Comments (2)

By Larry, September 30, 2012 5:40 pm

My name is Monk. Welcome to my crib…

Listen/Download Monk Higgins and the Specialties – Big Water Bed

Greetings all

The beginning of another week is here, and the Funky16Corners fam is coming off of a very interesting weekend.

This Sunday marked the John Theurer Cancer Center Celebration of Life and Liberty at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ. This is an annual event where cancer survivors and their loved ones gather together to celebrate their triumphs over their disease.

The Theurer Cancer Center (based out of Hackensack University Medical Center) does remarkable work treating a wide variety of cancers (including my wife’s leukemia) and this event is a life affirming gathering.

What it also was, was an opportunity to see the Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin perform a set of favorites – old and new – with her orchestra, which included backing vocalists led by Fonzi Thornton, who in his almost four decade career has graced albums by Chic, Luther Vandross and countless others.

Photos by Jennifer Grogan

It was great to see Aretha and to have my sons see her as well. She was in rare form with her voice as remarkable an instrument as it has ever been.

It was a rare pleasure.

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If you are a collector of records, and an inveterate reader of label – like yours truly – then the name Monk Higgins has surely passed before your eyes.

Higgins – born Milton Bland – got his start in his home state of Arkansas. Folowing his graduation from Arkansas State University, he moved to Chicago to study at the Chicago School of Music.

He eventually went to work as a teacher and a social worker before devoting himself to music full time.

Higgins worked as a saxophonist, composer, producer and arranger on a wide variety of sessions before making it into the R&B Top 40 in 1966 with the instrumental ‘Who Dun It’.

His productions for the One-Der-Ful, St Lawrence and Chess labels (among others) included sessions for Freddy Robinson, Alvin Cash, Cash McCall, Etta James, the Vontastics and many, many others are all worth seeking out (though he was so prolific you won’t have to do much seeking).

The track I bring you today hails from his 1972 LP with his band the Specialties, entitled ‘Heavyweight’.

I picked up a sealed copy of this killer was back in my early digging days in the strength of the Higgins “brand” as it were.

I’ve gone on in depth about the value of reading labels and lodging those ubiquitous producer/arranger/writer credits in your brain. If you do enough of that the connections start to make themselves and before you know it your crates have grown in both size and quality.

‘Heavyweight’ produced Monk Higgins second hit under his own name, ‘Gotta Be Funky’, which grazed the outer edges of the R&B Top 20 in the spring of 1972.

However, it is another, equally groovy track that I bring you today, ‘Big Water Bed’.

‘Big Water Bed’ starts out smooth, with some mellow organ and electric piano, but soon gets funky with the percussion and of course Higgins sax-o-mo-phone. You even get a crazy whistle, as well as some ladies chanting the title of the song, in case you forgot what it was all about.

If the sax sounds familiar it’s because the song was sampled by none other that Big Daddy Kane on his own ‘Ain’t No Half-Steppin’ in 1988.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, September 27, 2012 12:43 pm

The Vibrating Vibrations!

Listen/Download The Vibrations – Expressway To Your Heart

Greetings all

The end of the week is finally here, and so then must be the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which magically appears on Viva Radio every Friday night at 9PM. If you have other plans at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or drop by the blog to pick yourself up an MP3.

The tune I bring you today is one of those familiar song/unfamiliar source deals I like to whip on y’all every now and again.

This is another example of a record that I swept up almost indiscriminately back in the early days of my Philly obsession. Drawn in by the (Gamble/Huff) Neptune label and the familiar name of the Vibrations, I grabbed this 45, and while I can’t say that my memory is 100% reliable in this instance, it is likely that I thought that what I was getting was the “original” version of the song that was a huge hit for the Soul Survivors.

I was (of course) incorrect…

That tune, ‘Expressway To Your Heart’ was among the earliest Gamble/Huff chart hits (maybe THE earliest) in 1967, with the Vibrations version not hitting until two years later.

The Vibrations have one of the longest, most interesting histories in all of soul music.

Hailing not from Philly but from Los Angeles, they got their start in the 1950s as the Jayhawks. It was under that name that they recorded the original version of ‘Stranded In the Jungle’.

They also recorded under the name of the Marathons, with which they hit in 1961 with ‘Peanut Butter’.

