Comments (9)

By Larry, December 26, 2010 1:23 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.91 – Year End Soul!

Playlist

Listen/Download 800MB/256kb Mixed MP3

I hope that everyone is grooving on the good will and brother – and sister – hood of the holiday season.

Obviously not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we can all soak up the peace and goodwill that floats in the ether this time of year.

This has been a big year for Funky16Corners.

The first quarter saw the move off of the free WordPress platform onto our own server space, which – despite any technical limitations yours truly might be encumbered with – worked like a charm.

This May saw the ‘opening’ of the Funky16Corners Soul Club series of live DJ sets, with contributions from lots of groovy people, as well as number of my own sets from various and sundry DJ gigs.

Thanks go out to all of you who once again contributed to the yearly Pledge Drive, which kept the Funky16Corners empire solvent for another calendar year. Your continued generosity makes me glad that I started the blog six years ago. In fact, it just occurred to me as I write this that I neglected to mark the sixth anniversary of the blog this past November.

Such is the chaos of my daily life that I neglected to remember, let alone mark the occasion.

Another groovy milestone that we marked in 2010 was the rebirth/re-engineering of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio. The folks at Viva were nice enough to bump me into a better time slot, and I responded by changing the way I do the show, hopefully for the better. We continue to broadcast every Friday night at 9PM, followed by uploading the show every Saturday so that you fine people can pull down the ones and zeros and append each week’s broadcast to the MP3 delivery device of your choosing.

On the DJ front, I’ve been up to New York City (and will be again on January, 10 2011, watch this space for details), down to Washington, DC (thanks to the mighty DJ Birdman for facilitating the journey). Hopefully 2011 will provide more opportunities for me to pack up my record box and hit the road, and (if all goes well) maybe even the return of the Asbury Park 45 Sessions.

The New Year will also see the return of our sister blog, Iron Leg, where we’re in a 60s pop/garage/psyche bag. Real world commitments caused me to put the blog on hiatus a few months back, but I’ve decided to bring it back – albeit with an abbreviated posting schedule – in 2011. I’ll be posting a year end wrap-up mix today, and regular posts will recommence next week.

So, once again, allow me to say thanks to all of you for stopping by and engaging in our ongoing conversation about music and how it moves us.

Since the fam and I will be out and about visiting family, I’ll be dropping the mix you see before you and taking the rest of the week off.

I’ve gathered the best of the upbeat and funky tracks from the past year and whipped them into a nice little party mix that you can play during your New Years Eve festivities (or whenever you need a lift).

There are lots of faves, plenty of funky rhythms with which to set loose your caboose, and enough grooves to grease your way past Father Time and into 2011.

I hope you dig it, and that you all have a safe and healthy rest of the year.

Peace

Larry

NOTE: There’s no accompanying zip file with this mix, since all of the tracks included have appeared here individually this past year.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (17)

By Larry, November 18, 2010 3:54 pm

Toots and the Maytals

Listen/Download – The Maytals – 54-46 Was My Number

Greetings all.

I sit here at the heart of the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center, while the biting winds of autumn howl outside the window.

I was outside waiting for the littlest Corner to get off the bus, and I was reveling in the cool breeze, bright blue sky and wave upon wave of bright yellow and red leaves blowing around the neighborhood, digging the fall-ness of it all, though dreading that the leaves must eventually be removed, lest the neighbors soil themselves in a rage.

Such is life in the suburbs, where one side of the walls is wailing leaf blowers, and the other is heaps of warming vinyl, providing protection from the elements.

It behooves me to pause here and remind you all that this Friday night at 9PM you should all gather around your computers for warmth for another episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio. I promise you that if funk and soul is your bag, then you will not be disappointed (on account of that’s how we roll).

I will now return to our regularly scheduled post and unleash a killer record for your delectation.

It’s reggae time again (thanks go out to my youngest sister for the inspiration).

If you are not hep to the mighty Toots Hibbert and his faithful Maytals, then I have something for you that will surely be a nice surprise.

I’ll spare you my usual reggae = soul boilerplate*, since of all the soulful singers from that particular genre, none is more so than Toots Hibbert.

Back in the olden days, when I was first becoming wise to the sounds of Jamaica via the Two Tone-rs, the name Toots and the Maytals was one frequently invoked by those in the know. Their songs were covered by the likes of the Clash (Pressure Drop) and the Specials (Monkey Man) among others**.

