Comments (5)

By Larry, June 12, 2011 11:30 am

Benny Spellman 1931 – 2011

NOTE: I was brought to my attention (much to my chagrin) that the pic I had posted was not in fact Benny Spellman, but rather Lloyd Price. I found the pic posted with an obit of Mr Spellman, but I should have known better and the error has been corrected. – Larry

Listen/Download – Benny Spellman – Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)

Listen/Download – Benny Spellman – Fortune Teller

Listen/Download – Benny Spellman – I Feel Good

Listen/Download – Benny Spellman – Sinner Girl

Listen/Download – Benny Spellman – If You Love Her

Greetings all.

I have returned and before I do anything else I simply must stop and issue a hearty ‘Thank You!’ to all of you who contributed to the Funky16Corners 2011 Pledge Drive.

This includes all of you that were generous (some extraordinarily so) enough to send some money into the treasury, as well as this year’s contributing guest DJs, Tony C, Tarik Thornton, Prime Mundo, Vincent the Soul Chef and DJ Bluewater.

It makes me happy and proud that there are folks out there that dig what we do here.

That said, if you haven’t yet checked out all the mixes, make sure you do because they’re all killer (no filler) this year, and there is most definitely something for everyone, with funk, soul, Northern Soul, disco and reggae.

There are also the live sets of garage punk, beat and freakbeat over at Iron Leg, as well as the second edition of the Iron Leg Radio Show (dropping today), so don’t forget to stop there as well and sop up the goodness with your ears.

Sadly, right after the Pledge Drive got underway, I got the news that three important musicians had passed on, Hammond legend Odell Brown (tribute on Wednesday), soul jazz piano giant Ray Bryant (Friday) and the man behind some of my very favorite New Orleans 45s had passed away, and the subject of today’s post,  the mighty Benny Spellman.

Though he recorded a number (not nearly enough) of incredibly good 45s in his time (almost all with the mighty AllenToussaint) Spellman’s voice is probably best known to casual fans for his contributions as a backing vocalist on Ernie K Doe’s ‘Mother In Law’ (that’s Benny’s bass repeating the title in the chorus).

That said, his career recording in New Orleans (he had relocated from Florida) lasted less than a decade, starting in 1960 for Minit and moving on to Watch, Alon and Sansu (all locals) with the occasional number picked up for national distribution by labels like Imperial and Atlantic.

Of his solo recordings, his biggest hit was his 1962 recording of Allen Toussaint’s ‘Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)’, which was a Top 40 R&B hit and a huge local success. The song went on to be covered with even greater success by the O’Jays in 1965.

‘Lipstick Traces’ is a fantastic song on its own, and one of the finest singles to come out of New Orleans in the 60s but it also happened to be paired with one of the greatest bits of Mod soul ever recorded, the brilliant ‘Fortune Teller’ making it one of the most power-packed two-siders ever.

Spellman’s discography might have been brief but it was also influential, with UK R&Beat bands like the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Merseybeats, the Hollies and the Artwoods covering his material and bringing it to a wider audience.

It was the Artwoods that covered Spellman’s ‘I Feel Good’ (yet another Allen Toussaint composition) in 1966 (Spellman’s original came out in 1965, first on Alon and then nationally on Atlantic), making for one of the greatest moments of British R&B.

Spellman last recorded with Toussaint in 1967 with yet another great two-sider, ‘Sinner Girl’ b/w ‘If You Love Her’ for the Sansu label.

As far as I can tell he only recorded one more 45, the self-penned ‘Don’t Give Up Love’ for the Mor Soul label some time in the late 60s, before he left music to take up a career in sales and public relations for the beer industry.

That’s where he remained until he started a comeback in the late 80s, only to be cut down by a stroke, which confined him to an assisted living facility, where he spent his remaining years, and passed away on June 3rd.

Spellman’s discography, however brief is remarkable in its consistent quality, and like so many of the great singers who worked alongside Toussaint in the 60s (Betty Harris, Diamond Joe, Warren Lee e.g.) ought to be much better known. There is a fairly comprehensive (and cheap) best of his pre-Sansu work on Collectables that’s absolutely essential for fans of New Orleans soul, and great music in general. Fortune Teller: Golden Classics

He will be missed.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, June 5, 2011 4:59 pm

Apologies to the soulies, heh heh…

Greetings all, and welcome to the 2011, Funky16Corners Soul Club/Grogan Casino Allnighter..

This is – as it has been since 2006 – time for yours truly to once again open up the yearly Funky16Corners Pledge Drive, in which we ask that if you dig what goes on hereabouts, with the blog(s), radio show, mixes etc, that you click on the donation link and drop a little something in the basket.

Click Here To Donate

Your donations help to pay for the server space where the blog, all of the graphics and well over 100 mixes (a number that is expanding all the time) reside, as well as upkeep on the equipment used to run the whole non-profit (is there a better phrase to describe an operation that runs at a perpetual loss?) shebang.

As always, I’m aware that times are tough, and getting tougher all the time, so if you can’t swing it, that’s cool too. However, every little bit helps, so even a couple of bucks will help things along.

The readers of Funky16Corners have always been very cool over the seven year history of the blog (as well as the years preceding that at the web zine), generous with their knowledge and vocal in their appreciation and once again I’d like to thank you all.

Funky16Corners has always been an ad-free space (and that includes needless plugs for crap that none of you (or me) is going to listen to) and will always remain that way.

Now, I can’t very well come to you with hand outstretched unless I have something to offer you for your trouble. With that in mind, I bring you the second annual Allnighter, in which I gather together some of my favorite DJs and ask them to contribute mixes.

This year we have a stellar line-up, including my man Tarik Thornton (Hot Pants Crew MPLS), Tony C, DJ Prime Mundo (Asbury Park 45 Sessions), DJ Bluewater (Master Groove, Asbury Park 45 Sessions), and my mighty brother in blogging Vincent the Soul Chef (Fufu Stew), as well as two new mixes by yours truly.

Each of these cats is very, very serious about digging and spinning vinyl heat and when you get the chance to sink your ears into the mixes they’ve contributed you will (as I was when I first heard them) be very happy.

There’s a very nice stylistic breadth to this year’s Allnighter, with deep soul, Northern Soul, rock steady, funk and disco with a connoisseur’s mix of rarities and classics.

