The Touch – Pick and Shovel b/w Blue On Green
My copy of the 45 (above) and two more variations (below)
Listen/Download – The Touch – Pick and Shovel
Listen/Download – The Touch – Blue On Green
Greetings all.
I hope everyone had themselves an exceptionally groovy weekend.
I just want to take a second to mention that I took some time this weekend to clean up the blogroll. There were a number of blogs that had either gone dark (for a variety of reasons), including a few faves, as well as a number of others that hadn’t had a new post in six months or more. There was also one that appeared to have been compromised with malware, so that got the axe too.
If your blog was taken off in error, i.e. I caught you during a temporary break (I don’t get to go through the whole list all that often), please let me know.
I figured I’d get things started this week with something funky, that’s also a bit of an intriguing mystery record.
I grabbed ‘Pick and Shovel’ by the Touch off of a set sale list a while back, mainly because it’s one of those meat and potatoes funk 45s that always seems to turn up on DJ playlists as well as the various and sundry places where groovy labels get posted for perusal on the interwebs.
Unfortunately the copy I got had the exceptionally dull-looking Atlantic-distributed version of the 45. The original local issue on the Lecasver label is very cool (seen above).
I mentioned intrigue because, though it is omitted on my version of the 45, the OG indicates that LeCasVer (an amalgam of the label owners names, Leanzo, Castellano and Verrico) bears an address in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.
There’s also the matter of the creativity-associated names on the labels (the flip is a cover of Booker T and the MGs ‘Blue On Green’), including John Frangipane and Vinnie Corrao.
Both of those gentlemen were NY-area session players, Frangipane on keyboards, and Corrao on guitar.
The tune itself is a wild, off kilter Meters-esque affair with lots of wailing organ, choppy guitar, unusually animated bass and hard hitting drums.
The flip, ‘Blue On Green’ is very faithful to its source material, with Frangipane approximating the Booker T organ sound very well. I actually dig the Touch’s version more than I do the original. It has a warmer, more relaxed feel.
As far as I can tell ‘The Touch’ wasn’t a measurable hit anywhere, but I do know for a fact that there are at least three different pressings of this 45, i.e. the one I have, the one with the groovy lettering, and another one with a dark blue label and very simple lettering, so it was clearly getting around.
I wish I knew more about the band, especially if they (like the label) were NJ-based, and whether or not they were merely a studio project or actually played out.
The world may never know.
However, there’s a fair amount of funk packed into the grooves, so I hope you dig it.
I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some interesting late 60s pop.
Themocracy
Where’s the “Freaking LOVE” button on this site? Because this holy alliance of what sounds like a 1960s British tv theme song and wild FONK ensemble NEEDS the “Freaking LOVE” button! I’ve listened to this scratchy digitizing 4 times in a row, and it keeps getting better!
Keep on Keepin’ on!
Just wanted to drop a note and let you know that I love your site, and the great music you’ve been sharing for so long. I added you to my blogroll and hope others will find you as well!
Thanks guys!
[…] never heard of the group Touch (no relation to ‘The Touch’), but since it was a mid-70s LP on Brunswick that I’d never heard of it definitely piqued my […]