Category: Otis Redding

Funky16Corners Radio Show Episode #488

By , October 20, 2019 11:40 am

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Show #488. Originally broadcast 10/14/2019

Jerry O – There Was a Time (White Whale)
Enoch Light and the Light Brigade – Hot Pants (Project 3)
Otis Redding – Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag (Volt)
Truman Thomas – Cold Sweat (Veep)

Rodge Martin – Lovin’ Machine (Bragg)
Soul Continentals – Bowlegs (SS7)
Count Rockin’ Sidney – Dede Dede Da (Goldwax)
Little Milton – Grits Ain’t Groceries (Checker)

Isley Brothers – Seek and You Shall Find (Tamla)
Isley Brothers – Take Some Time Out For Love (Tamla)
Gene Barge – Fine Twine (Checker)
Marie Knight – Cry Me a River (Musicor)

Billy Clark and his Orchestra – Hot Gravy (Dynamo)
Lewis Clark – Dog (Ain’t a Man’s Best Friend) (Brent)
Eddie Bo – Every Dog Got His Day (Ric)
Merritt Hemmingson – Pata Pata (Camden)
Ricky Allen – Skate Boogaloo (Bright Star)
The Ultimations – Would I Do It Over (Mar V Lus)

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Greetings all

This week’s Funky16Corners Radio Show starts out with a set of James Brown covers, then moves on into a wide variety of hard hitting soul, Hammond grooves and even a bit of the sweet stuff!

So dig it, make sure to tune in, and I’ll see you all next week.

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

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F16C – Soul the Vote – Keep On Keepin’ On

By , November 3, 2016 12:04 pm

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Funky16Corners: Keep On Keepin’ On

Woody Herman – Fanfare for the Common Man (Fantasy)
Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together (Glades)
Staple Singers – Step Aside (Epic)
NF Porter – Keep On Keepin’ On (Lizard)
Odetta – My God and I (Polydor)
Diamond Joe – Fair Play (Minit)
King Curtis – For What It’s Worth (Atco)
William DeVaughn – Be Thankful For What You Got (Roxbury)
Joe South – Games People Play (Capitol)
Brenda Lee- Walk a Mile In My Shoes (Decca)
Cymande – The Message (Janus)
Jimmy Cliff – The Harder They Come (Island)
Sly and the Family Stone – Stand (Epic)
Gladys Knight and the Pips – Friendship Train (Soul)
Lee Dorsey – Yes We Can (Polydor)
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – People Get Ready (A&M)
Curtis Mayfield – We’re a Winner (Live) (Curtom)
Otis Redding – Change Is Gonna Come (Volt)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners: Keep On Keepin’ On 115MB Mixed MP3

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Greetings all.

This is a heavy one, so strap yourselves in.

I have taken time to address social/political issues a few times over the years, including Presidential elections, mid-terms and police violence.

Funky16Corners has never been primarily concerned with such matters, but there is no escaping the fact that when dealing with black music created during the classic soul era, you are listening to sounds forged on the anvil of the civil rights era.

I used to assume that anyone with a love for this music would understand how much racism, violence and the struggle to defeat both had to do with the music I feature here, but sadly I have discovered that this is not always true (like every time I post something along these lines).

This year’s election is starkly different from those of the past for several reasons, but first and foremost because of the rise of Hate (you didn’t think I was going to do him the honor of using his name, did you?).

Hate is an existential threat to this country, not only because he leads the Republican Party, which has been doing everything in its power to hobble government and its capacity to do good for the last four decades, but because of the poisons that he has stirred into the process.

Hate has taken the GOP’s once (barely) covert flirtations with racism, sexism, religious hatred, xenophobia and anti-government zealotry and placed them front and center, making them the core elements of its campaign for President.

Mirroring similar right wing movements around the world, Hate and the Republicans have taken advantage of anger and anxiety over the death of white hegemony and tossed gasoline onto a smoldering fire, making legions of hateful, scared (and often well-armed) people comfortable speaking the unspeakable and acting on those same fears and hatreds.

This, combined with horrifying levels of voter apathy, a dying press and the rise of an electronic media that further truncates the shortened attention span of a growing number of people, has allowed a media virus with an utter lack of competency, intellect, empathy or history of public service a chance to lead this country.

And if the only problem was that he was unqualified, it would be bad enough, but he is a singularly horrible person. Dishonest, arrogant, hateful, racist, sexist, vain, and patently incurious about anything that doesn’t satiate his base desires for social and sexual domination, further inflate his diseased ego, or add more money to his bank account.

He professes business acumen, yet leaves in his wake countless lawsuits, multiple bankruptcies, as well as scores of unpaid vendors, and his refusal to honor traditional levels of financial disclosure suggests that things are even worse than they seem.

There are those that would have you believe that the rise of Hate can be tied to the slow, painful death of the middle class and the loss of manufacturing jobs in this country, yet he has provided no evidence that he knows how to fix the problem, and has very likely contributed to it.

Every election is important, but this one is especially so. It is the very definition of a tipping point, as well as a defining moment in the history of the United States.

This is the moment when we discover if the American Experiment has failed, and if we as a people have any interest in the continued existence of the nation, or if we simply wish to burn it to the ground.

