Johnny Sayles

Listen/Download – Johnny Sayles – The Concentration

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here so I will remind you once again to join me Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio for the Funky16Corners Radio Show. You can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The burner I bring you today is a smoking bit of Chitown soul by the mighty Johnny Sayles.

Though Sayles never really had any chart success to speak of (outside of Chicago) he recorded a grip of excellent, hard-edge 45s for a variety of Chicago labels like Mar-V-Lus, Chi Town, Chess, St Lawrence, Dakar and Brunswick between 1963 and 1973.

Sayles was born in Tennessee, and later moved to St Louis where he hooked up with Ike Turner.

He toured with a variety of bands before ending up in Chicago in the early 60s, where he would work as a singer, as well as having a second career as a prison guard!

Sayles recorded ‘The Concentration’ in 1965, and the song (written by the mighty Andre Williams!) comes off like a much wilder/rougher take on the same basic source material as Junior Walker and the All Stars ‘Shake and Fingerpop’ which was released earlier that year.

‘The Concentration’ leads off with a wailing saxophone, before Sayles drops in with a fiery vocal. The whole thing is driven along by a punchy horn section and a deceptively low-key lead guitar line.

Though the tune is built on a basic ‘dance craze’ frame, Sayles’ vocal and the deep, reverbed production take it to a higher level.

It is a groovy record, indeed, and I hope you dig it as much as I do.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you all on Monday.

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).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.