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By Larry, June 19, 2014 11:18 am

DJ Bluewater – For the Cause
The Ethiopians – Headache
Al & The Vibrators – Check Up
Errol Dunkley – Love Another
Alton Ellis – Trying To Reach My Goal
John Holt – I’m Your Man
Bongo Herman – Dew of Herman
Prince Buster All Stars – The First Time I Met You
The Kingstonians – Kiss A Little Finger
King Stitt – I and I
The Maytals – Sweet And Dandy
Prince Buster – Closer Together
Ewan & The Soulcats – Keep It Moving
The Ethiopians – Promises
Delano Stewart – Stay A Little Bit Longer
The Melodians – Say Darling Say
Roland Alphonso – Peyton Place
Higgs & Wilson – Don’t Mind Me
Cynthia Richards – Foolish Fool
Roland Alphonso – Psycho Rhythmic
The Carib Beats – Munster’s Ska
The Gladiators – Re Arrange
Glen Adams – Miss Whiney
Freddy McKay – Love Is A Treasure
Vin Gordon – Vin’s Beat
Ernest Ranglin – Come Get Me

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: DJ Bluewater – For the Cause

NOTE: Today’s mix is another oustanding collection of Jamaican sounds by my old Asbury Park 45 Sessions cohort DJ Bluewater.

Bluewater is always scouring the bins for the finest in rocksteady and reggae, and his mixes are always packed with heat.

‘For the Cause’ is no exception.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday with the last mix in the series.

Larry

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Contest!

Anyone that donates today to the Allnighter/Pledge Drive will (in addition to getting the badge and stickers) be entered into a random drawing for a copy of the Fantastic Voyage 2-CD collection ‘Youths Boogie: Jamaican R&B and the Birth of Ska’.
This is a very groovy comp of island sounds from 1959-1962 with a who’s who of future ska, rock steady and reggae stars like Laurel Aitken, Roland Alfonso, Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards and many more!
There will be more drawings over the next week for CDs by Fantastic Voyage, and 45s from Cultures of Soul!

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The winner of the Cultures of Soul Emanuel Taylor 45 is Ryan Bricker !
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Greetings all

Welcome to the 2014 edition of the Funky16Corners Allnighter/Pledge Drive.

This is the ninth annual Pledge Drive, and the fifth Allnighter.

If you haven’t experienced the Allnighter/Pledge Drive, it can be explained as thus: once a year, the Funky16Corners Blog, your home for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove vinyl for almost 10 years comes to you with hand outstretched, asking for donations to offset the operating expenses of the web site.

The Funky16Corners ‘operation’ (as it is) included the Funky16Corners and Iron Leg blogs, the mix archives for both (containing well over 200 mixes), and the Funky16Corners Radio Show/Podcast (another 200+ files available for download, or through subscription in iTunes).

The money raised during the pledge drive goes to pay for the server space and fees associated with hosting the whole megillah.

As has been attested to many times in the past, Funky16Corners has humble beginnings, starting out on the old (free) Blogger service, moving to WordPress, and then to self-hosted WordPress. The move to paid hosting was necessitated by increased bandwidth usage, as well as the need for a place to store all the mixes (and eventually the radio show episodes).

The Allnighter/Pledge Drive is a once-yearly occurrence, in which yours truly, and some of the finest selectors out there whip up new mixes for your delectation.

In past years, I have posted all of the mixes in a single post, and left it up for a week.

This year, the quality and quantity of the mixes spurred me on to try something a little different, i.e. posting a new mix each weekday for a period of just over two weeks. This way, each selector gets their moment in the spotlight, and the mixes get spaced out so that the listeners don’t suffer from mix-fatigue.

Each day, you’ll get a fantastic mix (there really are some amazing ones this year) from one of my favorite DJs, many of whom have participated in the Allnighter before, as well as a couple of great new contributors.

So, if you dig what we do here at Funky16Corners, click on the Paypal link and toss some cash into the barrel.

Contributors will receive a 2014 Allnighter badge, as well as some stickers from the archive (as long as they last).

This year I will also be drawing the names of contributors at random for groovy swag, including CDs and 45s from Cultures of Soul, and CDs from Light in the Attic and Secret Stash.

So, dig the sounds for the next couple of weeks, and make sure you stop back on a daily basis to pick up new mixes and contribute for a chance to win some cool stuff.

Thanks, and as always,

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.

