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By Larry, March 12, 2017 11:01 am

Listen/Download – Bull and the Matadors – The Funky Judge MP3

Listen/Download – Bull and the Matadors – The Funky Judge (instrumental) MP3

Greetings all.

Time to get the new week rolling with something fun and funky, as well as a taste of that Hammond juice as well.

Before we get started, my new (roughly) monthly show, Testify!, on the WFMU Rock’n’Soul Ichiban Stream debuted today. It’s an intersection of the Funky16Corners and Iron Leg vibes. I archived it over at Iron Leg, so check it out when you get  chance.

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Bull and the Matadors ‘The Funky Judge’ has been since the dawn of the funk 45 collecting era, one of those basic, DNA-level building blocks of your basic funk crate.

It’s a groovy, funny, and relatively easy to score 45 on one of the great Chicago labels.

It has enough punch for the dance floor, and enough of that jive to get people singing along.

‘The Funky Judge’ was a pretty sizable hit, making it into the R&B Top 10 in 1968 and the Pop Hot 100 (higher in a bunch of East Coast and Midwest markets), and got new life when it was reissued as part of the Rhino ‘Beg, Scream and Shout’ boxed set in 1997.

Bull and the Matadors, James Lafayette “Bull” Parks, Milton Hardy, James Otis Love and Robert Holmes hailed from East St Louis, IL and recorded a handful of 45s for Chicago’s Toddlin’ Town label between 1967 and 1969.

Their only other chart success seems to have been centered around Chicago and St Louis.

Naturally, ‘The Funky Judge’ ties into the late 60s ‘Here Come de Judge’ craze, based in a routine by Pigmeat Markham that was made famous when riffed upon by Sammy Davis, Jr on ‘Rowan and Martin’’s Laugh-In’, spawning a whole shitstack of records by all kinds of people, as well as countless high school sophomores wandering the halls repeating ‘Here Come de Judge’ ad nauseum.

The Bull and the Matadors 45 featured a groovy lead vocal with some nice backing vocals, a funky base coat and a wild bit of feedback at the end.
In an extra added attraction, the flipside (also called ‘The Funky Judge’) is a groovy Hammond instro (played by I known not whom).

The other Bull and the Matadors 45s I’ve heard are excellent, though in amuch more conventional (non-novelty) soul vein.

‘The Funky Judge’ was covered (pretty nicely) a few years later by none other than the J Geils Band.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, March 9, 2017 2:12 pm

Funky16Corners: Hello L.A. Bye Bye Birmingham

Bobbie Gentry – Okalona River Bottom Band (Capitol)
Billy Lee Riley – Mississippi Delta (Mojo)
Artie Christopher – Stoned Soul (Atlantic)
Cher – I Walk On Gilded Splinters (Atco)
Buzz Clifford – Hawg Frog (Dot)
Joe South – Motherless Children (Capitol)
Kin Vassy – Hello LA Bye Bye Birmingham (UNI)
Lonnie Mack – Too Much Trouble (Elektra)
Nat Stuckey – Clean Up Your Own Backyard (RCA)
Roy Head – Don’t Want To Make It Too Funky (In the Beginning) (ABC/Dunhill)
Area Code 615 – Stone Fox Chase (Polydor)
John Randolph Marr – Sarah (WB)
Skip Easterling – Hoochie Coochie Man (Instant)
Tony Joe White – Whompt Out On You (Monument)
Kelly Gordon – If That Don’t Get It It Ain’t There (Capitol)
Charlie McCoy – Minor Miner (Monument)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners – F16C: Hello L.A. Bye Bye Birmingham MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here and I will take this opportunity to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday with the best in soul, funk, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the Stitcher and TuneIn apps, check it out on Mixcloud, or grab yourself an MP3 right here at Funky16Corners.com

Also, my (roughly) monthly jawn at WFMU’s Rock’n’Soul Ichiban stream – Testify! –  commences this very Sunday morning, March 12th at 11AM, and if you dig the sounds you hear both here and over at Iron Leg, it would behoove you to tune in your internet radiola (just got to the WFMU page and click on the Ichiban Stream) and dig it.

