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By Larry, April 7, 2013 1:14 pm

The Drifters

Listen/Download The Drifters – If You Don’t Come Back

Greetings all

I have something very cool to get the week started.

To repeat a story that has been told here many times (in many ways) before, I first encountered the song I bring you today in a much different form.

Thanks to my time as part of the 80s mod/garage scene, and due to the fact that I had friends with xcellent musical taste and healthy record collections, I first heard a grip of R&B and soul songs as filtered through the prism of the British Invasion (R&B, beat, mod etc).

More often than not, the distance between the original presentation and the cover was fairly small, i.e. white acts trying to replicate the sounds they heard on imported 45s and LPs as closely as possible.

Occasionally, that distance was expanded considerably.

The first time I heard ‘If You Don’t Come Back’ it was via the 1968 psyched out cover version by Gary Walker and the Rain.

The Rain was Gary Walker’s band following the dissolution of the Walker Brothers, and included in its ranks guitarist Joey Molland who would later go on to join Badfinger.

Their sole LP ‘Album #1’ – only ever legitimately released in Japan, but heavily bootlegged – is one of the truly great psych albums of the day.

That said, I always dug ‘If You Don’t Come Back’ but it was years before I discovered that it was a cover of a record originally recorded by the Drifters in 1963.

Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and recorded not long after they started working with the Drifters, ‘If You Don’t Come Back’ has lyrical echoes of the kind of tunes the pair had been recording with the Coasters.

Leiber and Stoller manage to take a song that would have worked in a more humorous setting with the Coasters, and tone it down a little, giving the Drifters record (with a lead vocal by Johnny Moore) a bit of an edge.

It’s one of the rougher, more soulful things the Drifters ever laid down, with a great guitar/horn riff repeated in the verse and some cool group harmonies in the chorus. The lyrics are brilliant.

“Well a noise woke me up this morning
I looked through the venetian blind
The car was gone and you were gone
And I almost lost my mind

If you don’t come back
If you don’t come back today baby, well
They can call up the people from the crazy house
And take this crazy man away

I threw myself up against the wall now
I tore my clothes and I sobbed
I ran out on the street in my stockinged feet
Calling “Police, I been robbed!”

Chorus

Mrs Brown been talking about me
To the people way across the street
Said “I cooked that boy a bucket of stew
But the poor thing just won’t eat”

Chorus

Well the doctor came up to see me
Check me with a fine tooth comb
You ain’t sick, but you’re gonna die
If you don’t get your baby back home

Interestingly, there’s a fantastic version of the song by an earlier British group. The Undertakers (featuring Jackie Lomax) recorded a blistering cover of ‘If You Don’t Come Back’ (billed as the ‘Takers) in 1964. Whether or not this was the version that inspired Gary Walker and the Rain, I cannot say, but it is certainly worth hearing.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

PS Please to forgive the roughness of this 45. The person that sold it to me had an odd way of grading records…
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, April 4, 2013 11:34 am

Ingfried Hoffman aka Memphis Black aka The Memphis Soul Band

Listen/Download Memphis Soul Band – That’s Me Boy

Listen/Download Memphis Soul Band – Mrs Robinson

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and that means it’s Funky16Corners Radio Show time again. We take to the airwaves of the interwebs every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If your ears aren’t available then, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 out of the archive here at the blog.

The tracks I bring you today are yet another example of the pseudonymous work of Teutonic Hammond wrangler Ingfried Hoffman.

You have already sampled his work when I posted ‘Why Don’t You Play the Organ Man’ by Memphis Black a few years ago.

Hoffman, who worked in the band of saxophonist Klaus Doldinger before creating the Memphis Black persona (one 45 and an LP under that name) recorded the tunes you see before you today under the name of the Memphis Soul Band in 1969.

Working again – as he did as Memphis Black – with expat guitarist/vocalist Joe Quick, Hoffman laid down some very groovy covers of contemporary soul material, as well as two originals in the same basic style.

Hoffman went on to record a number of library titles, and the Memphis Soul Band sides bear the same, hard charging, au go go vibe as much of the UK-based material in the same vein, such as the Mohawks (or any Hawkshaw related jams) or the New London Rhythm and Blues Band.

The first cut, ‘That’s Me Boy’ opens with a spoken intro by Quick, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense no matter how many times I listen/re-listen to it. That said, once Hoffman drops in the band kicks into a very cool groove (the horns are especially nice).