Reconstituted as the Vibrations, they spent most of the 1960s recording for Checker and Okeh – with a brief stop at Epic in 1968 – before signing with Neptune in 1969.

They recorded three 45s for the label, including their remake of ‘Expressway’ in 1969.

The Vibrations had worked with Gamble and Huff during their time at Okeh (G&H produced the group’s 1968 hit ‘Love In Them There Hills’ for the label) and member Carl Fisher had some of his songs (like ‘Storm Warning’ and ‘(It’s Against) the Laws of Love’) covered by Philly groups like the Volcanos.

The Vibrations version of ‘Expressway to Your Heart’, arranged by the great Bobby Martin, is taken at a slightly slower, grittier pace than the Soul Survivors OG. You get lots of electric piano, organ, some very cool guitar work and lots of great harmonies by the group.

It’s a very groovy record indeed, and one that ought to be better known.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, September 25, 2012 4:48 pm

Curtis Knight

Listen/Download Curtis Knight – Love-In

Greetings all

I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.

The tune I bring you today is something groovy from the slightly later, post-Jimi period of Curtis Knight’s career.

I was giving some thought to how it must have sucked for Knight to be known only via his intersection with Hendrix, but then I thought about how much energy he expended in attempting to capitalize on that connection, and forgot all about it.

Knight was working in NYC with his band the Squires when Hendrix, who had already taken part in what in retrospect seems like a marathon effort to make cameos in the careers of as many other performers as he could before breaking on his own.

As a live performer, Jimi worked stages alongside Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers, Carl Holmes and the Commanders, and in the studio with Lonnie Youngblood, Billy LaMont, Don Covay, King Curtis and many others.

He hooked up with Knight and the Squires when he finally landed in New York City in 1965. He recorded sessions with Knight (some legit, some jams) during ’65 and ’66, until he formed his own band, and was eventually spirited off to the UK by Chas Chandler.

Knight and his facilitators spent a lot of time repackaging pretty much anything he recorded with Hendrix (often deceptively), making a great deal of hay (and not a little money).

This is not to say that Knight was without talent himself. He had played and recorded in a variety of R&B, rock and soul settings through the 50s and 60s.

The tune I bring you today hails from a 1969, UK-only (?!?) 45 he recorded for RCA.

The record is an interesting microcosm of Knight as Hendrix mentor-turned-acolyte (parasite?), with a slightly psyched-out number ‘Fancy Meeting You Here’, complete with heavy guitar and echo appearing on the flipside.

The side of the disc we concern ourselves with today is the funky ‘Love In’.

The arrangement and production is very cool, with lots of wah-wah guitar, some oddly echoed horns, sassy female backing vocals and a great performance by Knight (I really dig the bridge too).

I’d love to know the story behind Knight getting a UK only record deal, though I have seen a few later LPs that seem to have only been released in Europe.

As it is, the vast majority of the records released with Curtis Knight’s name on them, had Jimi Hendrix’s right next to (or on top of, or under) it.

I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 20, 2012 2:00 pm

Joe Simon

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt1

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt2

Greetings all

The end of the week is within our grasp, which means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show (brought to you every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio) is nigh. Perk up your ears, dial up the old crystal set and drop by for the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 download over at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a real gasser, hepped to me by my friend Don Waller, who sent it along on Facebook as a birthday wish.

Though I certainly knew of Joe Simon, I had no idea that there were any records released under the ‘Joe Simon Band’ name, and certainly nothing as crazy as today’s selection.

‘Oon-Guela (High Life) Pts 1&2’ was released in 1969, and it is like nothing else in the Joe Simon catalog.

What you get here is an amped up take on the Afro funk sound, with lots of hard-edged, funky guitar, percussion (there’s either a kalimba or something trying to sound like one running under the whole record) and bass that almost crosses over into psychedelic territory a few times.

This really is an unusual record, especially considering when it came out (not a whole lot of Afro anything, aside from Hugh Masekela) and that it was released in association with Joe Simon.

Simon had a long string of R&B and Pop hits from 1965 to 1981, hitting R&B #1 a few times (including once in 1969 with his version of the country standard ‘The Choking Kind’, which fell only a few catalog numbers below this very record).

