The Webs – This Thing Called Love b/w Tomorrow
The Webs
Listen/Download – The Webs – This Thing Called Love MP3
Listen/Download – The Webs – Tomorrow MP3
Greetings all.
I thought we’d start the week with a very solid two-sider by one of the more interesting soul groups of the 60s.
I don’t know much about the Webs (sometimes billed as Willie Cooper and the Webs), but you can piece together some of the puzzle by following their discography.
The group recorded for a number of labels between 1964 and 1968, getting their start in Texas (I’ve seem reports that they were from Galveston) and waxing their first 45 for the San Antonio-based Dynamic label.
They eventually moved on to Whiz and Atlantic, before hooking up with Bob Bateman and Lou Courtney, who would work with the group for a couple of 45s on the short-lived Popside imprint, as well as on Verve.
Today’s selections appeared on the group’s first Popside 45, from 1967.
‘This Thing Called Love’, co-written by Willie Cooper is a hard-edged, organ-driven number with a wailing lead vocal and a great horn section.
The flip-side ‘Tomorrow’, co-written by Bateman, sounds like it was born and raised inside the head of Curtis Mayfield. The lead and backing vocals, and the polished, uptown arrangement sound like they were lifted off of an Impressions or Major Lance session. The group’s harmonies are spot-on and the tempo is relaxed, yet still punchy enough for the dance floor.
Both sides are co-produced by Bateman and Courtney.
The group’s second Popside 45 ‘Give In’ b/w ‘It’s So Hard to Break a Habit’ is a much more expensive/in-demand Northern side (which I’m still looking for).
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Themocracy
I have ‘Give In’ on an MP3. Need me to email it?
Sure, David. Funky16corners at gmail dot com
Hello, my name is David Scurry. Three of the members of this group were my classmates at Central High School in Galveston, Texas. They started singing together around 1961. They were lead singer Willie “Fats” Cooper (far right in the picture), alto Lionel “Vampire” James (on the left), and bass vocalist Vincent “Hub” Hubbard (second from the left). The fourth member, Marshall “Box” Boxley (second from the right), an alto who sang lead on two songs (“Little Boy Blue” and “Try Loving Me”), was a couple classes ahead of the others and had performed with The Johnny Otis Show in Los Angeles, California before returning to Galveston and joining the group.
Cooper and Boxley wrote most of the songs they performed. All of the members are still alive and live in Galveston except for Marshall Boxley, who is deceased.