Comments (0)

By Larry, February 26, 2015 1:25 pm

The Tempests

Greetings all.

The end of the week is at hand, and so is this week’s episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which takes to the shimmering airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t join me at airtime, you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

The disc I bring you today is yet another fine example of the largely blue-eyed soul/R&B movement know as “beach music”.

Starting in the Carolinas and southern Virginia in the 1960s, and based around the dance known as the Shag, the sounds were provided by a vast array of R&B/soul show bands, most of which were mostly (or more often completely) white.

The racial aspect of the scene is relatively complicated, in that it arose from music recorded by black artists (Tams, Showmen, Drifters etc), yet the live bands on the scene (Swingin’ Medallions, O’Kaysions, Bill Deal and the Rhondells etc.) – due, no doubt to the fact that this was all happening in the segregated South – were mostly white.

There is of course a long history of white R&B/soul artists in the south, many of them, in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and Atlanta, collaborating with black performers, either in the background, as composers and producers (Joe South, Dan Penn, Chips Moman, Spooner Oldham etc) or as backing musicians (in the studio or on the road).

The heyday of beach music was in the 1960s (the term came into use midway through the decade) and there are many excellent recorded examples of the sound.

The Tempests – a white band fronted by a series of black singers – recorded a grip of 45s and an LP for Smash in 1967 and 1968. The group’s original lead singer was Mike Williams, who went on to record ‘Lonely Soldier’ for Atlantic in 1967. He was replaced by vocalist Hazel Martin who appears on the two tracks I bring you today.

The uptempo ‘Would You Believe’ was the Tempests highest charting number, stalling just outside the Hot 100 in 1967. It features some great organ, hard charging horns and a solid vocal by Martin. It has lots of dance-floor appeal, which is why it has grown in popularity in the soul clubs of the UK (along with ‘Someday’ a track from their LP).

The flipside, ‘You (Are the Star I Wish On)’ is a great, pleading, southern soul ballad, with a killer vocal by Martin.

After leaving Smash, the Tempests recorded two 45s for Polydor in the early 70s, before breaking up later in the decade.

Some of the Tempests would go on to form and record as the Backyard Heavies.

The ‘Would You Believe’ LP has been reissued on CD and is fairly easy to find.

To learn more about the beach music scene (and its bands) I will refer to you the “Heeey Baby Days’ website. A companion piece to a huge, comprehensive book (which sadly looks to be out of print and quite expensive) the site is still a valuable resource (click on the ‘bands’ and ‘photos’ links on the front page).

I hope you dig the sounds, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 24, 2015 2:17 pm

Mister Rufus Is Back!

Greetings all.

I come to you today, yet again, to preach a chapter from the gospel of the World’s Oldest Teenager.

If the mighty Rufus Thomas ever made a bad record, I have yet to encounter it, and as is often the case, I usually endeavor to crowbar as much of his groove juice into the mix here at Funky16Corners as I can without overplaying my (or his) hand.

The banger I bring you today is another bit of evidence that a record need not be funk, to be funk-y, and that the Stax ‘factory’ (if you will) was turning out product of unquestionably high quality during their peak years.

Written by Porter, Hayes and Jones (David, Isaac and Booker T), ‘Sister’s Got a Boyfriend’ hits on all of the required Rufus Thomas bullet points, i.e. fun, funny, heavy, soulful and danceable.

The record is also a lesson in dynamics, opening with a little call and response between Rufus and the backup singers, not unlike a dumptruck backing up slowly, beeping to warn you of its approach, and then at around 11 seconds, lifting up and unloading a ton of bricks on your head.

The combination of bass and drums (and that bass drum is as deep and wide as Grand Canyon) creates a seismic shift in the record (and hopefully in the dancers as well), abetted by a simple piano line and some tasty horns.

Rufus wails over it all, bringing you the tale of young love/lust moving forward in the face of armed parental resistance. At some point in the song (and I have no idea why) the dog gets pneumonia. It’s a wild time all around.

So, as is always my presecription, if you haven’t got any Rufus, go out and get you some, and if you do (have some) go and get some more, because there’s no such thing as too much.

