Comments (2)

By Larry, February 17, 2010 8:10 am

That’s right kids. I’m heading back into NYC tonight for another set with DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis at Master Groove @ Forbidden City, Ave A between 13th and 14th Streets.

I’ve dipped into the crates and will be spinning a set of classic, upbeat Northern Soul that you will not want to miss. Things get going at 10PM, so fall by Forbidden City and get you drink (and eat, the food is excellent) on while letting your tired ears be massaged by the best in funk and soul, all spun at 45 revolutions per minute.

See you there.

Peace

Larry

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 4, 2010 5:09 pm

Marvin Gaye

Listen/Download – Marvin Gaye – One More Heartache

Greetings all.
The end of the week is upon us (like a lion on an impala) and in the spirit of great forces of nature, I bring you one of my favorite 45s by the mighty Marvin Gaye.
The first time I heard the song ‘One More Heartache’ was probably 25 years ago at the height of the mod/garage revival, when it arrived in my ears via a cover version by UK R&Beatsters the Artwoods.
Remembered as much for what their members went on to do (Jon Lord, Keef Hartley) as their fantastic music, the Artwoods (named for their singer Art Wood, brother of Face/Rolling Stone Ron) layed down some serious transitional heat, updating American R&B for a modernist audience. It was on the greatest hits lp ‘100 Oxford Street’ that I first heard a number of amazing songs that I would later discover to be covers of artists like Solomon Burke (‘Keep Looking’), Benny Spellman (‘I Feel Good’) and of course Marvin Gaye.
Though I loved the song ‘One More Heartache’, and was aware that it had been done originally by Gaye, it was another 20 years before I actually got my hands on a copy of the original.
When I did, and the needle hit the wax my mind was good and truly blown.
This, my friends is because Marvin Gaye’s recording of ‘One More Heartache’ is nothing less than a monument to the greatness of soul music. Recorded in 1965, ‘One More Heartache’ – written by Warren ‘Pete’ Moore, Smokey Robinson, Marv Tarplin, Robert Rogers and Ronald White – was a minor hit in the spring of 1966, scraping the outer limits of the Pop Top 40. Why it wasn’t a bigger hit may have as much to do with its dark message as it does with the huge surplus of musical competition at the time. A quick look at a chart (see below) from almost exactly 44 years ago reveals pop and soul classics jamming up the charts so thickly that even a record as mighty as ‘One More Heartache’ was unable to fight its way closer to the top.
It may also have something to do with the record sounding oddly familiar.
The day I got my hands on this particular 45 I digi-ma-tized it, and then proceeded to listen to it at least a dozen times on the old MP3 delivery device, during which time it dawned on me that ‘One More Heartache’ is something of a musical restructuring of Gaye’s hit from the previous year ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’. The framework of the song is similar and at times ‘One More Heartache’ sounds as if the composers of both songs (who by the way are the same, and were also all members of the Miracles) took the bright, upbeat ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ and rewrote it as a darker, minor key, mirror version of itself.
Musically, the record (produced by Robinson) is incredible, built – like a James Brown side – on interlocking bits of musical clockwork, with a chiming guitar riff (played by Marv Tarplin) over a pulsing organ (the master Earl Van Dyke), snapping snare drum, finger snaps, tambourine and eventually saxophone. Gaye’s vocal is a masterpiece of soulful pleading, with a lyric that at times sounds like a not too distant cousin of Titus Turner’s ‘All Around the World’.
No matter how you slice it, ‘One More Heartache’ is a heavy record. If you know someone who’s concept of soul is lacking, you need only lock them in a room with this record and a turntable, refusing to let them out until they ‘get it’.
I know you’ll dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

