Curley Moore

 

Listen/Download – Curley Moore – Soul Train

Greetings all.

How’s things?

Allow me to welcome you all to a new week here at Funky16Corners.

The tune I bring you today has something of a saga attached to it, at least in reference to the quest to acquire it.

Way back in the day, one of the comps that was instrumental in pointing me in the direction of New Orleans was an import collection on the Charly label that included two songs that would become longtime favorites, Diamond Joe’s ‘Gossip Gossip’ and Curley Moore’s ‘Don’t Pity Me’.

When I started down the long, dusty road of digging for original New Orleans 45s, I happened upon a copy of ‘Gossip Gossip’ fairly quickly, mainly because it is a record of undeniable greatness that also happens to be, how the kids say, ‘slept on’.

However, lo these many years later, Curley Moore’s ‘Don’t Pity Me’ still eludes me, in fact holding the position of the only 45 on the Sansu label that I do not own (and probably never will unless I get astoundingly lucky and find it out in the field). The few times it has shown up in the last few years it has sold for several hundred dollars, once for over a thousand! It’s one of those 45s that has dual appeal, with one side slightly funky and the other Northern-ish, so that it is not only rare, but coveted by two very eager constituencies.

That of course is neither here nor there, but to get closer to somewhere, I should also mention that the first time I heard ‘Soul Train’, it was not by Curley Moore, but rather by another New Orleans group by the name of Bobby and the Heavyweights (you can hear their cover in Funky16Corners Radio v.24).

Their version was included on the stellar Soul Jazz ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry’ comp (which is where I first heard it). Bobby and the Heavyweights slightly faster take on the song was released in 1967, first (locally) on the Mor-Soul label and then nationally on Atlantic (I’ve managed to find both).

It was only a few years later that I discovered that Curley Moore had done it first in 1965, at which point I set out to get myself a copy.

Here’s where we take a turn down Easier Said Than Done Street.

While Moore’s version of ‘Soul Train’ was released on two different New Orleans labels, first on Hot Line and then on Nola, it is fairly hard to find, especially in good condition. My first copy (on Nola) was exceedingly over-graded (@!!?%$) and not suitable for either home listening or posting here on the blog.

It was a few more years before I finally got myself a decent copy (on the groovy, if incredibly faded Hot Line label), which you see and hear before you today.

Curley Moore was the owner of one of my favorite soul voices to come out of the Crescent City, a little bit thin, kind of high pitched, but possessed of a tremendous amount of soul.

He recorded a 45 for Nola, three more for Sansu, at least one for Teem (which I’ve never heard), one for Scram and the excellent (drum heavy) ‘Sophisticated Sissy’ for Instant. He was also the voice heard at the beginning of Eddie Bo’s (billed as Curley Moore and the Kool Ones) House of the Fox 45 ‘Shelly’s Rubber Band’.

His version of ‘Soul Train’ is a positively sublime bit of soul with the tiniest pop edge to it. Arranged and produced by the mighty Wardell Quezerge, the instrumental backing is fairly spare, with piano, bass and very understated drums, with a subtly arranged horn chart that bubbles under, breaking in periodically for emphasis.

The record was pressed at least three times (I’ve seen two Hot Line variations and the one on Nola), so I’m guessing that it must have had some local success, but as my man Dan Phillips at the Home of the Groove notes, the record has a kind of odd, underlying sadness to it which makes it so special, but might have kept it a connoisseurs choice, falling short of chart success.

It was definitely worth the years it took to track it down, and I hope you like it too.

See you on Wednesday.

 

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

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3 Responses to “Curley Moore – Soul Train”

1. ana_b says:

   October 23, 2011 at 6:17 pm

   I love this song so much that I own both a Hot Line and a Nola pressing [the plus being that they have different b-sides]….along with a copy of the Bobby and the Heavyweights single.

   And ya know, if I ever see an affordable copy of the other Hot Line pressing, I’ll probably pick it up too.

2. Larry says:

   October 23, 2011 at 6:47 pm

   I didn’t realize that about the b-sides! I’ll Ave to dig out my NOLA issue.

3. ana_b says:

   October 24, 2011 at 8:39 am

   I prefer the b-side on the Nola pressing. In case you haven’t dug out your copy yet, I posted the tune fairly recently.

   https://desosquichante.blogspot.com/2011/09/cant-you-see-im-in-misery.html