Comments (1)

By Larry, April 8, 2014 12:50 pm

Miss Dusty Springfield

Listen/Download Dusty Springfield – Live It Up

Listen/Download Dusty Springfield – Go Ahead On

Greetings all

I have something exceptionally groovy for you today.

A while back,my friend Gail Smith, proprietress of the most excellent ‘Work Your Soul’ podcast (go ahead and take a minute to subscribe, if you haven’t already) turned me on to the record you see before you today.

Dusty Springfield is thought of today as one of the premiere ‘blue-eyed’ soul singers of the classic era.

This is something that I grappled with quite a bit over the years.

The concept of ‘blue-eyed soul’ i.e. soul music made by white singers, is a very flexible one, often expanded to include one-off ‘soul’ records recorded by decidedly non-soul performers.

I have come to the point where I feel that the term ought to be disposed of, since there was a lot of ‘bleed’ if you will from both sides of the racial divide, with black, soul-identified singers recording pop music and a fair amount of white singers spending a lot of their time making excellent, soulful music.

Monday’s selection was by the mighty Ray Charles, one of the most stylistically flexible performers ever, who basically made whatever kind of music he felt like, each record succeeding by virtue of its excellence, categories be damned.

Dusty Springfield’s reputation as a soul singer is usually tied to her late-60s recordings, especially the 1969 ‘Dusty In Memphis’ LP which included her most enduring hit ‘Son of a Preacher Man’.

Oddly enough – and I was stunned by this – Dusty Springfield never hit the Billboard R&B charts!

A look at her chart success reveals that here in the US, until ‘Son Of a Preacher Man’, her hits were almost exclusively pop songs and big ballads.

My surprise had a lot to do with my perception of Springfield, and had me raising an eyebrow every time someone called her a ‘soul singer’ (many of these commenters never having heard of singers like Linda Lyndell, Lydia Pense, Bonnie Bramlett or Chris Clark)

It was only fairly recently – thanks to some direction by Gail – that I dug deeper into the Springfield canon and discovered a very prominent vein of R&B and soul material.

The first track I bring you today appeared on Springfield’s first US LP, 1964’s ‘Dusty’.

Though the bulk of the LP’s tracks (including excellent versions of ‘Can I Get a Witness’ and ‘Do Re Me (Forget About the Do and Think About Me)’) was recorded in the UK with Ivor Raymonde, it also includes material from a session recorded in New York.

What is especially interesting about this session – other than the fact that it produced the excellent ‘Live It Up’ – was that it was produced by Shelby Singleton and arranged by Ray Stevens.

While both of these guys were doing heavy work in the 60s, they were doing most of it in Nashville, and I don’t know what the impetus was for bringing them to New York to record with Springfield.

‘Live It Up’ is a stomper, with a blazing vocal by Springfield and some great, gospel-inflected backing vocals. The tune was released as a single but only had some small amount of regional chart success.

The second track I bring you today is an especially tasty one.

‘Go Ahead On’ was the B-side of a UK-only 45 (the A-side, ‘All I See Is You’ was a UK Top 10 hit in September of 1966). It was co-written by Springfield and none other than the great US-born but UK-based singer Madeline Bell! Bell, along with Kiki Dee, had spent time working as a backing vocalist for Springfield.

‘Go Ahead On’ is a record that – had it been released in the US – might have changed the direction of Dusty Springfield’s career a few years earlier. It is without any question a ‘soul’ record, with a Chicago/Curtis Mayfield edge to it and an outstanding lead vocal.

Aside from her biggest pop hits, her discography is filled with R&B/soul covers, including tunes by Lee Dorsey, Marvin Gaye, Margie Hendricks, the Sand Pebbles, Laura Lee, Garnet Mimms and Mitty Collier among others.

If – like me – you had your reservations about Dusty Springfield, especially in regard to her soulful side, the time is ripe for reappraisal.

I hope you dig the tunes, 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 (1)

By Larry, April 6, 2014 10:46 am

Spanish Picture Sleeve and 45

Listen/Download Ray Charles – I Don’t Need No Doctor

Greetings all

The new week is here, and as I am feeling (temporarily) invigorated, I thought it wise to whip something especially heavy on you all to make sure you all are as well.

