The Stagemasters – Baby I’m Here Just To Love You
Listen/Download – The Stagemasters – Baby I’m Here Just To Love You
Greetings all.
The record you see before you this fine day hopped into my crates years ago during one of those stellar Allentown all-45 digging sessions.
I had never heard (or heard of) the Stagemasters, but the disc looked cool, so I gave it a spin on the portable and it went directly on the ‘keeper’ stack.
The ensuing years have revealed little about the group or their outstanding stomper of a 45.
Going with the information available on (and about) the label, the Stagemasters hailed from the Reading, PA area.
The Slide label was owned buy a cat named Lenny McKinnon, who also owned the Lorraine, Reading and Hit-Kingdom imprints.
‘Baby I’m Here Just To Love You’ was initially released in 1966 on Slide, then again in 1968 (with a different flipside) on Hit-Kingdom.
It is a storming floor-filler, opening with some very heavy rhythm guitar and bass, followed by a rough, wailing lead vocal and some groovy harmonies.
The record has the kind of relentless energy that the UK soulies dig so much, which is probably why it eventually got a bootleg pressing across the pond.
You can pick yourself up a copy of the Slide issue for between 20 and 30 bucks (for some reason the Hit-Kingdom pressing goes for well over 100 bucks).
I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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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
Great record from my hometown! McKinnon was a prolific dude during the mid to late 60s. In addition to Lorraine and Slide, he also put out releases (one-offs, in many cases) on Reading Records, Marion Records, Gordon Street, Center City, and probaly more. He also was usually credited as a writer, arranger, and producer on all of these releases.
I drive by Gordon Street every day and wish I was around when Reading was churning out quality garage rock and soul records on the regular. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for the info!