The second cut, a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’ hews pretty closely to the Booker T and the MGs take on the song but kicks up the tempo a notch. This is one of those tracks that seems purpose built for the Mod dance floor.

If you desire to place any of Hoffman’s vinyl in your own crates, the Memphis Soul Band LP is probably the most affordable option running 30 or 40 bucks in good shape. The Memphis Black 45 on Ascot is much harder to grab, hovering in the$100 range, with the German issued Memphis Black LP (on Sunset) grabbing $50 more than that (though it has been reissued).

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, March 21, 2013 11:42 am

Funky16Corners Presents: Soul Version

Jackie Mittoo – Hip Hug (Coxsone) – Booker T & The MGs
Gaylettes – Son of a Preacherman (Steady) – Dusty Springfield
Dobby Dobson – Don’t Make Me Over (Pama Supreme) – Dionne Warwicke
Federalman – Soul Serenade (Steady) – King Curtis
Ken Boothe – Gonna Take a Miracle/Version (Hulk) – Royalettes
Winston Wright – Heads or Tails (Green Door) – Booker T & the MGs
Lorna Bennett – Breakfast In Bed (Harry J) – Dusty Springfield
Byron Lee – Who Done It (Dynamic) – Monk Higgins
Pioneers – Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Trojan) – Temptations
Horace Andy – Show and Tell (Money Disc) – Al Wilson
Pat Rhoden – Living For the City (Attack) – Stevie Wonder
Byron Lee – Shaft (Dynamic) – Isaac Hayes
Winston Samuels and the Cintones – Let’s Get It On (Clintone) – Marvin Gaye
Byron Lee – Hot Reggay (Dynamic) – James Brown
Shark Wilson and the Basement Heaters – Make It Reggay(version) (Ashanti) – James Brown
Pat Rhoden – Boogie On Reggae Woman (Horse) – Stevie Wonder
Alton Ellis – La La Means I Love You (Mr Tipsy) – Delfonics
Tomorrows Children – Sister Big Stuff (London) – Jean Knight

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents Soul Version – 109MB Mixed MP3/256K

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your side of the universe, and that you’re all ready for the weekend.

Don’t forget that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 (or two, or 100) out of the archive here at the blog.

The fam and I are taking some time off to chill in the coming weeks (which will be filled with specially selected reposts of some of my fave tunes from the archives) so I figured I’d leave you with something special until I’m back behind the keyboard again.

The mix you see before you is the fruit of what I like to call one of my “special boxes”.

The Funky16Corners record vault is lined, floor to ceiling (in some places) with crates of LPs and boxes of 45s, and sprinkled liberally with a grip of those old-timey, pasteboard, 45 carrying cases.

As pretty much any collector does, I grab those cases wherever I find them, first and foremost because they’re cool looking, but because – and I’m pretty sure you figured this out already – I’ve got lots and lots of 45s that need a place to stay.

I mentioned the “boxes” before, those being the purpose-made 45 storage boxes that hold over 100 discs each. There are lots of those.

However, my collection has its niches, certain sub-genres, not collected as aggressively as others (for a variety of reasons, though usually boiled down to issues of availability), and many of these niches get packed away in those smaller boxes.

There’s one for disco 45s, one for rockabilly/instro 45s, and the one that gave up today’s sounds, the reggae and ska 45s.

I’ve been a huge fan of ska and reggae since I was in high school, when the Two-Tone revival was in full swing and I was led by bands like the Specials to investigate the first-wave of ska, going back to the mid-60s.

It would be fair to say that the bulk of the ska and reggae in my hands is on CD, especially old comps and the later (excellent) Trojan mini-box sets.

However, I’m always on the lookout for Jamaican vinyl, often seeking out favorite records (some of which – Winston Wright, Pioneers, Shark Wilson – are in this mix) and grabbing cool stuff whenever I encounter it in the field.

As the contents of this mix show, I’m a big fan of reggae covers of American soul tunes, of which there are many.

The groovy  thing – and something I’ve discussed in this space before – is that despite the stylistic delineation, what you’re hearing is still demonstrably soul music (albeit with a reggae beat).

The influence of American R&B and soul on Jamaican music is undeniable, with many powerhouse AM radio stations, in cities like New Orleans and Miami sending out American pop to the islands.

What you hear isn’t mere “coverage”, if you will, but rather some truly great singers like Ken Boothe and Alton Ellis, and instrumentalists like Winston Wright, Jackie Mittoo and Byron Lee, interpreting some of the finest material available at the time.