‘Oon Guela (High Life)’ is waaay out of (sonic) character for Simon which leads one to wonder, what – in fact – would be the dealio.

I have not been able to discover that fact, and am currently happy just to groove on the sound of the record.

It is both groovy, and anomalous.

If anyone has anything to add, please do so in the comments.

I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 16, 2012 3:46 pm

Listen/Download The Showmen Inc. – The Tramp (From Funky Broadway) Pt1

Listen/Download The Showmen Inc. – The Tramp (From Funky Broadway) Pt2

Greetings all, and welcome to the new week!

How’s about we get things rolling with a tasty break?

The tune I bring you today is one of those meat and potatoes breakbeat classics that I chased for a long time before finally grabbing it in one of the really big record scores of my career.

I knew nothing about the Showmen Inc., for the longest time, aside from the fact that ‘The Tramp (From Funky Broadway)’ had been sampled by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist in ‘Brainfreeze’. And of course the fact that as funk 45s go, it is a banger.

I had always assumed that it was just a double-answer-record, hitting both the “Tramp” and “Funky Broadway” fads.

What I eventually found out about the record (and the group) would prove very interesting indeed.

While I have seen some information (which I have been unable to verify from a second source, so I’ll continue to consider it apocryphal*) that would indicate that the record is a direct shot at Arlester ‘Dyke’ Christian of Dyke and the Blazers, what would seem incontrovertible is that the Showmen Inc. did in fact contain at least a few ex-Blazers, so make of that what you will.

The song was written by saxophonist Bernard Williams, organist Rich Cason and drummer Rodney Brown (with new member James Ingram) – all of whom formed part of the contingent that hooked up with Dyke in Phoenix, where (on the storied Artco label) they waxed the original version of the legendary ‘Funky Broadway’.

I have never been able to nail down when and where the various and sundry Blazers recorded with and/or departed from Dyke, but at some point the three above-mentioned gentleman became the Showmen Inc. and waxed the mighty slab of funk you see before you today.

Now Records was a Los Angeles-based concern that also released excellent asides by Ron Holden (‘Need Ya’) and Robb Fortune (‘Crazy Feelin’).

As far as I can tell the Showmen Inc. never made another record, which is too bad, since this one is so good.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

*Though it did suggest that when Dyke talks about being called ‘Broadway Tramp’ in ‘Let a Woman Be a Woman (Let a Man Be a Man)’ he is referring to this very record, which would date it in 1968 or 1969.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, September 13, 2012 11:47 am

Grootna, juxtaposed with the jacket of their sole LP

Listen/Download Grootna – I’m Funky

Greetings all

The end of the week is upon us, and so I thought I would whip something a little different on you all.

But first a message from our sponsor….that being a reminder that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday evening at 9PM on Viva Radio. As always, we endeavor to bring you the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in the iTunes store, or fall by this very blog to grab an MP3.

That said, it was a while back, whilst out a-digging, that I happened upon a 45 by a group that while jammed securely in my consciousness since childhood, I had never heard before.

That band, Grootna was familiar to me via their many appearances on psychedelic-era San Francisco concert posters, so much so that (thanks to the hypnotic power of one particular poster) it is almost impossible for me to think of their name without also appending that of another down-bill band – Stoneground – to it.

The 45 I found – ‘Full Time Woman’ – was the very first actual Grootna record I had ever seen in person, and while interesting, is not in any way Funky16Corners material.

That said, all roads lead to Rome (or at least to funk).

While I was a-Google-ating in search of Grootna info, I happened upon a Harmless collection entitled ‘Kaleidoscopic Funk’, in which the compilers brought together a wide range of funky rock, trippy funk and all points in between by artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Rotary Connection, Ruth Copeland, Larry Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson, and – as it turns out – Grootna.

I had never heard the song ‘I’m Funky’, so I Youtubed it, dug it a lot, and set out in search of my own copy.

As it turns out, the album on which the song appeared (self-titled, natch) which was produced by none other than Marty Balin (of the Jefferson Airplane/Starship/Roachclip) is fairly hard to come by and expensive, so I dug a little but more and found a vinyl copy of the song in a much more economical package.

This is the part of the post where we take a little detour and extoll the virtues of ‘loss leader” records.