Ray Charles needs no introduction, but for those of you that have been asleep at the wheel (or too young to know better), Brother Ray was one of the giants of 20th century music.

He was one of the (if not THE) most important transitional figures in the birth of soul music, building bridges from jazz, to R&B and on into soul (and beyond).

Ray Charles’s catalog was the famous Walt Whitman quote ‘I am large, I contain multitudes’ taken musical form.

While his almost half-century long discography touches on a wide variety of sounds, the effect is less like genre-hopping than it is the history of music being refracted through the prism of Ray Charles.

The tune I bring you today is what any sane observer would rate a stone classic, and is perhaps the finest, pure soul record that Brother Ray ever laid down.

This has a lot to do with the song’s authors, Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson and Jo Armstead, the trio that had penned his #1 R&B hit ‘Let’s Go Get Stoned’.

‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’, which grazed the R&B Top 40 in December of 1966 is as hard-hitting a number as he laid down in the 60s.

Opening with a wild bass note, and then exploding into a thundering piano/bass/drums trio, the song builds subtly, adding percussion, horns (dig the competing horn lines later on in the song) and finally the Raelettes until it’s a veritable juggernaut.

The centerpiece is – of course – the voice of Ray Charles, one of the great, elemental sounds ever associated with the making of music.

That ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ wasn’t a bigger hit kind of boggles the mind (at least my mind) today, but a look back at the charts from the end of 1966 proves once again that the mid-60s was a remarkable time for music. Charles was competing for airtime/chart space with Wilson Pickett, the Supremes, Bobby Darin, Question Mark and the Mysterians, The Four Tops, the Yardbirds, the Hollies and dozens of others*. Listening to airchecks from 1966 and 1967 is a remarkable experience, making me wish I’d been beyond old enough (I was four years old) to soak it all in.

That said, you and I can take all the time we want to dig it now.

See you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Himself included. Charles had no less than eight hits in the R&B Top 40 in 1966 and 1967!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, April 3, 2014 12:28 pm

Euro P/S for ‘Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree’

Listen/Download George Tindley – Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree

Greetings all

The end of the week is rolling in, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, coming to you this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airti,e you can always stay abreast of the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove (all on original vinyl) by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

Today’s selection is one of those records that I scooped up in an early Philly soul dragnet.

If you take one look at the label for George Tindley’s ‘Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree’ it sends up a variety of Philadelphia-identifying red flags, most especially the names of Bobby Eli, Len Barry and John Madara.

When I first picked up the 45, I had no idea who George Tindley was.

As it turns out, he had a long and interesting performing history, which ended in 1970 with the release of this 45.

Tindley was a Philadelphia-area singer who got his start in the early 50s with the Dreams, a group that recorded several sides for the Savoy label in 1954.

He eventually joined Steve Gibson and the Red Caps, with whom he recorded a number of well-remembered doowop 45s in 1959 and 1960, before Tindley took over leadership duties (changing the group name to the Modern Red Caps), continuing on into 1966.

He eventually recorded three solo 45s for Wand in 1969 and 1970, all with Madara. One of them, ‘So Help Me Woman’ co-written by a young Daryl Hall.

His excellent cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ made it into the R&B Top 40 in  the summer of 1969, with this record just missing that mark  in the Spring of the following year.

‘Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree’  – the title of which is a corruption of the Zulu phrase for ‘good people’ – sounds a lot like the kind of thing the Temptations were recording at Motown around the same time, but the backing track is 100% Philadelphia (listen for those Vince Montana vibes).

The record, which has a funky, upbeat rhythm with a pop edge, ought to have been a hit, but only managed minor regional airplay in and around Philadelphia.

It does not appear that Tindley worked as a performer after that, though he does have a number of production and arranging credits (C and the Shells, Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers, Evelyn Champagne King) in the 1970s.

I have seen a reference that indicates that Tindley passed away in the 1990s, but aside from that the trail goes cold.

I hope you dig the track, 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 (0)

By Larry, March 30, 2014 11:53 am

The Four Pennies in their later incarnation as the Hearts of Stone

Listen/Download The Four Pennies – You’re a Gas With Your Trash

Greetings all

I hope the new week finds you well.