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 22, 2015 12:03 pm

Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

One of my favorite sidelines (and they are legion) is finding later records by artists that I had relegated to an earlier time. That these are discoveries to me is due in part to the fact that the later records are usually obscure, but also because of the ‘blind spot’ of R&B success.

This ‘blind spot’ as it is manifests itself with R&B/soul artists that had some degree of crossover success, and then seemingly faded from the limelight. What in fact happened many times, is that while they may have lost favor with pop audiences, many of these artists continued to place records on the R&B charts and black radio.

Other times, they didn’t even have that luxury, and were merely making a stab at a new/more contemporary audience.

Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry is best known for his 1956 hit ‘Ain’t Got No Home’, and ‘But I Do’ from 1961. He was a singer/pianist and a New Orleans fixture, and while he may have left the charts after 1961, he continued to record through the 1960s and 1970s.

The record I bring you today is a very groovy 1965 cover of a song that Hank Ballard had recorded with the Midnighters in 1956.

‘Tore Up Over You’ takes the Midnighter’s original and bumps up the tempo, tossing in some combo organ that sounds like it was borrowed from a Sir Douglas Quintet session. The bass and guitar push things along with an excellent vocal by Clarence and some female backing singers.

I know I say this a lot, but this really is one of those records that should have been a hit. It’s got plenty of kick to it, fits in very nicely with the 1965 musical zeitgeist and I wouldn’t hesitate to drop it for a room full of dancers. As far as I can tell, it did absolutely nothing when it was released, relegating it to the ‘to be rediscovered’ file, from whence I bring it to you.

So dig it, and I’ll see you all 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 19, 2015 12:05 pm

Miss Bettye Swann

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show. We come to you each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. If you cannot be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device through the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is another fine example of how no matter how much you dig, and listen and learn, there is always something new to dig.

While I knew the name Bettye Swann, I had never heard any of her music, until I was fortunate enough to find the 45 you see before you today.

Swann was a native of Louisiana who relocated to Los Angeles in the 1950s.

She started recording for the Money label in 1964 and had her first hit the following year with ‘Don’t Wait Too Long’.

She recorded ‘Make Me Yours’ in 1967, and had an R&B #1 hit with it (making it into the Pop Top 20 as well).

‘Make Me Yours’ is a great mid-tempo number with a punchy bass, some sweet vibes and a stellar vocal by Bettye.

The flipside, ‘I Will Not Cry’ takes a similar tempo in a ballad direction, and despite the chart success of the A-side, is my fave of the two songs (both penned by Swann).

Following a run with Money that ended in 1967, Swann resurfaced with Capitol in 1968, and then Atlantic in 1971, having R&B hits with both labels.

The really groovy thing is, if you are not inclined to dig for OG vinyl, there are comps available of Swann’s Money and Capitol sides available on CD and iTunes.

I hope you dig the sounds, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 17, 2015 1:54 pm

Leon Haywood

Greetings all.

Today’s selection is an early side by a guy that I find very interesting, indeed.

Most casual soul fans will be aware of Leon Haywood via his biggest early hit, the sweet soul of ‘It’s Got To Be Mellow’, and R&B Top 20 hit in the summer of 1967.

However, do a little digging, and a little b-side flipping, and before you know it you’ve discovered that Mr Haywood had something of a double life going on.

In addition to be an excellent singer, Leon Haywood knew his way around a keyboard (mainly organ).

His very first 45 was a blazing organ instro version of Percy Mayfield’s ‘A River’s Invitation’, and many of his early 45s sport instrumental b-sides.

Haywood was also the organist of record (as it were) on the Packers 1965 ‘Hole In the Wall’, one of those soul records that had an influence far beyond it’s chart success would suggest. Keep your eyes peeled in this space for a mix I’ve been working on involving various and sundry Packers/Hole In the Wall variations, rip-offs and homages, or which there were many (and many of which featured Mr Haywood).

