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By Larry, May 18, 2010 5:39 pm

Vida Blue (top), Albert Jones (bottom left), Choker Campbell (bottom right)

Listen/Download – Albert Jones – Vida Blue

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is something that found its way into my ears in a rather roundabout way.
A while back, my man DJ Prestige traveled over to the UK, and while he was there he did some digging (natch) and sat in with UK legend DJ Andy Smith on his radio show. It was during that show that he spun a couple of his UK finds, one of which was today’s selection. I dug the tune a lot, so I set out in search of my own copy, and fortunately I turned one up rather quickly (and cheaply).
The tune in question, ‘Vida Blue’ by Albert Jones (from 1971) is a stomping funk tribute to the early 70s Oakland A’s hurler of the same name.
Jones was a Detroit area singer who recorded for a number of labels including Tri City, Bump Shop, Kapp (one of the Kapp 45s duplicated material originally released on Tri City) and Candy Apple from the late 60s to the mid 70s. Much of his work was under the auspices of Walter ‘Choker’ Campbell, a saxophonist/bandleader who recorded a number of records under his own name before going to work running the Motown road band, eventually recording for the label as well.
After Campbell left Motown, he started his own set of labels, including Tri City. Moonville, and Ultra City, with artists like Jones, Betty Renay, the Soul Merchants (I’m not sure if this is the same group that recorded for the Stax subsidiary Weis Records) and Lee Moore.
Albert Jones recorded four singles for Tri City, the last of which was ‘Vida Blue’.
Oddly enough, the flip side of this 45 is a country version of the same song by a singer named Tom Newton. Since the single was released to capitalize on the popularity of the ball player, it seems likely that the genre switch on the flip was engineered to double the chances that the record might be a hit (though I can imagine most people – like myself – being surprised one way or the other when they flipped the record over).
The Albert Jones side is tight, and to be honest, where else are you going to hear a funk 45 that namechecks Harmon Killebrew and Carl Yastrzemski?
Jones would go on to record a full LP (‘The Facts of Life’) for the Campbell and the Candy Apple label in 1977. One of the tracks from that LP, ‘Mother Nature’ was later sampled by Common for the song ‘Be’.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back later in the week with something cool.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, May 13, 2010 3:56 pm

The Emperors: Edgar Moore 2nd from right

Listen/Download – The Emperors – Karate Boogaloo

Listen/Download -The Emperors – Mumble Shingaling

Greetings all.

I hope the end of the week finds you all well.
A few days back I got word that Edgar Moore, one of the founding members of one of my favorite 60s soul groups, the Emperors had passed away.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Emperors since I started digging up their 45s back in the day, from their sole chart hit ‘Karate’ (Top 40 in the Fall of 1966) , to their cover (which, depending on the day you ask me I may indicate to be the superior version) of Don Gardner’s ‘My Baby Likes To Boogaloo’.
You can head over to the Funky16Corners web zine to check out a piece I wrote about the group many years ago, but suffice to say, over the course of the handful of 45s they recorded the Emperors laid down a fantastic take on the whole sock soul thing with the same garagey edge you hear on some of Chuck Edwards’ 45s (was it something in the Pennsylvania water??).
The group formed in Harrisburg, PA but recorded all of their 45s in Philadelphia.
Today I bring you both sides of a 45 that I was unaware of for years, until I happened upon it at a record show. I had always assumed the Emperors three Mala 45s to be the entirety of their output, until I grabbed their sole Brunswick 45, ‘Karate Boogaloo’ b/w ‘Mumble Shingaling’.
Recorded in 1967 and produced – like their earlier 45s – by Philly radio personality George Wilson – this is a funkier side of the Emperors, with the core of their original sound still present, but with a stripped down production style.
‘Karate Boogaloo’ – which begins with some weird, clearly overdubbed crowd noise – includes some cool percussion, rhythm guitar and of course the Emperor’s harmonies. ‘Mumble Shingaling’ features some great, shambolic guitar and organ. It’s the kind of record that makes you wonder what the Emperors – like so many groups that bumped up against the end of the era of pure soul into the sound of funk – might have done had they continued to make music.
This is the last thing they did before the group broke up seeing a partial regrouping as Emperors Soul 69 for the Futura label out of their home base of Harrisburg, PA.
As has been the case for some years now, aside from digging up the original 45s (which a quick online search will reveal to be considerably more expensive than they used to be), your best bet is to grab the Philly Archives CD reissue which includes all of their best work.
I hope you dig the song, and that you raise a glass in memory of Edgar Moore.

