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By Larry, July 3, 2011 2:59 pm

Touch

Listen/Download – Touch – Love Hangover (Breaking Down)

Greetings all.

I hope all is groovy in whatever burgh you call home.

The first tune I’ll bring you this week is something very interesting that I happened upon during a recent, unscheduled dig.

A friend had dropped me a line that a local record store had gotten in an interesting collection, but regularly scheduled family stuff precluded a trip over there, so I figured I’d try to get over later in the week.

Then, the following day I had to do some Dad stuff, which just happened to end in the late morning, so I bundled up Thing 2 (the little guy) and took a drive North so that I might paw through the records in the hour before lunch.

Good thing too, because while the collection might not have been spectacular (the really heavy stuff was out of my price range or areas of interest) but I did score a grip of excellent jazz funk for about half the going rate, and a couple of cool looking things that were not familiar, but interesting (and cheap) enough that I figured I’d grab them.

The tune I bring you today was on one of them.

I’d never heard of the group Touch (no relation to ‘The Touch’), but since it was a mid-70s LP on Brunswick that I’d never heard of it definitely piqued my interest.

What really grabbed me though was the presence of a tune on the album entitled ‘Love Hangover (Breaking Down)’. I couldn’t remember who had written the Diana Ross tune, but it had a Jobete publishing credit so I figured it had to be related.

And (you probably figured this out already) it was.

The tune in question was in fact (as described in the title) the breakdown from Diana Ross’s ‘Love Hangover’, i.e. a reworking of the fast instrumental part at the end of her record.

Now, I love the Diana Ross record, but I have to admit that if the song were truncated to remove the first half, I wouldn’t miss it all that much.

That is exactly what Touch did, and their version (which you will hear as soon as you pull down the ones and zeros) is quite good, a little funkier and with a slightly rougher edge than the original.

While I haven’t been able to find out much about the band, the record was produced by disco movers and shakers Tony Valor and Tom Moulton, the first a prolific producer and the second one of the original remix masters.

A little research reveals that Valor had a habit of recycling material, with some of the backing tracks on this album also appearing on a ‘Do the Hustle’ LP, and the only other credits I can find for the members of Touch are on other Tony Valor productions. My best guess is that they were likely his main studio band and either got the chance to make their own album, or were just repackaged as a group out of convenience.

Either way, this track is especially cool, and there are a number of cool tracks on the album that would serve as a great example of a sort of higher level of disco, with thoughtful songwriting and quality playing.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll be back 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 recreational 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.

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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.

Comments (4)

By Larry, May 5, 2011 4:09 pm

The young doctor as intern…

Listen/Download – Mac Rebennack and the Soul Orchestra – The Point

Greetings all.

Following yet another Sisyphean (Sisyphusian?) slog the end of the week is finally upon us.

This has been another one of those weird weeks where any attempt to fall into the lockstep of routine was thwarted by the intrusion of both the necessary and the unexpected.

I had some doctor type ish to deal with as well all that brings with it, as well as the flotsam and jetsam of daily life, including still recovering from vacation.

Despite any number of valiant attempts to switch my mind to cruise control, I was given to contemplation, and came to the realization that despite all my crabbing about how busy I am and haw many things I have to do, I am in the end extraordinarily lucky.

Aside from the obvious (and sometimes not so) joys of married life and fatherhood, I also have the opportunity, via the blog, the Funky16Corners Radio Show (this and every other Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio) and DJ gigs to share the music I love so much with you good people.

Aside from any adolescent aspiration to become a 21st century Hugh Hefner, the fantasy that preoccupied me in the past was to engage in what I just described.

Sure, it probably manifested itself in an image closer to Wolfman Jack in ‘American Graffiti’, howling in the depths of the night while transmitting musical hoodoo over the airwaves, but as I listen (in the furtherance of both quality control and ego gratification) back to the interwebs radio show I put together each week, and then get feedback from folks that actually listen to the show, I get just enough of that spark running willy nilly up my spine and stabbing me right in the old pleasure centers to make do.

The days of the great masters of the ether are long gone, but if I can rub two sticks together and whip up just a little bit of that heat each week, I’m happy.

The tune I bring you today is yet another white whale of mine that I chased like Melville’s crazed mariner for many a year.

I do not recall where Mac Rebennack’s ‘The Point’ first made its way into my earholes, but as I am a connoisseur of both the sounds of New Orleans and the mighty electric organ (Hammond or otherwise), and a devotee of the mighty Dr. John (Mr. Rebennack’s later nom de musique), I did not merely want a copy of this particular record, but rather needed it quite desperately.

While I would not say that the Crescent City is particularly well known for organ 45s, it does have some spectacular examples of the subgenre to its credit, including James Booker’s ‘Gonzo’,  Bo Jr.’s ‘Coffee Pot’, the instro flipside to Candy Phillips’ ‘Timber’ (in actuality a certain Mr. Bocage on the keys) as well as the tune I bring you today.