The time to realize that your vote is not merely a method of personal expression, but a mark of participation in a democracy, in which we strive to cooperate with our fellow citizens to honor the sacrifices made for this country, demonstrate the humility needed to admit to, and correct the mistakes made along the way, and the strength and vision to make this union a stronger one.

The key word in that last paragraph is one we don’t hear very much these days: humility.

Webster lists the simple definition of the word as “the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people”.

We are fighting to demonstrate that humility is a possibility, and a crucial part of a democracy. We are faced with a force to which humility is anathema, seen not as a strength, but a fatal weakness. A force that wields nationalism/jingoism as a hammer with which to smite their enemies, real and perceived.

But unless we can show that we are capable of humility, by owning up to the dark chapters of our history (and our present) we will never be able to face down Hate.

No matter how much these people struggle, white superiority will die. It’s only a matter of when, and how much damage is done as it claws its way down the drain.

We need to remember that even though Freedom of Religion is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, this is, and always has been a secular country and efforts to impose religious doctrine on the population in general is a refutation of the Constitution.

We need to put an end to the idea that this country exists to serve the needs of business, destroying the financial security of our people, and the health of the environment to line the pockets of corporate interests.

We need to re-emphasize the fact that the police exist to protect and serve all of us, acknowledge the social and economic forces that create crime, and foster those that do away with it.

We need to acknowledge the level to which guns have become a destructive force in this country and realize that reasonable regulation is needed.

And most of all, there needs to be a renaissance of civic engagement. Participation in democracy through voting is essential, and realizing that if we do not participate, all of the important choices will be made for you by those that do.

So, what I ask of you is that you stop, and think.

Think about your fellow man.

Think about women.

Think about how we treat and educate our children.

Think about people of different faiths.

Think about your LGBTQ brothers and sisters.

Think about how the way you live, and the policies you support effect other people, here at home and in other countries.

Think about your privilege.

Think, and vote.

It’s not much to ask.

If you believe that America is truly great, display it to the world through our work and example.

The mix I’m posting today (and leaving up for a while) is largely one of recognition and optimism. I believe that we have it in us to weather this storm and continue on doing the good work that identifies us as a nation.

Do yourself a favor and listen to the words in the songs. There are a lot of heavy ones in there.

I will close by making two requests.

The first: VOTE.

The second, as always (and in all ways),

Keep the Faith

Larry

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PS Don’t forget the very special Election episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, dropping this Friday, 11/4!
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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).

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PS Head over to Iron Leg, too

Funky16Corners Christmas Party!

By , December 24, 2015 9:50 am

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Funky16Corners Christmas Party!
Ike and Tina Turner – Merry Christmas Baby (WB)
Otis Redding – White Christmas (Atco)
Soulful Strings – Jingle Bells (Cadet)
Albert King – Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ (Stax)
Felice Taylor – It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It’s Spring) (Mustang)
Honey and the Bees – Jing Jing a Ling (Chess)
The Gems – Love For Christmas (Chess)
James Brown – Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto (King)
Charles Brown – Merry Christmas Baby (Jewel)
Count Sidney and the Dukes – Soul Christmas (Goldband)
Donny Hathaway – This Christmas (Atco)
Bobby Holloway – Funky Little Drummer Boy (Smash)
Clarence Carter – Backdoor Santa (Atlantic)
Harvey Averne Band – Let’s Get It Together This Christmas (Fania)
J Hines and the Boys – A Funky X-Mas To You (Nation-Wide)
Freddy King – I Hear Jingle Bells (Federal)
Dee Irwin and Mamie Galore – All I Want For Christmas Is Your Love (Imperial)
Johnny and Jon – Christmas in Viet Nam (Jewel)
John Lee Hooker – Blues For Christmas (Elmor)
George Conedy – El Nino Del Tambor (Kent Gospel)
Soulful Strings (feat Dorothy Ashby) – Merry Christmas Baby (Cadet)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners Christmas Party 124MB MP3

Greetings all.

It is the end of the week, and so I will remind you to grab this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show. This year, instead of a Christmas-themed show, you get the third and final part of the

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History of Allen Toussaint. You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile devicevia the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 at the blog.

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Since this week’s Friday post falls on Christmas Day, I thought I’d gather together a selection of favorites from Christmases past, and whip together a Funky16Corners holiday mix.

These should all be familiar, and there are a couple tunes that show up twice (vocal and instrumental), but they should provide a festive accompaniment  to the burning of the Yule log.

I hope you dig it, and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, that you have a fantastic day!

See you on Monday.

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).

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Sam Cooke – Shake b/w A Change Is Gonna Come

By , December 9, 2014 11:21 am

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Sam Cooke

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Listen/Download – Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come

 

Greetings all.

I hope the new day finds you well.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but in case I haven’t, here’s something…

As a more than casual student of the interconnected nature of the Tao, and someone who has experienced the (extremely) odd coincidence now and again, the way that my life intersects with certain records often causes me to take note.

Many a time, have I been in search of a particular disc for a long time, then I get a sudden urge to look again, and there it is.

The same kind of thing often happens when I write up a record (or get ready to do so) and then I discover that some important event tied to that record (birthday, death, anniversary etc) is coming up at the same time.

I had been trying to get my hands on Sam Cooke’s final LP ‘Shake’ (specifically to get the LP-only track ‘Yeah Man’) for some time. Considering the popularity of Cooke, and the fact that the album contained no less than three hits, it surprised me how scarce a record it was, and how hard it would be to get a copy at a reasonable price.