This year I’m also posting something cool over at Iron Leg, with a few hours of garage and freakbeat recorded live a few weeks back (by me, natch)  at Spindletop @ Botanica in NYC, so if those are sounds you dig too, make sure to pull down those ones and zeros as well.

That said, click the Paypal link, and then scroll down the page slowly, soaking up all the mixes as you go.

Click Here To Donate

Peace

Larry

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Funky16Corners 2011 Allnighter!

Funky16Corners – I’m Satisfied
San Remo Golden Strings – I’m Satisfied (Ric Tic)
Jr Walker and the All Stars – Come see About Me (Soul)
Parliaments – Look at What I Almost Missed (Revilot)
O’Jays – I Dig Your Act (Bell)
Lee Williams and the Cymbals – Everything About You That I Love (Carnival)
Al Kent – You Got To Pay The Price (Ric Tic)
Major Lance – Gotta Get Away (Okeh)
Shorty Long – Sing What You Wanna (Soul)
Bunny Sigler – Sunny Sunday (Cameo/Parkway)
Jackie Lee – Bring It Home (Keyman)
Gene Chandler and Barbara Acklin – From the Teacher to the Preacher (Brunswick)
Chuck Jackson – Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (Wand)
Precisions – Why Girl (Drew)
John Willams and the Tick Tocks – Do Me Like You Do Me (Sansu)
Eddie Floyd – Big Bird (Stax)
Vibrations – Pick Me (Okeh)
Buena Vistas – Hot Shot (Swan)
Performers – I Can’t Stop You (Mirwood)
Dreams – They Call me Jesse James (DC Sound)
Len Barry – I Struck It Rich (Decca)
Ambassadors – I’m So Proud Of My Baby (Atlantic)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners – I’m Satisfied / 96MB Mixed MP3

NOTE: I’ve been digging a lot of mid-tempo Northern Soul lately, and this is a mix of my faves. – LG

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DJ Bluewater – That Steady Beat

Ken Parker – Change Is Gonna Come
Delroy Wilson – I’m The One Who Loves You
Rocky & The Heptones – Falling In Love
Carlton & His Shoes – Happy Land
Alton Ellis & The Flames – Cry Tough
Lloyd & Glen – Jezebel –
Phyllis Dillon – Don’t Stay Away
Cecille Campbell – Breaking Up
The Soul Vendors – Frozen Soul
The Soul Vendors – To Sir With Love
Prince Buster & The All Stars – The Punishment
The Maytals – Watermelon Man
Derrick Morgan – First Taste Of Love
The Untouchables – Tighten Up
The Jailbreakers – Chatty Chatty
Delano Stewart – That’s Life
Norma Fraser – The First Cut Is The Deepest
King Rocky – The King Is Back
The Ethiopians – He’s Not A Rebel
The Uniques – Watch This Sound

Listen/Download – DJ Bluewater – That Steady Beat / 120MB Mixed MP3

NOTE: DJ Bluewater has gotten deep into the rock steady sound in the last few years

and this mix is filled with goodness! – LG

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DJ Tarik Thornton – Louisiana Sun

Willie Tee – Dedication To You ( Atlantic)
The Festivals – You Got The Makings of A Lover (Smash)
The Impressions – Man Oh Man ( ABC- Paramount)
Dennis Lee & Notables – Sunday Afternoon ( Jenmark)
Bernard Drake – I’ve Been Untrue ( La Louisianne)
Ollie & The Nightingales- I Got A Sure Thing (Stax)
Jo Armstead – There’s Not Too many More (Giant)
The Passions – I Can See My Way Through (Tower)
The Moovers – One Little Dance (Brent)
The ElectroStats – Setting the Mood ( Three Oaks)
The Supreme – Stoned Love (Tamla)

Clifton White – Are You Ready (Anla)
Dell Mack – You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover ( Gold Band)
Eddie Giles – Soul Feeling Pt. 1- ( Murco )
Debanaires – Feel Alright – (WBS)
O.D Williams – Moving Out Of Your Life – (Bare- Bar)
New Birth – I Can Understand it (RCA)
Johnny Williams – Breaking Point – (Twinight)
Johnny Otis Show – Watts Breakaway (Epic)
Gus (The Groove) Lewis – Let The Groove Move You – (Tou- Sea)
Lee Dorsey – Funky Four Corners (Amy)
Big Daddy Rucker – Just Do Your Thing – (GME)
Reggie Sadler – Raggedy Bag – (Aquarius)
Bonus Track : Jackie Harris & The Exciters – Get Funky, Sweat A Little Bit (Black&Proud)

Listen/Download – DJ Tarik Thornton – Louisiana Sun / 85MB Mixed MP3

A Note from Tarik:

So when Larry asked me to do this mix indeed I was honored! Larry and the Soul Chef are the guys who are responsible for inspiring me to get back to digging after taking a 10 year hiatus. I’ve been on a life rollercoaster over the last few years and this has become one of my most profound ways of expressing myself. Honestly, It took me a while to figure out a concept for this one. Always trying to be diverse I created a nice blend of Sweet Soul and Funk this time around. Both are actually sets I did live at KFAI in Minneapolis last week. After listening to them I decided to take the time to tighten them up, then added a bit more soul . The outcome, a sweet selection of songs dedicated to all the people that have taken the time to check out my work over the last year, but also in particular a very special young lady. The “B “side a tight groove of some killer funk selections that will keep you moving. Enjoy ! You can find some of my other mixes at www.mixcloud.com/8KC

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DJ Prime Mundo – Kentucky Fried Prime

curtis mayfield – tripping out (rso)
one g plus three – summertime (paramount)
billy guy – if you want to get ahead, shake a leg (verve)
the soul patrol – saigon strut (shamley)
don downing – thread and needle (roadshow)
gary toms empire – drive my car (pickwick)
bo kirkland & ruth davis – we got the recipe (claridge)
stan ivory – check it out (tese)
le roy – easy livin’ (dream machine)
chick willis – stoop down baby (la val)
billy strange – jaws (gnp crescendo)
the masqueraders – brotherhood (bell)
hummingbird – trouble maker (a&m)
ernie andrews – something (phil l.a. of soul)

Listen/Download – DJ Prime Mundo – Kentucky Fried Prime / 61MB Mixed MP3

Note: One of the OG Asbury Park 45 Sessions DJs, Prime Mundo has extremely deep crates and extremely good taste. He’s one of my favorite DJs, and this mix should tell you why. – LG