Before we get started, I should direct you over to the archive page for my man Studebaker Hawk’s ‘Acapulco Nights’ radio show (on WMUA 91.1FM in Amherst, MA) where he has posted this week’s (3/29) episode, which included a tribute to Funky16Corners.

Make sure to bookmark the site because next week the show will include a special mix, put together by yours truly.

____________________________________________________________________________

The tune I bring you today is another one of those things that popped up on a sales list, sounded interesting (and was inexpensive), so I decided to scoop it up.

The song in question, ‘You’re a Gas With Your Trash’ (how could I pass up a title like that?) by the Four Pennies is a very groovy slice of mid 60s soul.

I had initially assumed (you know how that works…) that they were a Chicago group, due to the fact that they were on Brunswick.

When I finally started to poke around for information (finding some conflicting data) it turned out that the Four Pennies (not the UK beat group of the same name) had actually originated in Knoxville, Tennessee.

They got their start in the early 50s as the Five Pennies, eventually becoming (with a number of personnel changes along the way) the Chimes, and the 4 Jokers, evolving into the Four Pennies in the early 60s.

One of the group’s early members was none other than Clifford Curry, who recorded a number of cool soul 45s in the 60s including ‘She Shot a Hole In My Soul’.

They recorded two 45s for Brunswick in 1967, with ‘You’re a Gas With Your Trash’ coming out first.

Though the 45 was produced by James Chavis, I cannot confirm that this was the same guy that ran Chavis records in Delaware, which released a number of rare soul, garage and gospel 45s.

The song is a fast-moving dancer with lots of high harmonies and a honking sax that ties it to a slightly earlier R&B sound.

The Four Pennies would eventually evolve into the Hearts of Stone, recording an album for the Motown subsidiary VIP in the early 70s.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 20, 2014 12:31 pm

The Nilsmen, smoking them, cuz they got ’em…

Listen/Download The Nilsmen – Le Winston

Greetings all

The end of the week is upon us so I will remind you once again to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with the show by subscribing as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

The other day I was rummaging through my crates (edging up to, but not quite crossing over into a frenzy of reorganization) and I happened upon the disc you see before you.

Long (long) time a favorite of mine, ‘Le Winston’  is one of those records that has been banging around my subconscious for so long that I was convinced that I had already written it up.

Turns out that – no, I hadn’t – though it had appeared in a mix or two, and made a few appearances on the Funky16Corners Radio Show over the years.

Recorded some time in the late 60s by a Swedish group called the Nilsmen, ‘Le Winston’ (and it’s funky flip ‘The Sandstep’) was issued by the RJ Reynolds tobacco company (thus the RJR label) a few times (with a few different picture sleeves) over the years to promote different brands of cigarettes.

‘Le Winston’ is a fine, hard-charging Hammond instro, guaranteed to light up the dance floor.

While I may not be digging for organ 45s as diligently as I was a few years back, I still love the sound and pick up new (to me) groovers whenever I find them.

This record is a testament to the value of keeping your ears open.

Despite what the occasional inflated ego will tell you, there isn’t a crate digger in the world who is 100% responsible for their collection.

If you have any interest at all in expanding your musical horizons, you keep your eyes and ears open.

I am always on the lookout for collectors and DJs with tastes complementary or at least tangential to my own. You can never know all the good records, and listening to other people’s mixes can really expose you to records you never would have found on your own.

I remember rapping with my man DJ Bluewater at one of the old Asbury Park 45 Sessions gigs, and marveling at how many amazing records I’d seen on another DJs playlist that were completely new/unknown to me.

He dropped a very solid bit of wisdom on me, that being ‘there’s probably a grip of things on your playlists that THEY haven’t seen or heard before either’.

I’ve been very lucky to spin beside folks with both excellent taste and very deep crates, and I hardly ever leave a gig without something new tacked on to my want list.

Now, take that concept and apply it to the internet, where you can connect and interact with DJs/diggers at a significant geographic remove, and the potential for new discoveries grows exponentially.

I can trace my knowledge of ‘Le Winston’ directly to a playlist (many, many years ago) by the great DJ Soulmarcosa, late of the Carolinas, presently burning up the decks in California.

His knowledge of US soul and funk is next level, but when it comes to international sounds, there’s no one better.