Soul Version is composed of just about an hour of my favorites, running (like my personal tastes) from sweet soul, to organ instrumentals, to funk and just a touch of dub.

Many of these records have appeared here at Funky16Corners over the years, either by themselves or in mixes.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all soon.

Keep the faith

Larry

PS I just realized I took a picture of the wrong Pioneers 45…sorry ’bout that.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 19, 2013 11:14 am

Nu Sound Express Ltd

Listen/Download Nu Sound Express Ltd – I’ve Been Trying

Greetings all

The tune I bring you today is both a very groovy cover, as well as a neglected b-side.

Back in the day, when I was first tracking and bagging soul and funk 45s, the Nu-Sound Express Ltd were one of the first big scores.

This is not to say that any of their records are big-money hustlas (to borrow a term from our insane friends) but rather that at the time, they were a group both obscure and excellent when my crates were not heavily burdened with same.

There isn’t a lot of information out there on the group, but what is available suggests that they were from New Jersey, and were associated with Jersey City impresario Paul Kyser.

Kyser had produced acts like Jimmy Briscoe and the Little Beavers, Sound Generation, the Super Disco Band, Calender and the band that Nu Sound Express would morph into a few years later, Rhyze.

Nu Sound Express Ltd recorded two cool 45s, both for the Silver Dollar label (at least one of which was issued in Europe – with a cool picture sleeve – on the Discophon label) in the early 70s.

The a-sides of their 45s, ‘Ain’t It Good Enough’ and ‘One More Time You All’ were both cool examples of uptempo early 70s funk (the second being a ‘sequel’ of sorts to the first).

The tune I bring you today is the flipside of ‘Ain’t It Good Enough’, and if you didn’t recognize the title, also a cover of the Impressions 1965 Top 40 R&B hit ‘I’ve Been Trying’.

It took me a few years to warm to this side, first and foremost because back then I wasn’t grooving to too many ballads, but also because it has a certain loose, almost lo-fi feel to it.

The impression I get is that Kyser blew most of the budget on the A-side, leaving the group with a much sparer palette with which to work.

What you get is a touch of street corner harmony, with a spoken intro and low key instrumental backing (with a slightly out of tune piano). The cool thing is that the singing is very nice indeed, with a refreshing lack of slickness that sets it apart from almost everything else that was happening at the time.

‘I’ve Been Trying’ is a throwback to an earlier time and an interesting contrast to the funk of its flip.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, March 12, 2013 11:54 am

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

Listen/Download Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – People Get Ready

Greetings all

Here’s an odd one.

Many, many moons ago I was out digging and happened upon the 45 you see before you today.

When I saw a version of ‘People Get Ready’ by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee I had to double check and make sure it was in fact the Curtis Mayfield song.

Indeed it was.

This was a record that cried out for further investigation, and since it was on sale for a shiny United States quarter, I paid the man and brought it home, where it languished for a good long time.

When I first recorded it I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were known mostly as a folk blues act, having joined forces for the first time in 1942.

McGhee, the singer and guitarist (brother of Stick McGhee of ‘Drinkin’ Wine Spo-dee-o-dee’ fame) had played with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and followed/studied with Blind Boy Fuller.

Harp player Sonny Terry had been accompanying Fuller until the latter’s death, after which he teamed up with McGhee.

Now, I mentioned that Terry and McGhee were best known (to me, anyway) as folk blues players, but as it turns out, they spent the early part of their career working at a more popular/mainstream success. They recorded jump blues and R&B under a few different names during the 40s and 50s, only really getting firmly into their better known bag riding the wave of the folk/blues revival in the late 50s/early 60s.

When I first listened to this version of ‘People Get Ready’ I was surprised by the arrangement, in which Terry and McGhee change the tempo, moving away from the gospel feel of the original (and many ensuing covers) and settling into a rootsy, ever so slightly funky groove that reminds me of some of Taj Mahal’s ish from around the same time.

As it turns out the single was pulled from the 1973 LP ‘Sonny and Brownie’, which featured an all-star backing group (Arlo Guthrie, Sugarcane Harris, John Mayall, Michael Franks) and a variety of contemporary covers, including Randy Newman’s ‘Sail Away’, a couple of Franks’ songs and some originals.

As I said before, the re-arrangement might see a little jarring at first, but after a listen or two it starts to make complete sense (at least to me, your mileage may vary…).