So this fall, when I had all but given up trying, I scored a copy of the ‘Shake’ 45, and then a few weeks later  a copy of the LP verily fell in my lap (sometimes – to paraphrase my man DJ Prestige –  it less me finding the record, than the record finding me).

Last week I sat down to digimatize the discs, and what should pop up on my radar but the fact that the 50th anniversary of Cooke’s death (12/11/64) was about a week away.

Cooke has been – thanks entirely to his untimely passing – at the top of the list of transitional (and hugely influential) figures of soul music.

This is not to say that he never made any ‘pure’ soul, because the tracks above will testify to that, but rather that the bulk of his post-gospel career was divided pretty evenly between R&B, pop music and crooning.

Cooke was a brilliant singer and songwriter, and there are all indications that he would (like Jackie Wilson, an artist who’s career paralleled his) have entered the soul ‘mainstream’ had he lived, but sadly, we’ll never know.

Today’s 45, which was released about a month before the ‘Shake’ LP (it was already charting within a few weeks of his killing) was a substantial hit, both sides making it into the R&B Top 10 by the end of January 1965.

It is a study in contrasts, with ‘Shake’, a hard driving (and influential) soul number, backed with the epic civil rights ballad ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’.

‘Shake’, later covered by Otis Redding and the Small Faces among others, features some surprisingly raw rhythm guitar (Bobby Womack) running through its middle, surrounded by booming horns and solid percussion. It was recorded at Cooke’s last session, less than a month before his death.

‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ is one of those records that has an eerie depth to it. It hearkens back to Cooke’s gospel roots, but despite the title, it has never seemed to me like a hopeful song. It has the ring of inevitable resolution about it, but only as viewed through great amounts of struggle and pain.

Cooke sang the song on the Tonight Show in February of 1964 (the performance has since been lost) and never performed the song live again.

Listening to ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’, it now seems inevitable that a song and performance so powerful would be seen as a landmark of sorts.

That it was released almost simultaneously with his death has cemented that status.

So toast the memory of the mighty Sam Cooke,  dig the sounds, and I’ll see you on Friday.

 

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).

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

An Answer Record: Five Great Live Soul Performances

By , November 23, 2014 12:47 pm

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Otis Redding Live at Monterey Pop

Listen/Download – Sam and Dave – Hold On I’m Comin’ (Live in Norway)

Listen/Download – Ike and Tina Turner Revue – Big TNT Show Medley

Listen/Download – Sly and the Family Stone – Woodstock Medley

Listen/Download – James Brown and the Famous Flames – Night Train (Live on the T.A.M.I. Show)

 

Greetings all.

This past week, my social media flow (sounds like something you ought to see a doctor about) was filled with links to a piece that the esteemed Peter Guralnick had penned for Okayplayer on his ‘Top 7 Moments of Live Soul’.

I clicked on the link with great anticipation. I hold Guralnick in very high regard indeed, as the preeminent soul historian of our time, and a guy that knows his stuff.

When I was done reading the article, I found myself both unsatisfied and puzzled.

While all of his examples were arguably great, all I could think of were the examples he did not include, some of the omissions being frankly mind-boggling.

I would never say that Mr Guralnick is “wrong”, since opinion is subjective and he certainly comes to his choices for a variety of good reasons, and with a lifetime of study to back them up.

However, the performances I would add to the list (or substitute as the case may be) came to me immediately. These weren’t things that I had to go back to the vault to find, they were all right there at the front of the line.

When you talk about what makes a great live performance, I am of the opinion that the performance itself does not exist in, and cannot fairly be evaluated in a vacuum, and that the connection with the audience must also be factored in.

In the introduction to his piece, Guralnick takes the time to mention that he does not consider Otis Redding (or Aretha Franklin, or Al Green) to have been “adequately captured in the full flowering of an unvarnished live performance”, and fairly allows that this may be considered heretical (and I think that – especially in the case of Otis – it is).

When making an alternate list (or in this case, an “answer record”) , I tried to look beyond whether a performance was of historical importance (which a few of these are) and was actually great on its own.

I’m also taking into consideration the visual impact of the performance, simply because as great as an audio performance is, we’re dealing with people who were able to captivate an audience with their show. Though I’m sure there was someone in the history of soul who was able to walk out on a stage and put on a great show standing still, I can’t think of one. Even someone like Ray Charles, by and large relegated to his piano bench by his blindness had a visual component to his performance (on his own, and with the Raelettes).

I say this too, since some of the performances I list were never (as far as I know) issued on vinyl, and as a result have only been appreciated by those that were able to see it in person, or watch it on film (which is perfectly acceptable).

One can only imagine also the countless amazing performances that were only ever witnessed with eyes and ears, out of the reach of cameras and recording equipment, their memory passed down by word of mouth (or written down) over the years.

None of these are performances that have grown on me over the years, their nuances revealed over time, but rather instances that knocked me back on my heels immediately and demanded that I return, again and again, ultimately just as satisfied as I was the first.

A few of these (Otis and Sly) have been written about in this space before, and I’ll make sure to link back to those pieces where applicable.

I’d like to begin with the performance that I can trace back to the very beginning of my love for soul music, Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival.

His appearance at Monterey Pop has long been considered important as a moment when soul music – and Otis specifically – crossed over to a mainstream pop audience.