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, May 8, 2014 12:08 pm

Lonnie Youngblood

Listen/Download Lonnie Youngblood – African Twist Pt1

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so I must remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can keep upby subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes or grabbing yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is an old favorite of mine.

The name Lonnie Youngblood should be a very familiar one to fans of funk and soul.

The vocalist/saxophonist recorded some excellent 45s under his own name – while working as a backing musician for many soul and blues artists – during the 1960s.

Some of these – in particular the 45s he recorded for Fairmount, ‘Go Go Shoes’ and ‘Soul Food’ – are, in addition to their own excellence, sweated by fans of the back up guitarist on the sessions, a certain James Marshall Hendrix.

Today’s selection, ‘African Twist Pt1’ was recorded for the Loma label in 1967. It was the first of Youngblood’s two 45s for the label (the second being 1968’s ‘Roll With the Punches’) and is a wild bit of funky soul.

Layered with fake crowd noises, ‘African Twist Pt1’ features a crazed lead vocal by Youngblood, some excellent guitar and percussion and a wailing horn section.

Youngblood went to to record several albums in the 1970s, and continues to perform today.

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

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.

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, May 6, 2014 12:04 pm

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1965
(L-R) Bloomfield, Butterfield, Lay, Bishop, Arnold (not pictured, Mark Naftalin)

Listen/Download The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Born In Chicago

Listen/Download The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Get Out of My Life Woman

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here, so I thought I’d whip something a little unusual (for here, anyway) into your ears.
Those of you past a certain age will likely be familiar with the name Paul Butterfield.

Butterfield – harp player and vocalist – was one of the movers and shakers of the blues scene in the 1960s.

The band he led – unsurprisingly going by the name The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – was hot as hell, as well as serving as an incubator for talent, incubating  guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop.

Formed in 1964 in Chicago with Mike Bloomfield (both he and Butterfield were Chitown natives) and University of Chicago student Bishop, local heavies Sam Lay (on drums) and Jerome Arnold (brother of Billy Boy Arnold on bass) and later adding Mark Naftalin on keyboards, the Butterfield Blues Band had a sound that was rooted firmly in electric Chicago blues.

What made it stand out – aside from an embarrassment of riches in the talent department – was a willingness to experiment with rock and jazz styles and interesting cover material.

The first tune featured today – ‘Born In Chicago’, written by Nick Gravenites who would later join Bloomfield and Buddy Miles in the Electric Flag– was the lead-off track from the groups self-titled 1965 debut. It is a wailing slice of rocking blues, featuring blazing harp solos by Butterfield and wailing leads by Bloomfield.

The second track is a cover of Lee Dorsey’s ‘Get Out of My Life Woman’, from the group’s second LP, ‘East-West’ from 1966. Unlike most covers of the tune, the Butterfield Blues Band dispenses with the opening drum break. They take the tune a slightly more brisk pace than the original, adding in some tasty piano work by Naftalin.

‘East-West’ also includes a very groovy version of the Monkees ‘Mary Mary’.

Though the original lineup was all but gone by 1967’s ‘The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw’, the BBB continued to meld blues and R&B and kept rolling on into the 1970s.

They played at Woodstock (with none other than David Sanborn on sax) but were not included in the original film (there are clips of the band playing the festival).

That all said, you can find all of the BBB’s best stuff in digital reissue, and copies of their stuff turns up frequently in used bins (those first three LPs are all worth grabbing).

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

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.

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, May 1, 2014 10:59 am

Say what,now?

Listen/Download Plookie McCline – Gorilla Walk

Greetings all

The week is nearing its inevitable conclusion, so that means it’s time to remind you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will return once again to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9Pm on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with things by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a slice of gritty, slightly deranged R&B from the streets of Chicago.

I picked up this 45 years ago during the early days of my Jerry-O obsession, when I cast my dragnet far and wide, picking up whatever I could find associated with the master.

Charles ‘Plookie’ McCline is something of a mystery (he doesn’t even get a mention in Robert Pruter’s comprehensive ‘Chicago Soul’). He appears to have recorded a handful of 45s for the Jerry-O/Larry-O labels around 1963, some of which were also issued under the name ‘Willie Logan and the Plaids’.

Today’s selection, which was released late in 1963 was the flipside of ‘Uncle Willy’, a tune no doubt meant to tie in to the local dance craze of the same name.

As fine as that side is, you simply must flip it over to wrap your ears around one of the roughest, craziest bits of Chicago madness ever pressed into wax.