As the story goes, young Mac Rebennack was set on spending his career squeezing sounds out of a guitar until he got shot in the hand and found his way (thanks be to the strange ways of fate) onto a piano bench. The rest as they say is history, with the good Doctor being one of those cats to whom one might spend a happy eternity listening to as he tickled the ivories. He is part of the long line of masterful New Orleans piano masters that includes Professor Longhair, James Booker and Eddie Bo, and as such probably ought to have a retinue following him around, with someone to hold his drink, another to dust off the keys and yet another to spread rose petals in his path on account of he deserves no less.

That said, ‘The Point’ was waxed in 1962 for the storied AFO (All For One) label, an organization founded as a self-determined black musicians collective. During the label’s original 1961-1963 run they issued just over a dozen singles by artists like Barbara George (with the million selling ‘I Know’), Tammy Lynn, Ellis Marsalis, Prince La La (as in ‘Who Shot the…’) and Willie Tee.

Though ‘The Point’ was not his first 45 (the crazed guitar instro ‘Storm Warning’ came first in 1959) it was his debut as a leader on the keys, and it is a record of singular brilliance.

This is not to say that it is any kind of display of technical virtuosity, but rather a small vinyl artifact that carries in its grooves all manner of soul, menace, night-time atmosphere, up to an including the ability to place in the listener’s mind the image of a young woman in some sort of brief and suggestive (perhaps fringed) outfit shaking (upon a purpose-built, raised platform of some sort) what the gentlemen of the time would refer to as her ‘moneymaker’ (if you know what I mean and I think that you do) in a smoky bar filled with cold beer and broken dreams, and whether or not someone’s out back in the alley turned upside down so that the contents of their pockets might spill out and satisfy a debt matters not because the kid behind the organ and his band (and the young lady) have you hyp-mo-tized with the groove.

It’s that kind of record, and as far as I know Mister Rebennack, either inside or outside his duties as Dr John the Night Tripper never really stepped into something like this again.

The flipside of the record is a nice enough jam, yet it lacks the whiff of eau de roadhouse (though the horns are real nice).

The aforementioned Mr Booker, a renowned master of the 88s also recorded some very tasty organ sides, but they are every bit as elegant and fine as his piano work, which is not a bad thing at all, but compared to the jagged edge of Mac’s sound here is something else entirely.

A very tasty record indeed, and one that filled a miniscule but important hole in my crates. Also a groovy window into the soul of young Mr. Rebennack before the left coast called and he packed up his John the Conqueror Root, Mardi Gras feathers and attitude and headed out to Cali-For-Ny-Yay.

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

Oh, but before I go, you will most definitely want to check this out:

”

Some very groovy folks down in DC and Virginia have put together what promises to be the show of the year under the name the Chocolate City Soul Revue, with performances by Marva Whitney, Martha High, Vicki Anderson, both Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks (?!?!?) legendary James Brown MC Danny Ray, original members of the JBs, the Impressions, and 21st century soul man Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed and his band the True Loves.

I mean, honest to god people, does it get any better than that?

The shindig goes down on June the 4th at the D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.

You can get yourself tickets via Ticketmaster.

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 (0)

By Larry, April 28, 2011 12:01 pm

King Curtis

Listen/Download – King Curtis – Pop Corn Willy
Listen/Download – King Curtis – Patty Cake (Valdez In the Country)

Greetings all.

I hope the end of the week finds you all robust, rosy cheeked and filled to the gills with soul.

I am – as usual – up to my substantial ass in alligators, with an exceptionally busy vacation followed immediately with an equally jam packed week.

I will save my recap of my DJ gigs in Massachusetts (which were a gas) for next week, but I did want to fill out this week’s posting with a very recent acquisition, that has (and this should come as no surprise) an interesting story attached to it.

The first part of our family vacation was occupied with an ongoing, very important errand, and as a result, when an opportunity opened up to do a little on-the-road 45 digging, I was both surprised and very pleased.

I hit a spot in upstate NY, that has – like many record stores that I haunt on the reg – seemed like a case of diminishing returns, i.e., the more I go back, the less there is to look through.

This time out was a different story, and by the time I had worked my way through the soul and funk section I had built up a nice stack of 45s to peruse, including some new (to me) stuff, one longtime want list item, 45 versions of things I previously had only on LP, as well as a couple of nice items for the trade box.

Among the new things was a King Curtis 45 with two tracks that were both previously unknown to me.

The one that caught my eye was ‘Pop Corn Willy’, which seemed – thanks to the mention of the funky snack food in the title – to be part and parcel of the 1969 dance craze.

Once I got it to the listening station, my suspicions were confirmed. It was extremely funky, and fast moving, and I gave it a spin when I took to the decks in Northampton, MA.

‘Pop Corn Willy’ is one of those cheap 45s that would likely be worth a nice chunk of change if it were rarer.

I gave the other side a brief needle drop, but since it didn’t grab me right away, I didn’t give it much thought.

When we finally returned home, and I got all my ducks in a row – including the acquisition of a brand new DJ coffin (not something you bury a DJ in, but rather a road case for two turntables and a mixer) – I sat down to digimatize the new records so that I might include them in next week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show (which by the way will air, on schedule, this Friday evening at 9PM on Viva Radio), I decided to give the King Curtis flipside a closer listen, and it’s a good thing I did too.