Something unusual to feed your ears in the middle of the week.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 5, 2013 12:53 pm

The Staple Singers (l-r) Cleotha, Pops, Pervis and Mavis

NOTE: a reader says that I have the family members
misidentified in the picture above. Can anyone confirm this?

Listen/Download Staple Singers – For What It’s Worth

Greetings all

Got a little sad news last week when word came down that Cleotha Staples, the eldest of the singing siblings had passed away at the age of 78 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Staples, the soprano of the group – alongside sister Mavis, brother Pervis (who left the group in 1968) and father Roebuck ‘Pop’ Staples – may have taken the lead only rarely, but her voice was an important part of the group’s wall of sound (perhaps a more apt use of that colloquialism). There are few things in music as powerful as the sum of several strong voices and the Staples were mighty indeed.

Though there were countless soul singers that got their start and training singing gospel in church (many often recording gospel before working in the secular realm), the Staples were already a famous gospel group prior to their huge crossover success with the Stax label.

Though they had recorded folk/protest material before, their cover of the Buffalo Springfield’s hit ‘For What It’s Worth’ (originally posted here in 2009) probably seemed like bold and unusual choice.

The original version had been a hit in January of 1967 (recorded just a month earlier), as a reaction to the Sunset Strip riots.

The Staple Singers version came out in September of that year, and despite the LA country rock roots of the song, they did a little k-turn and drove it right through church.

Opening with Pops Staples’s unmistakable, Delta-soaked guitar, the group harmonies – soaring over a simple drum and handclap rhythm track – have a richness and power that make the record (in no way a popular success) a landmark of sorts.

As I wrote in 2009, ‘For What It’s Worth’ has a broad enough reach to transfer easily from the youth culture to the civil rights movement seamlessly.

The Staple Singers recorded for Epic from 1964 to 1968, when they made the move to Stax, having their first big hit with ‘Heavy Makes You Happy’ in 1970. They had their last hit in 1984 with a cover of the Talking Heads’ ‘Slippery People’.

Following the death of Pops Staples in 2000 (the year after their induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame) the group disbanded. Not long after that Cleotha developed Alzheimer’s, leaving sister Mavis the only remaining performing member of the family group.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, March 3, 2013 11:51 am

The Magnificent Men

Listen/Download The Magnificent Men – Peace of Mind

Listen/Download The Magnificent Men – Just Walk In My Shoes

Greetings all

The tracks I bring you today are a perfect example of how you can hear about a group, circle them warily for years – suspecting lameness – and then finally giving in and discovering how wrong you really were.

I do not recall when I first heard of the Magnificent Men, but I suspect that I saw one of their albums while digging in the NJ/PA area, where their vinyl is plentiful.

Back in the day, what I saw was a bunch of straight-looking white dudes recording soul music, something which set off my (poorly calibrated) bullshit detector, and in the absence of a portable turntable, remained dollar-bin flotsam and jetsam.

Then – as these things often go – a few years back someone whose taste I trust posted a track by the group, and my large ears finally unfurled to the goodness of the Magnificent Men.

Had I dug a little bit, I would have realized that the Magnificent Men, formed as the Del-Chords, hailed from the unlikely soul music hotbed of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (the Emperors, Intentions, the Soulville label).

Led by vocalist Dave Bupp, the Magnificent Men were a lot more than your run of the mill “R&B-influenced” white band of which there were so many at the time.

They were first and foremost self-contained, i.e. vocalists/musicians capable of writing and performing their own (excellent) material.

They played many of the best known black venues of the day (including the Uptown in Philly and the Apollo in NYC).

Between 1966 and 1970 (by which time their sound had changed considerably) the Magnificent Men recorded three albums for Capitol and one for Mercury.

The first two, ‘The Magnificent Men’ and ‘The Magnificent Men: Live’ are the ones to look out for.

The tracks I bring you today come from that first, self-titled LP.

The first track, the original ‘Peace of Mind’ is one of the great blue-eyed soul tracks of the 60s, a great harmony showcase for the group.

Dave Bupp has said that ‘Peace of Mind’ was written with Walter Jackson in mind. Considering how evocative the record is of the Carl Davis/Okeh sound, this makes a tremendous amount of sense.

