Lonnie Youngblood

Listen/Download Lonnie Youngblood – African Twist Pt1

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so I must remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can keep upby subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes or grabbing yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is an old favorite of mine.

The name Lonnie Youngblood should be a very familiar one to fans of funk and soul.

The vocalist/saxophonist recorded some excellent 45s under his own name – while working as a backing musician for many soul and blues artists – during the 1960s.

Some of these – in particular the 45s he recorded for Fairmount, ‘Go Go Shoes’ and ‘Soul Food’ – are, in addition to their own excellence, sweated by fans of the back up guitarist on the sessions, a certain James Marshall Hendrix.

Today’s selection, ‘African Twist Pt1’ was recorded for the Loma label in 1967. It was the first of Youngblood’s two 45s for the label (the second being 1968’s ‘Roll With the Punches’) and is a wild bit of funky soul.

Layered with fake crowd noises, ‘African Twist Pt1’ features a crazed lead vocal by Youngblood, some excellent guitar and percussion and a wailing horn section.

Youngblood went to to record several albums in the 1970s, and continues to perform today.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

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2 Responses to “Lonnie Youngblood – African Twist Pt1”

1. MingusAl says:

   May 9, 2014 at 6:44 pm

   Some sort of symbiosis here with the one-and-only Jerry O? This recording seems to predate Jerry O’s version of this song, but Lonnie’s delivery of the “lyric” sure sounds similar. Right down to the “my my my” that seemed to be something of a Jerry O trademark.

2. Larry says:

   May 10, 2014 at 7:09 pm

   While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Youngblood was copping Jerry-O’s thing, I have always suspected that Jerry-O had a larger popularity amongst black audiences (even if only in and around Chicago and Detroit) than his limited radio chart success would indicate. He released a LOT of records, under his own name, as well as writing and/or producing for others between 1965 and 1971 or so.
   I would say – in Lonnie Youngblood’s defense – that a lot of the signifiers in both records were making the rounds at the time, whether in other Afro/African Twist sides or just funky dance records in general.