have been a Philly-area cat.*

So, dig the sounds, fire this up on your coffee break, and, you know, shake your poo poo.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 23, 2014 5:12 pm

Willie Bobo (3rd from the right, blue shirt) and the Bo Gents

Listen/Download Willie Bobo and the Bo Gents – Broasted or Fried

Greetings all

The new week is here, and coming off of all of the cold and wetness of the winter, I bring you something warm and funky in which to wrap yourselves.

The name Willie Bobo is surely a familiar one to those of you that dig boogaloo, Latin jazz and all things groovy.

Willie ‘Bobo’ Correa was one of the preeminent Latin percussionists of the 1960s and 70s, recording as a leader and a sideman for a variety of labels, but mostly Verve.

His discography is filled with classics like ‘Spanish Grease’ and ‘Fried Neckbones and Some Homefries’.

Like many boogalooers and soul jazzers of the day, Bobo followed the stylistic wave, and as the rest of the world got funky, so did he.

The track I bring you today hails from his 1971 LP for the Sussex label, ‘Do What You Want To Do’.

Recorded with his band the Bo-Gents,’Do What You Want To Do’ is a killer collection of funky grooves, including the title track, a cool cover of the Beatles ‘Come Together’, and the track I bring you today, ‘Broasted or Fried’.

If the tune sounds familiar, it may be because I included it in a mix some years ago in a version by Clarence Wheeler and the Enforcers.

As it turns out, the song originated in Bobo’s band, written by his keyboardist Reggie Andrew, and then covered by Wheeler et al later in 1971.

The Bo-Gents version is taken at a slightly slower, yet still funky pace, with some groovy Latin percussion (naturally…) pulsing bass and electric piano.

It has enough push for the dance floor (Now Again reissued the track as a 45 in 2004), as well as plenty to dig while grooving between the ears.

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

I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 20, 2014 1:09 pm

Wilbur Bascomb, with bass and pitchfork…

Listen/Download Wilbur Bascomb and the Zodiact – Just a Groove In G

Greetings all

The end of the week is upon us, so I must remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always keep up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

Today’s selection is an old breakbeat favorite that I picked up a few years ago down in Washington, DC.

Wilbur Bascomb and the Zodiact’s ‘Just a Groove In G’ which was released on the Carnival label in 1970, opens with a big, fat drumbreak and moves on into a funky dancefloor jam. It’s the kind of 45 that was being created and cranked out frequently at the time, when the charts were thick with the sounds of James Brown, the Meters and Kool and the Gang.

Bascomb was a bass player who would go on to add his talents to recordings by folks like Jeff Beck, Jack McDuff, Rusty Bryant, Grace Jones and Idris Muhammad.

The tune itself is groovy indeed, with stellar playing from Bascomb, the drummer, organist and the horn section.

The only weak link is the lead guitarist, who sounds like they were either intoxicated, incompetent or just the tiniest bit tone deaf.

It’s not the tightest groove ever laid down, but sometimes a little joie de vivre (which this record has in surplus) makes up for a multitude of sins (including bad guitar playing).

Someone at Carnival must have dug the sounds, since ‘Just a Groove In G’ was issued twice, once on a Bascomb 45 (in 1970), and then again as the b-side of the Three Reasons sweet soul outing ‘Take Me Back’ (the 45 you see above, in 1971).

The song went on to be sampled by both DJ Shadow and the Roots.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 18, 2014 12:30 pm

Jackie Wilson

Listen/Download Jackie Wilson – Whispers (Gettin’ Louder)

Greetings all

How about something a little sweet for the middle of the week?

Jackie Wilson is high on the list of major soul figures that I took for granted for far too long.

He was a consistent hitmaker, placing dozens of records in the charts between 1958 and 1975.

Though a fair amount of those hits crossed over into the pop charts, Wilson was (at least to my ears) damned by the tight programming of oldies radio. Until I started collecting soul 45s, if you’d asked me about Jackie Wilson, I would have known ‘Higher and Higher’ and ‘Lonely Teardrops’, and little else.

Fortunately, over the years I have kept up the search for new sounds, and more and more Jackie Wilson records have found their way into my crates.