That said, his early sides for the Fat Fish label feature Haywood on vocals, organ and piano, which is where we come to today’s selection, ‘Skate A While’. Released in 1966, ‘Skate a While’ is the 45-only vocal take of the the LP track ‘The Fat Fish’, which – unsurprisingly – falls quite neatly in line with the ‘Hole In the Wall’ stylistic continuum, if you will. You get Leon laying down an excellent,soulful vocal over a tight band, led by his piano, the only bummer being that the whole thing clocks in at just 1:52!

It’s a great bit of classic-era soul party, and I hope you dig it as much as I do.

Have a great weekend, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 12, 2015 1:07 pm

Frank Wilson – Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
Charlie Rich – Dance Of Love
Darrell Banks – Our Love Is In the Pocket
Jackie Wilson – I Get the Sweetest Feeling
Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – Lover and a Friend
Charlie Earlands Erector Set – Cherie Amour
JJ Barnes – Hold On To It
Spinners – Sweet Thing
Sand Pebbles – Love Power
Platters – Sweet Sweet Loving
Lee Dorsey and Betty Harris – Love Lots of Lovin’
Len Barry – I Struck It Rich
Producers – Love Is Amazing
Lee Williams and the Cymbals – It’s Everything About You That I Love
Broadways – You Just Don’t Know Good You Make Me Feel
Velvelettes – Since You’ve Been Loving Me
Soul Brothers Six – Your Love Is Such a Wonderful Love
Wilson Pickett – Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Valentine’s Mix: Dance of Love – 86MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

Hey everybody!

The weekend is nigh, and that means that it’s almost Funky16Corners Radio Show time. We come to you each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove all on original vinyl. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always keep up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listening on your mobile device through the TuneIn ap, or grabbing yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

Valentines Day is almost here, and what better way to celebrate than re-upping one of my favorite Funky16Corners mixes, Dance of Love.

First posted in 2012, and dedicated (then and always) to my lovely wife, it’s a collection of some of my favorite soulful love songs, mostly on the danceable tip, so that you might grab the one you love and cut yourselves a slice of rug.

And even if you’re not presently attached, slap this one on, turn it up, open up the windows and before you know it you’ll be swamped in potential romantic partners!

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 10, 2015 1:02 pm

Cash McCall

Greetings all.

I hope the middle of the week finds you well.

One of the most important aspects of record research, or at least in assembling enough information to connect the musical dots (as it were) – is reading the label.

This certainly sounds like obvious advice, but there’s reading, and then there’s READING (confused yet??).

What I’m trying to say is that a cursory glance at most 45 labels will give up obvious clues, i.e. label name/logo, address, artist etc, all important. That said, sometimes you have to drill down another level or two, and if you really want to understand a scene, you need to familiarize yourself with the songwriters, producers, arrangers and even publishers, under both their given names, and any pseudonyms they might use, the last item being especially important in the often shambolic world of 60s R&B, soul and funk.

These were not only the days of shady label owners glomming onto artists publishing, but also performers working in and out of contract, doing their best to make as much money as possible, sometimes moonlighting where they ought not, assigning copyright to names other than their own (see Allen Toussaint aka Naomi Neville) or maybe tossing a little something something to a radio cat to get their record on the air.

Having been collecting Chicago soul for many years, I started to see certain names repeated on 45s by various artists on all kinds of labels. Two of the names I saw a lot, were those of Milton Bland (aka Monk Higgins) and today’s artist, Maurice Dollison (aka Cash McCall).

Those names (together, apart, real and/or alias) appear on countless Chitown 45s as writers, producers, arrangers and performers.

Maurice Dollison emigrated to Chicago from Missouri and spent some time playing alongside Otis Clay.

Today’s selection, ‘Earth Worm Pt1’ was his debut 45 (recorded under his real name) in 1963, co-written with none other than Monk Higgins.

‘Earth Worm Pt1&2’ is a gritty, mid-tempo slice of Chicago dance party R&B, with some nice guitar bubbling underneath (and soloing as as well), and cool percussion. It’s not hard to imagine a gym full of kids getting down to a number like this.