There are points where ‘Gorilla Walk’ sounds like it was lifted from the soundtrack of one of those old Bela Lugosi tropical zombie movies.

To describe the proceedings as ‘lo-fi’ would be both accurate and charitable.

It sounds like the band and the singers were crammed into a broom closet with equipment from the early days of sound recording*.

The backing vocals are – not to put too fine a point on it – wailed, and the saxophone sounds like it and its player had only a passing acquaintance.

The lead vocal by Mr McCline is pretty straight ahead, and the guitar is pretty groovy too.

Make sure to slap this one on the next time you’re in the midst of a drunken mob.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 *Interestingly enough, the production is credited to Jerry-O and the arrangment to Milt Bland aka Monk Higgins!

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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.

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, April 22, 2014 11:20 am

Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton

Listen/Download Big Mama Thornton – Wade In the Water

UPDATE: I just found out that Cultures of Soul has just reissued ‘Wade In the Water’ on 45 as part of the Andy Smith’s Jam Up Twist box set. It’s a great collection (put together by a great DJ) and a fantastic way to get this burner – among others – on 45.

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here and so in service of defeating the doldrums, I bring you something guaranteed to melt your face, and/or make your hair stand on end.

I do not recall where I first heard Big Mama Thornton’s epic reading of ‘Wade In the Water’ but I do remember being knocked back on my heels.

I have already mentioned in this space that the song in question is a big favorite of mine, and as such I like to pick up new versions wherever I find them.

What is most interesting is the fact that ‘Wade In the Water’ is at its base a gospel song with roots in the underground railroad.

Though is has been rerecorded in a number of non-gospel settings, most of those (or at least the ones I’m familiar with) were usually instrumental (though the rock version by Clover is a marked exception).

The version you see before you today, by Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton takes the song, strips it down to a skeletal framework (tossing the ‘gospel’ out the window) and rebuilds it as something else entirely.

Most people know of Big Mama Thornton for her original recordings of ‘Hound Dog’ (later done by Elvis) and ‘Ball and Chain’ (turned into a showcase by Janis Joplin).

Thornton. A singer, harp player and drummer had been recording blues and R&B since the early 1950s.

By the mid-1960s she had relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, and started recording for Arhoolie records.

She recorded ‘Wade In the Water’ in 1968, and it was released as a 45 (rare and expensive) but also released on the compilation ‘Ball and Chain’ (released in 1968 and 1974 and much less expensive).

Her version burns rubber like a top fuel dragster (one friend has referred to it as ‘the punk rock version’) and just gets faster and harder as it goes on. Big Mama wails, and the guitar solo by Bee Houston is killer.

It’s hard to listen to a record this elemental and singularly powerful without wondering why it wasn’t a hit.

The likely explanation is that it was a record ‘out of time’. It is light years heavier than most rock music from the time, and I can’t imagine what it must have sounded like to the blues fest crowds that she was playing to at the time.

It’s a lot closer to the MC5 than it is to Muddy Waters.

This, in addition to the fact that lyrically, Thornton divorces the song completely from its gospel roots, choosing instead to rebuild the lyrics as a loose, bluesy riff serving only to deliver her remarkable voice. It’s as if someone harnessed a hurricane and pressed it into the grooves of a record.

Heavy, heavy stuff.

I hope you dig it as much as I do.

See you on Friday.

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.

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, April 10, 2014 1:34 pm

The Mighty Harvey Fuqua

Listen/Download Harvey – Any Way You Wanta

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which lights up the wireless each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you aren’t able to dig it at airtime, you can always keep up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

I thought I’d end the week with something very groovy.

The first time I heard ‘Any Way You Wanta’ by Harvey (courtesy of my man Michael Newman) I pretty much flipped my wig.

There’s a Latin term (dropped here from time to time), ‘sui generis’ meaning ‘in a class or group of its own’ or ‘not like anything else’.

If ever there was a 45 for which this term was seemingly invented, ‘Any Way You Wanta’ is it, brother.

It pays to start by mentioning that Harvey, was in fact Harvey Fuqua, late of the Moonglows (they even take the time to mention that fact on the label). Fuqua had had a solid and very interesting career prior to this record, recording with the Moonglows, and duetting with Etta James on Chess.

He eventually found his way to Detroit, where he fell in with the various and sundry figures that would eventually give birth to the Motown organization.

