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
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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).
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.
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