Dollison/McCall went on to record a string of soul 45s through the 60s, eventually moving almost entirely into a blues sound.

I hope you dig the sounds, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 8, 2015 1:16 pm

Mickey Lee Lane

Greetings all.

I thought we’d get the week started with something unusual.

If you are a mod soul fan, you may already be hip to Mickey Lee Lane’s epic 1965 single ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’, covered the following year in the UK by the Action on the flipside of their cover of the Marvelettes ‘I’ll Keep Holding On’. It was via 1980s reissued of the Action that most of us found our way to Mickey Lee Lane in the first place.

That said, maybe ten years ago someone (I wish I could remember who) told me that there had been an instrumental version of ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’ issued in the late 60s, and that it had some level of popularity on the UK soul scene.

I eventually found out that the record in question had been issued as ‘Tracks To Your Mind’ by the ‘Sounds of Lane’ in 1968 on the Cobblestone label.

As you’ll hear whne you pull down the ones and zeros, ‘Tracks To Your Mind’ is not a straight instrumental dub of ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’, but rather is augmented by echoed guitar and tack piano. The effect is vaguely psychedelic, but as the track’s popularity on dance floors will attest, the propulsive kick of the original is intact.

The record’s release history is strange, including two released on Cobblestone, one a double-a-sided promo, then an appearance on the b-side of a pop 45 by a singer named George McCannon (the copy I have), then at least two bootleg pressings from the 1970s (and another in the 00’s).

The 45 can be quite expensive (though if you wait long enough – like I did – you can find yourself a bargain).

Mickey Lee Lane went on to work as a recording engineer, and passed away in 2011.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 5, 2015 12:12 pm

Don Covay

Listen/Download – The Soul Clan – That’s How It Feels

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, so I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show rolls around this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join me at airtime, you can always 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.

As promised on Wednesday, today we will be paying further tribute to the mighty Don Covay.

As mentioned earlier, Covay was more influential than he was famous, having written a number of amazing songs, some he recorded first, others he passed on to singers like Aretha Franklin.

Covay’s discography, covering ground from the mid-50s to the early 80s is filled with high quality music.

As I was pulling his 45s out of the crates over the past few days it occurred to me that most people had heard his more heavily covered material (like ‘Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’), but there were a couple of excellent tunes hiding on some of his flipsides.

The first of the two songs I chose to feature, ‘Please Don’t Let Me Know’ appeared in 1964 on the b-side of ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’.

‘Please Don’t Let Me Know’ is one of those songs that came as a surprise when I finaly flipped over the 45 and played it. Though ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’ is cool, it the more you listen to it the more it seems to hew awfully close to the template of ‘Mercy Mercy’. ‘Please Don’t Let Me Know’ is – like ‘Long Tall Shorty’, which Covay wrote for Tommy Tucker – one of those songs that starts deceptively slowly, picking up a significant amount of steam as it progresses. It features a great, pleading vocal by Covay, and some crazy, falsetto backing vocals toward the end.

I really dig the end of the song where Covay switches up the refrain to ‘Don’t let Don know!’.

The second track is the flipside of the 1968, one-off 45 by the Soul Clan. Featuring Covay, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Arthur Conley and Joe Tex, and produced by Covay, the Soul Clan never really took off (for a variety of reasons). That said, their one 45 is outstanding, with the fast-moving dancer ‘Soul Meeting’ (penned by Covay, and a Top 40 R&B hit) on the A-side and the gospel-inflected ‘That’s How It Feels’ on the flip.

Co-written by Covay and Bobby Womack, ‘That’s How It Feels’ is (at least in my opinion) right up there with the finest southern soul ballads of the era. Oddly enough, and I see this as yet another testament to Covay’s talents, the members of the Soul Clan were never in the same studio, with Covay and Womack creating the backing track, and the individual singers adding their parts piecemeal in separate sessions.

That said, it’s a powerful record, and ought to be better known.

The cool thing is, if you aren’t a vinyl hound, you can get Don Covay’s Atlantic, Mercury and Philadelphia International albums in iTunes (hell, you can even get the Soul Clan album!*), so there’s no excuse not to dig in.