Though I figure a lot of you are too young to remember, back in the olden days, when I was a kid, you would often open up a major label album and the inner sleeve would contain an ad (or two) for what were known as “loss leaders” i.e. cheap compilations intended to draw the consumer in to the deep recesses of a label’s catalog. They would do this by including a couple of familiar tracks by the bigger names on the roster, maybe an interesting rarity or two, and then a huge heap of stuff by new artists, back-benchers and old timers hanging on for dear life.

The hope was, that you would get this home (they were often very inexpensive considering that they were two or three album sets) dig something unfamiliar and then rush out and buy something by one or more of the artists at full price.

While I don’t recall actually buying any of these comps back in the day, I have spent the last 20 years picking them up wherever I see them because in addition to all of the crud, they often contain hidden gems.

‘The Music People’ is one such collection, which – as it turns out – also contains the song I bring you today, ‘I’m Funky’.

A fantastic example of stoned out, tie-dyed, hippie funk, ‘I’m Funky’ is especially groovy, with the flanged guitar, piano, drums and (slightly fuzzed out) bass and a fine vocal by Anna Rizzo.

Grootna released their sole album in 1971 and broke up a year later.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 11, 2012 2:10 pm

Pat Rhoden

Listen/Download Pat Rhoden – Living For the City

Greetings all

It’s been a while since we addressed things in a reggae stylee here, and since I had something warming up in the on-deck circle, I thought it wise to whip it on you.

I first featured the sounds of Pat Rhoden about a year and a half ago, and – oddly enough – it was also a cover of a Stevie Wonder tune, in that case ‘Boogie On Reggae Woman’.

As someone who’s always on the lookout for reggae/rock steady covers of US soul material, finding that first record was a treat. Happening upon today’s selection in the months afterward was a double secret irie treat indeed.

Rhoden was a singer who, though he recorded more than a little, seems to have receded into the mists of time.

He waxed sides for Ska Beat, Trojan, Attack and Horse from the 1960s on, as well as recording as half of the duo Winston and Pat (with the mighty Winston Groovy).

He recorded his version of ‘Living For the City’ in 1974 (Stevie took the OG to Number One in November of 1973).

Opening on an odd beat (but dropping into the reggae in short order), Rhoden’s version is slower than Wonders, but plenty funky.

I really dig the electric piano bed (there’s some acoustic piano in there too) running underneath everything and Rhoden’s vocal is very groovy.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (10)

By Larry, September 4, 2012 9:32 am

Everybody get up and do the water damage!

Listen/Download Marvelle and the Blue Mats – The Dance Called the Motion

Greetings all

My name is Larry, and I am here to inform you that today’s record will very likely upset your shit, blow your mind and at the very least get your ass up out of the seat, and onto the street.

But first (there’s always a speed bump like this, isn’t there?) a bit of rumination on the passage of time.

Today is the day that I turn 50.

Yes, a half century of slacking, record collecting and life in the rear view mirror, with – hopefully – much more to come.

I’m not one of those people that normally obsesses about age, believing that you are as old as you feel.

I don’t feel 50, and my lovely wife keeps telling me I don’t look my age, and anyone with the opportunity to observe me in my natural habitat will tell you that I don’t act it either.

That said, I’ve found myself giving this particular milestone a little more thought that I would have expected, which is normal, and I suppose as long as I’m not out on my (real or virtual) front lawn embroiled in an impotent rage, shaking a stick at teenagers for any combination of offenses against culture (real or imagined) then I’m probably ahead of the curve.

So there’s that.

It helps that keeping Funky16Corners up and running has its own, odd rejuvenative (is that a word?) effects.

It’s just that, when I was a kid, back in the olden days (as it were), the thought of a person who was actually 50 years old conjured up images of stern “oldness”, a la my school pricipals (who probably weren’t close to 50 at the time), priests and the like, not some big tattooed record nut with two little kids running him ragged.

The good thing is (at least for anyone fretting about encroaching age) is that 50-ness is not what it used to be. Science may be keeping people alive longer, but culture – at least some of it, because I’ve encountered a contemporary or two who seem like they were in a huge hurry to get old, at least ideologically – if not actually keeping people younger, is at least adjusting the generational state of mind so that even though we may be watching the pages fly off the calendar, we are still in touch with the parts of our younger selves that need to be kept around.