My first exposure to their music was via comps of ska originals, but the record that really pulled me in was their 1980 live album.

Recorded at the Hammersmith Palais in London, ‘Toots and the Maytals Live’ is as ass-kicking a reggae album as you’re ever likely to hear, with the band at the top of their game, feeding off of the energy of an audience that was clearly in love with their music.

It was on that album that I first heard the song ’54-46 Was My Number’. The tale of Toots being framed and jailed for possession of the lowly collie weed***.

It is a remarkable bit of stomping, danceable skinhead reggae, one of Toots finest, and an all around masterpiece of Island soul.

The original version was released in 1969 on Beverlys (in Jamaica) and Pyramid and Trojan (in the UK), and as far as I can tell did not have a contemporary US release.

Which is where today’s 45 (credited only to the Maytals) comes into play.

Despite some diligent searching I have not been able to find out how this song (and no accompanying LP) got issued as a 45 by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell’s Shelter Records.

Founded in 1970, Shelter had a discography that tilted heavily in the direction of gospel-tinged roots rock (Russell) , blues (Freddy King), pop (Phoebe Snow’s ‘Poetry Man’, probably the label’s biggest hit) and by the mid-70s the proto-New Wave/power pop of Dwight Twilley and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

As far as I can tell, aside from this hard to find 45 (in 1972) , and a two-sider of Funky Kingston and Pressure Drop (which I’ve never seen a copy of) a year later, Shelter never released another reggae 45 or LP in their decade-plus history.

Though I haven’t turned up any specific info on how Toots and the Maytals hooked up with Shelter, my best guess is that is has something to do with Denny Cordell.

Cordell, who hailed from the UK got his start working for Chris Blackwell at Island Records in the mid-60s, and was certainly exposed to the sounds of Jamaica. Whether bringing Toots and the Maytals to Shelter was his idea of a way to test the waters for further reggae releases on the label (which never materialized) I can’t say for sure, but Island would release the ‘Funky Kingston’ LP (an amalgam of tracks released a few years earlier in Jamaica) in 1973, in the US.

Either way, it is indeed a mighty record, and as an object, an unusual footnote to the history of reggae in the US.

Dig it, and I will join you all again on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*Laid out in detail a number of times previously

** 54-46 Was My Number was later covered by Sublime

***Based no doubt on Hibbert’s actual arrest and jailing in 1966

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg

Comments (4)

By Larry, October 21, 2010 9:31 am

Byron Lee

Listen/Download – Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – Who Done It

Greetings all.

The end of a very busy week is here, and so is some music.

I have to start things out with the news that after about three and a half years of posts, my other blog, Iron Leg is going on hiatus.

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and an increasingly busy schedule and the resulting lack of free time finally forced my hand.

I say hiatus – as opposed to a complete shutdown – because I’d like to get it going again some time in the future, but right now, for my own sanity, and for the quality of the blogs, I’m going to take a break.

Funky16Corners, and the Funky16Corners Radio Show are in no danger and will continue on as scheduled.

That said, make sure to tune in this Friday at 9PM over at Viva Radio for this weeks show, which features a tribute to the late, great Solomon Burke.

I’d also like to say thanks (again) to Sean Rowley on the BBC for giving Funky16Corners props on his Joy of Music radio show. I’ve added him to the blogroll, so make sure you take a listen.

All of that out of the way, let’s get to today’s selection.

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires have been featured in this space a few times in the past.

Lee was a producer and bandleader who recorded in a wide variety of island styles, releasing a huge stack of LPs. Many (most) of these were fairly middle of the road affairs aimed at folks flying into Jamaica for rum drinks and suntans, but every once in a while, Byron and his band hit the nail right on its soulful head.

One such example is the track I bring you today, ‘Who Done It’.

Does the title sound familiar?

If so, then the song itself will ring and even bigger bell, since although it’s credited to Jackie Mittoo (and the spelling of the title has been altered), this is clearly a cover of Monk Higgins and the Specialties 1966 R&B Top 40 hit ‘Who Dun It’ (originally released on Chicago’s St. Lawrence label).

While Mittoo had already covered the song on the Coxsone label (where the song is credited to Coxsone Dodd) it’s entirely possible that Lee was unaware of the song’s origins.