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio this Friday night at 9PM. It’s a funk 45 exercise, so you won’t want to miss it!
See you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a a glimpse at the sound of Billy Joel…circa 1967

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By Larry, May 4, 2010 7:34 pm

Maskman and the Agents

Listen/Download – Maskman and the Agents – My Wife, My Dog and My Cat

Greetings all.

To get things started, I should let you know that due to some pressing personal business, this will be the last post this week. Nothing tragic, just stuff that needs to be attended to, so I figured I whip something extremely tasty on you to keep you going until Monday.
Back in January I heard of the passing of the great Harmon Bethea, aka the Maskman. On his own, and with the able assistance of the Agents, Bethea laid down a heap of smoking soul and R&B through the 60s. According to his Washington Post obit, he first strapped on the mask in 1964, and at that time he was hardly a spring chicken, having already turned 40!
The record I bring you today was an early (and momentous) arrival in my funk 45 crates, having been procured more than a decade ago, and has been, since the very first listen a big fave in the Funky16Corners household (my wife can quote lyrics from this one!).
The history of 20th century black music, from blues to jazz, to R&B, to soul and funk has a long history of humor running through it. Sometimes this came in the form of folks who were humorists first, i.e. comedians like Pigmeat Markham, Cliff Tyson and Timmie Rodgers branching out into music. In the case of Maskman and the Agents, the infusion of humor was secondary, as in the case of the mighty Slim Gaillard, hilarity was seasoning, tossed into a pot already simmering with musical quality.
‘My Wife, My Dog and My Cat’ from the Spring of 1969 is – at least in my opinion – the finest (and funniest) thing Maskman and the Agents ever laid down. A minor R&B hit, the tune is the fast-moving tale of a slightly slippery character who cannot get away with anything, thanks to a vigilant wife and a pair of traitorous pets.
Maskman decides to fall by a swinging house party – in spite of his wife’s warnings – and madness ensues.
The description of the party, and its attendees ( a couple of honeys who were ‘fat as a country possum stuffed with sweet potatoes’) is incredibly funny, as is Maskman’s food order, including pigs feet, hot rolls, greens with fatback and potato salad.
Naturally, things collapse as soon as Mrs. Maskman gets home and our hero is betrayed by his once loyal pets, his german police dog (which he raised from a pup) tearing off his crazy suit and causing him to ‘run out from under his hat’.
Solid, solid stuff…funny as hell and funky as well.
Maskman we hardly knew ye.

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio this Friday night at 9PM. It’s a Hammond LP track blowout, so you won’t want to miss it!

See you all next week

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a repost of a great tune by the late Lynn Redgrave

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By Larry, April 22, 2010 8:21 pm

Listen/Download -Hank Herb – Ali Funky Thing Pt1

Listen/Download -Hank Herb – Ali Funky Thing Pt2

Greetings all.

I hope that the end of the week finds you well.
Me, not so much… I have been assailed by a bug that has left me feverish and singularly unmotivated. Had I not experience the tiniest bit of improvement as the day wore on, I wouldn’t be posting at all. But you know how I am, neither rain, nor sleet or whatever…

I’ll start with a bit of news, that bring that the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio just got a prime timeslot upgrade, and will now be airing Friday evenings at 9PM EST. I’ve been doing this show for a while now, but got bumped out of my original slot and into a severely crappy one. That has now been remedied, and there will be some changes in the offing. Thanks to the completion of the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center, all of my shows at Viva (starting with next week 4/30) will be recorded and mixed live on the old ones and twos. I have yet to work out getting the spoken parts done that way (right now I record them after I’m done) but I will try to figure it out.
So, if you’re hanging at home (or god forbid, the office) at 9PM on Friday, tune us in over the interwebs for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove.
The tune I bring you today is a bit of a mystery. I can’t honestly remember where I picked this 45 up (though I’m certain it was an E-dig), I do remember getting it home and scratching my head a bit.
The record in question is ‘Ali, Funky Thing Pts 1&2’ by Hank Herb. The record is also (quite clearly to anyone that’s heard the OG) ‘Al, Funky Thing’ by Chuck Cornish (sampled by Cypress Hill). Why this was pressed and credited to the pseudonymous Mr. Herb (they still give songwriting credit to Chuck Cornish, and it’s on the ‘Chuck’ label), I have no earthly idea. I’m sure I thought I was getting some obscure cover version (of an already obscure song) when in fact I was getting the same exact record on a different label.
I don’t know much about Chuck Cornish. He was from New Orleans, and he only recorded a handful of 45s. One of these, the laid back but funky ‘Blue Eye Brother and Soul Get Along’ was featured in this space a few years ago and is a fave.
‘Ali, Funky Thing’ is as you might expect, a funky tribute to the boxing great, with some fantastic twangy guitar and a great horn section. Other than that, as Gertrude Stein once said of her childhood home, ‘There’s no there there’. If anyone has any more info, as to Cornish, or why this was issued in the form you see before you today, please drop me a line.
I’m going to bed.
Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 18, 2010 4:30 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.85 – Open For Business