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Vincent the Soul Chef – Back to the Corner

I Just Want To Celebrate-Rare Earth (Rare Earth)
Ride Sally Ride-Dennis Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band (Sussex)
Runaway People-Dyke & The Blazers (Original Sound)
You Met Your Match-Stevie Wonder (Tamla)
Your Love Is Indescribably Delicious-Willis Wooten (Virtue)
Mister Magic-Grover Washington Jr. (Kudu)
Heaven Is There To Guide Us-The Glass House (Invictus)
I Got You Babe-Etta James (Chess)
Vista Vista-Lee Dorsey (Amy)
Funky Boo Ga Loo-Jerry O (Shout)
Do Your Thing-Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band (Warner)
Good Times-Kool & The Gang (De Lite)
Take Me To the River-Fessor Funk (Roxbury)
Let Me Lay My Funk On You-Poison (Roulette)
Keep on Dancin’ (Vocal)-Alvin Cash (Toddlin’ Town)
The Whatchamacalit-The Burning Emotions (Bang)
Country John-Allen Toussaint (Reprise)
Paint Me-Ohio Players (Westbound)
I Turned You On-Isley Brothers (T Neck)
Soul Sister- Allen Toussaint (Reprise)
Baby I Love You-Aretha Franklin (Atlantic)
Nobody’s Fault But Mine-Otis Redding (Atco)
Cook Out-King Curtis & The Kingpins (Atco)
The Court Room-Clarence Carter (Atlantic)
Funky Drummer Pt. 2-James Brown (King)
Make It Funky Pt. 4-James Brown (Polydor)
Hey Ruby Shut Your Mouth-Ruby & The Party Gang (Law Ton)

Listen/Download – Vincent the Soul Chef – Back to the Corner / 104MB Mixed MP3

NOTE: Vincent the Soul Chef is not only a top-notch DJ, but he’s a serious digger with diverse tastes that are reflected in his mixes. After I heard this I headed out to look for a few of the cuts right away… – LG

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Tony C – Dance the Jerk!

Doc Bagby-Mr Hippy-Tifton
Merced Blue Notes-Rufus-Accent
Horace Bailey-Cool Monkey-Delene
Larry Williams-Strange-Sue
Barry’Barefoot’ Beefus-Barefoot Beefus-Loma
Tommy & The Charms-I know what you want-Hollywood
Nathaniel Kelly-Do the jerk-Jubilee
Jay Dee Bryant-Get it-Enjoy
The Pacers-You’ll never know-Razorback
The Magics-Lets Boogaloo-R.F.A
Lou Johnson-Rock me baby-Cotillion
Eddie Simpson-Stone Soul Sister-Back Beat
Vickie Anderson-I love you-Smash
Alder Ray Mathis-Take me baby-Jetstar
Jackie Thompson-Got to right the wrongs-Columbia
Lonette-Stop-M.S
Boogie Kings-Do em’ all-Pic
Charles Hodges-Charles Shingaling-Alto
Little Flint-Pain-Beast
Sammy Lee-It hurts me-Rampart
Jay Jordan-If it wasn’t for love-Verve
The Fantastic Four-Pinpoint it down-Soul
Lovemasters-Pushin and pull-Jacklyn
Timmie Williams-Competition-Bell
Big Maybelle-I can’t wait any longer-Rojac
Trudy Johnson-You’re no good-Capitol

Listen/Download – Tony C – Dance the Jerk! / 62MB Mixed MP3

NOTE: Tony C has done guest mixes for Funky16Corners in the past, and he is always turning me on to new stuff. Great taste and deep crates, once again a dynamic combination.  – LG

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Funky16Corners – Honey Trippin’
BT Express – Express (Scepter)
Louie Ramirez – Do It Any Way You Wanna (Cotique)
Cymande – Anthracite (Janus)
Virtue Orchestra – High Horse IV (Virtue)
Mystic Moods – Honey Trippin’ (Soundbird)
KC and the Sunshine Band – Let It Go (TK)
Instant Funk – Philly Jump (TSOP)
Jay Berliner – Getting the Message (Mainstream)
Love Child’s Afro Cuban Blues Band – Love and Death in G and A (Roulette)
Gene Faith – Lowdown Melody (Virtue)
Doc Severinson – Soul Makossa (RCA)
Soul Searchers – Boogie Up the Nation Pt2 (Polydor)
Philly Sound – Waitin’ For the Rain (Phil LA of Soul)
Mongo Santamaria – What You Don’t Know (Vaya)
Philadelphia Society – 100 South of Broad Street (American)
Larry Page Orchestra – Erotic Soul (London)
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Virgo Red (Polydor)
Barrett Strong – Stand Up and Cheer For the Preacher (INST) (Epic)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners – Honey Trippin’ / 110MB Mixed MP3

NOTE: This is one of those mixes that had its start in a single cut, and took form slowly as I stockpiled complementary cuts. I like it a lot, and I hope you dig it too. – LG

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Click Here To Donate

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, May 31, 2011 1:48 pm

Miss Barbara Lynn

Listen/Download – Barbara Lynn – Club A Go Go

Greetings all.

I hope everyone had themselves a very groovy holiday weekend.

The weather, in a wholly unexpected turn of events, has been spectacular. I say unexpected, since the preceding weeks were completely saturated in rainfall, to a depressing extent.

Fortunately for all, the sun finally appeared, the temperature has risen and summer is at last upon us.

Here in the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault, preparations continue apace for this year’s Pledge Drive, with mixes arriving from some of my (and your) favorite selectors, and a couple of good ones percolating on my own turntables. We’ve got a really nice stylistic range in this year’s mixes. I think you’ll dig the results, so stay tuned.

The tune I bring you today is one of my favorite cuts by one of the great names in Texas soul, and someone I consider to be an underrated (or at least under-celebrated) performer, Miss Barbara Lynn.

Barbara Lynn (born Barbara Lynn Ozen in Beaumont, TX in 1942) is that rarest of birds (as least as far as 60s soul is concerned) a woman with a guitar.

With a career that spans 50 years (she had her first hit, ‘You’ll Lose a Good Thing’ in 1962), Lynn laid down some spectacularly good soul records for labels like Jamie, Tribe, Atlantic and Jetstream.