There are more than a few burners in my crates that I can trace directly back to one of his mixes/set lists.

So, props offered up, and if you’re out in LA, check him out in person.

As far as I can tell the Nilsmen never recorded anything else (at least under this name).

If you dig the sounds, it shouldn’t be hard to score your own copy, as Nilsmen 45s and plentiful and not terribly expensive.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, March 18, 2014 10:36 am

Listen/Download Willie Tomlin – Check Me Baby

Greetings all

I thought we’d do the middle of the week with a fairly new arrival in the Funky16Corners crates.

A buddy of mine puts up a sales list every few weeks, and since he a collector (of no small taste) himself, the offerings are always very interesting.

The last time he put up some 45s on eBay, there was one in particular that caught my eye, and then (naturally) my ear.

I had never heard of Willie Tomlin, and I’m guessing that if you don’t already own this record, you haven’t either.

It would appear that he recorded only one 45, and when it was done, was so satisfied with the badassery therein, he vowed never to record another.

‘Check Me Baby’, which was released in 1969 is a recitation of what has been known on the streets as a very strong pimp hand.

Willie (who I’m assuming from the sounds on both sides of this 45 was a blues-based cat with a foot in the world of soul) lays down a laundry list of how-bad-am-I-isms that’ll blow your mind.

The delivery is oddly off-hand, as if Willie was wandering through the studio with a couple of fine ladies draped on his arms and stopped to whip a world-class brag on the crowd.

‘I wear my Botany 500 when I Funky Broadway

My Petrocelli when I Philly Freeze…

I spend a G-note nightly just to keep the girls mine…

I buy my suits from Hippie Land – Cal-eye-phone-eye-ay…

I mean check me baby, I’m one cat that’s clean

All the girls call me to see the soul of the new breed

Six feet deuce baby, teased and tan, a healthy hunk of any woman’s man

I mean like check me, I’m one cat that’s clean…

And on, and on, with the private plane expensive cologne, Moroccan leather shoes, jade cufflinks, diamond watch etc etc

Though he doesn’t say so, you know there’s a revolver and a straight razor in there somewhere.

This is certainly not the first (or the only) brag-fest set to vinyl, but it is unique in its breadth and the matter-of-factness of its delivery.

Like I said, I can’t find any information on Willie Tomlin, especially any trace of any additional recordings.

If you know any different, drop me a line.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

PS Willie was such a badass, he apparently moved the Rocky Mountains to Maine.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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, March 16, 2014 12:56 pm

Jimmy Holiday

Listen/Download Jimmy Holiday – The New Breed

Listen/Download Jimmy Holiday – Love Me One More Time

Listen/Download Ron Moody and the Centaurs – The New Breed

Greetings all

I hope the new week finds you all welland in rapt anticipation of the oncoming Spring (despite all meteorological evidence to the contrary).

Today’s selections come to you well in advance of my original plans, thanks to a special request from a reader.

Naturally the story of how I got this record is quite convoluted (aren’t they all?).

A while back, a friend on Facebook posted a clip of a song called ‘The New Breed’ by a band called Ron Moody and the Centaurs.

It was a very groovy song indeed, and a little bit of research revealed that they were a white R&B band from Richmond, Virginia who recorded one 45, ‘The New Breed’ b/w ‘If I Didn’t Have a Dime’.

I wanted a copy of the 45, so I added it to my watch list and grabbed it when it popped up.

This is where things move into the ‘easier said than done’ category.

The package arrived, and I opened it to find…the wrong record.

I contact the seller who says that he must have sent the Ron Moody 45 to some guy in Germany (who was supposed to get the record that I got) and as soon as he gets it back from him, he’ll send it to me.

I figured I was never going to see the 45, but after going back and forth with the seller for a few months, it finally showed up!

I’m glad it did because the Centaurs version swings in a Beach Music stylee (the group had a following on that scene) and is very cool.

So I dig a little deeper and discover that ‘The New Breed’ was in fact a cover, having been originally recorded by a singer named Jimmy Holiday.

While the Centaurs version was cool, it paled (no pun intended) in comparison to Holiday’s original.

So I figured (as I always do…) that I ought to find myself a copy of the OG.

I checked Ebay (usually a good, basic gauge of whether or not a record is readily available), found a copy (graded VG) for five bucks and pulled the trigger.

