Funky16Corners 10th Anniversary Pt1 – Soul Party!
Bob and Earl – Harlem Shuffle (Cheyne)
Don Covay and the Goodtimers – Sookie Sookie (Atlantic)
The Shells – Whiplash (Conlo)
Scatman Crothers – Golly Zonk! It’s Scatman! (HBR)
Rodge Martin – Lovin’ Machine (Bragg)
Roger and the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
The Mighty Hannibal – Jerkin’ the Dog (Shurfine)
Derek Martin – Daddy Rolling Stone (Crackerjack)
Chuck Berry – Club Nitty Gritty (Mercury)
Bobby Parker – Watch Your Step (V-Tone)
Chuck Edwards – Downtown Soulville (Punch)
Gene Waiters – Shake and Shingaling (Fairmount)
Etta James and Sugarpie DeSanto – In the Basement Pt1 (Cadet)
L’il Bob and the Lollipops – I Got Loaded (La Louisianne)
Ray Charles – I Don’t Need No Doctor (ABC/Paramount)
Danny White – Natural Soul Brother (SSS Intl)
Johnny Jones and the King Casuals – Soul Poppin’ (Brunswick)
Roy Lee Johnson – Boogaloo #3 (Josie)
The Rubaiyats – Omar Khayyam (Sansu)
Don Gardner – My Baby Likes to Boogaloo (Tru-Glo-Town)
Larry Williams and Johnny Watson – Two For the Price of One (Okeh)
Wilson Pickett – Land of 1000 Dances (Atlantic)
Wayne Cochran – Going Back to Miami (Mercury)
Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Out On the Floor) (Like)
NOTE: Big thanks to Jeff Ash who noticed that I left two songs out of the set list right after Roy Lee Johnson!
Listen/Download Funky16Corners 10th Anniversary Pt1 – Soul Party
Greetings all
This week (11/4 to be exact) marks the 10th anniversary of the Funky16Corners Blog.
Yeah…I can barely believe it myself.
Back in 2004, when I first started posting here (which was a slightly different “here” than it is now, but that’s not important) I had already been writing about music for nearly 20 years, first in a series of fanzines (my own and those of others), then from 2000 the Funky16Corners Web Zine (see the archive, above).
It was in 2004 that my wife and I welcomed our first son, and the long-term prep involved with the web zine wasn’t looking sustainable, so I decided to switch over to the short form structure of the blog.
I had the good fortune to make that switch around the time that the blogging ‘wave’ was starting to build, and while there were music blogs out there, there weren’t many using the kind of format that Funky16Corners was.
When I started, the idea was to continue – as much as possible – the historical slant of the web zine, in single (usually) record form. I settled into the three-post-a-week format fairly quickly, and that’s the way it remained for a couple of years.
Then, in the Spring of 2005, thanks to a reference on BoingBoing.net, the blog was hit with a sudden burst of traffic that sucked up a month’s worth of bandwidth in a single day. It was at that point that I started paying for server space, and the following year, instituted the yearly Pledge Drive to assist with costs.
It was in May of 2006 that I posted the first of what ended up being well over 100 themed mixes (Funky Philadelphia was the first), all of which (including a number of mixes prepared for other sites) are still downloadable in the archive.
Things continued apace for a few more years until the Funky16Corners Radio Show started on Viva Radio. Beginning in 2010 I started recording/mixing the show as a podcast, and posting it here. There are now more than 200 episodes in the archive.
Today, the Funky16Corners blog is still up and running at full steam. I suspect that barring unforeseen circumstances, it will go on, and on, as long as my passion for the music lives.
It is important to stop here and to say thank you to all the people that have helped to make Funky16Corners a success.
First and foremost, I need to thank my wife Jen, who has supported my efforts over the years. Ours is – like the home I grew up in – a musical house, and we all listen, sing along with and sometimes even play the sounds we love.
I’d also like to thank my friends who have shared their musical passions with me over the years, among them fellow bloggers/writers, DJs, collectors and fans, with which I’ve shared music, ideas and good times.
The roots of Funky16Corners run deep, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention all of the fanzine writers/makers that influenced me back in the 80s, especially Billy and Miriam at Kicks and Jim Testa at Jersey Beat, and from the interwebs days, the crew at Soulstrut and the guys who put together the late, lamented Rehash site, which was a big influence in the early days.
Big ups as well to folks like Mr Luther, my man Haim, DJ Prestige, DJ Birdman, Tony C, Tarik Thornton, Agent 45, Kris Holmes, Jeff Ash at AM Then FM, Vincent the Soul Chef, Derek See, Heavysoulbrutha Dave B, Red Kelly, Dan at Home of the Groove, all of the Asbury Park 45 Sessions crew (Connie T Empress, Devil Dick, Prime Mundo, M-Fasis, Jack the Ripper, DJ Bluewater), Mr Finewine, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus and everybody else that has been kind enough to bring me in to spin my records over the years.
I gave a lot of thought about how I wanted to mark this anniversary. I eventually decided that what I would do, was create a series of mixes in five categories (Ballads, Northern Soul, Soul Party, Organs and Funk), selecting an hour’s worth of my very favorite records in each category.
This was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be, with the decisions about which records to include coming down to which discs really meant the most to me. As is the case in any genre, there are ‘important’ records, and there are rare records, and then there are just good records. These are not always the same ones, either.
There are a lot of big Northern Soul (or funk) 45s that demand serious coin, but for any number of reasons just don’t do it for me. By the same token, there are a grip of two-dollar records that I think are just brilliant. The driving force behind the Funky16Corners blog is my own need to figure out why the great ones are great, sharing the stories behind them and attempting to articulate what it is about these records that move me.
If there’s anything in any of these playlists that strikes you as odd, or out of place, take the time to search the archives of the blog to find the original posts (though some of them haven’t been written about yet) and you’ll probably find the key there.
Some of these records have been wedged in my brain for decades, others are more recent discoveries, and there is no doubt in my mind that there are many still out there that I have yet to fall in love with.
You can never know all the great music there is, and anyone that says that they do, is full of shit.
The first mix this week (there will be a new one posted every day, Monday through Friday) is the Soul Party mix.
Though I’m sure there’s someone out there trying to sell records using ‘soul party’ as a designator, I don’t mean it to suggest a genre per se, but rather a mood/atmosphere that these records bring. These are fun, exciting, energetic records with which to get down. Party starters, each and every one.
The records in this mix are some of my very favorites, and I’d go to the mat defending any one of them. They are all essential.
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Also, I had some groovy anniversary bumper stickers made, and they’re free to anyone that sends a self-addressed #10 envelope. I’ll cover the postage.
Send your sticker requests to:
Funky16Corners c/o Grogan
80 New Brunswick Ave
Brick, NJ 08724 USA
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So dig in, get your download on, and above all, enjoy.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some more goodness.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
Themocracy
Happy Anniversary Larry. Looking forward to another 10 years!!!
Thanks Randy!