When I put the needle on the record, the song coming out of the speakers was pleasant enough, but after about 20 seconds it started to sound oddly familiar, and by the time the chorus rolled around I realized that although the song was titled ‘Patty Cake’, what I was actually hearing was a version of one of my favorite Donny Hathaway tunes, ‘Valdez In the Country’.

I’d first heard the song in a cover by the Soulful Strings, then by Hathaway himself, and eventually in a smoking version by Cold Blood.

The thing that bugged me though, was why it had been recorded by Mr Ousley under a different title.

As it turns out, this may very well have been the initial waxing of this composition. Hathaway himself (credited here, oddly as ‘Don Hathaway’) wouldn’t record it until 1973 on his ‘Extensions of a Man’ LP, after the Soulful Strings, Cold Blood, Nite Liters and Black Sugar (it would later be covered by George Benson).

As it turns out, the keyboardist on this session (recorded in August of 1969) was none other than Hathaway himself*, which would explain where King Curtis got his hands on the song. I don’t know for sure, but it’s possible that Curtis changed the title (the song would only appear on a non-LP 45) in an effort to keep it simple for the juke boxes and the dance floor. It’s also possible that it had yet to take on the ‘Valdez…’ title (I’ve never been able to discover the origin or significance of the title), though the Soulful Strings version, also recorded in 1969 carried the longer title.

That all said, it’s a great song (one of my favorite instrumentals), and I hope you dig it.

Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*Interestingly, Hathaway also plays on (as well as produced and arranged) the Cold Blood version, and may very well have had something to do with the Soulful Strings version as well. He was clearly proud of the composition and did a lot to get it out there.

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, April 14, 2011 10:30 am

The Spellbinders

Listen/Download – Spellbinders – Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again)

Greetings all.

The end of what turned out to be a spectacularly busy week (the kind where I had to start writing things down so as not to forget to do them) has finally arrived. While I’m bushed, I’m also all revved up because this Saturday night I’ll be spinning at the Subway Soul Club.

This is going to be an especially groovy night for a few different reasons.

First and foremost, I hear that the crowd at Subway Soul likes to get out on the floor and dance, and I dig nothing more than spinning soul 45s for dancers.

Second, I’ll be spinning alongside two legendary NY area selectors, those being my old Asbury Park 45 Sessions cohort the mighty Connie T Empress, and Subway Soul resident, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus.

If the names above don’t signify the presence of the hottest soul records available, then you have not been paying attention.
A very solid time is guaranteed for all.

Assuming that I make it home from Brooklyn on Sunday morning, the fam and I will be heading out for some vacation-style action, which will be capped off at the end of the week by two more gigs in western Massachusetts.

Since I’ll be away for the week I’ll be posting a live set from last week’s Spindletop on Monday, along with all the details of next week’s gigs, so stay tuned.

I should also mention that this Friday at 9PM the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the crackling airwaves of the intertubes for another session of the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on vinyl. Make sure you stop by Viva Radio, or fall by the blog on Saturday to pick up the MP3 version of the show.

The tune I bring you today is most definitely going to be making the trip up to Brooklyn with me on Saturday.

My acquisition of the Spellbinders ‘Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again)’ is yet another one of those twisted tales that winds its way back to the big mountain of 45s that came into my life lo these many years ago.

I’ve gone on about it many times, so I’ll keep it short. My father-in-law, while out scouting for antiques happened upon a huge stash of 45s, called and asked if I wanted them (naturally I said yes) and then brought them down to our house.

When they got here I was stunned by the sheer quantity (several thousand), and my wife and I spent the better part of a summer going through them, pulling out the stuff I knew was good, culling the stuff I knew was bad, and trying to figure out the difference on everything else.

Thanks to the huge amount of records, this proved to be an inexact science, and in addition to several boxes of the good stuff, I ended up with a couple of hundred things that at least looked interesting (or too interesting to throw out) and I’ve been picking at those ever since.

Every once in a while, when I have a little time on my hands I head back into those boxes, and recently such a trip resulted in one of the great ‘how the hell did I miss this?’ moments.

I must have given the Spellbinders 45 a spin at some point (since I had it filed as ‘soul’) but I suspect that I only listened to the other side (‘Danny Boy’), since it did not make a significant impression on me, which, had I listened to today’s selection, would not have been the case (am I making any sense here?).

That said, when I did drop the needle on ‘Help Me (Get Myself back Together Again)’ I was immediately drawn in by the wonderful intro, with the bass, vibes and percussion, followed immediately by the drums bringing in the pounding four on the floor beat. The rest of the record is pure Northern Soul genius, combining a great song, stellar arrangement and production (by Van McCoy) and fantastic vocals by the group.

What little I’ve been able to find out about the Spellbinders is that they were only together for a few years, recording a handful of 45s and an LP for Columbia (and one 45 for Date), with ‘Help Me…’ being issued as a non-LP 45 in 1966.

The group also had New Jersey roots, which is always a cool thing (for me) to find out.

I’m just thankful now that this 45 didn’t languish for another few years, or get sucked back into the vinyl maelstrom forever.

If you come out to Subway Soul, stop by the booth and say hi.

Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, 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 (9)

By Larry, March 27, 2011 1:48 pm

Miss Della Reese

Listen/Download – Della Reese – It Was a Very Good Year

Greetings all.

How’s by you?

All is as well as can be expected on my end of the interwebs.

The weekend was relatively uneventful, and despite anything the calendar says, Spring has yet to arrive in any real way.

I should mention that I have a couple of very groovy DJ gigs in the pipe, details to follow soon.

I’m not going to be able to make it to the Allentown 45 show this year, but I don’t really mind.

The vinyl gods have been good to me these last few months, bringing in all manner of cool stuff, including a couple of longtime white whales, as well as a bunch of low priced, but uniformly excellent groovers.

I’ve also been edging up to the second big push in the reorganization of the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center, which always yields cool stuff from deep in the crates that had been unjustly neglected.

I just dug out a groovy Northern 45 last week that I had either forgotten about – or more likely – had not listened to closely the first time I found it. I like when stuff like that happens.

The tune I bring you today is one of the aforementioned white whales, which I chased like Ahab for a long time before finally landing it late last year.

When you mention the name Della Reese to folks, the reaction you get depends on generational variables.

Folks my parent’s age remember her career as a pop/jazz vocalist that produced a couple of big hits in the late 50s.

Younger folks will remember her mainly as a TV actress, on shows like ‘Touched By an Angel’.

Sit down with a couple of hip DJs, and you very well may hear tell of a lesser known, but truly interesting part of her career, when despite a lack of commercial success she managed to make some very soulful, very danceable records.

Back in the early days of the blog (2005) I featured one of these sides, Ms. Reese’s excellent take on Gene McDaniels’ soul jazz epic ‘Compared to What’, recorded for AVCO in 1969.

The tune I bring you today hails from 1966, and like that session was made with jazz trumpeter Bobby Bryant (search the F16C Podcast Archive for some of his groovier tracks) and his band.

The tune ‘It Was a Very Good Year’, was written in 1961 by Ervin Drake. It was originally recorded by the Kingston Trio, but the song will forever be identified with Frank Sinatra, who recorded – and had a hit with the song – in 1966.

The Sinatra version is a doleful lament, sung by an old man looking back on his life.

Della Reese’s version is a radical reworking of the song, both lyrically (she embellishes the verses) and stylistically. Arranged by Bryant, the song is recast as a funky, hard charging cri de coeur, less wistful than the musical equivalent of a fist in the air. Reese sings the song like someone who despite a colorful past, is looking forward to bigger and better things.

Her vocal is powerful, often sounding as if she was testing the limits of the recording equipment.

The band is on fire, with a pumping Hammond and remarkable drums. The recording has a very hot sound, and the snare and kick drum are – next to Della – the loudest things on the record.

This is one of those records that would have languished in obscurity, had it not been revived by DJs on the jazz dance scene in the UK. It has become increasingly popular with funk and soul DJs, and was reissued by the Jazzman label (with a live version on the B-side).

As far as I can tell, this version is not in print on CD and the 45 can be quite expensive, so unless you need one to play out, slip the ones and zeros on your pod-like-thingy and dig.

See you on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, 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 for some late period British Beat.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 20, 2011 1:45 pm

The Velvelettes

Listen/Download -The Velvelettes – A Bird In the Hand (Is Worth Two In the Bush)

Greetings all,, and welcome to the working week.

Before I get started I want to remind you that I’ll be spinning 45s at Spindletop @ Botanic in NYC Monday night (3/21) starting at 10PM. If you’re within driving distance, try to fall by and say hello. It’s a very groovy scene that Perry Lane has going there, and you could spend your Monday night doing a lot less interesting things than getting down to rare soul with a delicious cocktail in your hand.

The tune I bring you today is one of my favorite 45s by my all-time favorite Motown group, the mighty Velvelettes.

Interestingly, though this is the very first thing I ever heard by the group (on a late 80s Motown Rarities comp) it’s the last 45 of theirs I found, picking it up on the cheap at one of the Asbury Lanes record shows.

Formed in the early 60s as the Barbees, then changing their name and releasing their first VIP 45 ‘Needle In a Haystack’ in 1964, the Velvelettes – working almost exclusively with the legendary Norman Whitfield – recorded only five 45s during their existence. That these are uniformly excellent, representing the best that the Motown girl groups had to offer explains why I dig them so much.

Though most civilians have probably heard a Velvelettes song or two (possibly via the wan Bananarama cover of ‘He Was Really Sayin’ Something’), their 45s are coveted by soul fans, who recognize a great record when they hear one.

Their material was written by a Who’s Who of Motown greats, including Whitfield, Eddie Holland, Mickey Stevenson, Sylvia Moy, Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua, and though the group only managed minor hits, as I said, the few records they made are unbeatable.

The tune I bring you today, 1965s ‘A Bird In the Hand (Is Worth Two In the Bush)’ is a storming dancer with a typically fantastic vocal by Cal Gill. It’s worth checking out for the bass line alone, which pretty much drives the record. I really dig the way the intro builds its power as well.