Fuqua worked with Anna Gordy (sister of Berry), married Gwen Gordy (their other sister, who co-wrote this 45) and in addition to work on the Anna label (home to Barrett Strong’s ‘Money’) started his own Tri-Phi and Harvey labels where he would record a number of artists that would end up on Motown, like the Spinners, Junior Walker and Shorty Long.

‘Any Way You Wanta’ was recorded in 1962, but sounds like it could have come from anytime in the previous five years, or from Mars or some other crazy place.

The musical backing is fairly simple and straight ahead, but the vocals are – in the words of the kids – cray cray.

Ho-lee-shizzle, there’s a reason this record is sweated bigtime (and pulls in serious coin), and that is because it is possessed of a kind of odd magic that sounds like a mixture of pure enthusiasm, Tarzan, glue-sniffing and that wolf from the old Tex Avery cartoons.

Harvey spends the better part of two minutes and forty five seconds singing, howling, stuttering, calling out dance steps and occasionally throwing in whatever he can pull from his grab bag.

It’s really something else, though perhaps too much so, since I can only find one instance of ‘Any Way You Wanta’ charting anywhere, and not very high or for very long.

That said, since its inception, ‘Any Way You Wanta’ has become a big favorite of soul/R&B fans, even finding its way onto Northern Soul playlists.

Harvey Fuqua went on to be an important figure in the history of soul, as a songwriter, producer, performer and discoverer of artists like Marvin Gaye, New Birth and Sylvester.

He was a very serious cat indeed, passing away in 2010 at the age of 80.

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

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.

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 (4)

By Larry, March 18, 2014 10:36 am

Listen/Download Willie Tomlin – Check Me Baby

Greetings all

I thought we’d do the middle of the week with a fairly new arrival in the Funky16Corners crates.

A buddy of mine puts up a sales list every few weeks, and since he a collector (of no small taste) himself, the offerings are always very interesting.

The last time he put up some 45s on eBay, there was one in particular that caught my eye, and then (naturally) my ear.

I had never heard of Willie Tomlin, and I’m guessing that if you don’t already own this record, you haven’t either.

It would appear that he recorded only one 45, and when it was done, was so satisfied with the badassery therein, he vowed never to record another.

‘Check Me Baby’, which was released in 1969 is a recitation of what has been known on the streets as a very strong pimp hand.

Willie (who I’m assuming from the sounds on both sides of this 45 was a blues-based cat with a foot in the world of soul) lays down a laundry list of how-bad-am-I-isms that’ll blow your mind.

The delivery is oddly off-hand, as if Willie was wandering through the studio with a couple of fine ladies draped on his arms and stopped to whip a world-class brag on the crowd.

‘I wear my Botany 500 when I Funky Broadway

My Petrocelli when I Philly Freeze…

I spend a G-note nightly just to keep the girls mine…

I buy my suits from Hippie Land – Cal-eye-phone-eye-ay…

I mean check me baby, I’m one cat that’s clean

All the girls call me to see the soul of the new breed

Six feet deuce baby, teased and tan, a healthy hunk of any woman’s man

I mean like check me, I’m one cat that’s clean…

And on, and on, with the private plane expensive cologne, Moroccan leather shoes, jade cufflinks, diamond watch etc etc

Though he doesn’t say so, you know there’s a revolver and a straight razor in there somewhere.

This is certainly not the first (or the only) brag-fest set to vinyl, but it is unique in its breadth and the matter-of-factness of its delivery.

Like I said, I can’t find any information on Willie Tomlin, especially any trace of any additional recordings.

If you know any different, drop me a line.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

PS Willie was such a badass, he apparently moved the Rocky Mountains to Maine.

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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.

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 9, 2014 12:17 pm

Billy Lee Riley

Listen/Download Megatons – Shimmy Shimmy Walk Pt1

Greetings all

I thought we’d get the week rolling with something from the pride of Pocahontas, Arkansas, the great Billy Lee Riley.

If you have even a passing knowledge of classic rockabilly, the name Billy Lee Riley ought to be familiar.

Riley laid down legendary sides like ‘Flyin’ Saucers Rock and Roll’ and ‘Red Hot’ for Sun Records, both in 1957.

‘Red Hot’ would be revived in the late 70s by Robert Gordon and Link Wray (which is where I first heard it).

Riley and his band the Little Green Men also did a lot of work backing other artists.

In 1962, Riley and his new band (featuring several of the Little Green Men) went into the studio in Memphis, and as the Megatons recorded the record you see before you, ‘Shimmy Shimmy Walk’.