Jamaican music of the 60s and 70s is filled with adaptations of American R&B, soul and funk, some presented as a straight cover version, others altered ever so slightly and yet others providing little more than what might be considered a sample in today’s more technologically advanced world.

Lee’s version of ‘Who Done It’ strips away the saxophone that leads the original and appears on the Mittoo version, putting a chicken scratch guitar and organ in its place.

I have no idea who’s playing the organ on this one. If any of you know, please drop me a line.

The result is a great bit of soulful, ever so slightly funky reggae.

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

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg

Comments (3)

By Larry, August 5, 2010 4:33 pm

Junior Murvin

Listen/Download – Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves

Greetings all.
How’s things on your end of the tin can and string device we know as the interwebs?
I’m feeling – in the words of the mighty Slim Gaillard – mellow as a cello, so I figured I’d dip into the reggae box and whip something a tasty on you.

Way back in the olden days, when things were different (and they were, I assure you) a band called the Clash appeared on the scene, and as was my style of the time, I missed the boat.

The only guys I knew in school who dug the band were a couple of prize maroons, whose previous band worship was devoted to KISS (another band I couldn’t stand when I was in high school), and since they were knee deep in their suburban misunderstanding of ‘punk’ as it was, I trusted them not a whit.

My loss…

Anyhoo, a few years later, having been hipped to heavier sounds than the power pop that I thrived on by some cats whose taste I trusted implicitly, I gave the Clash a second chance, and thanks in large part to their reggae stylings, started to dig them, especially an energetic little number called ‘Police and Thieves’.
A few more years down the pike, another, hipper friend informed me that the song I dug was in fact a cover, and the original was by a dude named Junior Murvin.

As soon as I heard the original ‘Police and Thieves’ my mind was good and truly blown.

Where the Clash sounded like a heard of goons hurtling down a rutted street in a rusty city bus, Junior Murvin, ably assisted by the mighty Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, delivered the cautionary tale of the legal yin and yang of street violence on a puffy cloud bank of ganja smoke.

I’ve gone into some detail in this space about my indoctrination into the world of Jamaican music, but one of things I don’t remember discussing, and this is relevant to many other ethnic sounds, is how one must in effect season their ears before some music can be fully appreciated.

Reggae is huge in that respect.

The first Jamaican sounds I heard, weren’t really from the island at all, but rather ska revival records from the US and the UK, which were generally delivered at a breakneck pace. The first time I picked up a copy of ’20 Reggae Classics’ it was like I was a strap-hanger in a subway that suddenly slammed on the brakes. The radical adjustment in tempo, not to mention hearing lyrics delivered in real Jamaican accents and patois was quite literally jarring.

Eventually, I found myself grooving on the real stuff, and while I still dug the Two Tone sound, I now preferred the originals.

Thanks to yet another hip dude, I found my way from ska directly to dub, which made the transition to pure reggae a lot easier, so when I finally heard Junior Murvin singing his original recording of ‘Police and Thieves’ it sounded ‘right’, if you know what I mean, and the Clash, despite all their good intentions, did not.

If you ever get the chance, grab the Lee Perry ‘Arkology’ boxed set that came out a while back, which – in addition to just packing a very substantial helping of his genius – also contains several versions of the ‘Police and Thieves’ riddim, some more dubbed out than others (including the flip side of this 45 ‘Soldier and Police War’ with toasting by Jah Lion).

No matter how groovy the riddim, the real feature here is the vocal by Murvin, who comes on like a Jamaican incarnation of Eddie Kendricks.

Murvin’s original, released in 1976 was a hit in both Jamaica and the UK (there’s a video out there somewhere of Murvin singing the tune on English TV). The Clash followed with their cover a year later, and though they rev it up a notch or two (or six or seven), they also strip away many, many layers of subtlety. Murvin wades into the song gently and his version is a lament, whereas the Clash stomp through the tune with a raised fist.
Reportedly, when Junior Murvin heard the Clash version, he said ‘They have destroyed Jah work!’