By the time he took the stage at Monterey, Otis had been burning up stages (for mostly black audiences) for half a decade. He had made incursions into the pop charts, but nothing of serious note until 1965 (‘Respect’) and no major crossover hit until 1968, after his death (‘Sitting On the Dock of the Bay’).

Otis Redding at Monterey Pop, backed by Booker T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns is a remarkable snapshot of a truly great performer (the one I consider the greatest soul singer of the classic era) really connecting with an audience.

The entire performance lasts less than 20 minutes, but it is a case study in dynamics, capturing Otis delivering heart-rending ballads and uptempo groovers with equal power.

Redding devotes the last five minutes of the show to ‘Try a Little Tenderness’. When he introduces the song he seems both overwhelmed by the audience response, and out of breath, yet he manages to recover through the slower opening of the song, eventually building to an explosive climax that is at least to my ears one of the greatest of all time, in any genre.

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Sam Moore

The second performance on the list is one that only saw official release in 2007 on the DVD release ‘Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway 1967’.

Like any kid that came of age in the 70s, I was always aware of Sam and Dave via their hits, especially after the Blues Brothers took their cover of ‘Soul Man’ into the charts in 1979. As I got older, and listened to more (and read about) soul music, I repeatedly encountered mentions of the extraordinary power of Sam and Dave as live performers.

The Stax/Volt Revue (Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, Booker T and the MGs, the Mar-Keys, Arthur Conley) toured Europe in the Spring of 1967, stopping in Oslo, Norway near the end of the trip.

The entire Revue was captured on film, and while they are all worth watching, the performance by Sam and Dave is absolutely stunning.

The pair, backed by almost the exact same band as Otis was at Monterey, comes out to ‘You Don’t Know Like I Know’, moves on into their cover of the Sims Twins ‘Soothe Me’ and then into the ballad ‘When Something Is Wrong With My Baby’ (on the DVD but omitted from the YouTube clip).

By the time the band kicks off ‘Hold On I’m Comin’’ the duo have shed their jackets and are dancing all over the stage, trading lines and dripping sweat.

Watching this performance it is immediately apparent why they were given the nickname ‘Double Dynamite’. They interact in ways that seem casual, yet must have been honed to razor sharpness, night after night on the road, and by the time they’re three minutes into the song, they drop down into a cross between a revival meeting and near riot.

With the MGs vamping in the background, Sam Moore moves to the front of the stage and starts preaching. The band gradually picks up steam, as Sam and Dave turn from the crowd and face each other trading lines.

This is where the real fun begins. They start to tease the crowd, leaving the stage, only to return and start unleashing some fancy footwork, then leaving yet again (at one point facing each other and casually shaking hands before they exit).

The way they whip the previously staid audience into a frenzy, first bringing them to their feet time and time again, then causing them to swarm the stage (having to be restrained by what looks like the Norwegian army, who look a little scared) as Sam leaps down off of the stage into the crowd is something to behold.

The first time I watched this I was reduced to tears. I’ve been to some great shows in my life, but not a one that came within a thousand miles of what that lucky audience in Norway were treated to that night in 1967.

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Ike and Tina Turner

I came to a deeper appreciation of Ike and Tina Turner rather late in the game. I was well aware of their late 60s hits, but only really understood the greatness of their early-to-mid 60s material fairly recently.

Ike and Tina were hopping from label to label during these years, and getting a handle on the material from this era can be difficult unless you spend some time (and money) digging for the original records.

Fortunately, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue were included in the line-up of ‘The Big TNT Show’ a sequel to ‘The TAMI Show’ that was filmed in Los Angeles in November of 1965.

Their set in the film is a testament to the greatness of the group during this period, when they were crossing over from R&B into pure soul, and one of the hottest acts in the land.

Opening their (extended medley) set with Sam Cooke’s ‘Shake’, Tina and the Ikettes take full command of the stage, and the band is like rolling thunder behind them (it’s all about the rhythm guitar flowing like lava out of those big Fender amps). They quickly segue into ‘A Fool In Love’, ‘I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine’, ‘Please Please Please’, and then ‘Goodbye So Long’ which is like a juggernaut, especially with Ike and Tina sharing the mic for the “OOHWAH’s” (the pair look like they’re actually having fun), and then Tina and the Ikettes start whipping out the synchronized dance moves and the whole thing goes off like nitro.

The show comes to a conclusion as Revue member Jimmy Thomas takes the stage and Tina dances off.

It should be noted, that as good as their 1964/1965 live albums are, they were never captured as well as they were on ‘The Big TNT Show’. Tina proves here that she was one of the truly great soul singers of the classic era (even with that crazy hat on her head).

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Sly Stone

Sly and the Family Stone were by any measure one of the great acts of the late 60s/early 70s.

I should preface this section by mentioning that the performance that really needs to be seen is what I think is a 1968 set from the Ohio State Fair (it may very well have been a battle of the bands). I saw the set years ago and was amazed, but sadly it appears that the clip has been pulled from Youtube.

That said, the band’s performance at Woodstock in the summer of 1969, arguably the only real ‘soul’ group on the bill, is just as remarkable.

The one piece of context that needs to be laid out at the very beginning, is that this explosive performance took place between 3:30AM and 4:20AM!?!