When the record arrived, I discovered that the seller had under-graded the 45 (always cool) and also that the flip-side, ‘Love Me One More Time’ was a killer as well.

As it turns out, Jimmy Holiday was an interesting cat, indeed.

He recorded frequently through the 60s and early 70s, waxing more than two dozen 45s (and at least one LP) for labels like Everest, Diplomacy and Minit, all the while working as a songwriter, co-writing ‘Put A Little Love In your Heart’ for Jackie DeShannon, and working as a staff writer for Ray Charles’s Tangerine label.

He had a Top 10 R&B hit with “How Can I Forget’ in 1963 and placed one record a year into the R&B Top 40 in 1966, 1967 and 1968, as well as scoring a minor regional hit in a duet with Clydie King on ‘Ready, Willing and Able’ in 1967.

‘The New Breed’ b/w ‘Love Me One More Time’ was the first of his two 45s for the Diplomacy label in 1965*.

‘The New Breed’ is a hard charging floor-filler, with propulsive rhythm guitar and piano and a powerful horn section.

‘Love Me One More Time’ has a slightly heavier R&B edge, with a wailing vocal by Holiday.

The arrangements are by Jimmy Long who did a lot of work for Motown (Temptations, Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips).

Sadly, Jimmy Holiday passed away in 1989, at the age of only 52.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

*’The New Breed’ was also issued on Kent in 1967 but replacing ‘Love Me One More Time’ with a tune called ‘I Can’t Stand It’

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 13, 2014 11:34 am

The Jon-Lee Group (aka Jon – Lee and the Checkmates

Listen/Download TheJon-Lee Group – Pork Chops

Greetings all

The end of the week is approaching so it’s time to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show sends its sounds out into the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes or by grabbing an MP3 download here at the blog.

The jam I bring you today is one of my favorite discoveries of the last year, and the way I found it is, as the kids say, cray-cray.

Some of you may know that I also write about 60s pop/garage etc over at my other blog, Iron Leg. It was in my capacity as an Iron Legger that I was involved in doing some research related to 60s sunshine poppers the Cowsills.

I was chasing down a lead about a band called Bodine (that recorded an LP in 1969, produced by Billy Cowsill) when I discovered a fantastic site devoted to the band Rhinoceros, which shared some members with Bodine as well as the Daily Flash (great, mid-60s folk rock group) and a group I’d never heard of called Jon-Lee and the Checkmates.

As it turns out, some of the Rhinoceros guys got their start in Jon-Lee and the Checkmates (later the Jon-Lee Group), a mid-60s white R&B/soul band from Toronto.

Though they performed widely and recorded a number of tracks, only one single was ever released, ‘Bring It Down Front’ b/w ‘Pork Chops’ (on ABC in the US and Sparton in Canada.

The a-side is a mid-tempo, Stax-ish soul harmony number, but it is the flipside that really blew my mind.

‘Pork Chops’ (written by Duke Edwards, later of Duke Edwards and the Young Ones on Prestige) is a mind-blowing, wig-flipping ass-kicker of a Hammond instrumental.

It’s not hard to hear the roots of Rhinoceros’ hit ‘Apricot Brandy’ (which featured Jon-Lee organist Michael Fonfara as well as Duke Edwards) in ‘Pork Chops’, but the earlier record is about ten times as manic.

Taken at breakneck speed, ‘Pork Chops’ features wailing organ, pounding bass and drums and just enough fuzz guitar to let you know that it was 1967.

The Jon-Lee Group wouldn’t last much longer, with Fonfara and singer John Finley (the Jon in Jon-Lee) leaving to join Rhinoceros at the end of 1967.

This is a blazing track, and I hope you like it as much as I do.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 PS There’s some great video of Jon-Lee and the Checkmates performing live!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 6, 2014 11:38 am

Betty Davis

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

Greetings all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, March 4, 2014 6:53 pm

Nolan Porter

Listen/Download NF Porter – Keep On Keeping On

Greetings all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 2, 2014 1:18 pm

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

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

Greetings all.

Hey everybody!

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

That’s right, ME!

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

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

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

Keep the Faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 25, 2014 2:21 pm

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

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

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another soulful week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.