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By Larry, January 24, 2013 12:28 pm

JB at the B3

Listen/Download James Brown – You Know It

Greetings all

The end of the week is nigh so it’s time to remind you about the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes or grab an MP3 from the archive here at the blog.

The last instro of the week is a testament to the truism that sometimes you just never know what’ll turn up in your crates.

I was digging around for Christmas material late last year when I flipped over ‘Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto’* (never having done so before) wondering if the b-side was also a holiday track.

What I found was not more jingling bells, but in fact another of that rare species, the James Brown organ instrumental.

Many times over the years have I waxed wistfully about my love for the Godfather’s repeated dalliance with that giant mound of wood and wires known as the Hammond organ.

James was not a superior technician, but he did bring a certain joie de vivre to his playing which – though it occasionally descended into flights of fancy that sounded as though he had eschewed his hands for his elbows – were often quite cool.

This track, ‘You Know It’ is an especially groovy surprise since it is both funky, and has a cool arrangement, with the strings and the horns and what not.

This is proof that no matter how much you think you know, the James Brown discography is filled with all kinds of blind alleys, dark corners and cul de sacs.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

*’You Know It’ also appeared as a track on the ‘Soulful Christmas’ LP
___________________________________________________________________________________________

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, January 10, 2013 12:05 pm

Bill Deal and the Rhondels

Listen/Download Bill Deal and the Rhondels – Tuck’s Theme

Greetings all

I hope that the end of another week finds you well.

As Friday is upon us, I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today has been languishing in my crates for a long ass time, mainly because of a bad case of lost-in-the-shuffle-it is.

I picked up my 45 of Bill Deal and the Rhondels ‘Tuck’s Theme’ years ago and for no good reason at all, forgot all about it.

I say for no good reason because once you hear ‘Tuck’s Theme’ you will – as would any sane person – realize that it is a superb bit of funk with a big, fat, swaggering drum break.

The name Bill Deal may be a familiar one, especially if you have access to oldies radio here on the East Coast, the further south the better.

Deal was a keyboardist and bandleader out of the Tidewater area of Virginia who – along with the Rhondels – hit the charts a number of times in the late 60s with their rollicking brand of brass-inflected, blue-eyed soul (covering cuts by artists like Maurice Williams and the Tams).

The band recorded half a dozen 45s (and an LP) for the Heritage label (also home to the Show Stoppers), of which ‘Swingin’ Tight’ b/w ‘Tuck’s Theme’ (released in 1969) was the fourth, it’s A-side grazing the Top 40 in a number of regional markets.

The cut features Deal working it out on some kind of clavinet-like electric keyboard, backed by the brass section, with a fuzzed out guitar eventually chiming in.

Things really get cracking when drummer Ammon Tharp lays down that big, swinging break.

It’s really is a killer, one of those that’ll have your head nodding as you get into the groove.

The record has ben sampled a few times, by groups like Jurassic 5 and People Under the Stairs.

Bill Deal and the Rhondels became an institution on the Beach Music scene, carrying on in one form or another until Deal’s passing in 2003 (though a version of the group, billed as Bill Deal’s Band still tours today).

I hope you dig the cut, 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 (6)

By Larry, January 8, 2013 1:00 pm

Listen/Download Cal’s Tricks – Who’s Gonna Take the Weight

Greetings all

Before we get things started today, I should let you know that I was asked to put together a list of crucial 45s for the new Deserted Island blog. You should pop on over and check it out when you get a chance.

The track I bring you today is something I picked up whilst grazing at the last Allentown All 45 show.

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed in a room packed to the gills with 45s, but since a lot of the dealers (and the kind of stock they bring with them) have become familiar to me over the years, I try to maintain a s small amount of focus.

These days my “want list” (as it is) isn’t very long.

There are a couple of very crucial things that I’m always on the lookout for, but outside of those, I tend to cast a pretty wide net. The old frame of reference is sharp enough that I come away with more gold that gravel, and the record you see before you today is evidence thereof.

I’d never heard of Cal’s Tricks, or the Secant label, but as soon as I noted the presence of a groovy Kool and the Gang cover, I placed the disc on the keeper pile and kept digging.

Once I got the record home I was very happy with my selection, and moved on to digging for information.

There’s not a lot out there, but what I have found is interesting.

It would seem that the Secant label was active in the Washington, DC/Maryland area during the 70s, releasing a wide variety of styles.

The DC Soul Recordings site noting that only three of their releases seemed to fall into the realm of soul and funk, two of them being records by Cal’s Tricks.

‘Who’s Gonna Take the Weight’ – taken here at a slightly faster, dare I say discofied, tempo than the OG – was the second 45 by Cal’s Tricks, released in 1976.

The band’s name seems to be a variation of the name of producer Caltrick Simone.

I don’t think this track or any of Cal’s Tricks tunes have been comped.