So here’s to crafting a combination of youthful enthusiasm and the wisdom of age into a fresh state of mind.

I’m trying.

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The world of record collecting has – like every other ‘market’ – its peaks and valleys, having almost everything to to with supply and demand.

Supply is usually determined by…supply, as is there are X number of known copies of any record available for sale, and the rarity (supposed or real) will cause a change in price.

Demand tends to fluctuate wildly. There are record collectors out there stepping all over each other to get their mitts on gospel records that nobody (maybe not even the people that recorded them) cared about ten or fifteen years ago and the same can be said (with the timeline adjusted accordingly) about records in almost any subgenre that had gained in popularity.

There are also records – within popular, collected genres – that gain currency for a variety of reasons, including being comped (always guaranteed to drive up the price), regional popularity on a dance scene (see Northern Soul) or use in an advert (which has blown up several funk and soul records in the UK in the last decade).

I only belabor thus point because the record I bring you today is an example of such fluctuations in real (or what passes for real) time.

I first heard Marvell and the Blue Mats ‘The Dance Called the Motion’ years ago on one of those quasi-bootleg comps that tried to do for soul and funk what Pebbles did for garage punk.

My wig was good and truly flipped, and I decided then and there that I NEEDED a copy of this particular 45.

Well…as soon as I started looking in earnest it became apparent that if I was to get one, I would have to fork over a couple of hundred dollars, which I did not have.

The few times I scoped out a copy on Ebay, the results were much the same.

Then – in the last year or so – some telling things began to happen in regard to the value of the 45.

Copies began to turn up (some with people I know) and then a buddy hooked me up with a seller (from whom he had procured his own copy).

The price quoted was very low (compared to a few years ago) so I forked over the dough and grabbed it.

The label was water damaged, but I’m not really a stickler for label condition if the vinyl is clean.

The record fell through the mail slot, hopped up on the turntable and once the needle hit the grooves, all was well with the world.

‘The Dance Called the Motion’ (maybe the funkiest thing ever to come out of Milwaukee, WI) opens with an explosive break and revs right up into a powerful, James Brown-y groove that is guaranteed to light up the sleepiest crowd.

So, curious cat that I am, I started to do a little bit of research, tracking the record through a couple of auction aggregating sites and two things became apparent.

First, ‘The Dance Called the Motion’ had been coming down in value for more than a year, leveling off at about a third of its peak value.

Second, and this was the kicker, most of the copies on the market (at least recently) had been originating with the same seller, i.e. the value had tanked because someone was flooding the market with product.

As someone who doesn’t really sell records with any regularity, this doesn’t bother me much, though I’m not sure I’d feel the same way if I’d gone for the record when it was at its most expensive.

As a buyer, and a collector concerned more with the intrinsic, musical value of a record, getting a record this good at a (relatively) low price couldn’t make me happier.

As a DJ, I’ve never had much respect for other DJs (or crowds) who gauge the power of a record by its rarity. When you’re trying to get people to dance (or keep dancing) what matters is how good it is, not how rare.

There are always trainspotters in every crowd (especially at some of the genre-specific nights) and there are certainly countless rare records that are also ass-kickers, but the same can be said of lots more, less expensive 45s, i.e. ‘The Dance Called The Motion’ is going to blow people’s minds whether it costs $250.00 or fifty cents.

Make of that what you will, but I will always say that if you spend all your time chasing five-hundred dollar records, you’re probably missing the forest for the trees, and lots of good music as well.

And that my friends is your lesson for the day.

Now dance.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, August 30, 2012 12:56 pm

Cliff Nobles

Listen/Download Cliff Nobles – We Got Our Thing Together

Greetings all

Welcome to the end of another week here at the Corners du Funk.

Don’t forget to twist the knobs on your wireless set this (and every) Friday night at 9PM when the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there for the broadcast make sure to subscribe to the show as a podcast in the iTunes store (free) or pick up an MP3 at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is another one of those sleepers that I picked up (many) years ago during my Philadelphia-mania, and never really gave its due.

Cliff Nobles is known to soul fans far and wide as the man behind ‘The Horse’, or at least the very groovy (underrated in my opinion) vocal version thereof, ‘Love Is Alright’.