Playlist

Listen/Download 90MB/256KB Mixed MP3

Welcome back to the ongoing saga of the Funky16Corners blog, its author, a huge, ever-pulsing mountain of records and his efforts to rein it all in and make some sense of it (both physically and philosophically).
I spent the first part of the weekend checking out the mighty DJ Prestige doing an in-store set at Hold Fast in Asbury Park, while also (of course) picking up a handful of LPs to celebrate Record Store Day. Pres brought the heat (as expected) and then the fam and I headed out for some of those good Long Branch hot dogs and a couple of other errands, followed by some serious work in the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center.
The renovation is almost done, with some fine tuning remaining here and there, with the disposal of much trash yet to be completed (I suspect a trip or two to the town dump maybe in order). After undoing a veritable Gordian knot of old-school computer equipment (as well as moving/storing a huge amount of data, most of it blog-related, onto a new 1TB drive), it’ll all have to be reconfigured over the next few days. I have my work cut out for me, but things are going to be so much easier when I’m done that it’ll be more than worth it.
This early and unexpected edition of the Funky16Corners Radio thing is evidence of said project, and a small bit of celebration that it is in fact coming to fruition. The first thing I did (after getting the room somewhat organized) was the installation of the home DJ setup (see above). This had been both a long time coming, and extremely satisfying when it was finished.
Following a few days of getting all my sonic ducks in a row (cableing, knob-turning, equalizing and whatnot), I hooked up the digital recorder, grabbed my road cases and pulled out a small stack of 45s and mixed them live, on the spot.
Aside from a certain, unifying feel (funk, soul and funky soul, natch), I didn’t concentrate all that much on pre-selection of the tunes herein. I grabbed something interesting to kick things off, and as that record rotated, I pulled a handful of others out of the box, picked one (or two, or three, depending on how deep a handful fate was dealing me) that I thought might fit, cued it up on the second turntable and repeated the process until a little over forty-five minutes later the needle on the last record hit the run-off groove. Not unlike how I do it when I’m spinning at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions or any other live date. It’s one of those things where you hope you’ve stocked your record box properly, and you let inspirado take you by the hand and lead where it will.
There are a lot of old faves here, as well as a couple of tracks that will return to be blogged on their own in the not too distant future. As has been the policy with ‘live’ mixes, there is no accompanying zip file, but remember that this is not going to be the ongoing F16Radio format. Think of it as a special bonus to stuff into your ears on Monday.
I hope you dig the mix, and I’ll be back later in the week with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for some late 60s pop.

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By Larry, April 15, 2010 4:26 pm

Le ‘Q’ on the cover of Smackwater Jack

Listen/Download -Quincy Jones – Ironside

Greetings all.