Though ‘Peace of Mind’ wasn’t a hit, its high quality is testified to by the number of cover versions of the tune. There are versions by Skip Jackson (on Capitol), Jerry Butler (Mercury), The Players (Minit), and the Royal Five (Arctic) – all of which can be heard on Youtube.

The second song – ‘Just Walk In My Shoes’ – was a recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1966 and is rightly hailed as a classic of dance floor soul.

Written by sisters Kay and Helen Lewis – two jazz/pop singers who also wrote tunes for Marvin Gaye, the Miracles and Edwin Starr, as well as recording a pair of their own 45s for the VIP label – ‘Just Walk In My Shoes’ is delivered with a lot of verve by the Magnificent Men, and I think it stands up well next to the original.

Oddly enough, as well-remembered as the Magnificent Men are (especially amongst soul fans), they seem to have made their mark mostly as a live act. Their chart impact was minimal, and almost exclusively in the mid-Atlantic region. They never hit the R&B charts (at least nationally).

They had the good fortune to have had their album arranged/conducted by Horace Ott and Sonny Sanders, and I think their music holds up remarkably well.

All of the Magnificent Men albums can be picked up on iTunes, and – if you’re digging in the Northeast, anyway, most of their vinyl is fairly easy to come by.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 26, 2013 1:06 pm

Cal Tjader

Listen/Download Cal Tjader – Evil Ways

Listen/Download Cal Tjader – You Keep Me Hangin’ On

Greetings all

Though you have most certainy seen his name and heard his music in this space many times before, like Jello, there is always room for Cal Tjader.

Tjader, master of the Latin vibes (does it get any better than ‘Soul Sauce’?) is one of those artists that is an automatic pick-up, as in I’m out in the field flipping through albums and I see see a Tjader LP that I don’t already have, it goes right onto the keeper stack.

At this point, there aren’t too many from his Verve era and after that I don’t have.

That said, a few years back I was down in DC and I managed to score two longtime Tjader wants, i.e. ‘Cal Tjader Plugs In’ (gotta have that groovy cover of the Banana Splits theme) and the disc you see before you today, entitled simply ‘Tjader’.

At first glance, Tjader’s Fantasy catalog can get a little confusing, since it bookends his time with Verve and the short-lived Skye era. You get all of the early, mambo grooves, and then some later, extremely rare groovy ish like his cover of ‘Gimme Shelter’ and the album from which we draw today’s selections.

The two cuts I bring you today are a very tasty version of the Willie Bobo (though known to most by Santana) tune ‘Evil Ways’ and a trippy excursion into the Supremes ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’.

‘Evil Ways’ is a smooth groover, with some organ and horns stating the theme, before Cal drops in with vibes, handclaps and timbales (a breakdown very much like the one in ‘Soul Sauce’) and goes to town. There’s also a nice organ solo.

‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ gets a pretty straight ahead dancefloor treatment, until about halfway in, when things suddenly fade out and then back in again with some far out synthesizer, back out again and then right back into the original groove. It’s an odd arrangement for Tjader, and a little late in the game in 1971 (as are some of the other covers on the album, including two Donovan songs), but I can’t complain.

It’s a strong album, and surprisingly hard to come by.

I hope you dig the sounds.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 24, 2013 2:55 pm

Funky16Corners Presents: No Bad Trip – Black Wah-Wah 1969-1974

Magictones – Good Old Music (Westbound)
Doug Anderson – Hey Mama Here Comes the Preacher (Janus)
Earth Wind and Fire – Bad Tune (WB)
Bloodstone – Bo Diddley (London)
Bo Diddley – Pollution (Chess)
Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching for Soul Pt2 (Mutt)
Nat Turner Rebellion – Plastic People (DelValiant)
Fantastic Epics – Fun and Funk Pts 1&2 (Tories)
Jackson 5 – I’ll Bet You (Motown)
Eddie Bo and the Soul Finders – The Rubber Band Pt1 (Knight)
Young-Holt Unlimited – The Devil Made Me Do Dat (Cotillion)
Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela Pt2 (SS7)
Jimmie Preacher Ellis – I Gotta See My Baby (Round)
The Eight Minutes – Here’s Some Dances (Jay Pee)
Fugi – Mary Don’t Take Me On No Bad Trip Pts1&2 (Cadet)
E. Rodney Jones, Larry and the Hippies Band – Right On Right On (Sex machine) (Westbound)
Brothers of Hope – Nickol Nickol (Gamble)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents No Bad Trip – 109MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

The mix you see before you is another one of those jams that I previewed on Mixcloud for a while before whipping it on you here at the Corners.