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That all said, what you see before you is the result of one of a number of ongoing obsessions (and musical workaholism) that finally reached a tipping point this past week when I got my hands on a record I’d been wanting for a long time (and bookends the original Honky Style mix which is ten years old this year) .

That record – Buzz Clifford’s ‘Hawg Frog’ – is in many ways the ne plus ultra of swamp funk sides.

The mix gets its title from a song that’s kind of a cornerstone of the sound, written by Mac Davis and Delaney Bramlett and recorded by no less than three artists in the mix (though I only included my fave, by Kin Vassy).

Swamp funk, country funk, white Southern soul, call it what you want – and really, it deserves a bunch of different names because as a style it’s kind of diffuse, with a bunch of things, funk, rock, soul, country, blues, psychedelia and R&B all intersecting in a variety of ways – the only real common denominator (at least in this mix) being the caucasianosity of the perpetrators.

You get some of the bigger names associated with the stylistic miasma, like Tony Joe White, Joe South and Bobbie Gentry, some of the lesser known folks, like Kin Vassy, Billy Lee Riley and John Randolph Marr, background characters like Kelly Gordon, Nashville heads like Charlie McCoy, Area Code 615 and Nat Stuckey and even a couple of unexpected names like Cher, Lonnie Mack and Buzz Clifford.

It’s sometimes funky (with a couple of very tasty drum breaks), usually twangy, often soulful, and with the soul of a mud-caked cottonmouth snake hidden out in the wheel well of bus taking Highway 55 from Memphis to New Orleans.

So pull down the ones and zeroes, and dig it.

I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, March 7, 2017 10:17 am

Jackey Beavers

Listen/Download – Soul Continentals – Goobah (African Twist) MP3

Greetings all.

The record you see before you is an old fave, which I picked up on (though didn’t get a copy of until a couple of years ago) way back in the early days of my Hammond organ obsession.

When I started digging around for info about the Soul Continentals, I was initially surprised to see that they seemed to have hailed from Detroit (their one other 45 was on the Jaber label out of Michigan), but after digging further, was even more surprised to find out that they were led by none other than Jackey Beavers!

You read about Jackey in this space before relating to his work in Johnny (Bristol) and Jackey, who did the original version of ‘Someday We’ll Be Together’. Beavers went on to record a bunch of 45s on his own for a variety of labels.

It was only recently that I discovered that the ‘R. Beavers’ listed as the composer/producer of ‘Goobah (African Twist)’ and its flipside ‘Bowlegs’ was in fact Jackey Beavers (his real name being Robert).

I’m not sure, but I suspect that Beavers is the keyboard player on this track, which features piano and organ.

Though the flipside ‘Bowlegs’ is faster moving number with some very hard hitting drums, ‘Goobah (African Twist)’ , released in 1968, moves at a more deliberate pace, with a groovy organ soloing over drums and hand percussion, with minor vocal interjections, and a very cool reverbed guitar solo.

As Hammond instros go, it’s a killer, and well worth whatever it takes to move one into your playbox (and a lot cheaper than their earlier Jaber 45 which can cost hundreds).

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, February 21, 2017 1:42 pm

Tribute to the Funky Drummer

Clyde Stubblefield Spoken Intro
James Brown and the Famous Flames– Cold Sweat Pts 1&2 (King)
James Brown – Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud) Pts 1&2 (King)
Marva Whitney – It’s My Thing (King)
James Brown – Mother Popcorn Pts 1&2 (King)
Clyde Stubblefield Live Solo 1968
James Brown – Shhhhhhhh For a Little While (King)
James Brown and the Famous Flames – I Got the Feelin’ (King)
James Brown – Popcorn With a Feeling (King)
James Brown – Funky Drummer Pts1&2 (King)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners Presents: Tribute to the Funky Drummer: Clyde Stubblefield 65MB Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

This is something I would have put together earlier but the fam and I were on the road when word came down that the mighty Clyde Stubblefield, aka the Funky Drummer had slipped the surly bonds of earth.