Opening with ‘Dance to the Music’ and moving into ‘Music Lover’ (a great tune that as far as I can tell was never recorded outside the confines of a medley) and then ‘I Want To Take You Higher’, the medley is a textbook example of a band at the peak of their powers. I don’t know about you, and I’m sure there were all kinds of stimulants involved, I can’t imagine being able to muster this kind of performance in the middle of the night, and the amazing thing is, as hyped up as the band is, the audience is right there with them.

You have to listen closely to the way Sly runs the show, and especially to the pulse of the rhythm guitar and the way Greg Errico’s snare shoots through the mix over and over again.

It kind of blows my mind that a band this good never released a live album (at least until their entire Woodstock set was reissued in a package with the ‘Stand’ LP as ‘The Woodstock Experience’ in 2009 (you can get the live set by itself on iTunes).

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James Brown and the Famous Flames

Where Guralnick chose a James Brown cut from the ‘Live at the Apollo’LP (one of the greatest live recordings ever), I’d refer you instead to James and the Famous Flames set from the 1964 ‘T.A.M.I. Show’.

Following a little light comedy from Jan and Dean, James and the Flames launch into one of the most intense performances ever captured on film.

There’s a lot of James Brown footage out there (make sure to check out the recent HBO doc), but there’s something special about the ‘T.A.M.I. Show’.

Like Otis at Monterey, we’re witnessing an artist who had been almost exclusively performing for black audiences being whipped on a white crowd that had no idea what was coming.

The 18 minute set runs from ‘Out of Sight’, through ‘Prisoner of Love’,’Please Please Please’ (during which James does the cape routine) which is stretched out into an epic performance. Naturally, you’d expect any sane person to say goodnight, but this is where James Brown takes a hard left turn, dialing up the intensity several notches with ‘Night Train’.

Taking the sleepy old strippers standard and laying on the gas pedal, the band is firing at 100MPH, and  James and the Famous Flames are all over the stage (look at Bobby Byrd doing the Monkey!). Brown uses the song’s starts and stops to pour even more fuel on the fire, getting faster, and heavier with each and every break.

These kids have NEVER seen anything like this, and even their adolescent hysteria over longhairs like the Stones pales in comparison to their awe at James Brown, who measurably has no equal in the history of stage performance, in ANY genre.

He is tireless, driving (and driven by) one of the tightest bands ever assembled, dropping to his knees, falling in splits and then crossing the floor on one heel like some kind of dervish.

Make sure to watch to the very end where an exhausted Brown sits down on the bandstand to take a breath and the Blossoms collectively wave him back out onto the floor, where in a final flourish he whips off his tie, makes like he’s going to throw it into the crowd, but then tucks it into his vest with a sly grin and marches offstage.

It is every bit as thrilling to watch as it was the first time I saw it, on Beta more than 30 years ago.

I’d love to hear what you would add to (or delete from) the list, so make sure to drop some knowledge in the comments.

So 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).

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Happy Birthday Otis Redding

By , September 9, 2014 11:10 am

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Otis Redding

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Listen/Download Otis Redding – Good To Me

Greetings all

Seventy-three years ago today, the greatest soul singer that ever was, Otis Redding, was born in Dawson, Georgia.

I have previously recounted in this space the story of how Otis was my gateway into the world of soul almost 40 years ago, and have reiterated many times that I hold no singer (soul or otherwise) in higher esteem.

Though his career only lasted for six years, it spanned most of the classic soul era, and influenced countless performers.

Redding was possessed of a mighty voice, a dynamic stage presence and was also a gifted songwriter.

I came to today’s selection the long way ‘round, as it were.

The first version I picked up was by Irma Thomas* (recorded in Muscle Shoals in 1968), and it was a while before I realized that it had been co-written (with Julius Green of the Mad Lads) and originally recorded by Otis in 1966.

The arrangement on Redding’s original is fairly spare, fitting since the structure of the songs is deceptively simple. The verse builds slowly, shifting ever so much when he states:

I’m going to keep loving you woman
For 20 more years
After that I’m going for 40
‘Cause I’ve got my will to try

The song has an almost gospel feel to it, a song of praise, not to God, but rather to a woman.

It moves at an almost glacial pace, but that’s the kind of environment where Otis redding thrived.

Unlike so many that came after him, he was able to fill what would seem like an insurmountably empty space, not with theatrics, but with concise, perfectly delivered emotion.

That’s why he was the man.

Happy Birthday Otis.

Keep the faith

Larry

Example  

 

* There’s also a very nice instrumental version by Odell Brown 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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).

 

Example Example

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Otis Redding at Monterey Pop

By , December 10, 2013 9:58 am

Example

Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival

 

Listen/Download – Otis Redding – Monterey Pop Set

 

Set List”: Shake – Respect – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Try a Little Tenderness

______________________________________________________________________________________

Greetings all.

This is a repost of a piece I wrote back in 2008 about the sounds that first brought me to soul music, back when I was a kid.

I putting it up again because 46 years ago today, the mighty Otis Redding (the greatest soul singer that ever was) was taken from  us in a plane crash.

He was only 26 years old and one can only imagine what he could have accomplished had he lived.

Do yourself a favor – whether you’ve heard this or not – and sit down with your headphones on, give this performance your full attention, and realized what a master he was.

A gift to us all.

Dig it, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the Faith

Larry

______________________________________________________________________________________

Originally posted 3/27/2008

>>I hope the end of the week – as it nears – finds you well.