It’s always worth mentioning how good a singer Gill was, especially since when you ask most people, the female singer on Motown they remember is Diana Ross, probably the weakest vocalist in their stable, behind powerhouses like Martha Reeves, Brenda Holloway, the alternating leads of the Marvelettes, and ultimately the mighty Gladys Knight.

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

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, 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 for some Laurel Canyon cool from Mama Cass.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 13, 2011 3:04 pm

Haiiiiii-YA!

Listen/Download -Jimmy Ruffin – 96 Tears

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end.

Before we get started this week, I would like to let you know that the entire Funky16Corners clan will be walking in the 2011 Monmouth/Ocean County POAC (Parents of Autistic Children) Walk for a Difference on April 2, 2011.

As you may have gleaned via mentions here over the past few years, or by the prominent link in the sidebar, my wife and are the proud parents of two sons with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We are extremely fortunate that they are both high-functioning, and all-round wonderful kids.

We are also very lucky to have an organization like POAC operating locally. They provide information, training for professionals and parents, as well as a wide range of activities for the kids.

The walk (held again this year at the local minor league baseball park) raises money to help make sure that POAC can continue providing much needed services to the kids and their families in our communities.

If this sounds like something you can get behind, click on the this link (or the logo above) and you will be taken to a secure donation page for the team we’ll be walking with and donate whatever you can afford.

Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated.

That all said, how about some music?

While I’ve known of Jimmy Ruffin since I was a kid (who among us hasn’t heard his 1966 hit ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’?), and later learned that he was the brother of David Ruffin of the Temptations, I never knew much beyond that.

Then late last year I’m out digging and what should I pull out of a moldy box but an LP with Jimmy Ruffin on the cover whipping a little soulful martial arts on the kids.

That album, 1968’s ‘Ruff’n Ready’ was initially of interest because it contained his version of one of my favorite Motown cuts, ‘Lonely Lonely Man Am I’, also recorded by the Velvelettes (as ‘Lonely Lonely Girl Am I’, by far the finest version of the tune) as the Temptations.

When I got the record home and gave it a spin, I discovered that among its many treasures was a smoking cover of Question Mark and the Mysterians ’96 Tears’.

The tune, a grungy epic in its original Mich/Mex garage-a-delic form has been covered a number of times – seldom successfully – the finest (that I’d heard before) being Big Maybelle’s recording on Rojac.

Interestingly, most of the material on ‘Ruff’n Ready’ wears the influence of 1968 on its sleeve, moving in a vaguely funky direction, yet ’96 Tears’ sounds like it could have been recorded two years before, with a pulsing, almost Northern beat, opening with one of those patented Funk Brothers snare/rack-tom combos that adorn countless Motown recordings.

It is very groovy indeed, highly danceable and manages to do justice to the OG.

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

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 1, 2011 1:09 pm

Callen Radcliffe Tjader

Listen/Download – Cal Tjader – Gimme Shelter

Greetings all.

I hope all is well in your neck of the interwebs.

I mentioned in Monday’s post that I had a rather interesting weekend (or more specifically, Saturday) and that I’d fill you all in today.

This is the kind of tale that some would be tempted to refer to as a comedy of errors, but since it was all error and extremely light on the funny, I will refrain from doing so.

The day started out on an optimistic note when my lovely wife informed me that instead of taking my son to a birthday party, I could instead head up to Jersey City for the Record Riot.

This was very groovy, so I got my record bag and some crumpled up dollars, hopped in the Funky16Corners-mobile (a major player in this story)  and hit the road.

Now, I haven’t spent a great deal of time in Jersey City since the days of visiting my brother there when he lived there almost a decade ago*, but I know some folks who live in the area, and was expecting to see some of them at the show (hey, Pat).

I got up there (about a 90 minute trek) and the first thing I noticed was that seemingly every other street sign in the city had been removed, making it extremely hard to locate the record show.

When I finally got there (the show was being held in a studio space behind a big shopping center) I ended up circling the area looking for what ended up being a non-existent parking space, eventually deciding to park in a lot that appeared to be shared by the shopping center and the light rail station (I should note here that not being a complete numbskull, I did survey the area for anything that would indicate that parking was prohibited. I did not see anything, and the proximity to the rail station now leads me to invite both the city of Jersey City, and the fine people at BJ’s Wholesale Club to go fuck themselves**).

There were no yellow curbs, no fire hydrants and the car was parked between two painted white lines, a tableaux that immediately brought to mind the time worn phrase, “parking space”.

I went into the show, which though not spectacular (very short on 45s) managed to yield some cool stuff.

I figure I was in there for about an hour, at which time I decided that I’d spent enough money and headed back to my car.

What I soon discovered was that I was in fact walking back not to my car, but rather to the spot where my car HAD ONCE BEEN.

Now I’m a big dude, but I am not too big to admit that my initial reaction came perilously close to tears.

I’m not sure how long I stood in the empty, oblong spot that once harbored my car, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before a tow track came tearing into the lot and started backing up to the car in the spot next to mine, preparing to take it away.

I banged on the window of the truck and discovered in short order that he had just finished taking my car to the impound lot. He also pointed out the small sign that I had missed that not only indicated this was an area where parking was prohibited (unless of course you were a customer of the warehouse store, and given the opportunity, I would have gladly gone inside and purchased a palette of toilet paper in order to bypass the towing nightmare), but was also courteous enough to include a schedule of penalties as well.