Between 1965 and 1970 Stubblefield was deep, deep inside the pocket, driving the James Brown band from the drummer’s throne, often alongside John ‘Jabo’ Starks.

Stubblefield was as tasteful and economical a drummer as ever played soul and funk, with a tight, crisp style that managed to swing like hell.

Back when the Godfather of Soul passed away, I wrote about his work on ‘Cold Sweat’ thusly:

“It was in ‘Cold Sweat’ that James Brown, after three years of work, decided to ‘give the drummer some’, and things were never the same. With that record, he gathered together all of his innovations since ‘Out Of Sight’ – along with all the other musicians that he had inspired in the ensuing three years – and broke through yet another wall. ‘Cold Sweat’ is the ‘groove’, expanded upon, then further refined so as to concentrate its’ power. The beat is more experimental, the song structure now reduced to it’s essence (as if the ‘groove’, at one time adjacent to the song, had now become the song). This is never more apparent than in Pt2, where the aforementioned ‘drummer’, gets the also aforementioned ‘some’ – and blows soul music out of the water.

The drum break on side two of ‘Cold Sweat’ is a remarkable testament to exactly how far ahead his peers James Brown had gone.
In the sound of funk, there is no more important component than the drummer(s). Without the drummer, the groove has no foundation. Certainly a groovy bass line can get you moving side to side, but without the forward propulsion of the drummer, you aren’t really going anywhere. The most important element of the drummers importance to funk, is that it is through him (or her as the case may be) that funk received it’s most radical elements. These elements are the rhythms of Afro-Cuban music, and most importantly modern jazz. Anyone familiar with Elvin Jones, Max Roach or Art Blakey will hear their echoes in the beats of funk. These are the sounds of percussionists that got inside the rhythm and stretched it into all kinds of new shapes, designed to grab the body at it’s core and move it, i.e. make it dance. The BeBoppers and the modern jazzers provided an obsession with open spaces and explosive punctuation. They brought rhythm up out of the viscera, through the heart and into the head. This ‘intellectualism of the beat’, in combination with the polyrhythmic fire of congueros like Chano Pozo and Mongo Santamaria (later quite the funkster himself) timbaleros like Tito Puente, and the freedom of the New Orleans ‘Second Line’ drummers (Earl Palmer, June Gardner, Smokey Johnson and James Black) – which in turn has it’s parallels in the samba drummers of the Brazilian carnival – all contributed to the funky stew. This is not to say that Clyde Stubblefield had his ears turned to New Orleans, Rio or even the Village Gate – directly (he may well have), but that all of those sounds were swirling around in the mid-60’s, and all found their way into the sound of the funky drummer.

The break in Cold Sweat Pt2 is presaged, at about 45 seconds with six pleas (commands?) to ‘Give the drummer some” before turning to Stubblefield with ‘You got it drummer!’. The Flames drop away as Stubblefied works the kit, keeping time on the ride cymbal, booming on the toms and popping the beat on the bass drum. Ten seconds later JB brings in Bernard Odum on bass, and for almost ¾ of a minute he and Clyde break it on down. At 1:59 the horns come back in and ride all the way to the end. At nearly a full minute, Stubblefield’s ‘break’ is hovering dangerously close to the land of the drum solo, yet the energetic self indulgence of a Ginger Baker, Keith Moon (or even Buddy Rich) is absent, and has been replaced by a deeply funky vibe. This is a drum solo you can dance to. It is devoid of pyrotechnics yet full of ideas – subtle yet consistently explosive. It’s no mistake that Stubblefield is the man who’s work found it’s way into dozens of samples. The man who inspired JB to chant ‘The Funky Drummer!’, over and over again.”

The mix you see before you includes most of Clyde Stubblefield’s best known work with JB, as well as a clip from the famed 1968 Boston Garden concert which is like a punch in the gut.

I spent a lot of time playing the drums when I was younger, but I could only sit back wide-eyed (and eared) at the work of Clyde Stubblefield, who played the drums like James Brown danced.

He was a master.