Initially released on the Dodge label, it was eventually picked up and reissued by Checker, where it made it into the Hot 100 later that year.

If the tune sounds familiar, it is because it is a reworking of the R&B standard ‘You Don’t Love Me’.

Originally recorded under that title in 1960 by Willie Cobbs for Mojo records (his version was basically a reworking of Bo Diddley’s 1955 ‘She’s Fine She’s Mine’), it was a local hit n Memphis and was picked up for national distribution by VeeJay.

The song went on to become a rock/blues standard in the 1960s, being recorded by a wide variety of artists, including the Kaleidoscope, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, The Al Kooper/Stephen Stills Super Session, Junior Wells and the Allman Brothers Band as well as the legendary 1967 Jamaican version by Dawn Penn.

The Megatons version features rolling guitar, a very nice reverbed harmonica solo and some groovy combo organ.

It was also released in the UK on Sue, where it became popular with the Mod/soul crowd.

I hope you dig it, 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.

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 2, 2014 11:02 am

Gus Jenkins

Listen/Download Gus Jenkins – Chittlins

Greetings all

A while back I was reading the always excellent Echoes In the Wind blog and I saw that my man Whiteray had posted a very interesting looking song.

As an inveterate soul 45 hound, I am constitutionally unable to pass by a song entitled ‘Chittlins’ for any reason, so I had to stop, unsheathe my ears and have a listen.

Good thing I did, too, on account of the fact that Gus Jenkins’ ‘Chittlins’ is a little slice of late night, smoky, uptown bar perfection.

Jenkins was a pianist/singer who had an earlier hit (as ‘Gus Jinkins’) in 1956 with the tune ‘Tricky’ on the Flash label.

A lo-fi affair, with Gus’s piano dueling with an organ and some groovy guitar, ‘Tricky’ sounds like it could have been recorded at any time between 1945 and when it actually hit the charts.

Jinkins/Jenkins appears to have recorded a handful of 45s for Flash in the late 50s, one for Pioneer International in 1960, and then a few years of radio silence before a couple of discs for Tower in 1964.

‘Chittlins’, which made it into the R&B Top 30 in November of 1964 is the kind of thing you’d expect to hear on the radio during a late night road trip.

The production is much better than his earlier hit, and the piano and the guitar (especially the guitar) sound as if they’d been woven in and out of a skyline full of electric lights and clouds of cigarette smoke.

The flip side – ‘You’ll Be The One’ – is a pretty straight ahead blues vocal with some nice horn backing and a great vocal by Jenkins. Once again, the guitarist is outstanding (I’d love to know who it was).

Jenkins went on to record one more 45 for Tower, and then a couple of sides, including the funky ‘Funk With a Feeling’ for the General Artist imprint (it seems ‘Chittlins’ was either reissued, or rerecorded for General Artists at some point).

So turn down the lights, pour yourself a drink, and give this one a spin or three.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you 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.

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, January 31, 2014 12:10 pm

Listen/Download The Mighty Hannibal – Jerkin’ the Dog (Special Tribute)*

Greetings all

The word came down yesterday that James Shaw, better known as the Mighty Hannibal had passed away at the age of 74.

Hannibal was a master (as well as a charter member of the Turban Hall of Fame!), recording some remarkable soul and funk 45s in a career that lasted – with some detours along the way – more than 50 years.

His 1965 opus ‘Jerkin’ the Dog’ has a secure place in my Top 5 soul 45s of all time.

It is – much like Rex Garvin (eulogized in this space less than a month ago) and the Mighty Cravers ‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ – a killer diller and a floor filler. A 45 so powerful that it held a place of honor in my play box, where it would be held in reserve for just the right moment, when it would be whipped on the crowd, taking them and leading them to the promised land.

It is far from the only incredible tune that the Mighty one laid down, but it is the one against which all others must be judged.

The record opens with his voice:

And then immediately drops into the hypnotic chank of the rhythm guitar which forces even the most stolid members of the audience to start moving, from their heads to their feet.

Then Hannibal stops things again and asks:

After which everyone in the room that knows what’s good for them (and hasn’t already collapsed) starts stomping, because when the Mighty Hannibal suggests (nay, demands) that you do something on the dance floor you put your drink down (or not) and do it.

There’s an incredible video of Hannibal performing ‘Jerkin’ the Dog’ on ‘The Beat!!!’ that has to be seen to be believed.