Lynn, in addition to the seeming novelty of her guitar, has a wonderful, expressive voice, as fitting on ballads like ‘You’ll Lose a Good Thing’ and powerful upbeat numbers like the sought after (and much covered) dance floor fave,  ‘I’m a Good Woman’.

Following her stretch with Jamie records, Lynn recorded four singles for Huey P Meaux’s Tribe label in 1966 and 1967, all of them excellent.

Today’s selection ‘Club A Go Go’ was her last 45 for Tribe in 1967.

Paired with the Joe Tex tune ‘Watch the One (That Brings the Bad News)’, ‘Club a Go Go’ is a swinging ‘go out and hit the dance floor’ number, with a call to ‘Meet me on down to Shorty’s club!’. The tune features some blazing horns, great tandem bass and piano, and a guitar solo that sounds like it was lifted from any half-dozen New Orleans 45s from the same period.

As Miss Lynn says repeatedly, ‘You got to have soul’.

Barbara Lynn would move to Atlantic (1967-1973) where she would record classics like ‘You’re Losing Me’* and eventually to Jetstream, where she would record the excellent (and rare, and expensive) ‘Movin’ On a Groove’.

She left music for a while to raise her family, but eventually came out of retirement, and is back playing and recording today.

Though it would appear that Barbara Lynn’s Atlantic recordings are out of print on CD, there are a number of releases of her Jamie material, and a great comp pairing her and Jean Knight and the recordings they both made for the Tribe and Jetstream labels.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

* A song that bears an uncanny resemblance to Al Kent’s Detroit Northern classic ‘You’ve Got To Pay the Price’

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 29, 2011 3:11 pm

Ella Fitzgerald

Listen/Download – Ella Fitzgerald – Savoy Truffle

Greetings all.

I hope you’re all well.

We gather here at the beginning of another groovy week at the Funky16Corners blog, and I have a couple of announcements to make before proceeding.

First and foremost I should remind you that next Monday, 6/5 will mark the beginning of the 2011 Funky16Corners Pledge Drive. This time out we’ll be doing another ‘virtual’ Allnighter, with contributions from some of the finest selectors/collectors that I know.

There’ll be hours of new mixes to pull down, covering funk, soul, rock steady, and basically everything you’re used to hearing here at the Corners.

For those of you that also stop by my other blog Iron Leg, there’ll be some treats there too, so all of the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault bases will be covered.

The tune I bring you today is yet another example (there have been many in the 6+ year history of the blog) wherein an old(er) school jazzer steps into a more contemporary setting in order to maintain relevance and perhaps approach a younger audience.

As you might imagine, some of these efforts proved to be downright embarrassing, as any record collector that’s ever prowled a flea market can attest, but sometimes, depending on the setting and the performer, things turned out very well indeed.

The record I bring you today is one of the good ones (natch).

I’ll assume that most of you know something about Miss Ella Fitzgerald, if only a vague acquaintance with her status as one of the greatest of all jazz singers with a career that started in the swing era, and lasted into the early 90s (she passed in 1996).
By the time she recorded the LP ‘Ella’ in 1969, she had dabbled in things groovy (her swinging take on ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ appeared in this very space a few years back) but never to the extremes shown here.

‘Ella’ was composed entirely of contemporary soul, rock and pop material, with compositions by Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Burt Bacharach, Smokey Robinson and the Beatles.

Speaking of the Beatles, the tune I bring you today is her cover of ‘Savoy Truffle’, a George Harrison composition from ‘The Beatles’ (aka the White Album).

Inspired by his friend Eric Clapton’s craving for chocolate (no doubt itself inspired by other addictions), the song is a tour through an elaborate box of chocolates ending of course with the admonition that ‘You’ll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle’ (a lyric I never heard correctly before hearing this version!).

Ella’s version is very cool, opening with electric piano, and a horn section not too far removed from the Beatles’ original.

‘Savoy Truffle’ and ‘Get Ready’ (both 45s from the ‘Ella’ album) have both gotten frequent dance floor spins.

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

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 26, 2011 10:16 am

Artists conception of El Pajarito

Listen/Download – Cecil Davis ‘El Pajarito’ con su Super Orquesta – Let’s Have a Ball

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here and I don’t know about you kids but I am currently being overtaken by the need to cut loose.
This has been an exceptionally long and tiring week and I – for one – have had just about enough.

I can’t say for sure, but I may very well open and consume a beer (or two) this weekend.

Look out world.

That said, part of the busy-ness has been preparations for this years Funky16Corners Pledge Drive.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, once a year, right around the beginning of June, I make like Oliver Twist and come before you with hands outstretched so that your generous donations might help to pay for server space and related costs for the year.

This time out I’m planning on repeating last years ‘Allnighter’ concept, with a selection of hot mixes from yours truly and a variety of some of the finest selectors I know. I already have some of these cooling on the server, and others are on their way.

I can assure you that it will be a good time, so stay tuned. If things go as planned and all the required materials show up things will get rolling on June 5th.

In other news, this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show is upon us and will be gracing the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM over at Viva Radio, with the MP3 version of the show being posted the following day.

It’s a hot one this week, so don’t miss it.

I should also mention that I am – thanks to a generous (and early) Father’s Day gift – now the owner of a PA system, rendering the Funky16Corners Sound System 100% mobile, so if you’re having a shindig (wedding, stein hoist, bacchanal, etc) and wish to hire someone for the expert spinning of the best in vintage funk and soul, drop me a line, because, to paraphrase Richard Berry, ‘Have Records, Will Travel’.

That said, now on to the aforementioned cutting loose.

It was a few years back that the mighty Soulmarcosa mentioned a record on a message board we both frequent that sounded quite interesting.

The tune in question ‘Let’s Have a Ball’ by Cecil Davis ‘El Pajarito’ con su Super Orquesta was available on eBay, in quantity at a very low price. Having complete faith in his taste, I grabbed myself a copy of the record (unheard).

When it fell through the mail slot my suspicions were confirmed, and it was indeed a serious gas.

Time and experience have proven that you cannot always take a record label at its word, with many things labeled ‘funky’ that are not, and so on through all genres.

‘Let’s Have a Ball’ – labeled a ‘boogaloo’ – is that rare record that meets, and exceeds all claims on the label.

It is a certified party starter, filled with latin soul goodness, made all the better by an exceedingly enthusiastic performance by Mr Davis, who comes across like someone threw Christopher Walken’s ‘The Continental’, Mr Mambo,  and Fred Armisen’s El Fericito (‘Ay Dios Mio!’) into a blender with a gallon of Puerto Rican rum and a box of firecrackers.