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, February 19, 2017 9:40 am

Marie Queenie Lyons

Listen/Download – Marie Queenie Lyons – Drown In My Own Tears MP3

Listen/Download – Marie Queenie Lyons – Try Me MP3

Greetings all.

Marie Queenie Lyons is the epitome of the kind of artist that resided in the back of my mind – courtesy of other DJs finds/mixes – for years before I ever managed to put my hands on any of her music.

Her sole LP, recorded for Deluxe in 1970 is a crate diggers favorite, and is also quite rare and expensive.

Lyons was born in Louisiana, and worked with King Curtis before hooking up with the Deluxe label where she recorded the LP and a handful of 45s (all of which were LP tracks).

She was a powerful, raw singer, dragging elements of gospel shouting into James Brown (who was a significant influence) territory.

The tracks I bring you today are from a 1970 Deluxe 45, and both appeared on her ‘Soul Fever’ LP.

‘(I’ll) Drown In My Own Tears’ was written by Henry Glover (who also wrote Annie Had a Baby, California Sun, Peppermint Twist, and was the co-writer of Soulville) and was first recorded by Ray Charles in 1957. Lyons take on

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By Larry, February 7, 2017 12:12 pm

Clarence Carter

Listen/Download – Clarence Carter – Take It Off Him and Put It On Me MP3

Greetings all.

I have spoken many times before about the value of keep your ears wide open and connecting with other DJs/collectors. I can scarcely recall a time when I shared the turntables with someone where I didn’t walk away with something groovy added to my want list.

Though my man Kris Holmes (formerly of the Antipodes, now a Texas transplant) and I never shared the decks, we have listened to each other’s shows, and were fortunate enough to meet up in person a while back while he was travelling here in the States.

Naturally, part of our brief time together was devoted to playing records, from our respective playboxes, and one of the records that Kris hepped me to that day is the 45 you see before you, Clarence Carter’s ‘Take It Off Him and Put It On Me’.

Recorded in Muscle Shoals in 1970, ‘Take It Off Him..’ is a great slice of hard driving, funky Southern soul, with the Clarence and the Swampers locked into the groove, and there’s even a little electric sitar thrown into the mix!

Carter’s vocal is top notch, and the arrangement, with some understated piano, very funky bass and sure shot drums is rough an ready for the dance floor.

Fortunately, unlike a couple of other things that Kris played that day, this one was an easy/cheap pull. So peel you a five spot out ya bankroll and get you a copy for your own playbox.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, January 29, 2017 10:34 am

Fugi aka Ellington Jordan

Listen/Download – Fugi – Red Moon Pt1 MP3

Listen/Download – Fugi – Red Moon Pt2 MP3

Greetings all.

The record I bring you today is an especially groovy one from the intersection of Fugi (aka Ellington Jordan) and the band known as Black Merda.

Fugi and BM collaborated on a number of excellent 45s, the best known being the psychedelic soul classic ‘Mary Don’t Take Me On No bad Trip’ from 1969.

Over the course of the next few years, Fugi and Black Merda made a handful of 45s for Cadet and Grand Junction between 1969 and 1971 of which ‘Red Moon’ was the last.

‘Red Moon’ was written by Black Merda drummer/singer Tyrone Hite and Grand Junction fixture Marvin Figgins (who also penned Fugi’s 1972 ‘Sweet Sweet Lady’.

The song is driven by the rhythm guitar, with funky bass and drums, all pushed along by a great lead vocal by Fugi.

The overall vibe fall into that bag that Hendrix was stitching together in the years leading up to his death, where soul, funk and rock coexist peaceably, creating a kind of “black hippie” groove that is very cool indeed.

‘Part 2’ keeps things going with some cool lead guitar laid on top.

Black Merda recorded two albums, one for Chess and then another for Janus after Tyrone Hite had departed from the band.

