Muscle Shoals Horns – Breakdown
An earlier pic of the Fame Gang, many of whom play on this very 45.
Listen/Download – Muscle Shoals Horns – Breakdown (Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys)
Greetings all.
To borrow a phrase from the mighty Slim Gaillard, the weekend was mellow like a cello, with some unexpected downtime, and some lovely Mother’s day festivities.
As a result I am reasonably well rested, or at least well chilled, so I figured we’d get the week started with something a little hot.
The tune I bring you today is yet another testament to the wonders of Facebook.
I have a plethora groovy friends on the interwebs, many of who are also DJ types or otherwise classifiable as record nerds, and on any given day someone is posting up something cool that I hadn’t heard before, many of which I’ve found myself pursuing so that I would have a copy for my very own.
This is one of those records, and sadly I cannot remembered who posted it, but I do remember where the post led me, which was here (Groovesville USA) where I learned that the record in question was a UK-only 45, which was my jumping off point to finding one for my crates.
Surprisingly enough, that took almost no time and very little money (the perfect combination) and before you know it ‘Breakdown’ by the Muscle Shoals Horns is on the old turntable being digimatized so that I might post it in this space.
The groovy thing about ‘Breakdown’, aside from it’s obvious smoking hot funky disco sound, perfect for the dance floor, is the fact that if you read the label closely enough, or apply your ears just so, you’ll discover that what you are listening to is in fact an instrumental cover of the Equals 1971 ‘Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys’.
The Equals’ OG was itself an important record during the very early days of the discotheque culture in both the UK and the US.
I can’t say for sure how the Muscle Shoals Horns (in actuality the Fame Gang with the horn section leading the way) got their hooks into it four years on, but it does seem that the Bang/Shout label connection probably had something to do with it.
The Bang label had its initial run from 1965 to 1971, with the Equals ‘Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys’ being the last record they released. The label was reactivated in the mid-70s, with groups like Brick and the Muscle Shoals Horns.
‘Breakdown’ was issued in the US on the ‘Born to Get Down’ LP in 1976, and for some odd reason only saw 45 release in the UK on the groovy gold label you see above.
It’s cool that the tune had a second coming of sorts (though it was also covered by NY-area band ST-4 in the early 70s), with an update for the discos.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
I’ve never seen this LP, but I have seen the one that followed — 1977’s “Doin’ It To The Bone” on the Ariola label. Never felt strongly enough about it to pick it up, though.