Though you may recognize a couple of the tracks as things you’ve seen here in the past, No Bad Trip is one of those things that was bouncing around in my head for a good long time, taking form gradually,adding tracks here and there as I remembered something groovy that fit just right. It was revised and reworked a few times until I thought I had happened upon the perfect admixture.

The overall feel – as it were – is one of the time after psychedelia and all of its practical trappings – wah wah pedals, echoplex and freak flags of all varieties hoisted high – began to make their way into black music.

Though there were other people of color getting heavy at the time, much of this can be traced directly to the dayglo doorstep of Jimi Hendrix – with the Experience and Band of Gypsys – as well as Sly Stone,  Funkadelic, Norman Whitfield and any other artist during that time period liberally mixing psychedelics into their funk and vice versa.

This is really a story of “gates swinging both ways”, with all manner of “you got your funk in my rock”, “but you got your rock in my funk” going on, as well as an expression of the general eclecticism of the time, with African sounds making themselves heard with Joe Simon and Earth Wind and Fire, the evolution of Bo Diddley from old-school charger into fairly convincing new-style far outness and the explicit psyche out of Fugi.

As your physician I strongly recommend that you ingest this mix through headphones of some kind, so that you don’t miss any of the sonic goodness.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 21, 2013 11:07 am

Lou Bond

Listen/Download Lou Bond – That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be

Listen/Download Lou Bond – To the Establishment

Greetings all

This is the end of another week, so it is – as always – time to remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show. It airs this and every Friday night at 9pm on Viva Radio, and can be subscribed to as a podcast in iTunes or picked up as an MP3 here at the blog.

I was saddened the other day when word came down the line that Lou Bond had passed away.

Bond (born Ronald Edward Lewis) , who in his short career laid down just two 45s and one amazing LP is less a “cult” artist than an unjustly/tragically forgotten one.

Bond recorded two very cool 45s in 1966 and 1967 while in Chicago (rooming with none other than Sidney Barnes!), the groovy midtempo ‘What Have I Done’ for Fontana and the uptempo Northern flavored ‘You Shake Me Up’ for Brainstorm.

He recorded his only LP, the self-titled ‘Lou Bond’ for the short-lived Stax subsidiary We Produce in 1974.

‘Lou Bond’, which was reissued by Light In the Attic in 2010 (there was a brief digital reissued by Stax prior to that) is a truly remarkable piece of work.

Record collectors/music hounds are constantly bombarded with “lost” albums and rediscoveries that – following the flavor of the month pattern – are often less interesting than they first appear.

‘Lou Bond’ is a rare and powerful exception to that rule.

I first heard about the record years ago when it was popping up with regularity in ‘finds’ lists on a message board I used to frequent.

I finally got my hands on a copy of the album back in 2007 and had my mind blown.

Though he was unmistakably a soul singer, one need only look at the pictures of Bond on his album cover to get the message that he was in other bags as well.

Bond was starting off in a soul groove, but also mixing jazz, folk and contemporary pop into his sound.

‘Lou Bond’ draws from a wide range of influences, most notably Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes, but also a variety of early 70s singer songwriters (soul and non).

It’s important to note that among the album’s six tracks, three of them were written or co-written by Bond, the other three being covers of songs by Bill Withers, Carly Simon and Jimmy Webb.

The album moves effortlessly between intimate moments and lush orchestration, with Bond touching on love, the environment and politics.

The two tracks I bring you today are my favorites from the album.

I’ve always found Carly Simon’s ‘That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be’ to be one of the most haunting and uniquely dark singles of the early 70s. Bond’s take on it rinses out some of the darkness, replacing it with a hopeful tone (due in large part to a short, spoken prelude).

The eleven-minute-plus ‘To the Establishment’ bears the influence of Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, with Bond taking things in a looser, free-form direction that might almost be described as a hippie vibe.

Both tracks are solid stylistic indicators of the sounds that can be found on the rest of the album.

The big mystery in relation to Bond has always been two-fold.

First, how did Stax/We Produce decide to let an unknown commodity like Bond stretch out like he did, with the backing of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra?

Second, why didn’t an album this good make a bigger impression?

The answer to the first question may very well be that this was 1974, and record companies were still taking chances like that all the time. Bond was prodigiously talented, and it’s not hard to imagine someone hearing Bond singing his (and others) songs and handing him a blank check.