The liner notes to ‘Arkology’ include this passage about the creation of ‘Police and Thieves’:

“The vibe of Black Ark studio is like people gather ‘round, everyday it start like ten o’clock in the mornin’, a kerosene pan is on the fire bubblin’ with some dumplin’, an’ some dread over there pickin’ some ackee an’ ting. Everybody throw in a little much to buy whatever we need. A guy might be out there with his guitar, chantin’ and Scratch is inside smokin’ a spliff, tunin’ in to that guy, who doesn’t even know that Scratch is tunin’ in to him. All of a sudden Scratch jus’ come out an’ say ‘Come inside here’. He search an’ find a riddim an’ say: “I hear dat, an’ I hear it on dis riddim!’ That’s how we did ‘Police and Thieves’, Junior Murvin. He was jus’ playin’ it and Scratch immediately came out an’ say ‘Here’s a riddim, let’s do it!’ an’ he do it an’ that’s it.
We were jus’ messin’ around with lyrics and the melody. Scratch say ‘Sounds good.’ He come out an’ decided to record it right away. It was out on the street in a couple of days. That’s the vibe we had at Black Ark – you didn’t have to say tomorrow or nex’ week, you go right now, you sound good, let’s go. It was fun days.” – Max Romeo

Jah work, indeed!

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psychey bluesy garagey stuff.

Comments (15)

By Larry, June 15, 2010 4:26 pm

Dobby Dobson

Listen/Download – Dobby Dobson – Don’t Make Me Over

Greetings all.

Welcome to the middle of the week.
I’d like to get things started by addressing a comment left in a recent post (about the latest episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show) that I was somehow ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’.
This pissed me off for a couple of reasons, First and foremost that I’ve tried to maintain Funky16Corners as a positive site, and would hope that those of you that stop by to participate would honor that concept. This doesn’t mean that I expect a constant flow of praise (or any praise at all…). If I get something wrong, or you really don’t dig what I’m doing, you’re more than welcome to say so. I’d just rather you do it in a constructive fashion.
Not knowing the commenter in question, and considering the brevity and brusqueness of his comment, I can’t be sure exactly what it was that he saw as the “bottom of the barrel”, but since the show remarked about was composed entirely of reggae, ska and rock steady, I’ll go ahead and assume that was the nature of the problem.
The Funky16Corners blog has been around for more than five years (and the web site almost five more years before that) and those of you that have been along for a longer section of the ride already know that the sounds posted and written about in this space might at first appear to be very diverse, but like one of those crazy 3-D magic eye pictures, given the proper amount of concentration, a clearer picture will come into focus.
What you will end up seeing in this case is an illustration of my musical sensibility, at least as it applies to the history of black music in the latter part of the 20th century (and occasionally beyond). Over the years Funky16Corners has featured mainstream soul, funk, jazz, Northern Soul, fusion, breaks and beats, island soul (i.e. all parts of the reggae/ska continuum), library music, funky prog, R&B, all styles of music that have captured my interest over more than 30 years of listening and collecting music, and all connected, whether or not the connection is immediately obvious.
I’ll readily admit that my tastes have not always been so broad, and I also understand that many people come to the blog with much more specific interests. I understand that not everyone is going to dig a record like Judy Street’s ‘What’, or the Horace Andy 45 I posted a few weeks ago, but that’s cool since the interwebs are an unspeakably vast place where you will undoubtedly find something else to listen to until our tastes intersect (as they will inevitably do) once again.
Not everyone digs as many kinds of music (or books, or movies, or TV shows) as I do, but as anyone who knows me well will tell you (especially my wife) my brain is kind of crazy like that, and that I have managed to divert part of my ongoing stream of consciousness in one place as well as I have is something of a miracle (which is why I maintain a second blog).
This also has a lot to do with time. I’ll be 48 years old this year, and thanks to growing up in a house where music was treasured I’ve been listening to, collecting and studying music since I was a kid. While there are people out there that might be able to devote almost four decades to a much narrower focus – something that has produced great scholarship on specific genres of music like jazz and the blues – I’ve spent much of that time following my ears wherever they go. There have certainly been periods of extreme concentration, where I got deep into a specific sound to the exclusion of everything else, but since it’s all about the connections, I always come to a fork in the road less traveled and continue on to something new.
While the focus at Funky16Corners has always been fairly clear, there is hardly a style of music that I don’t listen to. Though the largest part of my collecting is reflected in the music written about here and at Iron Leg, someone getting a closer look at the stuff that lines the walls of the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center might walk away with more questions asked than answered, but that’s OK too.
The tune I bring you today is another Jamaican 45, by an artist that has been featured here once before (as part of Funky16Corners Radio v.74), Dobby Dobson.
I’ve mentioned here in the past that I got into Jamaican music via the UK mod/Two-tone revival of 70s and 80s (though the first ska cover I ever heard was the Hooters version of Don Drummond’s ‘Man In the Street’), and though I’ve come to love later reggae and dub, I always find my way back to ska and rock steady. Though the rhythms were often different, there is no denying that the sounds coming out of Jamaica and the UK in the 60s were anything but another variety of the music we call soul.
Dobby Dobson started recording in the 60s as part of the duo of Chuck and Dobby, and later with groups like the Virtues. He went on to record as a solo artist for a variety of Jamaican labels and producers, eventually working as a producer himself before emigrating to the US.
Dobson’s outstanding cover of the Bacharach/David tune ‘Don’t Make Me Over’ (a 1963 Top 40 hit for Dionne Warwick) is interesting for a couple of reasons. If the organ intro sounds familiar it’s because it’s basically a lift of the melody of the Tornados 1962 worldwide hit ‘Telstar’. How the organist (or producer Rupie Edwards) came to this unusual juxtaposition is a mystery, but ultimately it’s a groove. The song also works really well, lifted from its original off-waltz time arrangement and placed into the chugging rock steady rhythm. Dobson’s vocal may lack the epic scope of Warwick’s original, but that’s cool too since it’s interesting to hear the song delivered from the male perspective.
I haven’t been able to nail down an exact date on this 45 (since it appears to have been released on a few different labels) but it looks to have been recorded in 1969 or 1970.
I hope you dig the tune (and understand where I’m coming from) and I’ll be back later in the week.