I was momentarily relieved that my car had not (technically) been stolen.

That didn’t last long.

He agreed to take me to the lot, and informed me that I would have to cough up 225USD, but there was an ATM machine right by the place.

Now, when I tell you that the further we got from the record show, the more bleak the landscape got***, I am not exaggerating.

When we got to the block where the lot was he instructed me that I’d have to walk a few blocks to the bodega where the ATM was located.

When I got there (after being yelled at by a guy across the street who apparently didn’t think I belonged in the neighborhood) I discovered that the door to the bodega was locked. The gentlemen at the gas pumps – after initially ignoring me  – eventually let on that their benefactor was likely indisposed on the bowl and would be returning in a few minutes.

He materialized shortly and let me into the store where I immediately withdrew cash from the machine, all the time wondering if I was going to be able to make it back to the garage without getting robbed.

The fact that I’m writing this now should indicate that I did in fact get my car back and made it out of the city in one piece.

I was shaken, but not because Jersey City was any more dangerous than any other city but because it was utterly unfamiliar.

Having Google Maps at your disposal makes it much easier to get to a destination, but is no help at all in granting egress once someone has made off with your vehicle.

I’ve spent a lot of time in New York City over the last 30 years, and were the same situation to occur there, it wouldn’t bring with it the immediate sense of disorientation I felt in JC. I also suspect that it would be much more difficult (and expensive) to get my car back in NYC, but that’s neither here nor there.

Needless to say, I will not be returning to Jersey City any time soon, unless of course one of you good sports offers to drive, in which case I’ll be glad to wait at the record show while you retrieve your vehicle from the impound lot.

That all said, I was planning on posting today’s selection long before the above events transpired, but once again, a more superstitious individual would see this song choice as the hand of fate at work.

I on the other hand am more inclined to attribute the whole clusterfuck to Murphy’s Law, and the coincidental song selection to its inherent high quality.

I can’t recall where I first heard Cal Tjader’s amazing cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ but I do remember digging it immediately.

Getting my hands on my own copy wasn’t quite so easy, but as is often the case time, luck and a little bit of money took care of that.

If you’ve spent any amount of time here (or more specifically in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive) you already know that I am a huge fan of the vibes in general, but most especially Mr. Tjader.

He was a master of Latin jazz, branching out into exotica and what would become known as rare groove.

Tjader’s version of ‘Gimme Shelter’ appeared on his 1971 ‘Agua Dulce’ LP, during a period where electric instrumentation (aside from his own vibes, natch) were taking a more prominent place in his band. Here you get synthesizers (employed tastefully), electric piano and the master himself working it out.

I think a few years ago if you’d suggested to me that a song like ‘Gimme Shelter’ would have worked within Tjader’s style I would have reacted with suspicion, but as the cats in the powdered wigs liked to say, the proof is in the pudding.

While much of the chaos and menace of the Stones**** version are missing, Tjader’s interpretation still has a certain something that comes on almost like a distant echo of the original.

Groovy indeed, and I hope you dig it.

With any luck I will avoid tragedy until I return on Friday.

Peace

Larry

* A time when his car was stolen from in front of his apartment.

** Though I’m sure there are those among the towing service sector who like to think of themselves as providing some kind of public service, I prefer to think of their business as a unique combination of car theft and extortion. The fact that the tow truck driver was a creep on a whole other level didn’t do anything to change this opionion.

*** Aside from travelling down one street where I had a perfect, almost poetic vista of the Statue of Liberty

**** Or Merry Clayton’s

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Comments (4)

By Larry, February 23, 2011 10:42 am

Spindletop Northern Soul Pt2

Henry Lumpkin – Soul is Taking Over (Buddha)
Bob and Earl – Harlem Shuffle (Marc)
Sam Dees – Lonely For You Baby (Soul City RE)
Dean Courtney – We Have a Good Thing (RCA)
Barbara Banks – River of Tears (Veep)
R. Dean Taylor – There’s a Ghost In My House (VIP)
Billy Butler – I Bet You (Brunswick)
Betty Lavette – Feel Good All Over (Calla)
Fantastic Johnny C – New Love (Phil L.A. of Soul)
Bob and Earl – Dancing Everywhere (Mirwood)
Velvelettes – Needle In a Haystack (VIP)
Dean Parrish – I’m On My Way (UK)
Royalettes – Out Of Sight Out Of Mind (MGM)

Listen/Download -F16C Spindletop Northern Soul Pt2 – 59MB Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

Strap yourselves in because Part 2 of my live set from this past Monday’s Spindletop is here and it is packed from end to end with what the kids like to call ‘stormers’.

That’s right, solid, fast moving soul for the dance floor with the pounding drums, honking sax-o-mo-phones, ringing vibes, poppy hooks and of course soul clapping.

This is yet another half hour (in a series of four, like a smaller but much more tuneful set of encyclopedias) with several indisputable classics of this or any other genre, some even rising to the level of ‘anthem’.