The band cooks on this one, but it’s ‘El Pajarito’ who really makes it, trading lines with a chorus of ladies, pumping out a series of sampleable lines like ‘Sock It To Me Baby!’,‘Shall we do the boogaloo?’ and ‘Tighten up baby! Shall we have the balllllll????’ but the best part is where the background singers break into a sideline cheer, including what sounds like a heavily accented ‘sis boom bah!’.

Crazy stuff.

Even crazier is how obscure a record this hot still is.

As far as I can tell, the Dial that this record was released on bears no relation whatsoever to the jazz and soul label of the same name, and Mr Davis has proven to be all but un-Googleable. There was apparently an R&B singer by that name in the Midwest, but the vocal on this one suggests to me that he is not the same cat, since ‘our’ Cecil has a very thick accent (though that could be a put-on).

Other than that, just about all that shows up on-line is listings for people selling the 45, and there aren’t even many of those (it’s price has gone up quite a bit).

I have inquired of those who are deeper in the boogaloo game than myself, and haven’t come up with anything there either.

All I can say for certain about Cecil Davis ‘El Pajarito’ and his Super Orquesta, is that they created one hell of a great record.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 24, 2011 1:33 pm

The Four Tops

Listen/Download – The Four Tops – Something About You

Greetings all.

If the world blew up on Tuesday, it wouldn’t be reflected in this piece, since it’s being written (and assembled) on Monday morning on account of the fact that I’m DJ-ing on Monday night and I have a calendar full of responsibilities on Tuesday to attend to (starting at 7:00AM), so I won’t be in the mood, or any kind of condition to do this on Tuesday proper.

Did that make any sense?

Maybe not, since if the world blew up on Tuesday, no one – aside from the great spirit of the interwebs – would be reading in, so if all (or most) of us are here, just disregard that opening paragraph and continue moving forward (in this piece, as well as life in general…good rule of thumb, that.).

The tune I bring you today is one of my all-time favorite bits of Motown-iana by one of that storied label’s greatest groups the Four Tops.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have been remiss in covering the greatness of the Four Tops here at Funky16Corners.

I last posted one of their records (‘Shake Me Wake Me’) back in 2008 to commemorate the passing of the mighty Levi Stubbs, and even then I was re-posting the song from its initial appearance in 2006 (time does fly, doesn’t it??).

That said, at the time Mr Stubbs slipped this mortal coil, I made it a point to say that I considered him the greatest male singer in the Motown stable (including Marvin Gaye and Eddie Kendricks), and surmised that if he had been given the chance, he could have had a serious solo career.

Whether that chapter in history remained unwritten because of his loyalty to the group, or via the label politics that seemed so prevalent at Motown, I do not know.

There is however no denying the greatness of the Four Tops.

Though I don’t know how their chart success lines up against other Motown groups, or other musical outfits in general, I do know that a cursory glance at their undeniably amazing string of hits in 1965 and 1966 verily boggles the mind.

(Discography listing borrowed from Soulful Kinda Music)

Motown 1073 – Ask The Lonely / Where Did You Go – 1965
Motown 1076 – I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) / Sad Souvenirs – 1965
Motown 1081 – It’s The Same Old Song / Your Love Is Amazing – 1965
Motown 1084 – Something About You / Darling, I Hum Our Song – 1965
Motown 1090 – Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over) / Just As Long As You Need Me – 1966
Motown 1096 – Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever / I Like Everything About You – 1966
Motown 1098 – Reach Out I’ll Be There / Until You Love Someone – 1966
Motown 1102 – Standing In The Shadows Of Love / Since You’ve Been Gone – 1966

Right there in the middle of the pack, is today’s selection ‘Something About You’.

Strange as this may seem, I first knew this song by a vaguely new wavey cover by Dave Edmunds from 1984. Though his version didn’t chart here in the US, the video was a staple of the early years of MTV.

It was only a few years later, after picking up an old Greatest Hits LP that I realized that the song was a Four Tops original.

The song is yet another testament to the greatness of the pens of Holland, Dozier and Holland, and the record is a work of storming, dance floor genius.

Though ‘Something About You’ was a Top 40 hit in 1965, it was never (at least not in the New York area) a staple of Oldies radio, a format which pretty much killed Motown for me for a long time. The endless repetition of a select few Motown hits all but ruined them for me, and stopped me from digging deeper into the label’s catalog until I was much further into the game.

That situation has since been remedied, but even now I still have to force myself to get Motown stuff digimatized for inclusion on the blog, so strong is the temptation to take it for granted.

The production on ‘Something About You’ is dense and explosive, with layers of guitars, vibes, drums (listen close for what’s either a kick drum or tom tom going fast and furious behind the chorus) and saxes, all piled on a propulsive tempo, which despite all of this power, never obscures the Tops voices.

Though ‘Shake Me Wake Me’ will always be my fave Tops tune, ‘Something About You’ runs a very close second.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday (hopefully recovered and blogging in something close to real time).

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (8)

By Larry, May 22, 2011 3:16 pm

Bobby Doyle from the cover of ‘The Bobby Doyle Introductory Offer’ (above)
The Bobby Doyle Three, with Kenny Rogers at left (below)

Listen/Download – Bobby Doyle – River Deep Mountain High

Greetings all.

Before we get rolling, I’ll remind you that I’m going to be returning to Spindletop @ Botanica, alongside the host with the most Perry Lane this Monday, 5/23 starting at 10PM. This time out I’ll be taking a short break from the funk and soul and returning to the garage punk, beat, freakbeat and frat rock of my youth, so if you dig yourself some fuzz, some caveman drums and teen hollering, fall by and soak up the sounds.

Speaking of sounds, how about some cool ones.

If you come by Funky16Corners, and have read the words I spill several times a week, you’ll know that I am nothing if not enthusiastic, and that I’m constantly in search of groovy stuff that I haven’t heard before.

This particular story begins a while back when, in a decidedly non-musical moment of repose, I was chilling, watching a documentary about the life and work of Hugh Hefner. It was during this film that I had another one of those cool, unexpected epiphanies.

They got to the dot on the timeline in the late 60s where the TV series ‘Playboy After Dark’ took to the airwaves, and during a retrospective thereof, they ran a clip of a dude that I’d neither seen nor heard before, dropping a very soulful version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’. That cat was  Bobby Doyle.