Oh, and I assure you, I’m NOWHERE near the bottom of the barrel…

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a most sophisticated TV theme

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (3)

By Larry, June 12, 2010 10:43 am

Greetings all.

Just a note to let you know that last night’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show has been posted as a downloadable MP3 file and is available in the Radio Show Archive. It’s an island soul special, with ska, rock steady and reggae, including many groovy soul covers.

Stop in and check it out.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psyche pop

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (0)

By Larry, June 10, 2010 4:11 pm

Greetings all.

Thanks to some unexpected and decidedly unwelcome crap that just crowbarred itself into my life, I spent the time I’d usually be writing, digimatizing et al, behind the wheel of the Funky16Cornersmobile. As a result the regularly scheduled Friday posts – here and over at Iron Leg – will be preempted.
Fortunately, I have to turn in my Viva Radio shows a week in advance, so the Funky16Corners Radio Show will go off this Friday night at 9PM EST as scheduled.
It’s a good one this week – if I say so myself – with a collection of reggae soul that I think you’ll dig.
Make sure you tune in via the interwebs, and if you can’t, either pick up the stream at Viva afterward, or wait until Saturday and I’ll have the episode archived here for download.
I should be back on Monday.
Until then….

Peace

Larry

PS If you haven’t done so already,now might be a good time to catch up with the F16C Soul Club and archived F16C Radio Show mixes…

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psyche pop

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (2)

By Larry, May 20, 2010 4:10 pm

Horace Andy

Listen/Download – Horace Andy – Show and Tell

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and I’m feeling mellow (as a cello), so I figured I drop some sweet island soul on you.
This is one of those times, where I wish I had a selection of paragraph-long explanations linked in the sidebar, so instead of belaboring a point made in this space several times in the past, I could instead insert a footnote/hyperlink, which – when followed – could present the boilerplate, i.e. a shorthand of sorts.
That system never being put in place, I will instead try to distill the thought into a single sentence:

I love reggae, collect it when I can, but qualify the statement by saying that I in no way present myself as an expert on the subject.