The Alabama-born Nobles, was singing in and around the Philly area for years before he hit with ‘The Horse’.

He recorded a few 45s for J-V and Atlantic before Cliff Nobles and Co. jumped on the charts with ‘The Horse’ in 1968.

Phil-LA of Soul released a grip of singles and a LP by the group, with most of their material written and produced by Jesse James.

Cliff Nobles and Co his the R&B Top 40 twice in 1968 and 1969, but after that Nobles was largely at loose ends.

It appears that James tried to have him ride out the ‘Horse’ craze a few times, but to no success.

The 45 you see before you today is evidence that Nobles had one last intersection with the charts.

Oddly, it wasn’t with this side of the 45.

The much mellower ‘This Feeling of Loneliness’, with a southern soul feel made it to #42 on the R&B charts in June of 1973.

The flip – which I bring you today – is the much funkier (and cooler) ‘We Got Our Thing Together’ is not only a better song/performance, but also sports a very funky arrangement and some tight drums as well.

I find it odd that ‘We Got Our Thing Together’ didn’t hit, but there are any number of possible reasons it didn’t make it (including the likelihood that it didn’t get promoted at all).

After this one Roulette single, Nobles never recorded again, and was out of the music industry by the mid-70s.

He passed away in 2008.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, August 26, 2012 3:01 pm

Major Harris

Listen/Download The Nat Turner Rebellion – Tribute To a Slave

Greetings all

It’s good to be back in the saddle here at the Corners.

The fam and I spent the week on vacation, half of which saw yours truly sick enough to go to the doctor.

Fortunately I made a snappy comeback and we managed to have to some fun, and I even got in a very fruitful dig in on the way home (digimatizing in the background as I write this).

I hope the new week finds you all well, and that you’re ready for something heavy from my Philly crates.

Every once in a while (though not so much anymore) you stumble upon a very groovy 45 with a name conjures up images of “one-off”-ness, i.e. the single recorded effort of a groovy but obscure/lost band/artist.

The first time I found a disc by the Nat Turner Rebellion, I instantly thought this was the case.

The record in question – ‘Tribute To a Slave’ on the Delvaliant label – popped up while I was excavating the hinterlands of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. It looked cool, sounded even cooler and took a place of pride in my Philly crates.

That was more than ten years ago.

Over the course of the next few years, I found two more 45s by the group on two more labels (Philly Groove and Philly Soulville), and started to recognize some familiar names on the labels.

The fist of these was Major Harris (the group is sometimes listed at the Nat Turner Rebellion featuring Major Harris), a singer that would have a huge hit in 1975 with’Love Won’t Let Me Wait’.

The other was Joe Jefferson, Philly area songwriter/producer/label honcho (he ran the Del-Val imprint).

As it turns out, Major Harris and Joe Jefferson were in fact brothers, and cousins of MFSB guitarist Norman Harris (who produced and co-wrote at least one of their 45s).

It took me a while to reconcile the vocalist on the Nat Turner Rebellion sides with the singer of ‘Love Won’t Let Me Wait’.

Where the latter is the ne plus ultra of mid-70s, late night, bedroom soul, the Nat Turner Rebellion sides are funky, and sometimes militant (the group name having its own racial/political meaning), sounding like the product of an especially hip Blaxploitation soundtrack.

The cut I bring you today, ‘Tribute To a Slave’ is a tiny bit more subdued than the flip (the very cool ‘Plastic People’ which can be heard in Funky16Corners Radio V.1 – Funky Philadelphia) but the vocal interplay in the group, in the Temptations stylee, is outstanding, as is the guitar/electric sitar riff running through the record.

The lyrics are a tribute (natch…) to the group’s namesake, calling out to him in the racial climate of the early 70s, closing with the repeated chant of ‘We ain’t slaves no more!’.

The production is first-rate, and I’m more than a little surprised that the group – especially with this record – didn’t make more of a splash.

Since Major Harris left to join the Delfonics in 1971, the assumption is that most of the NTR tracks predate that departure.

There are at least four different 45s on three different labels, and rumors of others as well.