As I was motoring around this morning, running my errands and what not I was listening to this very mix in the automobile, and as is often the case when I hear a record that means a lot to me, I start running through the rolodex in my big juicy brain (zombies beware), remembering where and when I first got my hands on some of these.

The other night I was talking to my man Perry Lane about how my musical sensibility was formed, especially in regard to soul music.

Unlike some folks, my musical tastes were not formed from whole cloth, arising suddenly like a volcano in a corn field.
As I have mentioned in this space countless times, the number one influence, especially when you’re talking about love of music in general is my father.

A teacher and musician, he always had music in the house and encouraged all of his children to be involved in music, whether it was by playing an instrument (which we all do with widely varying degrees of facility), singing around the piano at family gatherings or just plain listening, which when you’re talking about music is really the basic building block.

After that, I think about all of the people that have influenced me directly or indirectly over the years, sharing their musical passions with me as I have with them.

Big ups go out to my Mod soul brothers, Mr. Luther and Haim who first hepped me to countless amazing records.

Thanks also to the many DJs I have either spun records with or just befriended over the vast expanses of the interwebs.

First and foremost, the Asbury Park 45 Sessions crew (and the many guest selectors that have come to the Lanes to spin with us), DJ Prestige, Prime Mundo, M-Fasis, Bluewater, Devil Dick, and Jack the Ripper have packed a serious amount of musical knowledge and taste into the years we’ve been DJ-ing together. Not a single AP45 night has gone by without several new records being added to my want list. There never a shortage of lively discussion. It’s almost like an Oscar Wilde salon had been repopulated with wild-eyed, bearded, tattooed freaks, all clutching boxes of 45s in one hand and beer in the other.

Down in DC my man DJ Birdman – another cat who’s friendship dates back to the mod/garage days – has been a huge influence on the way I listen to disco and 70s soul.

Dudes like Mr. Finewine, Perry Lane, Agent 45, Tony C – as well as various and sundry members of the Soulstrut crew – have all turned me on to amazing music.

All it really takes is someone whose taste you hold in high regard to tell you ‘Check out this record’ and before you know it you’re off on a new tear.

Any fool can work their way through the internet and pick through set lists to see what records are popular, but it also takes a sense of what’s good (i.e. taste) to add records to those lists. It takes an overwhelming curiosity, and enough of a love of what you’re doing to keep digging.

Anyone that tells you they know everything about music, or have heard all the good records, is either 200 years old, or more likely, full of shit. Without generosity, humility and passion, and the excitement that comes from sharing good music, this all wouldn’t mean much.

That and having a wife and kids that love you enough to put up with having a whole room in their house devoted to records.

So dig the music, and pass it along so someone else can dig it too.

See you tomorrow with Part Three.

Peace

Larry

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Comments (8)

By Larry, February 10, 2011 2:46 pm

Sam Dees, truly lonely…

Listen/Download – Sam Dees – Lonely For You Baby

Greetings all.

I’m gonna start things off  by telling you that you really should tune in to this week’s Funky16Corners Radio Show, Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. I have concocted an hour’s worth of the hottest soul party 45s, so what you need to do is put on your dancing shoes, tuck into the intoxicant of your choice (if that’s how you roll, since these 45s are so powerful getting oiled up might be interpreted as overkill), roll up the carpet and grab yourself a partner. I guarantee a good time.

As is always the case, I have something of a story to tell, so I figured I’d close out the week with something interesting (which also happens to be a monumental soul 45).

Sometime last year a reader sent me a message that the old Funky16Corners organization had been getting props on Sean Rowley’s ‘Joy of Music’ show on the BBC.

I tracked that week’s show down, gave it a listen and was pleased when Mr. Rowley had some very kind things to say about the blog.

That, though, is neither here nor there, but it does get us to the point I’m trying to make.

When I clicked on the link and started to play the show in question, the very first song he played knocked me flat on my ass.

I gave it a second listen, and then decided that I really ought to keep listening to the show to find out what this record was.

When Mr. Rowley announced the name Sam Dees and the title ‘Lonely For You Baby’ I opened up another tab on the browser and set out into the wilds of the interwebs to see if I might procure a copy of this wonderful record for my own.

Unfortunately I discovered in rather short order that ‘Lonely For You Baby’ is as rare as it is kick-ass, ranging in price from three to five hundred dollars (sometimes more).

Now I have spent a great deal of money on records over the years, but never that kind of scratch on a single 45 (or dozen 45s for that matter). In fact, I question the sanity of anyone spending five hundred smackers on a single record. Even the most rarified items on my want list ( a couple of soul, funk and psyche 45s) couldn’t get me to pony up that kind of dough.

I have a wife, kids, and surprisingly enough a conscience, all of which prevent me from indulging in that particular variety of insanity.

This is not to say that there are people that would question my sanity in this regard (on both sides of the issue, i.e. some suggesting that my limits are too high, as well as those for whom expenditures in that league are common), but I have decided that no matter how much a 45 blows my mind, nothing so fleeting is worth that much, at least to me.

That said, thanks to a fair amount of record nerds who operate in the same way – whether by choice or necessity – there has been for decades a brisk market in vinyl reissues.