There stands Hannibal clad in a white silk tunic, bell bottoms, silver Beatle boots and a gold turban, with two go-go dancers behind him, surrounded by brightly colored giant plywood exclamation points, ampersands and asterisks, calling the shots, doing the jerk, walking the dog and just generally being bad-ass.

There are some crazy video artifacts out there, but this is like a transmission from another galaxy, where Hannibal is just now returning to his throne after dropping a lifetime of cool onto the earth.

The Mighty Hannibal did not have an easy life, and never really got the kind of shine that the creator of such amazing music deserved.

Fortunately, late in his life, thanks to devoted friends, fans and record hounds, he was able to return to the stage where he would bask in the adoration of the faithful once again.

He was a master.

He will be missed.

Rest in peace Mr. Shaw.

Keep the faith

Larry

* The file above includes an unexpected namecheck for the Mighty Hannibal that blew my mind the first time I heard it.

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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.

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, January 16, 2014 12:08 pm

Miss Tina Britt

Listen/Download Tina Britt – Who Was That

Greetings all

The end of the week is nigh, so I will once again inform you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you have a previous engagement, you can always keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing and MP3 here at the blog.

The song I bring you today is the second and last hit that Tina Britt placed in the R&B charts.

Though she was fairly well-recorded – a half dozen 45s and an LP – there isn’t much information out there on Miss Tina.

I first found my way to her mighty voice via her powerful 1969 cover of Don Covay’s ‘Sookie Sookie’, a funky classic.

Britt, who first hit the charts with the Ashford/Simpson/Jo Armstead penned ‘The Real Thing’ in 1965 (also recorded by the Chiffons and Betty Everett), seems to have hailed from Florida. Her singing had a bluesy edge to it, displayed to fine effect on ‘Who Was That’.

An R&B Top 40 hit in November of 1968, is a funky blues, with some tasty guitar (perhaps composer James Peterson?) and a punchy drum/bass sound.

There’s an interview with Britt where she mentions that she really considered herself a blues singer, she didn’t like ‘The Real Thing’, and that Juggy Murray wasn’t forthcoming with the royalties for her hits.

Though I’m not sure when the interview was from, Britt mentions recording some new music, so be on the lookout for that.

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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, December 29, 2013 12:07 pm

The Knockouts, Bob D’Andrea at right (hugging gorilla…)

Listen/Download The Knockouts – Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working) Pt1

Listen/Download The Knockouts – Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working) Pt2

Greetings all

Every once in a while I find myself entranced by a record that despite coming from an artist/scene outside of the ‘traditional’ soul/funk orbit.

There are countless examples of performers taking a temporary detour down soul street. Granted, most of these folks were on some sort of parallel course, whether it be R&B, jazz, or even (in this particular case) doowop, but the records in question are often extraordinary.

As far as I can tell Bob D’Andrea and the Knockouts started out like many other Italian harmony groups in the New York area, working a ballad-heavy twist on late 50s/early 60s doowop.

There are traces of Dion and the Belmonts, but their ballad performances are not my cup of tea.

However, there are a few items in their discography (roughly 1959-1965) that suggest that the group had a taste for wilder stuff.

Their 1961 b-side ‘You Can Take My Girl’ is a much more raucous affair, with touches of actual R&B making their way into the mix, but even then, it barely prepares you for today’s selection.

Released in 1964, ‘Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working)’ sounds like Joey Dee and the Starliters got their hands on some slightly poisonous hooch and went right out of their minds.

The arrangement runs at roughly 100 miles an hour, pushed along by bass, drums, handclaps and a churning combo organ, with a wild vocal by D’Andrea.

What little information I’ve been able to find on the group suggests that they were first and foremost a live band, working it out in the clubs along the Jersey Shore.

‘Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working)’ sounds like 100 sweaty nights of whipping drunken revelers into a frenzy compressed into roughly five minutes (both sides, natch) of madness.

Someone in this band had a taste for the (musical) hard stuff and it comes through on this record.

I’ve done the math a hundred times, and no matter how I run the numbers, there’s no sane reason that this record should be as good as it is, but it is.

The Knockouts made an LP called ‘Go Ape With the Knockouts’ that included both sides of this 45 as well as a serviceable version of ‘I Got a Woman’.

Lead singer Bob D’Andrea still performs today in Atlantic City as part of the music/comedy duo of Andre and Cirell.

I hope you dig the sounds, 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.