What is being up with you?
The ongoing Funky16Corners Record Vault project took a great leap forward yesterday with the new DJ set-up (improvements to which were financed by my slot machine winnings over vacation*) going on line. The rig was cobbled together using some donated speakers (thanks Cenzo), an old amp/tuner, my existing “good” turntable, and augmented with the new turntable and mixer. I expect that I’ll be spending some time hobbling around the old learning curve, but before long I should be cranking out some more ‘live’ mixes, as well as putting a somewhat sharper edge on my turntable skills.
In other, also important news, I’m getting upgraded to a nicer time-slot over at Viva Internet Radio, so as of next week (April 23) the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be airing at 9PM on Friday nights. This is a very groovy development, and I cab assure that with the addition of the home DJ thingy I’ll be laying down some live mixes, so fall by.
That said, the tune I bring you today is something I definitely plan on dropping in an upcoming set, Quincy Jones’s 1971 reading of the ‘Ironside’ theme.
For those of you too young to remember, ‘Ironside’ was a hit TV show (premiering in 1967) that featured Raymond Burr as a paraplegic, San Francisco police detective who went around solving crimes from the back of a specially engineered van (certainly no more ludicrous than much of what you’ll see spilling from the idiot box these days). The very groovy theme was penned by none other than the mighty Quincy Jones
The version you’re hearing this fine day appeared on Jones’s 1971 LP ‘Smackwater Jack’. I can’t say with one hundred percent certainty, but I suspect that like the version of ‘Hikky Burr’ on the same album, this take on the ‘Ironside’ theme was also re-recorded/embellished for that LP.
The whole affair manages to encapsulate a jazzy soundtrack feel, with some funky bass (Chuck Rainey), electric piano (Bob James), flute (Hubert Laws) and soprano sax (Jerome Richardson), taking the original theme and stretching it out for some solos. Jones manages to bring on the heavy brass without drowning out the rhythm section. This version starts out (like the TV theme) with something (synthesizer, I assume) imitating a police siren, with the Fender Rhodes bubbling underneath until the flute comes in to state the theme. There’s some groovy wah-wah guitar running in the background, and until the trumpet solo comes in, the feel is as much jazz rock as it is jazz. Aside from the impressive names listed above, the session was a who’s who of jazz and studio heavies, with Jones sharing producing duties with Phil Ramone and bass legend Ray Brown.
Very solid indeed.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*Only significant in that as a general rule I don’t gamble (no moral objection, I just like to spend my money on records). If you see me at the track, it’s because I like horsies. I hit the jackpot (as it was) playing the penny slots. That’s right – pennies. 30,000 of them…

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By Larry, April 13, 2010 4:51 pm

Larry Birdsong

Listen/Download -Larry Birdsong – Fairly Well

Greetings all.

I don’t know about you (since only a some of you reside in the same general geographic sphere as yours truly) but this grey, cold(er) weather is bringing me down. I know I always complain about being beat – like a rented mule – but that’s pretty much part and parcel of having two little kids.
That, and the fact that I got word yesterday that Master Groove is going on hiatus for an unspecified length of time. I was really digging bringing my records into NYC to spin at Forbidden City, and knowing that a semi-regular gig is going off the rails is a first class drag. So FEH to that, and let’s all keep our fingers crossed that whatever screwed the deal gets unscrewed and when it does we can all meet up in the City for some funk 45s, dumplings and cold beer.
That out of the way, what better way to turn the heat up (at least temporarily) than with a tasty bit of southern funk?
Though I knew his name, until I saw the flipside of today’s selection featured over at Queen City Crates, I hadn’t heard the music of Mr. Larry Birdsong.
Based in Nashville, alongside folks like Johnny Jones and the King Casuals and Frank Howard and the Commanders, Birdsong mixed R&B, blues, soul and funk on records that he recorded for labels like Excello, Champion, Cherokee, Sur-Speed and Ref-O-Ree from the mid-50s into the 70s, eventually finding himself in Gospel in the 80s.
Birdsong recorded three 45s for Ref-O-Ree in 1969. Today’s selection, ‘Fairly Well’ appeared as the b-side to the second of those records, ‘Digging Your Potatoes’. While ‘Digging…’ is the wilder, more upbeat side of the record (you can hear it a QCC by clicking the link above) , ‘Fairly Well’ has lots to offer as well.
I really dig the way Birdsong’s gospel-inflected vocals wail over the top of the deep, funky track. The drums are tight, the organ just this side of churchy, and the backing vocals have one foot in the amen corner and the other in the footlights. Things start out on a socially conscious tip before dipping onto the dance floor with namechecks for the Popcorn, the Cissy Strut, the ‘James Brown’, and in a supremely confident move, Larry raps that you ain’t seen nothin’ yet until you’ve seen him do the ‘Larry Birdsong’.
In a soulful hat trick, that’s right, up tight, and (of course) out of sight.
I hope you dig the record, and I’ll be back on Friday with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a Dylan cover

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By Larry, April 8, 2010 5:24 pm