The name rang only the tiniest of bells, so I ran to the interwebs and started looking for information.

There wasn’t a lot out there, but what I did find was very interesting.

Doyle, who just happened to be blind, never really broke through on a national level, yet was something of a Texas institution.

He was born in 1940 in Houston, eventually moving to Austin to study at a school for the blind.

He began his recording career waxing rock’n’roll for the mighty Back Beat label, eventually making 45s for a variety of local labels as a solo, until forming the Bobby Doyle Three.

As it turns out, I had heard of Doyle before, and it was via the bass player in the Bobby Doyle Three, a youngster by the name of Kenny Rogers (yes, THAT Kenny Rogers). Rogers played bass and sang backup in Doyle’s group from the late 50s until 1965*, when he left, eventually moving on the First Edition and then huge success as a pop/country singer.

The Bobby Doyle Trio toured the country playing their mix of jazz and pop in a variety of venues, including several Playboy Clubs, which seems to be how he eventually got booked on Playboy After Dark.

By the late 60s, Doyle had relocated to Los Angeles, where he made albums for the Warner Brothers and Bell labels while working with producer Mike Post.

The tune I bring you today, Doyle’s funky take on ‘River Deep Mountain High’ was the non-LP B-side of his version of ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ and seems to date from around 1968.

Doyle was a fantastic singer, with a soulful tenor voice that managed to hit gospel heights while still maintaining a level of restraint, something that made him an unusual commodity, especially in the late 60s.

Interestingly, his obit mentions Doyle having done session work for Phil Spector around this period, though I haven’t been able to connect that with Doyle’s recording of this song.

Doyle’s take on ‘River Deep…’ is one of the best versions I’ve heard, with a tight arrangement, featuring his voice and piano, horns and backing singers. It manages to be funky in that generalized, Leon Russell, soul/rock/gospel way without ever going over the top (unusual, especially in relation to this particular song, which seemed to inspire excess).

Though he did appear on TV and release albums for WB and Bell**, Doyle never really connected on a national level, coming close in the early 70s when he was for a short time David Clayton Thomas’s replacement in Blood Sweat and Tears.

Unfortunately Doyle didn’t gel with the group (which appears to have been going through a number of personnel changes at the time) and only appears on piano and vocals on a few songs on the 1972 ‘New Blood’ LP.

Bobby Doyle was probably doomed to obscurity by the fact that even in a time when people were stepping over genre boundaries on the reg, he was too hard to pin down. He was possessed of a genuinely soulful voice, but slipped effortlessly between rock, jazz and soul (which in another time would have been an asset) but perhaps his freak flag wasn’t flying high enough to get noticed.

Doyle went on to work steadily, performing in lounges in Las Vegas, and a variety of venues back in his native Texas, before he passed away at the age of 66 in 2006.

Bobby Doyle is a supreme testament to the fact that sometimes even prodigious talent is no guarantee of fame and fortune. It’s not hard to imagine that there are many such undiscovered/forgotten gems out there, which is the main reason I keep digging.

As far as I can tell very little of Doyle’s work (aside from a few Bobby Doyle Three tracks on a Kenny Rogers box set and some early stuff on rockabilly comps) remains in print. His WB and Bell albums can be picked up fairly inexpensively, as can his 45s from the same period***.

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

Peace

Larry

*Some of the group’s records were produced by Kenny’s brother Lelan, who would also produce the 13th Floor Elevators and a wide variety of soul and funk artists for the House of the Fox, Silver Fox and Blue Fox labels.

** Doyle also has a song (‘The Girl Done Got It Together’) on the soundtrack to the cult film ‘Vanishing Point’

***His early 45s and the Bobby Doyle Three album are much more collectible.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, May 19, 2011 12:45 pm

Mr James Carr

Listen/Download – James Carr – A Losing Game

Greetings all.

How’s by you?

Me, I’m groovy.

Got some cool records waiting to be digimatized, still breathing, you know the drill.

I will remind you that this Friday marks the weekly appearance of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio (Fridays at 9PM). This week is a Hammond funk-tacular of sorts with an hour of the finest, funkiest, organ-iest 45s from my crates placed side by side in such a way as to get folks to dance (or at least listen more closely). It’s a good one and you won’t want to miss it.

Then, next Monday 5/23 I’ll be back at Spindletop @ Botanica (47 E. Houston St, NYC) with a box full of garage and mod 45s, which should naturally be very groovy and something you won’t want to miss if that’s a bag that you find yourself in.

The tune I bring you today is another great 45 from the catalog of the legendary James Carr (we’ve featured several in this space over the years).

The very cool thing about ‘A Losing Game’ is that unlike Carr’s best known tunes, many of which are classics of the Southern soul ballad, ‘A Losing Game’ is a hard-hitting, some might say storming dancer with a killer vocal by the masterful singer.

If you’re not familiar with James Carr (and I know I say this all the time, but I assume nothing), get out onto the interwebs, or grab yourself a copy of Peter Guralnick’s classic tome ‘Sweet Soul Music’ and get hip. Carr was, to keep things short and sweet, one of the finest soul singers of the 60s, with all-time greats like ‘Dark End of the Street’ (many would say his is the definitive version) in his discography. He recorded much amazing music for the storied Goldwax label between 1964 and 1969, and then trailed off almost completely during the 70s thanks in large part to a life-long struggle with mental illness.

He did manage to make a return to recording before his untimely death (at age 58) from cancer in 2001.

While the temptation – since he was the equal (or superior) of many more famous singers – is to try to say something profound about James Carr, the sensible thing is to let his music make that statement.

‘A Losing Game’ is one of the toughest numbers Carr ever recorded. It was written by the singer and someone named Denny Weaver. I can’t find any info on Weaver (much the same as when I tried to track down the ‘B. Husky’ who wrote Carr’s ‘Talk Talk’) , which makes me wonder if the name was a pseudonym for someone else.

Either way, ‘A Losing Game’, which was later covered by both a post-Gram version of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Fairport Convention vocalist Sandy Denny (her version is outstanding), is a great soul record.

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

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 17, 2011 11:40 am

Mr John Alexander Veliotes

Listen/Download – Shuggie Otis – Ice Cold Daydream

Greetings all.