Fugi’s discography is limited to a half dozen excellent 45s, all of which make you wish he’d had the opportunity to do an album.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, January 12, 2017 12:59 pm

Listen/Download -Bobby Boseman – Astrological Soul Train MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is upon us, and so then is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which pops into the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday. You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on Stitcher, TuneIn and Mixcloud, check out the show on Cruising Radio in the UK, or grab yourself an MP3 right here at Funky16Corners.com

We finish out the week  – following a bunch of gospel –  with something decidedly more secular (and funky).

Bobby Boseman is one of those intriguing characters from the classic soul era.

Hailing from Texas, he originally recorded a few 45s under the name Gashead (yes, Gashead) for the Paradise label, later heading to California.

In Cali he joined up with Leon Haywood for one 45 on the Evejim label in 1970, and then recorded one last time – in a funky style – for the Tangerine/TRC imprint with ‘Astrological Soul Train’ in 1972.

The song, basically a funky, Wilson Pickett-esque party record (dig that kick drum at the beginning), combining the popular themes of astrology and ‘soul trains’, and it has the sound of a somewhat earlier side (1972 was really pushing the outer limits of when a record like this might have hit the charts).

Interestingly enough the song was written and produced by another Texan-gone-west, keyboard man Willard Burton (as in The Funky Four).

In an odd footnote, ‘Astrological Soul Train’ was later sampled by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in the song ‘Calvin’.

Unfortunately, after ‘Astrological Soul Train’, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence that Bobby Boseman ever set foot in a recording studio again.

So get down with your bad selves, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 15, 2016 2:02 pm

Ike and Tina with one of the various iterations of the Ikettes

Listen/Download – Ike and Tina Turner and the Ikettes – I Want To Take You Higher MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which arrives each and every Friday laden with the finest in soul, funk, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. You can (and should) subscribe to (and rate) the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device with Stitcher, TuneIn or Mixcloud, or grab yourselves an MP3 right out of the Radio Show Archive right here at Funky16Corners.com.

The discography of Ike and Tina Turner is a very deep well indeed, into which we have dipped (and will continue to dip) repeatedly over the years.
During their long marriage and musical collaboration (both tempestuous) Mr and Mrs Turner made some of the heaviest R&B, soul and funk created during the 60s and 70s.

Tina had (and has) one of the great soulful wails, and Ike had remarkable musical instincts, as a composer, bandleader and producer (so remarkable that he ought to be remembered for his music as much as hs is for his reckless personal life and habits).

Today’s selection is a 45 pulled from their 1970 LP (in which the Ikettes get co-billing) ‘Come Together’, which featured a number of Ike Turner originals alongside covers of the Rolling Stones (Honky Tonk Women), the Beatles (Come Together) and the song you see before you today, Sly and the Family Stone’s ‘I Want To Take You Higher’.

Ike and Tina, having already borrowed from Sly (the riff from ‘Bold Soul Sister’ having originated in Sly’s ‘Sing a Simple Song’), return to his catalog for a straight cover.

The Ike and Tina take on ‘…Higher’ is hard-hitting, with Tina trading lines with the Ikettes, a heavy bass, wah wah guitar and a well-placed horn section.

The arrangement isn’t much of a departure from the OG, but you get to hear Tina working it out in place of Sly, and a solid guitar solo from Ike.
I was surprised to discover that this 45 was actually something of a hit, grazing the R&B Top 20 and making it into the Pop Top 40 in the Summer of 1970.

It is further testament to the heaviness of Ike and Tina, collectively and as individual giants of soul.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 13, 2016 12:02 pm

The Glass House

Listen/Download – The Glass House – Crumbs Off The Table MP3

Greetings all.

One of the first funky records I really fell in love with back in the day was Laura Lee’s epic ‘Crumbs Off the Table’, a record that still holds firm place in my all-time Top 10.

It is one of the finest productions to emerge from the house of Invictus/Hot Wax, Holland/Dozier/Holland’s amazing, post-Motown operation.

It was a few years after digging that record that I happened upon the 45 you see before you today, a version of the very same song by a group called the Glass House.

The Glass House version is not only the original recording of the song (written by H/D/H under the Ronald Dunbar/Edith Wayne psuedonyms), predating Laura Lee’s release (on the Hot Wax label) by three years. It was also the very first 45 released on Invictus after H/D/H’s break with Berry Gordy and Motown.