Funky16Corners After Dark Pt2 – Mixed for Delirious Sunrise

Playlist

Intro

Listen/Download 134MB/256KB Mixed MP3

No Zip File

As promised I have returned with the second hour of the show I put together for the Delirious Sunrise program.
Once again, it is firmly packed with heavy, yet oddly laid back sounds, including a large number of personal favorites.
It’s the end of the week, and I’m just about exhausted (mentally and physically) so I can’t recall – even after a couple of surveys – what in this mix has or has not appeared in this space already (a lot of it clearly has).
That said, I hope you dig it (and that you pulled down the ones and zeros for the first half as well, if you haven’t, make sure you, on account of it’s very groovy, very moody and the perfect complement to the second half, which is this…).
In other – mercifully brief – news, the long planned renovation of the Funky16Corners Record Vault is about to commence, including installation (fina-f*cking-ly) of a home DJ set up. I mentioned last week that I came home from vacation with some ill gotten gains, squeezed out of the slot machines in Connecticut, which I promptly rolled over and invested in a second turntable and a mixer. As soon as I get a bunch of stuff boxed up, hundreds of LPs off of the floor and into a wall unit of some kind (I hope I don’t have to go back to Ikea), and build a surface on which to set up the equipment (as well as some speakers) you can expect a new era of live mixes here, and I can spend some time working on my (admittedly rudimentary) turntable skills.
I will also be returning to Master Groove @ Forbidden City (Ave A between 13th and 14th in NYC) on Wednesday April 21st for some more of the good stuff spread over the turntables at the speed of 45 revolutions per minute. If you are in the area and are so inclined, pencil the date in your planner and fall by. It’d be great to see you, and since things are getting warmer every day it might make for a nice night in the city.
So, until I return on Monday with some funk, have yourself a great weekend and dig the sounds.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 6, 2010 5:29 pm

Funky16Corners After Dark Pt1 – Mixed for Delirious Sunrise

Playlist

Listen/Download 138MB/256KB Mixed MP3

No Zip File

The mix you see before you today (the second part of which will be posted on Friday) is the first hour of the show I put together for the Delirious Sunrise show on WLUW.
Considering that the show airs from 4AM to 6AM, I wanted to whip up a downtempo blend, at times funky, but in that twilight, laid back, noir-ish way that characterizes those few, quiet hours before the dawn.
Though many of the tracks included in these two hours have appeared in this space before (whether as part of a Funky16Corners Radio mix or individually) the assemblage thereof is new, and if I say so myself, pretty tasty, at least as laid out for the time in question.
I’ve gone into my deep and abiding love for my iPod in this space (and over at Iron Leg) several times in the past. Though I could be considered a ‘late adapter’, to say that the last few years have seen the iPod become an integral part of my daily (and nightly) routine would be a drastic understatement.
My daily life – thanks to a variety of factors – can be fairly hectic, sometime rising to the level of brain-scrambling, and those few, precious hours after the kids have taken to their beds (those not devoted to working on the blogs) are often spent wandering around in one or both (I have one devoted to video) of the old MP3 delivery devices.
Aside from the occasional stint in the automobile, most of my intensive listening – the time when I dig particularly deeply into a record – is done right before passing out for the night.
With the lights out and the earbuds in place, I can elevate the volume, and jump wildly from song to song, genre to genre until I latch onto something that grabs my ears in a special way, drills down into my psyche, and eventually finds its way into this space, alongside my ruminations. It’s really the only time of day where things get quiet enough (within and without) to approach music the way that it deserves.
It kind of takes me back to the days when I’d go to sleep every night with the radio next to my pillow, listening to everything from music stations to weird (at least the early 70s version of ‘weird’) talk radio, to the local ABC TV affiliate with a signal that could be heard at the very bottom of the FM dial.
After I get to the point where I’m too tired to go on any more, I pick something meditative, running the gamut from Nick Drake, to Mississippi John Hurt, Thelonious Monk, Ravi Shankar, or Kraftwerk or whatever, turn over and surrender myself to sleep.
Thanks to the fact that I’ve always had a hard time getting to sleep (less so these days, for obvious reasons), and staying there, I always go to sleep listening to something – music or spoken word – and often put things on when I wake up during the night so that I can get back to sleep.
Though I have no idea about the science of the matter, I have always found that having music playing while I sleep helps me dream (or at least have more interesting dreams), and has enough of a soothing effect so that when sleep is interrupted (hitting the pleasure centers of the brain and masking background noise) it can be reestablished.
I’m not completely sure that everyone will take this as an endorsement, but for the last few weeks, these two mixes (I have them linked together in a playlist) have been the soundtrack to my nights. There are a lot of deep records over the course of these two hours, and I find no matter where I hit the mix timewise, I always get a little bit of that ‘Oh, cool…’ feeling, and my overactive brain downshifts a little and all is once again well.
Whether or not you (the listener) decides to employ it in the same way, or as a calming (yet oddly stimulating) companion to your waking hours, I hope you find that I have selected them well, and that you dig them too.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 5, 2010 9:48 am

Greetings all.