I’m sitting here, looking out the windows of the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault, looking at yet another grey, wet spring day and finding some small consolation in the fact that at least it’s not also freezing out.

So far the spring has been a huge letdown, with any sunshine or warmth generally coinciding with other responsibilities that preclude outdoor recreation. I know it will probably resolve itself and I’ll be bitching about the heat before long, but it’s just a drag.

Blaarrrghhh….

There…now that I have that out of my system, I should mention that next Monday, 5/23 I’ll be taking my 45 box back up to Spindletop @ Botanica to join my man Perry Lane for some of the most excellent sounds you’ve come to expect from that night. I have some interesting things in mind, so if you’re in the neighborhood drop by and grab yourself a barstool and something cold to drink so that you might soak up the vinyl goodness.

It’s also looking like the acquisition of some crucial equipment is in the offing, that should make the Funky16Corners Mobile Sound System (for all your soulful and funky needs) complete, so if you have a shindig coming up for which the addition of the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove would serve as the complement to the proceedings, drop me a line.

That said, the tune I bring you today is something upbeat and very groovy from the mighty Shuggie Otis.

Shuggie is a very interesting cat indeed. Son of Johnny, talented guitarist, songwriter and performer, Shuggie Otis was performing and recording at his father’s side from his very early teens, playing guitar on funky jams like ‘Watts Breakaway’ and ‘Country Girl’ (as well as stuff like Preston Love’s ‘Cool-Aid’) before heading into the studio and recording two of the great lost classics of the 70s, ‘Freedom Flight’ in 1971 and ‘Inspiration Information’ in 1974 (in actuality his third and fourth solo albums, his earlier stuff being mainly blues).

Though these records didn’t make much of dent in the public consciousness at the time,  the Brothers Johnson’s faithful cover of Shuggie’s ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ hit big on both the R&B and Pop charts in 1977, putting a little cash in Shuggie’s wallet.

Shuggie was all but forgotten when, in 2001 David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label reissued ‘Inspiration Information’ (with several tracks from ‘Freedom Flight’, including today’s selection), restoring him in the public consciousness, at least to the point where he became a respected cult figure.

At the time the hype machine was going full blast, with various and sundry alt-world figures hailing Shuggie as the great lost genius, and his music as some kind of ‘whole new thing’ that the world had missed the first time around.

While these albums are very cool, and evidence of a serious talent, the sounds on them are not without precedent. The early 70s was full of genre splicing/crossing artists (especially Sly Stone), mixing the same basic ingredients in different ways.

This isn’t to take anything away from Shuggie’s talent, or the quality of these two albums especially, which are both very cool, but rather an indicator that if they are new to you, they should be ingested with the hype pushed to the side.

‘Ice Cold Daydream’ was the flipside of Shuggie’s original version of ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ in 1971, and it’s a great example of the stew he was cooking, mixing funk, soul and rock sounds.

The tune rolls over a stop/start rhythm with a percolating Hammond organ running underneath, jumping repeatedly to an uptempo section with some groovy fuzz guitar. You can hear bits of Sly, Jimi Hendrix and Curtis Mayfield, but never so much that Shuggie’s vision is obscured.

Currently, of the two albums in question, only ‘Freedom Flight’ is available on iTunes, though you can get ‘Inspiration Information’ (which is out of print) fairly cheaply. Both ‘Freedom Flight’ and ‘Inspiration Information’ have also been reissued on vinyl as well.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, May 15, 2011 4:39 pm

Sam Butera

Listen/Download – Sam Butera – Love Bandit

Greetings all.

I hope that your world is just as groovy as can be.

I’m coming off a very busy, yet oddly relaxing weekend.

The fam and I managed to hit up a great barbecue where we hung with some very old, end very excellent friends, and I was working on the new annex to the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault family of fine interwebs products.

What am I speaking of you ask???

Well, since I’ve been having so much fun doing the weekly Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva Radio, and then archiving the shows here at the blog, I got the itch to expand upon the theme.

Initially the thought was to do something like a second, shorter edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, to be posted here.

That still may happen, but ultimately I took a different tack, and worked up a show based on the goings on at the other blog in the Funky16Corners family, that being Iron Leg.

Iron Leg – if you haven’t been there – is where I rap about music from the same general time period that I cover here (60s/70s), but the concentration is not on funk and soul, but rather pop and rock, covering garage punk, psychedelia, sunshine pop and the like.

I know that many of the folks that fall by Funky16Corners will not necessarily find those sounds to their liking, but I also know that a lot of you are like me, i.e. musically omnivorous – where all good music is worth hearing – and will dig at least some of what I post at Iron Leg.

That said, the Iron Leg Radio Show will be posted once a month (for now), and since it is not bound by the same time constraints as the Funky16Corners show, will generally in and around 90 minutes (though this inaugural episode runs over two hours).

If this sounds like a bag you might find yourself in, motor on over to Iron Leg to check out the playlist, and if that tickles your fancy, pull down the ones and zeros and give it a listen.

I think you’ll dig it.

Now, here at Funky16Corners, I figured I’d open things up this week with something interesting, so adjust your reading glasses and your earholes and get yourself some Sam Butera.

I’ve covered the late, great Mr. Butera here a number of times, mainly in his capacity as the bandleader for the equally late, also great Louis Prima.

Though Prima and Butera are mainly known for a very swinging variety of jump jazz (the very root of rock and roll), as the years wore on, and stylistic relevance outpaced their old sound, Prima and the Witnesses – the backing band usually billed as ‘Sam Butera and …’ – recorded some funky stuff, usually for Prima’s custom label.

Though billed as ‘Love Bandit’, what you’re actually hearing here is a funky reworking of Johnny Guitar Watson’s R&B classic ‘Gangster of Love’ (though the Cadets also recorded the song in 1956 with the ‘Love Bandit’ title).

Interestingly, though Butera and the Cadets before him used the same basic set of lyrics as Watson, neither one uses his tune.

Butera’s version takes the song at a funky, sock soul pace and Sam plays up the humorous aspect of the lyrics with a band that I assume has to be the Witnesses and some female backing singers.

The arranger Maxwell Davis and the producer Bill Lazerus both spent a lot of years working at Modern Records on records by folks like Lowell Fulsom and BB King.

I have no hard data on when this was released, but I have seen a discography for the Coliseum label – which features some jazz artists like Count Basie and others that look like studio orchestras covering pop hits – with material that would seem to place this in the range of 1966 or 1967. This is only an educated guess, so if any of you good folks know for sure, and I’m wrong, please let me know.