How’s that?
That said (briefly) I recently grabbed a handful of nice reggae 45s, including a couple of nice soul covers. I was tempted to do another all-Jamaican week, but decided against it, feeling it might be cooler to spread out the individual sides over the course of the coming months, including the reggae as a seasoning of sorts.
Though I’ve danced around the idea a little bit in the past, I would say that although there is a stylistic divergence based largely in the rhythms specific to Jamaica and its denizens recording abroad (especially in the UK), much of the music described as reggae, ska, rock steady and what have you during the 60s and 70s is so closely related to (and often derivative of) R&B, soul and funk that it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to just wrap it all up in the same bag, and then to go ahead and slice it up by sub-genre.
There are clear differences, but the roots are in most cases the same, and though it has largely been a one way street (i.e. passing from the US to Jamaica but rarely in the opposite direction) there has been a lot of sharing of material.
Today’s selection is a great example thereof.
Horace Andy is one of the great Jamaican vocalists of the 70s and beyond, having worked and lived in his home country, the US and the UK, eventually working in dub and even triphop, collaborating with Massive Attack.
The song I bring you today is a fantastic, laid back cover of Al Wilson’s huge 1974 soul (and pop) hit ‘Show and Tell’. I haven’t been able to date this recording conclusively, though it wouldn’t seem to be any later than 1981 (when it saw issue on the Studio One label). I suspect it’s probably from a few years before that.
The tune adapts well to the reggae rhythm, with some tasteful, subdued lead guitar moving in and out of the mix. Andy’s sweet tenor – at times lifting into falsetto – is supported by female backing singers. The arrangement is spare compared to the original by Wilson, but since Andy is a completely different kind of singer, it works well.
It’s very groovy indeed and I hope you dig it.

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio this Friday night at 9PM.

Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for another Buffalo Springfield cover

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (9)

By Larry, April 6, 2010 5:29 pm

Funky16Corners After Dark Pt1 – Mixed for Delirious Sunrise

Playlist

Listen/Download 138MB/256KB Mixed MP3

No Zip File

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

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (10)

By Larry, March 25, 2010 4:22 pm

Winston Samuels (left) with Desmond Dekker (center)

Listen/Download -Winston Samuels and the Clintones – Let’s Get It On

Greetings all.

NOTE: In relation to comments on the previous post: If by some chance, you happen to be the world’s most bad-ass reggae collector and find yourself, how shall we say, underwhelmed by this selection, please keep it to yourself.

Thanks – The Mgmt.

Friday is here, and I for one couldn’t be happier. I’m tired (but not sick, thank jeebus), and while my allergies seem to be at bay, I’ve done too much this week, and expect to have to do more before it’s through.
I’ve put together four hours of new mixes, one each for Funky16Corners and Iron Leg (since I’ll be on vacation next week) and a special two-hour radio show that will be dropping early in April (more details to follow).
As a result, my brain isn’t functioning at peak levels (time for an upgrade?), and I’m in dire need of a nap; A really long, quiet, peaceful nap with a soft blankie and a soulful lullaby or two until I drift off to the land of nod.
I’ll try to get this entry typed up and posted before I succumb to slumber, but I can’t make any guarantees, so if it suddenly drifts off into gibberish, you’ll know why.
The tune I bring you today keeps us rooted in the Caribbean, moving northward to Jamaica.
This is one I grabbed last week at the Allentown record show, one of the last 45s I purchased before leaving for home. I was making one last circuit to see what I’d missed, and spied a box marked ‘Jamaican’. It was fairly small, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.
It didn’t.
In addition to the very groovy tune I bring you today, I also scored a longtime want (the Heptones ‘Book of Rules’) taking both home for less than a fiver.
Today’s selection is by an artist that I’d never heard of (thought it turns out that I had in fact heard him) before, but the fact that it was both cheap, and a Marvin Gaye cover (and you know I love me some soulful reggae) made me snap it up.
When I got out to the car and had a chance to give it a spin, I knew I’d made a wise investment.
Winston Samuels (recording here with the Clintones) spent the better part of the 1960s recording ska and rock steady 45s for a variety of labels working with producer Lindon Pottinger, before joining Desmond Dekker and the Aces in 1967. Samuels recorded with, but did not tour with the Aces, reportedly saying that he was unable to fly out of Jamaica because “Rastas did not fly on iron birds”.
I haven’t been able to date Samuel’s cover of Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’, but I would have to assume that it was from 1973 or later, since that’s when the OG hit the charts.
Samuel lays down an excellent vocal over a tasty reggae backing, with some nice organ, sounding like it was written to be recorded in the reggae stylee.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday (posting from the road) with a new edition of Funky16Corners Radio.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psyche pop

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter