Chuck Bridges and the L.A. Happening

Listen/Download – Chuck Bridges and the L.A. Happening – Keep Your Faith Baby MP3

Greetings all.

I was digging through the crates and decided to pull out a handful of what I like to call ‘dead-enders’, i.e. records by artists that recorded only a handful of 45s and then vanished into the ether, leaving little behind aside from the music they recorded. This should not be percieved as any kind of artistic judgment, but rather that the artists left very little in the way of a trail, other than their records.

The first of these is by Chuck Bridges and the LA Happening.

Bridges (a black singer leading an almost all-white band) recorded an LP for Vault records in 1969 (the 45 you see before you included LP tracks) and that – as they say – was that.

Their resulting, self-titled LP has since become a crate diggers favorite.

Oddly enough, though the band is called the L.A. Happening, a 1969 article in Billboard magazine suggests that they hailed from San Francisco.

The track I bring you today, ‘Keep Your Faith Baby’ is indicative of the brassy, funky sound of the band, planted firmly on the soulful side of the late 60s horn band thing.

Co-written by Bridges and Vault Records house producer Lucky Young, the tune is melodic and hard driving, with Bridges trading lines with female backing singers, and some groovy electric piano flowing underneath everything.

It’s a very solid side, and honestly, how can I pass up ANY ‘Keep the Faith’ song?

I hope you dig it, too, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.