The “selection” I bring you today is something a little different than I ordinarily offer in this space, in that it is composed of an entire LP side, which is itself an entire live set* by one of the greatest soul artists of all time, the mighty Otis Redding.

I’ve mentioned several times in this space that my ‘Road to Damascus’ moment as a fan of soul music was the day I flipped over the Jimi Hendrix Experience ‘Live at Monterey’ LP and played the album side I have posted today.

That day – sometime around 1976 or ’77 – was a landmark in my musical growth because although I was aware of soul and funk music in as much as its existence was reflected in the playlists of Top 40 radio of the early 70s, I had never been an active consumer thereof, i.e. I let the soul come to me, but never went looking for it.

It’s likely that I wasn’t paying close attention to the album, at least not at first, as I didn’t have much of an idea who Otis Redding was, outside of ‘Dock of the Bay’. It was that day, as the sounds of one of the greatest live sets ever recorded by any artist poured from my Montgomery Ward console stereo (next to my bed, the biggest piece of furniture in my small room), that a fundamental part of how my mind processed music – in as much as it processed the effects of sound along with my heart and soul – was changed forever.

I can’t remember the first time I actually saw ‘Monterey Pop’ on TV, though it was probably either on the Late Show or on the local PBS station, but when I did it quickly became my favorite musical documentary, in large part because of the inclusion of an excerpt from this very set.

It wasn’t until last year, when my lovely wife bought me the Criterion Collection issue of ‘Monterey Pop’ – which included an entire disc of previously unissued performances, as well as the two mini-documentaries ‘Jimi Plays Monterey!’ and ‘Shake! Otis at Monterey’ that I finally saw the film of Redding’s entire set from June 17th, 1967.

It was the final set, of the second night of the Monterey Pop Festival, and as the story goes, the festival had gone past the agreed upon curfew by the time Otis reached the stage.

Backed by Booker T & the MGs (who had just played a short set of their own), as well as the Mar-Keys (actually the Memphis Horns with the addition of Floyd Newman), and following an introduction by Tommy Smothers, Otis stormed the stage and ripped into Sam Cooke’s ‘Shake’. Despite a solid, day-long line up of rock, pop and jazz acts, at that late hour the crowd could not have possibly been prepared for the power that Redding brought onto the stage.

By the time Otis finished the tune he was gasping for breath, as he introduced his own ‘Respect’ – with a bit of understatement – as ‘…a song that a girl took away from me.’ He takes the tune at a brisk pace with pounding support from the band.

As he finishes ‘Respect’ he takes a moment to rap to what he refers to as ‘The Love Crowd’, before he launches into one of the single greatest soul performances ever recorded.

Two years before Monterey, Redding and Jerry Butler sat down in a Buffalo, NY hotel room and composed what would become (later that year) one of Redding’s biggest hits, ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’. Redding’s reading of the tune is an absolute masterpiece of dynamics, building and release of tension and pure soul. It’s not hard to deduce from his demeanor that by this point in the set that Otis knew that he had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

He delivers his greatest song as a high-wire act balancing tasteful restraint with roof-raising soul pleading.

Whenever I listen to this (a performance that never fails to bring a tear to my eye) I wonder if Otis and Butler knew when they were writing this song how perfect a showstopper it would become. The verses open with those classic, slow-dance, R&B guitar triplets, moving to an explosion each time the second part of the verse begins.

There’s a version of ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ on the ‘Otis Redding Live In Europe’ LP where, if you listen very closely, you can hear Redding – as an aside, almost completely off mike – say ‘Oh my God!’ just before he launches into the line ‘There were times… It’s almost as if he had to muster every bit of power in his voice to deliver the line, rocketing the level of emotion in the performance to a point that few performers could ever dream of approaching and the truly amazing thing is that he’s able to do it over, and over again until the final section of the song where he’s rolling out the

‘GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY’s

and the ‘I CAN’T STOP NOW’s

and ‘I’M DOWN ON MY KNEES’


and ‘I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART’

and the band is vamping under him with the horns growing in intensity, and before you know it – because you almost expect, or at least wish that he would go on all night – the song is over and the band tears into ‘Satisfaction’, and the audience, still dizzy from the previous number rides along with them until Otis takes the tempo down, and you can hear the audience clapping along, and then the band picks up speed again almost crashing at the end of the song.

It’s at this point that Otis Redding proves once and for all (as if there were any doubts left) how much of a master performer he was. Taking a song written and first performed in 1932, Redding builds ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ into a soulful tour de force. The tempo of the tune building almost imperceptibly at first, with the band laying down the sparest of backings, but before you know it the whole shebang is bearing down like a freight train and Otis is wailing about

‘GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA NOW NOW NOW TENDERNESS A LITTLE TENDERNESS YEAH YEAH TENDERNESS YOU GOTTA GOTTA TENDERNESS!!!’


and Steve Cropper is weaving in and out of the mix and you can sense Otis whipping the audience around like a sweaty handkerchief while he loses himself in the ecstasy of the performance.

This is true greatness, on a level that very, very few performers, in any kind of music were ever able to achieve, and as the few remaining documents will attest to, it was greatness that Otis Redding was able to deliver on a regular basis.

The Monterey Pop Festival was filled with monumental, career making performances, but no one, not Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, NO ONE, came within 100 miles of delivering the way Otis Redding delivered that night.