The Glass House was composed of Scherrie Payne (sister of Freda), Ty Hunter (who had been in the Originals) , Pearl Jones (who had recorded as Barbara Mercer) and Larry Mitchell. They were formed in 1969 and recorded two albums and a grip of 45s for Invictus between then and 1972, and during that period placed five records in or near the R&B Top 40.

‘Crumbs Off the Table’ was their biggest hit, making it into the R&B Top 10 (Pop #60) in the late Summer of 1969.

Their version of the song is very cool, edging over into funkadelic territory with some twangy guitar and a funky groove. Things are taken at a more relaxed pace than the Laura Lee version, and it has a great lead vocal by Scherrie Payne.

Of the group, only Scherrie Payne recorded extensively after their dissolution.

Edsel Records in the UK did a very nice reissue of the group’s two albums (plus bonus tracks) in 2010 and there is a solid Best Of available in iTunes.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 6, 2016 7:14 pm

Up All Night With Freddy King!

Listen/Download – Freddy King – Funky MP3

Greetings all.

Freddy (Freddie) King was a blues master.

At least that’s what the title of his 1969 album said.

But King was much more than that.

If you have been a reader of the Funky16Corners blog for a while, you will have seen Freddy King’s stuff posted on the blog and played on the radio show.

He is a big fave of mine, from his influential early hits like ‘San-Ho-Zay’ and ‘Hideaway’all the way up to his Shelter Records albums.

King was, like Albert Collins, much more than a straight “blues” player, delving into R&B, soul and rock, and on today’s record, funk.

Recorded in 1969, with King Curtis’s band (the King co-wrote the song as well) augmented with cats like David ‘Fathead’ Newman, James Booker and Melvin Lastie, ‘Funky’ is a hard-charging instrumental that sounds like someone covered ‘Memphis Soul Stew’ with rocket fuel and lit it up.

The drumming by NY sessioner Norman Pride is rock solid (listen to that bass drum!) and King’s guitar is razor sharp.

King’s (who was also an outstanding singer) guitar playing was powerful, economical, and imaginative, and his influence on a generation of white (mosty English) guitar players cannot be overstated.

He even gets a namecheck in Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘We’re An American Band’!

Sadly, king passed away at the age of 42 in 1976, by all accounts having worked/partied himself to death (working 300+ dates a year and consuming more alcohol than food).

His work is pretty easy to put your hands on, on vinyl and digitally (his Federal/King, Cotillion and Shelter stuff is available in iTunes) , and if you’re not hip, you should get so, ASAP.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, November 29, 2016 1:05 pm

Jackie’s back!

Listen/Download – Jackie Lee – African Boogaloo MP3

Greetings all.

Jackie Lee should be a very familiar name to those of you that hit Funky16Corners on the reg, considering how many times his sounds have appeared in this space, in mixes or on the podcast.

He was one of the truly great figures of the Los Angeles 60s soul scene, on his own, as half of Bob and Earl, and under a variety of pseudonyms.
You can brush up on his history here and here.

That all said, today’s selection is one of the very first Jackie Lee 45s that I ever popped into my crates, and it is one of his funkiest.

‘African Boo-ga-loo’ was released in 1968, and bears the fine pedigree of having been written by Earl Nelson (aka Jackie Lee himself), produced by Fred Smith (one of the signature producers on the LA scene) and arranged by James Carmichael (right up there with Fred Smith).

It was also one of his bigger hits, having grazed the R&B Top 40 in the Spring of 1968 as well as finding some regional Pop success in New York and New Orleans.

It has that patented, stylish LA sound, with a very heavy bass line, some groovy organ, sax and harmonica, and some cool female backing vocals.
Jackie is – of course – in fine shape, and he delivers the Jerry-O-esque lyrics with verve.

He would duplicate his success a few years later with the funky ‘The Chicken’ on UNI (which made a similar shot at the R&B charts and strangely enough more regional success in New York).

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.