I hope you dig the tunes, and keep your ears peeled for a Don Covay tribute on an upcoming episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Note – ‘Soul Meeting” and ‘That’s How It Feels’ are the only “true” Soul Clan tracks on the album, with the balance of the tracks made up by individual recordings by the separate members.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (5)

By Larry, February 3, 2015 11:29 am

Don Covay

Greetings all.

It was this past weekend that word started to trickle out that the mighty Don Covay had passed away at the age of 76.

Covay was one of those giants of the soul world who was probably better known to collectors and hardcore soulies than he was to the public in general.

Though he had a handful of R&B hits under his own name between 1964 and 1980, he made his biggest (and earliest) mark as a songwriter.

His earliest successes came writing for other performers, like Chubby Checker, Tommy Tucker, Solomon Burke and Gladys Knight.

He first hit the R&B Top 40 in 1964 with ‘Mercy Mercy’, a song (featuring guitar by none other than Jimi Hendrix) which was covered the following year by the Rolling Stones.

His next hit was the song that led me to Covay (albeit in a roundabout way), via the cover by the Small Faces.

As has been recounted here before, I found my way to a lot of soul music via the beat/mod sounds of the British Invasion.

Though I knew other Don Covay songs first (especially the Steppenwolf cover of ‘Sookie Sookie’, or Aretha’s version of ‘Chain of Fools’) I had no idea they were his.

The Small Faces version of ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’ sent me out in search of the original 45, and from there it was off to the races.

A few years later, I finally put my hands on Covay’s 1966 recording of ‘Sookie Sookie’, and things were forever changed.

‘Sookie Sookie’ is one of those 45s that taps into something elemental, stirring the listener, transforming him/her into a dancer.

I first wrote about the record ten years ago:

“Opening with unadorned tambourine slaps, the starkness is soon washed away by a blaring horn section, funky guitar, organ and a set of drums with a bass kick heavier than Solomon Burke and Billy Stewart teaming up in a chicken-fight.

Don falls by, asking his peeps to “Let it hang out baby!” then dropping a succession of suggested dance steps for the crowd. When they get to the ‘Sookie Sookie’s’ in the chorus, it’s like someone dropping a sledge hammer, with one of the Goodtimer’s leaning over Don’s shoulder and screaming “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!!”.

Second verse, close to the first, drums mighty hard, horns on point and then the screamer returns with something that sounds like either “ROCK ME!” or “DROP ME!”, but it doesn’t really matter since the screams are there for punctuation, like ending a sentence with a punch in the nose.

After that the fumes in the studio apparently got stronger because Don starts rapping about banana peels and turpentine, and you can almost see the band in their sequined matador jackets, conked hair and pointy boots, rocking back and forth, jammed too close together on a tight little stage dripping their sweat on the audience and making the ice cubes in everyone’s drinks spill on the floor.

I can just see some poor slob, on his way home from the late shift stopping in for a rock and rye, pulling open the barroom door and getting his wig blown off by the mixture of heat, soul and cigarette smoke. It’s that heavy.”

Having had the privilege of spinning the 45 (and several other versions of the song*) through several loud PA systems over the years, and recalling the shock up and down my spine every time I did, I stand by every hyperbolic word of that description.

Recorded in Memphis (and co-written with Steve Cropper), ‘Sookie Sookie’ packs a double-heavy drum sound (just listen to those rolls!), greasy guitar, organ and some of the most judiciously applied horn fanfares ever laid down on McLemore Avenue.

‘Sookie Sookie’ (and you have to get the OG 1966 version) is a 45 that every soul DJ should pack in their box. You can dig up all the rarities you want, tossing them out to the trainspotters in the crowd, but if you want the dance floor to shake and the ceiling to sweat, it is your sworn duty to slip this 45 under the needle.

Covay wrote and recorded a grip of amazing records, and I’ll be back later in the week with some of them (and I promise that I’ll be putting together a full tribute for the Funky16Corners Radio Show).

Until then, let it hang out baby, and raise a glass to the memory of Don Covay.

