Ike Turner Presents the Family Vibes – The Scratch
Ike tries to hitch a ride…
The Family Vibes speeds by trying to act like they didn’t notice…
Listen/Download – Ike Turner Presents the Family Vibes – the Scratch
Greetings all.
Before we get started I’d like to let you all know that if you dig the pop side of the 60s, with the garage, and the psyche, and the sunshine pop and what not you might want to fall by our sister blog, Iron Leg and check out the Iron Leg Radio Show. It’s currently anchored at the blog (no interwebs radio station, but if someone knows one with an open slot, speak up) and is now up to four episodes.
The shows run around 90 minutes and I do them once a month. The format is very similar to the Funky16Corners Radio Show, but the content is slanted along the pop side of the spectrum.
If that sounds like something you’d dig, pop on over there and pull down the ones and zeros.
So, the middle of the week is here and I figured it was past time to dig into the archives and pluck out a little bit of Ike.
Turner, that is….
Ike has appeared in this space a couple of times over the years, sometimes with the mighty Tina, sometimes without.
A few years I was out a-digging and I happened upon a permutation of the Ike Turner discography that I’d never seen before, aka Ike Turner presents the Family Vibes.
Though there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of info out there on this period, what I have found seems to indicate that the Family Vibes were in fact the Kings of Rhythm (1973 edition) with a new name and a new sound.
Though I think even the staunchest mathematician would have a hell of a time drawing, a line between ‘New Breed Pts 1&2’ and today’s selection (I think Archimedes locates the intersection of the two somewhere within the area of Ike), the song in question is without a doubt funky.
If you were a student of the funk and gave ‘The Scratch’ even a single listen, I think you’d probably be able to place it within a year or two of the correct spot on the timeline. It has within it the sound of an era where rock bands were getting funky, and funk bands were getting rock-y and the lines were getting blurred (not just by the drugs).
Even the cover art and its airbrushed pseudo-Keep On Truckin-isms are practically waving a calendar in your face.
I’m not sure why Ike was trying to rebrand the Kings (there were at least two albums under this name) though trying to glom onto the rep of another famous, funky family (the Stones of SanFran) doesn’t seem out of the question. That and Family Vibes sounds a lot more 1970s-ish with the Kings of Rhythm sounding like a bunch of cheap tuxedos on a cruise ship.
This was released around the time Ike and Tina were hitting the charts with ‘Nutbush City Limits’ and probably still squeezing a little juice out of their huge 1971 hit ‘Proud Mary’ so I can understand why UA would invest a couple of albums worth of time and money in the group (that and it was the early 70s when most record companies were releasing veritable mountains of product in a coke addled haze).
That said, ‘The Scratch’ derives its funk from a loose, wobble-legged guitar line and nice fat bass line plodding along underneath as well as some nice, era-specific synth action.
It is all very redolent of bell-bottoms, cheap wine and sounds like something that might come wafting out of the window of a customized van, rocking behind a convenience store on a Saturday night.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Friday.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
I am all about the bell-bottoms, cheap wine, and what we called boogie vans, so I’m diggin’ this too. Thank you sir.
I just listened to your 45 fingers of death mix. I really enjoy it. I especially like “Country Girl” by Otis Clay. Very soulful.
Thank you very much
Jesse
Glad you liked the mix!
That track is by The Johnny Otis Show.
Larry
Don’t know who the airbrush artist was but I was a NUT for that style when it was popular, tore ads out of magazines and used them for posters.
Dr. Pepper used it in their ads and Fender guitars and amps used a similar art style in a campaign at that time.