The answer to the second question probably has something to do with the impending collapse of Stax.

Bond was already on one of the most sparsely populated Stax sub-labels. We Produce only released albums by three artists – the Temprees, Ernie Hines and Bond, releasing a 45 by one additional artist – Lee Sain (who brought Bond to the attention of Stax), at a time when when the mothership was spreading itself mighty thin.

As far as I can tell ‘Lou Bond’ was poorly promoted/distributed, and Bond himself had to contend with the fact that the concept of a black singer/songwriter (outside of the accepted funk/soul mold) was not an easy fit in the musical landscape of the time.

The sad fact is that after his one LP, Bond never recorded again.

His music was sampled a number of times (by Outkast and Prodigy among others), and the Light In the Attic reissue brought his amazing talent back into the light of day.

If you get the chance, check out the nearly hour-long interview (audio) with Bond posted at the Light In the Attic web site.

You can still get the Light In the Attic reissue (with bonus tracks) on iTunes. If you dig what you’re hearing here today, I assure you that you’ll like the rest just as much.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 12, 2013 3:38 pm

Frank Wilson – Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
Charlie Rich – Dance Of Love
Darrell Banks – Our Love Is In the Pocket
Jackie Wilson – I Get the Sweetest Feeling
Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – Lover and a Friend
Charlie Earlands Erector Set – Cherie Amour
JJ Barnes – Hold On To It
Spinners – Sweet Thing
Sand Pebbles – Love Power
Platters – Sweet Sweet Loving
Lee Dorsey and Betty Harris – Love Lots of Lovin’
Len Barry – I Struck It Rich
Producers – Love Is Amazing
Lee Williams and the Cymbals – It’s Everything About You That I Love
Broadways – You Just Don’t Know Good You Make Me Feel
Velvelettes – Since You’ve Been Loving Me
Soul Brothers Six – Your Love Is Such a Wonderful Love
Wilson Pickett – Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Valentine’s Mix: Dance of Love – 86MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

What you see before you is a mix i put together last year at this time in celebration of love, especially mine for my wife, who was going through an especially rough time in regard to her health.

I am very happy to say that this Valentine’s Day her health has improved dramatically, thanks to a stem cell transplant she received last Spring (make sure to click on the Be The Match link at the end of any F16C post for more information about how you can help).

This mix is filled with dynamite soul including a couple of huge faves of mine (and yours, I hope).

Give it a spin and tell someone you love them.

I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 10, 2013 1:20 pm

Miss Amanda Ambrose

Listen/Download Amanda Ambrose – Gimme Shelter

Greetings all

Welcome to another week in the land of vinyl.

I drop those three genres because they all have a hand in the tune I bring you today.

Anyone fairly deep (or maybe not so deep) into the soul/funk record collecting ‘thing’ will have crossed paths with singers who (like Amanda Ambrose) made their bread and butter in the world of jazz, but crossed over (for whatever reason) into a grittier sound.

Here at Funky16Corners I’ve featured music by artists like Nina Simone, Irene Reid, Gloria Lynne, and others who felt the need – whether artistically, commercially or both – at some point in their career to step outside of the world of jazz (or bring it with them into another context).

More often than not – as long as the material and delivery were on point – the results ended up being quite groovy.

This is not suggest that singing jazz and soul are interchangeable disciplines (they are not) but rather that one would expect a jazz singer to at the very least bring a level of technical facility to the table.

Whether or not they were able to deliver the goods once they got there was another question entirely.

Someone like Nina Simone – though often thought of as a jazz singer – spent her entire career moving fluidly between genres.

Others – like Amanda Ambrose – had common gospel roots with most soul singers of the classic era, and that tied things together on another level.

Born in St Louis in 1925, Ambrose spent the early part of her career recording jazz for small labels (though she did an album for Dunwich in the mid-60s).

Her storming take on the Rolling Stones ‘Gimme Shelter’ was recorded for Bee Gee records in 1973.

I know little about the label, other than that it seemed to specialize in funk and soul.

Where Merry Clayton’s better known cover of the song remains in the stylistic orbit of the original, Ambrose’s take on the tune has the feel of a Leon Russell session, with a pounding rhythm section (especially the piano) and powerful horns.

Ambrose’s vocals are equally powerful and it’s a shame that this record didn’t catch on with a wider audience, though by 1973 this sound was on its way out.

She passed away in 2007 at the age of 82.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.