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, January 1, 2013 3:08 pm

Miss Marva Whitney

Listen/Download Marva Whitney – It’s My Thing

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

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

Greetings all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, December 30, 2012 3:45 pm

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

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

Greetings all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year,

Keep the faith

Larry

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

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, December 16, 2012 2:20 pm

Listen/Download Bobby Hollaway – Funky Little Drummer Boy

Greetings all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I flipped it over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 11, 2012 4:25 pm

Myra Barnes aka Vicki Anderson

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

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

Greetings all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

Click here to go to the ordering page.

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 4, 2012 3:48 pm

Drummers Jim Gordon (left) and King Errison (right)

Listen/Download Incredible Bongo Band – Let There Be Drums

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another spectacularly crisp, post-Thanksgiving, pre-Yule day.

The tune I bring you today is a little something I grabbed on a recent dig, and on object lesson in how sometimes you really don’t need to hear a record to know it’s going to be good.

Any beat fiend worth their wax is already hip to the sounds of the Incredible Bongo Band, especially their version of Jerry Lordan’s oft-recorded ‘Apache’, one of the ur documents of hip hop.

The IBB’s first LP ‘Bongo Rock’ is fairly rare and sought after, mainly for ‘Apache’.

However, there is much to dig on ‘Bongo Rock’, up to and including the album’s opening track (and one of its singles), which you see before you presently, ‘Let There Be Drums’.

Like many of the tunes on ‘Bongo Rock’, ‘Let There Be Drums’ is a cover, in this case of Sandy Nelson’s 1961 hit.

Written by Nelson and producer/writer/guitarist Richie Podolor, ‘Let There Be Drums’ was, like so much of Nelson’s catalog, a percussion feature meant to highlight his skill on the skins.

Since the IBB was a similar showcase (created by producer Michael Viner), this time for drummer Jim Gordon and percussionist King Errison, the recordings were aimed in the same general direction.

‘Let There Be Drums’ may lack the crisp breakbeats of ‘Apache’ there are still plenty of slamming drums (do you ever really ever get sick of walls of well recorded drums?) and some cool guitar.

As far as I can tell ‘Let There Be Drums’ was only sampled in 2007 by Buck 65 on the track ‘Dang’.

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, October 7, 2012 1:48 pm

Jo Armstead

Listen/Download Jo Armstead – I’ve Been Turned On

Greetings all

Welcome to another week here at Funky16Corners.

I thought it only fitting that we get things off to a start with something upbeat, a certified banger if you will.

Though I’d guess that a lot of you had seen the name Jo (or Joshie) Armstead before, I’d bet fewer of you had actually heard one of her records.

Armstead who was born in Mississippi worked locally until joining the Ike and Tina Turner Revue as an early Ikette.

She ended up in New York City in the mid-60s, where she met Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Together, the trio wrote both ‘Let’s Go Get Stoned’ and ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ for Ray Charles.

When Ashford and Simpson headed to Detroit to work for Motown, Armstead and her husband went to Chicago and formed Giant Records.

The Chicago-based Giant label (there were imprints with the same name in Detroit and Texas) issued five singles by Armstead as well as sides by Fenton Robinson, Wayne Bennett, and Little Jimmy Scott.

Armstead’s Giant sides are classics of late 60s soul, moving from fast moving Northern Soul like ‘I Feel an Urge Coming On’ (which I just this weekend scored a copy of!), sweet soul like ‘Stone Good Lover’ and slamming, funky heat like today’s selection ‘I’ve Been Turned On’.

Armstead was a powerful singer who had the added benefit of also being an outstanding songwriter.

‘I’ve Been Turned On’ has a killer arrangement by Mike Terry (is there anything he worked on that didn’t turn out amazing?) and a dynamite vocal by Armstead (those opening lines are breathtaking).

The records is a great example of how funky a record can be without moving into outright ‘funk’ territory. Though there are plenty of strings keeping things classy on top, you have to slap on the headphones and check out those drums. Whoever was playing the drums was working overtime on the kick drum.

‘I’ve Been Turned On’ is one of those 45s that is as good for dancing as it is for listening, so pull down the ones and zeros and do a little of both.

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).

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, October 2, 2012 2:08 pm

Hugh Masekela (top) and Hedzoleh Soundz (bottom)

Listen/Download Hugh Masekela/Hedzoleh Soundz – Languta

Greetings all

I hope all is well on your end of the intertubes connection.

It wasn’t all that long ago, during one of my lucky summer digs that I turned up the 45 that you see before you today.

I’ve been a big fan of Hugh Masekela since I was a kid (Grazing In the Grass is one of my all time favorite records).

His story – and the many others that make up the South African musical diaspora of the 1960s – is fascinating, as is the music he made.

I had long heard about his collaboration with the African group Hedzoleh Soundz, but was never lucky enough to turn up a copy of the LP.

That said, I was very happy to find this 45.

Masekela – already a popular artist – returned to Africa in the early 70s with his (then) wife Miriam Makeba. It was there that he met the mighty Fela Kuti, as well as the Ghanian band Hedzoleh Soundz.

Hedzoleh mixed the traditional sounds of Ghana with western jazz and rock.

Masekela recorded the LP “Hugh Masekela Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz’ in 1973 in Lagos, Nigeria.

There’s something poetic about the process of Masekela leaving his homeland and mixing its sounds with those of western jazz and pop, only to return to Africa and re-mix his own fusion with that of Hedzoleh Soundz.

‘Languta’ the opening track of the LP (though the 45 edit is about a minute shorter than the album track) is a perfect example of Masekala’s jazz/Afrobeat fusion, with his echoplexed trumpet wailing over the Hedzoleh Soundz propulsive rhythms.

Masekela would continue to tour and record with members of Hedzoleh Soundz on several albums through the late 70s.

It’s a fantastic piece of music, and 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).

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 (3)

By Larry, September 27, 2012 12:43 pm

The Vibrating Vibrations!

Listen/Download The Vibrations – Expressway To Your Heart

Greetings all

The end of the week is finally here, and so then must be the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which magically appears on Viva Radio every Friday night at 9PM. If you have other plans at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or drop by the blog to pick yourself up an MP3.

The tune I bring you today is one of those familiar song/unfamiliar source deals I like to whip on y’all every now and again.

This is another example of a record that I swept up almost indiscriminately back in the early days of my Philly obsession. Drawn in by the (Gamble/Huff) Neptune label and the familiar name of the Vibrations, I grabbed this 45, and while I can’t say that my memory is 100% reliable in this instance, it is likely that I thought that what I was getting was the “original” version of the song that was a huge hit for the Soul Survivors.

I was (of course) incorrect…

That tune, ‘Expressway To Your Heart’ was among the earliest Gamble/Huff chart hits (maybe THE earliest) in 1967, with the Vibrations version not hitting until two years later.

The Vibrations have one of the longest, most interesting histories in all of soul music.

Hailing not from Philly but from Los Angeles, they got their start in the 1950s as the Jayhawks. It was under that name that they recorded the original version of ‘Stranded In the Jungle’.

They also recorded under the name of the Marathons, with which they hit in 1961 with ‘Peanut Butter’.

Reconstituted as the Vibrations, they spent most of the 1960s recording for Checker and Okeh – with a brief stop at Epic in 1968 – before signing with Neptune in 1969.

They recorded three 45s for the label, including their remake of ‘Expressway’ in 1969.

The Vibrations had worked with Gamble and Huff during their time at Okeh (G&H produced the group’s 1968 hit ‘Love In Them There Hills’ for the label) and member Carl Fisher had some of his songs (like ‘Storm Warning’ and ‘(It’s Against) the Laws of Love’) covered by Philly groups like the Volcanos.

The Vibrations version of ‘Expressway to Your Heart’, arranged by the great Bobby Martin, is taken at a slightly slower, grittier pace than the Soul Survivors OG. You get lots of electric piano, organ, some very cool guitar work and lots of great harmonies by the group.

It’s a very groovy record indeed, and one that ought to be better known.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

Click here to go to the ordering page.

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

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 20, 2012 2:00 pm

Joe Simon

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt1

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt2

Greetings all

The end of the week is within our grasp, which means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show (brought to you every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio) is nigh. Perk up your ears, dial up the old crystal set and drop by for the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 download over at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a real gasser, hepped to me by my friend Don Waller, who sent it along on Facebook as a birthday wish.

Though I certainly knew of Joe Simon, I had no idea that there were any records released under the ‘Joe Simon Band’ name, and certainly nothing as crazy as today’s selection.

‘Oon-Guela (High Life) Pts 1&2’ was released in 1969, and it is like nothing else in the Joe Simon catalog.

What you get here is an amped up take on the Afro funk sound, with lots of hard-edged, funky guitar, percussion (there’s either a kalimba or something trying to sound like one running under the whole record) and bass that almost crosses over into psychedelic territory a few times.

This really is an unusual record, especially considering when it came out (not a whole lot of Afro anything, aside from Hugh Masekela) and that it was released in association with Joe Simon.

Simon had a long string of R&B and Pop hits from 1965 to 1981, hitting R&B #1 a few times (including once in 1969 with his version of the country standard ‘The Choking Kind’, which fell only a few catalog numbers below this very record).

‘Oon Guela (High Life)’ is waaay out of (sonic) character for Simon which leads one to wonder, what – in fact – would be the dealio.

I have not been able to discover that fact, and am currently happy just to groove on the sound of the record.

It is both groovy, and anomalous.

If anyone has anything to add, please do so in the comments.

I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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