If you’re up in the early morning hours, or – even better- if you reside on the other side of the Atlantic and see the sun long before we do, you might want to tune in to WLUW (Loyola University/Chicago) (locally on the wireless, elsewhere over the interwebs) for the Delirious Sunrise program at 4AM CST (5AM Eastern Daylight Time, make adjustments for your own time zone).
I’ve put together a two-hour mix of crepuscular wonderfulness for my man Arvo who broadcasts all night long on WLUW this Tuesday. It will be archived at Posterity Playlists and then posted in this very space later this week. All you night owls, insomniacs and speed freaks make sure to twist the dials (or the browser of your choice) and check it out.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 21, 2010 5:30 pm

Listen/Download -Willie Smith – I Got a New Thing

Listen/Download -Cliff Driver’s Infernal Machine – I Got a New Thing (inst)

Greetings all.

I hope everyone (in a geographically appropriate radius) is enjoying the prematurely ‘spring-y’ weather. Not all that far removed from what seemed like an eternal wall of snow, we’ve been grooving on 70 degree-plus weather the last few days. Sure it’s still chilly in the early morning and after the sun goes down, but since I tend to remain indoors during those hours, I don’t mind all that much.
I took advantage of the wonderful weather to drive two hours in my car and stand around in a warehouse for two and a half hours more digging at the legendary all-45/78 record show in Allentown, PA. This has become – over the years I’ve been traveling to Allentown for record-related purposes –  quite the Pavlovian exercise, with yours truly enduring a painfully monotonous drive so that I might, like a hamster eager for num-nums, be rewarded at the end by stacks of vinyl.
Today was an especially nice trip, mainly because I scored a heap of nice stuff (split about 50/50 between soul/funk and rock/pop) and got to meet up with some groovy people.
As I was driving out to the show, I was giving some thought s to what I’d write about the experience, deciding in advance that I’d take it upon myself to counter the stereotype of record shows as a freak parade of basement dwelling, vinyl hungry Morlocks, crawling to the surface so that they might once again drag records back to their lair.
As I stood on the steps of the ‘mall’ where the show is held, waiting for the doors to open, scanning my fellow attendees, I thought that I would be unable to follow through on my hypothesis. Fortunately, once I got inside, to the actual record show, the ‘sampling’ evened out somewhat, providing much needed balance and my faith in humanity (or the dark little corner of it inhabited by record collectors) was restored.
Sure, the crowd was close to 99.9 percent male, and, thanks to the unpleasantly close quarters in which one is forced to dig, almost as smelly, but when afforded a moment to step back and soak in the scene, I realized that what I was looking at was a cross section of the ‘serious’ digger community, writ large. The age range stretched from teenagers to folks that remember what the Korean War was like (firsthand). There were doowoppers, Beatle-haircut guys (split evenly between actual “butcher-cover” grippers and garage punkers), serious (like extra-continental) out of towners from the UK and Japan, your hippity-hoppers, your blues 78 cats, soul and funk diggers, serious DJs (I had a chance to say hi to two of New York’s heaviest, Mr. Finewine and Mr. Robinson) and tons of non-descript minglers, providing the caulk binding the stylistic tiles in the room.
Something else I saw, at least on the ‘meta’ level was hundreds of hardcore music lovers. There was almost as much conversation – with old friends and new catching up and trading stories – as there was actual digging.
There’s nothing quite like moving around a tightly packed record convention – especially one like the all-45/78 show, which tends to pull in the heavy hitters – and watching the faces of people extracting a long-sought 45 from a stack of thousands, or wading through a pile of prospects with a portable turntable.
When I go to a show like this, I tend to work the middle ground, avoiding the huge, disheveled piles of randomly packed 45s, as well as the boxes where there isn’t a record to be found selling for less than one hundred dollars.
When you survey a show like this, you realize that there are people working all over the financial spectrum. You tend to hear stories about pre-show horse trading (sometimes back at the hotel the night before, sometimes – as I saw this time – out of the back seats of cars in the parking lot), and as I said before, there’s everything from heaps of cheap filler to boxes of ultra-rare gold, literally something for everyone.
No matter how much cultural snobbery there is, from both outside of and within the scene, the bottom line is that what you feel on your way out of a show like this is an atmosphere thick with satisfaction. Some of the people clutching a prized white whale that they’d been chasing (and saving for) for years, some with piles of things new to them that will provide hours of sonic exploration, and some (like me, for instance) with a little of both.
I can’t say that I scored any grails this time out (most of my remaining heavy wants are far outside my financial reach), but I did grab a couple of things from my want list, as well as a number of interesting things that I’d never heard before, which I’ll record, listen (and re-listen) to in the coming weeks and research as much as I can, eventually presenting them to you on one of the blogs.
Since I’m not done digimatizing the new stuff, the track I bring you this fine day is something I grabbed last year.
The 45 in question, ‘I Got a New Thing’ by Willie Smith, with an instrumental version on the flip credited to Cliff Driver’s Infernal Machine, is a rough and ready, bluesy funk 45. Featuring a tough, soulful vocal (Mr. Smith I presume?) and some fantastic guitar work (straight ahead, and wah-wah-i-fied), ‘I Got a New Thing’ is a serious, meat and potatoes slice of funk.
This is the kind of funk 45 that could really be used as an all-purpose stand in for the entire genre.
It’s funky (naturally).
Passably, but not slavishly James Brown-y (‘James Brown. Of All the James Browns in the world, you’re the James Brown-iest‘*).
Packed with all the proper signifiers, i.e. heavy drums, chank guitar, organ, brass punctuation and soul shouts.
And, at least in this case, largely anonymous.
Aside from the New York City address on the label (which, considering the concentration of the record biz in NYC – at least back in the day –means nothing at all) I can’t tell you much about the record in question.
The instro dub on the flip, is pretty much a straight lift of the bed from the vocal version, with a honking sax-o-ma-phone solo running around where the voice used to be. I think I prefer the vocal version, but the instrumental side is nothing to sniff at.
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