Keep the faith

Larry

 *Tina Britt, Roy Thompson, Grant Green, Steppenwolf

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 1, 2015 12:00 pm

Mr A. DeWalt Mixon Esq.

Greetings all.

I come before you today to attest personally to the value of big (literal and figurative) ears.

The wife and I were early adaptors in the satellite radio thing, and though we have decreased that tech footprint over the years, we still rock the Sirius/XM in the main family car. As a result, it is through that portal that we do much of our listening on long car trips (usually driver’s choice).

It was on such a lengthy journey while attempting to keep myself from drifting off the New York Thruway, I pointed the dial at Soultown, and encountered (for the very first time) the tasty little disc you see before you today.

Like most folks for whom soul music is more than a passing fancy, I have often taken the Motown giants for granted(usually unfairly) due to their omnipresence on oldies radio when I was a kid, and the limited scope thereof, i.e. there’e nothing like hearing the same 25 Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations etc songs over and over again until your eyes and ears glaze over and you’re tempted to move on to something more exciting.

As has been recounted here in the past, I eventually managed to force myself through that swamp and discovered how much greatness was really out there.

Junior Walker and the All Stars were definitely part of that pantheon, racking up dozens of hits between 1965 and 1979, some of which are as shit hot today as the day they rolled off the presses in Detroit 50 years ago.

I have a bunch of the essential Junior 45s in my crates, and I grab the LPs whenever I find them, but as I found out, there were still some cool things I hadn’t yet heard.

When ‘Gimme That Beat Pt1’ came on the radio my ears perked right up, and since the satellite has a display, I didn’t have to wait but a second or two to find out that what I was digging was a new (to me) Junior Walker and the All Stars track.

‘Gimme That Beat’ is one of those records that still carries with it the heat of ‘classic’ funk, yet is also starting to reveal some of the fancier, streamlined options of the newer models, with just the faintest suggestion of the gathering heat of the disco dance floor.

You get some very groovy bass, nice vocals and sax by Junior and percolating guitar that attests to the fact James Brown’s juggernaut was still kicking up dust in the zeitgeist.

This was one of Junior’s last hits (Top 50, 1973) but demonstrated that he could still work it out.

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 29, 2015 11:16 am

Rosey Grier

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and that means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show once again takes to the airwaves of the interwebs, this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t bet there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

I am always game for a new version of a favorite song, and especially son when I find one by a singer that I really dig.

Thus was the case when I found today’s 45 by the mighty Rosey Grier.

Grier, who first gained fame as a pro football star, then as a TV and movie actor also had a sideline (successful artistically, if not financially) as a soul singer.

He recorded a string of 45s (and an LP or two) for labels like Liberty, RIC, D-Town, MGM, Amy, AGP, ABC and A&M between 1960 and the mid-70s.

During that time, he made some excellent (if largely unsung) records, some of which are sweated heavily by the Northern Soul collectors.

I’m partial to his late 60s Memphis-based recordings like ‘Slow Drag’ and ‘People Make the World’ when he was working with the likes of Tommy Cogbill, Chips Moman, and Dan Penn.

Today’s selection comes from a few years later (1970) yet still has a Memphis connection.

As I mentioned earlier, I love finding new versions of a favorite song, which in this was was the Masqueraders ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On’. The group had gotten their start in Texas, relocated to Detroit, but my the mid-60s were recording in Memphis, TN, working with many of the same people as Grier.

Written by group members Harold Thomas and Lee Jones, and recorded by the Masqueraders for Wand in 1967, ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On’ was covered a number of times, by the Exotics in the UK, the Gentlemen Four, and even Paul Revere and the Raiders on their 1968 ‘Goin’ To Memphis’ LP (again, working with Chips Moman).

Grier covered the song in 1970 on his sole ABC 45, which appears to be an LA-based session.

Rosey’s version of the song features a strong arrangement, with female backing vocals, and a nice horn section, with an excellent lead vocal.

A career retrospective of Rosey Grier’s best work as a singer is long overdue.

I hope you dig the track, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.