He wouldn’t have many opportunities to do it again, because a few days short of six months later, Otis Redding was dead.<<

 

Example  

*Believe it or not, this entire – legendary – set lasts less that 20 minutes!
___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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).

 

Example Example

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

RIP Duck Dunn 1941 – 2012

By , May 13, 2012 2:44 pm

Example

The Mighty Duck

Example

Example

The Law Firm of Jones, Dunn, Cropper and Jackson Esqs

Listen/Download Booker T and the MGs – Sing a Simple Song

Listen/Download Booker T and the MGs – Chicken Pox

 

Listen/Download Booker T and the MGs – Melting Pot

Greetings all.

I had other plans to start the week (how many times have I typed those words in the last year?) but when I woke up this morning and turned on my phone, the very first thing I saw, while I was still rubbing the sleep from my eyes was news of the passing of the mighty Duck Dunn.

Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, the longtime bassist for the legendary Booker T and the MGs died in his sleep while on tour in Japan.

He was 70 years old.

It is at this point that I make a somewhat embarrassing confession (at least as far as soul is considered) that being that the first time Duck Dunn really came onto my radar was as a member of the Blues Brothers.

I was 16 years old when ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’ came out, and like zillions of others my age (and otherwise) I bought the album.

Though I knew who Booker T and the MGs were – ‘Green Onions’ was then, and still is an elemental part of my musical foundation – I had never heard the names of Dunn and guitarist Steve Cropper before the Blues Brothers came onto the scene.

That album was the first place my fragile young mind touched base with the sounds (once removed) of Junior Wells, King Floyd, the Chips and a few others. As odd as it may seem, that first Blues Brothers album (I never bought another) was a serious jumping off point for me (as many other unlikely records would also be in the following decades).

What I didn’t know at the time, was that I was already deeply in love with the sound of Booker T and the MGs, via their role as Otis Redding’s band on the Monterey Pop recording.

I didn’t start buying soul 45s until I was in my mid-20s, but when I did I grabbed each and every Stax 45 that popped up in front of me, whether at record shows or at dusty flea markets (there twarn’t no interwebs back then, kids…), and many of them were either by Booker T and the MGs, or featured some or all of them as the backing band.

The decades that followed saw me – like any other self respecting soul fan – picking up Booker T albums wherever I found them.

While their oeuvre was, like every other instrumental band of the era, seasoned liberally with filler, they had more high points (and quite a few Everests) in their catalog than just about any other similar outfit.

The MGs were as tight as they came, with Dunn and uber-drummer Al Jackson creating as deep a pocket as has ever been heard.

The selection of songs I bring you today is by no means comprehensive, but I think you’ll find it quite groovy nonetheless.

There will be no Green Onions served, since Dunn wasn’t yet a member of the group* when it was recorded.

I have included a very tight Sly and the Family Stone cover, and two brilliant tracks from the last album the band did together.

Their cover of Sly’s ‘Sing a Simple Song’ comes from their 1969 LP ‘The Booker T Set’ and opens with a bit of a drum break from Jackson, soaked thoroughly in reverb, before the band kicks in. It sees the heavy kick of Jackson’s bass drum move into a more explicitly funky place, and while it never really moves into Sly-esque overdrive, it is tasty indeed.

‘Chicken Pox’ the first track from the group’s 1971 LP “Melting Pot’ (the last by the classic line-up) is the sound of the Meters breathing down the MG’s collective neck. The band is moving into a funkier place, and doing so with style, but the spectre of their Crescent City competition always seems to be there. Oh, how I wish this one was on a 45…

The last cut I bring you today is the title cut from ‘Melting Pot’, and by far one of the most interesting things they ever did.

Lasting in excess of eight minutes, ‘Melting Pot’ is important not only because it shows signs of the MGs stretching out into more progressive directions, but also because it became one of David Mancuso’s deeply influential Loft parties in New York City.

I’ll spare you an excess of words here, but if you have any interest in digging a little deeper, you can refer back to the piece I wrote on the record in early 2010.

Suffice to say, if all you ever knew was ‘Green Onions’, ‘Melting Pot’ will be a revelation.

Duck Dunn was – in addition to his better known gigs – a prolific session musician, both during and after the Stax era.

He was a legend, and he will be missed.

See you later in the week.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

Example

 

*Though Dunn was a longtime part of the Stax/Memphis crew, being a boyhood friend of cats like Cropper and Packy Axton (Dunn was in the Mar-Keys) he didn’t join the MGs until he replaced Lewis Steinberg in 1965

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).

Example

Example

 

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Happy Birthday Otis!

By , September 9, 2011 10:38 am

Example

Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival


Listen – Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival – 1967

Set List”: Shake – Respect – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Try a Little Tenderness

This is a little impromptu re-post of a piece I did back in 2008 on the mighty Otis Redding, greatest of all soul singers. It’s Mr Redding’s birthday, so here (again) is his Monterey Pop set in its entirety.
Dig it.
Larry

Greetings all.

I hope the end of the week – as it nears – finds you well.

The “selection” I bring you today is something a little different than I ordinarily offer in this space, in that it is composed of an entire LP side, which is itself an entire live set* by one of the greatest soul artists of all time, the mighty Otis Redding.

