The Saga of Timmy Thomas, a Slow Boat from Spain and Eternal Justice
Tony Clarke
Listen/Download – Timmy Thomas – Have Some Boogaloo
Greetings all.
I hope all is groovy, and that you’ve all had a chance to marinate in last week’s Northern Soul bouillabaisse.
I had a bizarre weekend (that involved records) but since this piece was largely written prior to the ‘festivities”, I’ll save the tale for Wednesday.
When I was assembling this week’s line-up, I had a couple of things set aside, when all of a sudden the last piece of a puzzle fell into place, thus moving today’s selection to the front of the line.
Our story begins about six years ago when someone posted Timmy Thomas’s ‘Have Some Boogaloo’ on a message board I frequent as an example of what those of us in the game refer to as a ‘Hammond burner’.
As soon as I pulled down the ones and zeros, my wig was well and truly flipped.
Then, for some reason now buried by the sands of time, I did not actively seek this record out, nor did it occupy that nagging spot in my consciousness where records go when I’m jonesing for a copy.
Then, a few years later, my man DJ Prestige and I were on our little vinyl invasion of the greater Virginia area. We were spinning at Mercy! In Richmond, VA when Troy of the Scorpio Brothers slipped this very 45 under the needle and whipped it on the crowd and as they say on the streets, shit was ON.
As discussed in this space many times, there’s something special about hearing a powerful record blasting at high volume on a good PA system. It’s kind of like cranking something in your headphones (where all detail is amplified and you can get up inside the nooks and crannies of a record) except in addition to the sound of a 45 you get to witness its effect on a room full of dancers.
That effect was – as far as I can remember because I was scrambling over to the decks to investigate, and in the midst of my own reverie – setting the room afire.
Holy crap…though things were already going very well (they know how to party to soul down in RVA) the assemble masses just about lost their shit, as did Timmy in the grooves of the 45 where he was apparently hammering the keyboard of his organ with his elbows while screaming stuff like ‘SOOKIE!!’ and ‘PHILLY PHILLY PHILLY FOR MEEEE!’ right before rolling up his sleeves and going to town.
It was at that moment that I knew I HAD TO HAVE THAT RECORD.
This is the point in the story where we rediscover that old saw about “easier said than done”.
I searched high and low and soon discovered that ‘Have Some Boogaloo’ is record that while not extremely expensive appears to have very few copies in circulation. It’s like I used to say of a favorite author who’s work was largely out of print: Once someone gets their hands on a copy they did not soon let it go.
That said, the next few years followed the well-worn path wherein I create a saved Ebay search, the record in question pops up for auction every few months and I am unfailingly outbid.
However, the cool thing about the saved search, is every once in a great while, someone posts the record you want as a ‘Buy It Now’ and you (meaning ME) gets to it before anyone else and zippity-do-dah you have yourself a copy of that very record.
That is exactly what happened last November, when ‘Have Some Boogaloo’ popped up as a BIN, at a price that was not cheap but well under what I would consider to be market value, and though the seller was overseas he had impeccable feedback, so I pulled the trigger.
Then, like one of those old movies where they mark the passage of time by showing the pages of a calendar falling away, I waited, and waited, and waited some more until more than a month had passed without my prize arriving in my mailbox.
I contacted the seller, who assured me that the package was en route.
Unfortunately I started to notice that some other items from across the pond were also delayed, and I mentioned this on the aforementioned message board where I was assured that one government or other had instituted new security measures, which in combination with the busiest postal season of the year, as well as horrible weather on both sides of the Atlantic was slowing the passage of mail in a major way.
I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to wait, stomped my feet, tore out a hair or two, but then got back to my regular schedule.
Then, over the course of the next few weeks, the items coming from the UK (which had all been purchased/mailed well after the record in question) began to arrive and my hopes for ever seeing my long lost 45 faded.
Eventually, after about two months I gave up all hope and started to whine about it to my Facebook friends.
One morning I got a message from one of them who had spotted a copy at a record show (and asked if I wanted it), only to find out later that one of his friends had decided to buy it.
Then, another friend mentioned that he had a copy he might be willing to trade, and after a few exchanges in which certain other records were offered up, said trade was enacted and in a few days he had his record and I finally had a copy of mine.
Oh happy day, when I unboxed that 45 and played it over, and over, and over again, after which I digimatized it, slipped it onto the iPod and started playing it anew.
I was happy, if still a little bugged that I had pretty much flushed about 50 smackers down the international toilet with the first copy, which had apparently jumped overboard on its way to the States.
Flash forward a few weeks and I’m sitting in the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Cave, when who should I see pull up outside but my trusty mail carrier Gary who stepped out of his truck, which usually means I have to sign for something.
I jumped up out of my seat and ran out the door.
I saw the orange slip in his hand and gingerly inquired if the item in question might have originated in Spain?
He indicated that it had, and couldn’t believe it when I told him that it had been shipped almost three months before (to the day).
Now at this point, although relieved that the 45 had arrived, I had resigned myself to the idea that it was probably either broken or warped.
45s are delicate things, and I didn’t think that one would be able to survive a three-month-long trek without sustaining some damage, but I am here to tell you brothers and sisters that when I took a razor to the poorly packed 45 and released it from its prison of cardboard and tape, it was as if the gods had carried it across the sea, protecting it from what seemed like inevitable damage.
There before me was a fully intact, completely playable VG+ copy of Timmy Thomas’s ‘Have Some Boogaloo’, now qualified for its starring role in what might be described as an embarrassment of riches.
The next part of the story is the one that I come to now and again where, despite my general agnosticism I am tempted to assign the workings of the universe – at least as they apply to me – as having some kind of consciousness, whether it be the Tao, kismet or the knowing hand of some greater (yet invisible) being.
When I mentioned (on Facebook, again) that the prodigal 45 had in fact arrived at my door, another friend – eager to get his hands on a copy of said record – asked if I might be up for a sale or trade. I said sure (not needing doubles, since I hadn’t planned on a beat-juggling turntable display) and asked what he might have to trade.
A few hours later, he returned, offering me a copy of another prominent, long-time resident of my want list (this being a Northern Soul record) and the trade was underway.
Huzzah! My suffering (if anything here can truly be described as thus) was not for naught.
In the words of the mighty Chuck Jackson, good things come to those who wait, and then some.
That all said, the record itself is a banger of the first order, carrying with it not only absolutely smoking Hammond action but an action packed party vibe.
It often surprises people when they hear ‘Have Some Boogaloo’ that it was recorded by the same guy who a few years later would have an international mega-hit with the meditative ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’. They do not in any way sound like the work of the same person, one being a plea for brotherhood with minimalist organ accompanied by a beatbox, and the other sounding like an insane organist had been tossed into the Large Hadron Collider.
Go ahead, give it a spin….I’ll wait.
There, see?
Feel like you’ve been shaken, stirred, smacked in the face and otherwise intoxicated?
That’s what it feels like when you’ve encountered a truly powerful record.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
Good God! As you say my wig has truly up and flipped. This isn’t just a piece of work it’s a pièce de résistance.
Thanks for sharing!