Funky16Corners

Showmen Inc. – The Tramp (From Funky Broadway) Pts 1&2

By Larry, September 16, 2012 3:46 pm

~~Listen/Download The Showmen Inc. – The Tramp (From Funky Broadway) Pt1~~

Listen/Download The Showmen Inc. – The Tramp (From Funky Broadway) Pt2

Greetings all, and welcome to the new week!

How’s about we get things rolling with a tasty break?

The tune I bring you today is one of those meat and potatoes breakbeat classics that I chased for a long time before finally grabbing it in one of the really big record scores of my career.

I knew nothing about the Showmen Inc., for the longest time, aside from the fact that ‘The Tramp (From Funky Broadway)’ had been sampled by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist in ‘Brainfreeze’. And of course the fact that as funk 45s go, it is a banger.

I had always assumed that it was just a double-answer-record, hitting both the “Tramp” and “Funky Broadway” fads.

What I eventually found out about the record (and the group) would prove very interesting indeed.

While I have seen some information (which I have been unable to verify from a second source, so I’ll continue to consider it apocryphal*) that would indicate that the record is a direct shot at Arlester ‘Dyke’ Christian of Dyke and the Blazers, what would seem incontrovertible is that the Showmen Inc. did in fact contain at least a few ex-Blazers, so make of that what you will.

The song was written by saxophonist Bernard Williams, organist Rich Cason and drummer Rodney Brown (with new member James Ingram) – all of whom formed part of the contingent that hooked up with Dyke in Phoenix, where (on the storied Artco label) they waxed the original version of the legendary ‘Funky Broadway’.

I have never been able to nail down when and where the various and sundry Blazers recorded with and/or departed from Dyke, but at some point the three above-mentioned gentleman became the Showmen Inc. and waxed the mighty slab of funk you see before you today.

Now Records was a Los Angeles-based concern that also released excellent asides by Ron Holden (‘Need Ya’) and Robb Fortune (‘Crazy Feelin’).

As far as I can tell the Showmen Inc. never made another record, which is too bad, since this one is so good.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Though it did suggest that when Dyke talks about being called ‘Broadway Tramp’ in ‘Let a Woman Be a Woman (Let a Man Be a Man)’ he is referring to this very record, which would date it in 1968 or 1969.
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