The tune I bring you today represented a “comeback’ of sorts for Wilson, making his first trip into the R&B Top 10 since ‘Baby Workout’ in 1963.

Written by Barbara Acklin (then a secretary at Brunswick Records) and David Scott, ‘Whispers (Getting’ Louder)’ is a prime example of the classy sounds that producer Carl Davis was the master of in the 1960s.

It is a particularly interesting record (aside from its obvious quality) because it features both the Funk Brothers and the Andantes, making it a perfect intersection of (moonlighting) Detroit and Chicago sounds.

The arrangement is perfection, with guitar and vibes pushed along by comparatively raw sounding drums, all juxtaposed with sweeping strings and horns.

It is one of Wilson’s finest sides, and went into the R&B Top 5 (grazing the Pop Top 10) in October of 1966.

‘Whispers (Getting’ Louder)’ was covered by Erma Franklin in 1970 (with another Jackie Wilson cover, ‘(I Get the) Sweetest Feeling’ on the flipside).

It is a groovy record indeed, and I hope you dig it.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 16, 2014 1:47 pm

Jay Berliner

Listen/Download Jay Berliner – Stickball

Greetings all

I hope everyone is ready to start the week feeling fine and funky.

The track I bring you today is something that has been marinating in my crates for a few years now.

I grabbed a copy of Jay Berliner’s ‘Bananas Are Not Created Equal’ a while back after a friend turned me on to the track you see before you today, ‘Stickball’.

I knew Berliner’s name – he is a prolific studio guitarist with a very long and prestigious resume, including stints with Charles Mingus and Van Morrison (Astral Weeks) – but had no idea he had ever done anything this funky.

Recorded in 1972, under the aegis of arranger Wade Marcus (who also wrote this tune) ‘Bananas…’ featured Berliner and a group of studio heavies working it out on a number of contemporary covers (Temptations, Al Green, Bill Withers) and a couple of excellent, funky originals.

‘Stickball’ opens with Ray Barretto’s congas and Berliner’s guitar, then joined by Cornell Dupree on electric sitar and Paul Griffin on clavinet.

The tune has a thick, jazz-funk groove, with some hot soloing (naturally) by Berliner.

The rest of the album is definitely worth checking out if you happen to find a copy out in the field.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 13, 2014 12:09 pm

Miss Yvonne Fair

Listen/Download Yvonne Fair – Say Yeah Yeah

Greetings all

The end of the week is upon is, so it is once again time to run the flag up the pole and send out the soul signal to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be taking to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there at airtime you can always keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes.

I thought I’d end the week with a bang.

The 45 you see before you is one that I picked up many (many) years ago, out in the field for a pittance. If memory serves, I wasn’t even able to give it a listen at the time, having to wait until I got home.

When I did, I could scarcely believe my ears.

The record in question, ‘Say Yeah Yeah’ by Yvonne Fair was a funky, ever so slightly lo-fi banger, and if that was as far as things got, then I’d still be a happy boy.

But wait, there’s more…

When I started to dig around a little, I discovered, much to my surprise that ‘Say Yeah Yeah’ was not only a James Brown production, but it was recorded and released in 1963!?!

You read it right, Nineteen Hundred and Sixty Three, the very same year that the Godfather hit with ‘Prisoner of Love’.

Not even James Brown was this funky that early.

The safe assessment is that ‘Say Yeah Yeah’ was an outlier, a freak occurrence if you will.

Yvonne Fair’s vocal wasn’t in and of itself that odd, even though it was admirably heavy and raw.

Where things get crazy is the drums.

KA-BOOM.

Whoever was playing the drums was beating them like they stole his lunch money, and syncopating the bejeebus out of them as well.

Only the slightly old-timey organ, and the smoother, R&B horn section anchor it in 1963 at all.

Fair recorded with the James Brown organization (recording for King, Dade and Smash) until the mid-60s, after which she resurfaces at Motown in 1969.

She would record with Motown (working with Norman Whitfield for a time) through the 70s, having a string of R&B hits in 1974 and 1975.

She passed away in 1994, only 51 years of age.

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.