I’ve mentioned several times in this space that my ‘Road to Damascus’ moment as a fan of soul music was the day I flipped over the Jimi Hendrix Experience ‘Live at Monterey’ LP and played the album side I have posted today.

That day – sometime around 1976 or ’77 – was a landmark in my musical growth because although I was aware of soul and funk music in as much as its existence was reflected in the playlists of Top 40 radio of the early 70s, I had never been an active consumer thereof, i.e. I let the soul come to me, but never went looking for it.

It’s likely that I wasn’t paying close attention to the album, at least not at first, as I didn’t have much of an idea who Otis Redding was, outside of ‘Dock of the Bay’. It was that day, as the sounds of one of the greatest live sets ever recorded by any artist poured from my Montgomery Ward console stereo (next to my bed, the biggest piece of furniture in my small room), that a fundamental part of how my mind processed music – in as much as it processed the effects of sound along with my heart and soul – was changed forever.

I can’t remember the first time I actually saw ‘Monterey Pop’ on TV, though it was probably either on the Late Show or on the local PBS station, but when I did it quickly became my favorite musical documentary, in large part because of the inclusion of an excerpt from this very set.

It wasn’t until last year, when my lovely wife bought me the Criterion Collection issue of ‘Monterey Pop’ – which included an entire disc of previously unissued performances, as well as the two mini-documentaries ‘Jimi Plays Monterey!’ and ‘Shake! Otis at Monterey’ that I finally saw the film of Redding’s entire set from June 17th, 1967.

It was the final set, of the second night of the Monterey Pop Festival, and as the story goes, the festival had gone past the agreed upon curfew by the time Otis reached the stage.

Backed by Booker T & the MGs (who had just played a short set of their own), as well as the Mar-Keys (actually the Memphis Horns with the addition of Floyd Newman), and following an introduction by Tommy Smothers, Otis stormed the stage and ripped into Sam Cooke’s ‘Shake’. Despite a solid, day-long line up of rock, pop and jazz acts, at that late hour the crowd could not have possibly been prepared for the power that Redding brought onto the stage.

By the time Otis finished the tune he was gasping for breath, as he introduced his own ‘Respect’ – with a bit of understatement – as ‘…a song that a girl took away from me.’ He takes the tune at a brisk pace with pounding support from the band.

As he finishes ‘Respect’ he takes a moment to rap to what he refers to as ‘The Love Crowd’, before he launches into one of the single greatest soul performances ever recorded.

Two years before Monterey, Redding and Jerry Butler sat down in a Buffalo, NY hotel room and composed what would become (later that year) one of Redding’s biggest hits, ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’. Redding’s reading of the tune is an absolute masterpiece of dynamics, building and release of tension and pure soul. It’s not hard to deduce from his demeanor that by this point in the set that Otis knew that he had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

He delivers his greatest song as a high-wire act balancing tasteful restraint with roof-raising soul pleading.

Whenever I listen to this (a performance that never fails to bring a tear to my eye) I wonder if Otis and Butler knew when they were writing this song how perfect a showstopper it would become. The verses open with those classic, slow-dance, R&B guitar triplets, moving to an explosion each time the second part of the verse begins.

There’s a version of ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ on the ‘Otis Redding Live In Europe’ LP where, if you listen very closely, you can hear Redding – as an aside, almost completely off mike – say ‘Oh my God!’ just before he launches into the line ‘There were times… It’s almost as if he had to muster every bit of power in his voice to deliver the line, rocketing the level of emotion in the performance to a point that few performers could ever dream of approaching and the truly amazing thing is that he’s able to do it over, and over again until the final section of the song where he’s rolling out the

‘GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY’s

and the ‘I CAN’T STOP NOW’s

and ‘I’M DOWN ON MY KNEES’


and ‘I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART’

and the band is vamping under him with the horns growing in intensity, and before you know it – because you almost expect, or at least wish that he would go on all night – the song is over and the band tears into ‘Satisfaction’, and the audience, still dizzy from the previous number rides along with them until Otis takes the tempo down, and you can hear the audience clapping along, and then the band picks up speed again almost crashing at the end of the song.

It’s at this point that Otis Redding proves once and for all (as if there were any doubts left) how much of a master performer he was. Taking a song written and first performed in 1932, Redding builds ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ into a soulful tour de force. The tempo of the tune building almost imperceptibly at first, with the band laying down the sparest of backings, but before you know it the whole shebang is bearing down like a freight train and Otis is wailing about

‘GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA NOW NOW NOW TENDERNESS A LITTLE TENDERNESS YEAH YEAH TENDERNESS YOU GOTTA GOTTA TENDERNESS!!!’


and Steve Cropper is weaving in and out of the mix and you can sense Otis whipping the audience around like a sweaty handkerchief while he loses himself in the ecstasy of the performance.

This is true greatness, on a level that very, very few performers, in any kind of music were ever able to achieve, and as the few remaining documents will attest to, it was greatness that Otis Redding was able to deliver on a regular basis.

The Monterey Pop Festival was filled with monumental, career making performances, but no one, not Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, NO ONE, came within 100 miles of delivering the way Otis Redding delivered that night.

He wouldn’t have many opportunities to do it again, because a few days short of six months later, Otis Redding was dead.

Sad.
I hope you dig the sounds.
Have a great weekend.

Peace
Larry

*Believe it or not, this entire – legendary – set lasts less that 20 minutes!

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