Anyhoo, I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 10, 2011 1:20 pm

Miss Dorothy Morrison

Listen/Download – Dorothy Morrison – Spirit In the Sky

Greetings all.

I hope all is groovy on your side of the interwebs.

The tune I bring you this fine day is something I only heard earlier this year, though the artist been bouncing around in my subconscious since I was a little kid.

I first heard of Dorothy Morrison’s version of Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit In the Sky’ when I saw it on an auction list earlier this year.

I picked up a copy without having heard it, on the strength of Morrison, a well-known gospel artist, crossing over into (mostly) secular territory.

Though I didn’t initially know it was her singing, I fell in love with Morrison’s voice as a child when the Edwin Hawkins Singers ‘Oh Happy Day’ (on which she was the lead) hit the charts. A major hit in the US and internationally in 1969, the decidedly lo-fi, yet incredibly powerful and inspirational number is one of the great musical moments of the peace and love era (which I’ll have to post here sometime soon).

Flash forward some years later, as a teenager burning the midnight lamp (and whatever else was laying around) I first saw what became one of my all-time favorite music documentaries ‘Celebration at Big Sur’.

A remarkable artifact of the hippie era, ‘Celebration…’ was a film about the 1969 Big Sur Pop Festival which was held at the visually stunning (but wholly unlikely, mostly unsuitable) Esalen Institute on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Featuring a stellar line-up, helmed by Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian and Joan Baez, the film also featured a rousing performance by Dorothy Combs Morrison (as she was billed before and after her secular sojourn) and the Combs Sisters, performing ‘All God’s Children Got Soul’, a minor chart hit 1969, as well as reprising ‘Oh Happy Day’ with an all-star group.

Morrison, possessed of a powerful voice and herself physically stunning (she reminds me somewhat of Teresa Graves) was an ideal candidate for crossover success, and for a short time made the non-gospel rounds, touring the festival circuit, appearing on a number of television shows and recording secular records. She would eventually return to her gospel roots, winning a number of Grammy Awards during the 70s and 80s.

Her 1970 version of ‘Spirit In the Sky’ takes the spacey tempo of the original and kicks it up a few notches, adding a muscular horn section and percussion, making the religious underpinnings of Greenbaum’s version and pushing them to the fore.

The transition of gospel artists into the world of soul was certainly not unique, with countless soul artists having sharpened their instruments in the gospel world (most notably Sam Cooke). The influence of church singing on secular soul is so great as to be practically immeasurable, and the artists that created and then (sometimes) burned bridges – in both directions –  between them are at the heart of a story that someone with a deeper understanding of that world than myself needs to tell.

Not being privy to the intimate details of her career, I wonder if Morrison, who’s husky voice was a powerful and at times deeply sexy instrument, had a greater level of success in the secular world, would have continued on in that direction.

As far as I can tell her secular career lasted about half a decade, including a few 45s on Elektra (including ‘All God’s Children Got Soul’) prior to her 1970 album on Buddah, a 45 for MGM (covering Jackie Wilson on one side and Marvin Gaye on the other) as well as a (now expensive) 1975 45 for Oakland’s Brown Door label, written and produced by none other than Marvin Holmes. A look at the most of the material that she recorded during that period seems to indicate that she never committed to the secular sound completely, always keeping one foot partially planted on the gospel border.

It’s important to note that as far as stylistic influence is concerned, the gate swung both ways. The black gospel world of the 60s and 70s has grown considerably as a genre of importance with funk and soul collectors, and this can be traced directly to the fact that while singing styles were traveling across boundaries, instrumental styles were doing so as well, often in the opposite direction, producing gospel recordings that are, aside from their lyrical bent, unmistakably soulful and funky.

This may have been merely the result of the growth of funk, since its influence can be heard in jazz and rock as well, but it is all the more remarkable when you consider how unusual it is for some to acknowledge the crossover between the sacred and the profane.

The flipside of this record is a cool version of another very interesting song, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill’s ‘Black California’, also recorded a year or so later by Patti Austin.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday with another interesting cover.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, May 8, 2011 7:29 pm

An earlier pic of the Fame Gang, many of whom play on this very 45.

Listen/Download – Muscle Shoals Horns – Breakdown (Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys)

Greetings all.

To borrow a phrase from the mighty Slim Gaillard, the weekend was mellow like a cello, with some unexpected downtime, and some lovely Mother’s day festivities.

As a result I am reasonably well rested, or at least well chilled, so I figured we’d get the week started with something a little hot.

The tune I bring you today is yet another testament to the wonders of Facebook.

I have a plethora groovy friends on the interwebs, many of who are also DJ types or otherwise classifiable as record nerds, and on any given day someone is posting up something cool that I hadn’t heard before, many of which I’ve found myself pursuing so that I would have a copy for my very own.

This is one of those records, and sadly I cannot remembered who posted it, but I do remember where the post led me, which was here (Groovesville USA) where I learned that the record in question was a UK-only 45, which was my jumping off point to finding one for my crates.

Surprisingly enough, that took almost no time and very little money (the perfect combination) and before you know it ‘Breakdown’ by the Muscle Shoals Horns is on the old turntable being digimatized so that I might post it in this space.

The groovy thing about ‘Breakdown’, aside from it’s obvious smoking hot funky disco sound, perfect for the dance floor, is the fact that if you read the label closely enough, or apply your ears just so, you’ll discover that what you are listening to is in fact an instrumental cover of the Equals 1971 ‘Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys’.

The Equals’ OG was itself an important record during the very early days of the discotheque culture in both the UK and the US.

I can’t say for sure how the Muscle Shoals Horns (in actuality the Fame Gang with the horn section leading the way) got their hooks into it four years on, but it does seem that the Bang/Shout label connection probably had something to do with it.

The Bang label had its initial run from 1965 to 1971, with the Equals ‘Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys’ being the last record they released. The label was reactivated in the mid-70s, with groups like Brick and the Muscle Shoals Horns.

‘Breakdown’ was issued in the US on the ‘Born to Get Down’ LP in 1976, and for some odd reason only saw 45 release in the UK on the groovy gold label you see above.

It’s cool that the tune had a second coming of sorts (though it was also covered by NY-area band ST-4 in the early 70s), with an update for the discos.

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

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.