WMCA Countdown Survey for Week of February 10, 1966
FABULOUS 57

1. Lightnin’ Strikes – Lou Christie
2. Uptight – Stevie Wonder
3. A Well Respected Man – The Kinks
4. Don’t Mess With Bill – Marvelettes
5. These Boots Are Made For Walking – Nancy Sinatra
6. My Love – Petula Clark
7. No Matter What Shape – T-Bones
8. My World Is Empty Without You – Supremes
9. Barbara Ann – The Beach Boys
10. Working My Way Back To You – Four Seasons
11. We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper – Beatles
12. Going To A Go-Go – Miracles
13. Lies – Knickerbockers
14. Ballad Of The Green Berets – Sgt. Barry Sadler
15. Love Makes The World Go Round – Dean Jackson
16. Listen People – Herman’s Hermits
17. Hurt Yourself – Frankie Valli
18. Cryin’ Time – Ray Charles
19. Stop! – The Moody Blues
20. Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel
21. 634-5789 – Wilson Pickett
22. In My Room – Verdelle Smith
23. Husbands And Wives – Roger Miller
24. Elusive Butterfly – Bob Lind
25. I Fought The Law – Bobby Fuller Four
26. Batman Theme – The Marketts
27. Little Bit Of Soap – The Exciters
28. Call Me – Chris Montez
29. Take Me For What I’m Worth – Searchers
30. The Duck – Jackie Lee
31. Like A Baby – Len Barry
32. Night Time – Strangeloves
33. When Liking Turns To Loving – Ronnie Dove
34. At The Scene – Dave Clark V
35. Just Like Me – Paul Revere & The Raiders
36. Since I Lost The One I Love – The Impressions
37. Somewhere There’s A Someone – Dean Martin
38. This Golden Ring – The Fortunes
39. It’s Too Late – Bobby Goldsboro
40. Up And Down – The McCoys
41. It Won’t Be Wrong – The Byrds
42. This Can’t Be True – Eddie Holman
43. My Baby Loves Me – Martha & The Vandellas
44. Keep On Running – Spencer Davis Group
45. Whenever She Holds You – Patty Duke
46. Promise Her Anything – Tom Jones
47. Why Can’t You Bring Me Home – Jay & The Americans
48. This Old Heart Of Mine – Isley Brothers
49. One More Heartache – Marvin Gaye
50. The Cheater – Bob Kuban
51. California Dreamin’ – Mamas & Papas
52. Baby Scratch My Back – Slim Harpo
53. Custody – Patti Page
54. You’ll Be Needin’ Me – Lettermen
55. Shake Me, Wake Me – Four Tops
56. My Prayer – Johnny Thunder
57. Daydream – The Lovin’ Spoonful

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Comments (14)

By Larry, January 24, 2010 9:08 pm

The Soulful Miss Pat Lewis

Listen/Download – Pat Lewis – Look At What I Almost Missed

Greetings all. And welcome to the new digs
Surprised?
Me too…
Here’s the deal, in the shortest form possible at the moment.
The Funky16Corners Blog has been in business for just over five years (business being a term used in the loosest way…).
Things got started over at Blogger, and after two years, thanks to Blogger’s dismal tech issues, I moved over to WordPress, where I remained until just about now.
Last week, a couple of blogging friends were shut down by the powers that be at WordPress with no warning, and – adding insult to injury – no explanation.
Neither of the blogs in question were ‘outlaw’, at least in the sense that they were not de fact file sharing repositories, where people rip commercially available CDs and upload the entire thing for download.
These blogs were along the lines of what you see here. Interesting, obscure tracks, offered with commentary and historical background, engineered so that the readers (that’s you) develop a taste for the sounds in question, and then head out into the real world to purchase it on your own, i.e. educational. Certainly, not everyone follows these guidelines as much as the next guy. Some folks pop by, listen to the track in their browser and then mosey along. Others, those not inclined to fill their house with mountains of vinyl, collect and listen to the files on the MP3 delivery device of their choice, and since the vast majority of what gets posted in this space is unavailable any other way, that’s cool too.
The bottom line is, that I have, and will continue to put my heart and soul (no pun intended, but it works, so…) into this enterprise, and I don’t want some cowardly technocrat to destroy it all with the push of a button, without any kind of due process (that being the main issue).
It’s not like WordPress (or any other free blogging service) is getting complaints and then approaching the blogger in question, investigating the situation and then making a determination. They are summarily pulling the plug because “terms of service” have been violated. I do know one blogger that was able to come back from such an outage, but their experience is an exception.
I understand that they have the right to do this, I just think it’s an unfair, shitty way to do business.
As a result, I made the decision to install the WordPress software (related to, but separate from the blogging service) on my own web space (which I have maintained for years in order to store the files and pics I post on my blogs, the content for the webzine and the podcast archives) and relocate the Funky16Corners blog to a new URL. You’ll still be able to reach it by using www.funky16corners.com, but if you’ve been using the https://funky16corners.wordpress.com , I’d ask that you update your links (especially if you have us on the blogroll at your own blog or website) and henceforth proceed to:

https://funky16corners.lunarpages.net

That is the new home of the Funky16Corners blog (though you can change the link to www.funky16corners.com and that’ll work just as well).
You might notice that the look of the blog has changed. When I switched to my own set up, I was unable to keep the blogging template I was using at WordPress, so I had to do a little investigation and find a template that I was happy with design-wise, and that would allow me to use my own banner. The new template (Panorama) includes rotating banner images (which is why the banner may change each time you return to the blog).
The links for the Podcast Archive, Guest Mix Archive, Pre-Wordpress Archive and regular archived posts (more on that in a moment) appear in tabs at the top of the blog, along the bottom of the banner, as well as the familiar sidebar links.
The blogroll still appears on the right side of the blog.
When I moved from Blogger to WordPress, I created an archive of all the old posts. I wanted to import the entire WordPress version of the blog (posts, links, archives and all) in order to create as close to a seamless transition as possible. Without getting too technical, the export/import file from the old blog was (thanks to more than three years of content) far too large to move in one piece, so I had to rebuild. I did move all posts for the last two months into the main page of the blog. All previous posts will be moved (in one-month increments) into the ‘Archived Posts’ link in the header. It’s not as convenient as I would have liked, but It does preserve the old material.
Hopefully, the new look won’t prove too daunting, and your eyes and brains will adjust accordingly over the coming weeks.
As far as commenting, the link to comment is on the top, right hand side of each post.
The overall layout of the new template is a little bit wider, but I think it’s readable. Same basic white background, same typestyle.
That said, I hope you’ll take the time to follow Funky16Corners to its new home.

If you blog, or run a website, please update your links.
It would be greatly appreciated.
And now, how about some soul?
The 45 I bring you today is one that I chased for years and years, generally being outbid at every turn. It’s not a super-expensive record, but it doesn’t usually go for cheap, so when I saw a, how do you say “distressed” looking copy, graded at VG+ (and starting at ten bucks) I figured I’d take a chance. I ended up getting it at the starting bid, and basically kept my fingers crossed that it would be playable when it fell through the mail slot. Smart bunch that you are, you’ve already figured out that it was.
I have to say, that in all my years of digging, this 45 may have the highest level of sonic satisfaction, when balanced against the visual condition of the record itself. There’s some crackle there, but not enough to ruin a great record.
The record in question is Pat Lewis’s storming 1966 version of ‘Look At What I Almost Missed’.
If the song sounds familiar, it’s because the tune’s author George Clinton re-did it with the mighty Parliaments a few years later on the Revilot label.
Lewis’s version (the OG as far as I can tell) was the first 45 released on Detroit’s storied Solid Hit label. Lewis had four 45s (a full third of the label’s discography) released on Solid Hit in the label’s short, two year history, one of which is the ultra-rare, ultra-amazing ‘No One To Love’.
‘Look at What I Almost Missed’ is a dynamite bit of Northern Soul, with a snappy guitar opening, magical Motor City sound and best of all, a great vocal by Lewis herself.
Lewis, who recorded numerous backing vocals for Motown as part of the Andantes, and can be heard as one of the female voices on Isaac Haye’s ‘Hot Buttered Soul’, also recorded one 45 for Golden World.
That said, I hope you dig the sounds, and that you’ll stick with the Funky16Corners blog.

PS – Funky16Corners at Master Groove, @ Forbidden City, NYC Wed 1/27
Be there, or be somewhere less entertaining…

Peace

Larry

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