And I’m not talking about 180g audiophile nonsense for someone to unsleeve with kid gloves and place on their scientifically engineered, space age turntable in their gold lined listening cave, but rather records (mostly 45s) pressed up and sold to DJ types so that even though they have not been lucky (or rich) enough to find an original copy of a record like ‘Lonely For You Baby’, they still might have a copy of same in their record box that they can whip it on folks on the dance floor of their choice.

The really interesting thing (at least to me, once again record nerd related) is that some of these reissue 45s themselves become somewhat rare.

Nothing like several hundred dollars rare, but much more than the seven to ten dollars they initially sell for.
You tend to see a lot of this in the Northern Soul market, so much so that I have several UK-only repressings of records (some obviously so, others pressed to fool the less discriminating among us*) dating back to the very early 70s, a time when a number of 1960s soul records reentered the charts in England, thanks to the soulies.

The tune I bring you today only set me back around 20 bucks, but not only is it worth every copper penny and more, but it carries with it another interesting tidbit.

Back in the day (that being the 60s), a very tasteful and prescient chap named Dave Godin – verily the godfather of soul music in the UK (who would also go on to give name to the Northern Soul phenomenon) –  opened a record shop by the name of Soul City.

Before long, Soul City also became a record label, founded with the express purpose of issuing hard to find US soul sides in the UK market. Between 1968 and 1970, Soul City issued a few dozen 45s in the UK (including Chuck Edwards ‘Downtown Soulville’, a Soul City issue of which holds a special place in my crates), at least one of which, Gene Chandler’s ‘Nothing Can Stop Me’ made it onto the UK charts.

It’s important to note that what labels like Soul City, Mojo and Action were doing wasn’t really “reissuing” records in the commonly understood sense, but rather pressing what were by and large contemporary (within a year or two) issues of records for the overseas market. Many US record companies either had their own UK/Euro subsidiaries or licensees, but sometimes it took folks like Dave Godin to see the value in (or at least the demand for) a more obscure US record.

At some point**, someone (I’m not sure who, since Godin passed away in 2004) reactivated the Soul City imprint, using the same basic logo and color scheme and started reissuing 45s, which is where this particular pressing of ‘Lonely For You Baby’ comes from.

Now,  the record itself is undeniably a wonder.

‘Lonely For You Baby’ was Sam Dees’ debut 45, recorded in 1968 for SSS Intl.

The record opens with a hypnotic drum and bass riff that lulls you into submission, and before you know it your feet start moving, your hips start swaying and then Dees’ vocal and the horns come in and the record (and the listener) really blasts off.

Dees’ vocal is incredible, and the arrangement is a marvel of powerful simplicity. Though you really only heard the bass, drums, piano and horns (and the barest bit of rhythm guitar) there’s a serious amount of rhythmic propulsion here, so much so that ‘Lonely For You Baby’ is a big fave with the dancers on the Northern scene.

Dees only recorded this one 45 for SSS Intl before leaving, going on to record for Lolo, Chess and eventually Atlantic. Dees eventually worked mainly as a producer and songwriter, penning hits for a number of other performers, the biggest being Larry Graham’s recording of ‘One In a Million You’.

I hope you dig the tune (I’m sure you will) and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*The John Manship record guide includes a marking indicating whether or not a record has been bootlegged. There are a LOT of them

** As far as I’ve been able to tell this pressing is between 10 and 15 years old.

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Comments (2)

By Larry, February 8, 2011 3:28 pm

Listen/Download -Sebastian – Living In Depression

Greetings all.

I hope you are all well.

This has been a busy week, but what might be described as ‘good’ busy, as opposed to up to your ass in hungry, snapping alligators i.e. ‘bad’ busy. I have a lot on my plate but it’s the kind of stuff that keep things moving forward in a positive (if incremental) way, so I think I can dig it.

Everyone has their own pile of responsibilities, some more pressing than others, and naturally the quest is always to find a way to balance it all, keep your life in between the lines and maybe, just maybe squeeze a little enjoyment out of the process.

So far, so good.

The tune I bring you today is something that I happened upon (as is often the case) via another collectors ‘finds’s list. The collector in question was someone who’s taste I hold in very high regard, and his description of the disc was so intriguing I set out to find myself a copy.

The acquisition thereof was both rapid and financially painless, which is more than I can say for the quest for information that followed.

The groovy thing – once the record fell through the mail slot – was that it was immediately apparent that ‘Living In Depression’ was in fact a vocal laid over the top of Little Royal and the Swingmasters funk 45 classic ‘Razor Blade’.

I set off in search of info, and found almost nothing, except for an intriguing scrap of info that placed Sebastian in Virginia.

That was months ago, and I found nothing else, so I moved the track to the back of the line and went on about my bid’ness.

So, I was dipping back into the reservoir and decided that I’d make another run at this track, and lo and behold I discover that the fine folks at the Funky Virginia blog had laid out the whole story in detail, so allow me to direct you over there for all of the pertinent info.

The track does suffer a little bit from a bad mix (especially in the beginning), but if you dig ‘Razor Blade’ as much as I do, I think you’ll enjoy hearing it laid down as a vocal.

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

Peace

Larry

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 for some late-60s LA rock.