*Apologies to Charles Schulz

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Comments (1)

By Larry, March 11, 2010 4:53 pm

Junior Wells

Listen/Download -Junior Wells – You’re Tuff Enough

Greetings all.

Friday is here, and I’m happy to say that last night’s Master Groove @ Forbidden City was an unqualified gas.
There was a nice crowd and as is always the case, the hot sounds were flying fast and furious.
This time out I got my shit together and recorded my set, which I’ll be posting on Monday.
Since I am currently sleep deprived (and have a day’s worth of errands ahead of me) I’ll be uncharacteristically brief.
If you’re a fan of Chicago blues, the name Junior Wells should be a (very) familiar one. In a career that spanned more than four decades, Wells, as both a harp master and a vocalist laid down lots of very tasty music. His collaborations with the mighty Buddy Guy are legendary and have rightly secured him a place of honor in the blues pantheon.
However, like many of his contemporaries (Guy included) Junior Wells dabbled (with more success than many) on the soul and funk side of things. Today’s selection is one of his finest efforts from that side of the stylistic street.
Last year, on my Massachusetts digs, I happened upon a hippie-ish record store in a back alley of an ivy encrusted college town. To my delight, their bins were filled with all kinds of groovy 60s pop and rock LP, and in addition to some stuff I hadn’t heard of, I pulled a couple of longtime wants as well.
Toward the end of my time in the store I noticed a small bin of 45s on the side, and while it didn’t look all that promising, I’ve learned through experience that only a fool passes up a  stack of unexplored 45s. Good thing too, since the first handful of singles I picked up yielded the song your hearing today.
A subsidiary of Chicago-based Mercury Records, Blue Rock had a discography that stretched from 1964 to 1969 and was home to all kinds of groovy soul, funk and blues sides. Junior Wells recorded four singles for the label in 1968 and 1969, the first of which was the slamming ‘You’re Tuff Enough’.
While I wouldn’t say that ‘You’re Tuff Enough’ crosses the line into funk territory, I wouldn’t hesitate to drop it into a funky DJ set. It’s a searing bit of powerful sock soul, with a great vocal by Wells and a kick-ass arrangement (by none other than the mighty Charles Stepney!).
Certainly the best two dollars I’ve ever spent in Massachusetts.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back with that live set on Monday.
Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

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