If anyone has any info on the other members of the group, please drop me a line.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you later.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, August 23, 2012 4:31 pm

Funky16Corners – Honey Trippin’
BT Express – Express (Scepter)
Louie Ramirez – Do It Any Way You Wanna (Cotique)
Cymande – Anthracite (Janus)
Virtue Orchestra – High Horse IV (Virtue)
Mystic Moods – Honey Trippin’ (Soundbird)
KC and the Sunshine Band – Let It Go (TK)
Instant Funk – Philly Jump (TSOP)
Jay Berliner – Getting the Message (Mainstream)
Love Child’s Afro Cuban Blues Band – Love and Death in G and A (Roulette)
Gene Faith – Lowdown Melody (Virtue)
Doc Severinson – Soul Makossa (RCA)
Soul Searchers – Boogie Up the Nation Pt2 (Polydor)
Philly Sound – Waitin’ For the Rain (Phil LA of Soul)
Mongo Santamaria – What You Don’t Know (Vaya)
Philadelphia Society – 100 South of Broad Street (American)
Larry Page Orchestra – Erotic Soul (London)
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Virgo Red (Polydor)
Barrett Strong – Stand Up and Cheer For the Preacher (INST) (Epic)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Rewind: Honey Trippin’ – 110MB Mixed Mp3

Greetings all.

It’s time for the final installment in Funky16Corners Rewind week.

But first, I should remind you that this (and every) Friday night at 9PM, the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs on Viva Radio. If you can’t hang at broadcast time, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, where the weekly episode will pop up on Saturday, or grab a download here at the blog.

The final rewind mix this week is another personal fave of mine.

‘Honey Trippin’ is an hour of disco, disco funk, funky disco and all permutations thereof.

There are some old, familiar faces, some more obscure selections, and hopefully a couple of surprising left turns.

I hope you dig it, thank you for your indulgence in this week of recycling, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, August 19, 2012 7:59 pm

Funky16Corners Rewind: Ape Hangers

Curly Moore & The Kool Ones – Funky Yeah (House of the Fox)
AB Skhyy – Camel Back (MGM)
Bill Sha Rae – Let’s Do It Again (Triple B)
Funkadelic – Super Stupid (Westbound)
Dramatics – Get Up and Get Down (Volt)
Sod – Too Loose To Get Tight Pt 1 (Decca)
Buena Vistas – Kick Back (Marquee)
Johnny Griffiths – Do It (Triple B)
War – Me and Baby Brothers (UA)
ST-4 – Funky (Scepter)
Marvin Holmes & the Uptights – Ride Your Mule (Revue)
Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers – Raw Funky (Tower)
Marva Whitney – Things Got To Get Better (King)
Cymande – Fug (Janus)
Donald Austin – Crazy Legs (Eastbound)
Woody Guenther & Cheaters – Bang Dangin’ Time (Shout)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Rewind: Ape Hangers – 68MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

Welcome to another week here at Funky16Corners.

This week we’re going to try something a little different.

The fam and I will be vacating (to a degree), something that we haven’t had the time, will, or ability to do in nearly a year.

I was wondering what I should do to fill the time (and space) in which I would otherwise be actively bloggifying, and it occurred to me that I’d had a suitable idea simmering on the back burner for some time.

As you already know, the Funky16Corners Archives are packed to the rafters with mixes (around 150, maybe more).

You might also be aware – mainly because I’ve said it here before – that I created these mixes as much for my own ears as for those of the readership. As a result, some of these have entered a significant rotation on the old iPod, and can often be heard spilling from the windows of the Funky16Corners-mobile as I roll through the highways and byways of central New Jersey.

That said, I thought (with a touch of ego, natch) that some of these deserved a second airing, so that those that missed them the first time out (or folks that don’t have the time to download and plow through that many mixes) might have a chance to dig (them).

I’ll be posting three different selections – personal favorites all – over the course of the week, one funk, one disco and one Northern Soul.

The first of these, which you see before you, is a selection of heavier stuff that I put together for my friends at Soul:Good over in Russia back in 2009.

‘Ape Hangers’ (Google it) may be new to most of you, since I discovered that I never got around to including it in the Guest Mix Archive.

It’s 49 minutes of heavy funk and funk rock that packs enough heat to get you out of your seat.

I hope you all dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with some soul.

Keep the faith

Larry

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.