Comments (2)

By Larry, June 5, 2012 5:13 pm

Johnny Williams

Listen/Download Johnny Williams – Slow Motion Pt1

Greetings all.

Now here’s an odd one (not the record, but the story).

A while back one of my Facebook friends posted a Soul Train clip to illustrate a dance step, and after that part of the clip, Don Cornelius introduced another song.

It’s a good thing I stuck around for the tune (and that Don mentioned the name of the singer) because it was very cool indeed.

The singer was Johnny Williams, and the song was the cut I bring you today, ‘Slow Motion’.

This is another great example of how a song can graze the R&B Top 10, but not really make any noise at all on the Pop side of things.

When ‘Slow Motion’ hit in 1972 I was listening to the radio – at least the AM side of the dial – quite a bit, but when I heard the song in the aforementioned clip, I had no recollection of it whatsoever.

My first instinct was that this funky gem was a southern soul cut, but the tiniest bit of research revealed that the song had been written and produced by Gamble and Huff in Philadelphia!

I haven’t been able to find much info on Johnny Williams, other than that he recorded for a couple of labels (Chess, Cub, Twinight) before making it to Philadelphia International.

The Billboard R&B chart book mentions that he moved from his native Alabama to Chicago in the mid-50s and sang gospel, but not much else.

‘Slow Motion’ opens with some heavy drums and a soulful grunt from Johnny, before the band kicks in. The smooth electric piano underpinning and the stylish horns are the only hints that this might be a Gamble/Huff jawn.

Though Williams recorded a few more sides for PI, he failed to hit the charts again, and passed away in 1986.

‘Slow Motion’ is included in the recent boxed set of Tom Moulton/Philadelphia International remixes.

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

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.

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, June 3, 2012 11:50 am

Leroy Hutson and a ladyfriend in 1973

Listen/Download Sugar and Spice – Ah Hah Yeah

Greetings all.

The preparations for the Funky16Corners 2012 Pledge Drive/Allnighter are coming together nicely with some very groovy mixes on tap. Things should get rolling in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more details.

The track I bring you today is something I picked up on a hunch while out digging.

___________________________________________________________________________

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.

___________________________________________________________________________

I’d never heard of Sugar and Spice or the song ‘Ah Hah Yeah’, but a certain name on the label piqued my curiosity, so I grabbed it and took it home.

When I got to Googling it turned out that my hunch was correct, and the the arranger ‘L. Hutson’ was singer Leroy Hutson, who also happened to be a member of the group.

If the name Leroy Hutson is familiar to you, it may be because he was the man who replaced Curtis Mayfield in the Impressions in 1971.

He also went on to a solo career through the 70s and 80s, hitting the R&B charts a dozen times between 1973 and 1979 while on the Curtom label.

Hutson grew up in NJ, eventually attending Howard University in Washington, DC where he met (and roomed with) none other than Donny Hathaway.

He followed Hathaway to Chicago where they recorded as members of the Mayfield Singers.

Hutson was joined in Sugar and Spice by singer Deborah Rollins, with whom he recorded ‘Ah Hah Yeah’ in 1968 for the Kapp label.

The tune is a very tasty slice of funky soul, with a great opening bass line, some tight drums and great duet harmonies from Hutson and Rollins.

The producers credit for Guy Draper leads me to believe that this is a Chicago 45.

I haven’t heard any of the other Sugar and Spice 45s but I will be on the lookout for them.

I hope you dig the tune and I’ll be back later in the week.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 31, 2012 2:08 pm

Les McCann

Listen/Download Les McCann – Compared To What (Original Version)

Greetings all.

I should remind 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 can’t make it at airtime you can always come by the blog and grab yourself a downloadable MP3 of the show (and more than 100 archived episodes) over the weekend.

I hope all is well with you and yours.

The tune I bring you today should be a (very) familiar one, but I’m guessing that for a lot of you, the version will be new.

Most folks know the most famous take of  Gene McDaniels’ ‘Compared To What’ via the 1969 recording by Les McCann and Eddie Harris from the ‘Swiss Movement’ LP.

That’s certainly the first place I heard it, followed by the also quite excellent variations laid down by folks like Roberta Flack, Della Reese and the Northern Soul fave by Mr Flood’s Party.

As is always the case, my inquiring mind wanted to know what the first version of the song was, assuming (incorrectly) that it had to have been by Gene McDaniels himself.

McDaniels got his start as a popular recording artist with “A Hundred Pounds of Clay’, a Top 10 hit in 1961. His chart run, which included tunes like ‘Tower of Strength’ and ‘Point of No Return’ (later a hit when covered by Georgie Fame in the UK) ended in 1962 (though he continued to record into the 70s).

I still have no idea how McDaniels got ‘Compared to What’ to Les McCann, but it would appear (unless someone can place it earlier) that the song was first recorded (the take you’re hearing today) by McCann on his 1967 LP ‘Plays the Hits’ on the Limelight label.

‘Compared to What’ is by any measure one of the great, soulful protest songs of the 60s, and McCann really lays into it with gusto, making it the highlight of an otherwise fairly unremarkable album filled with pop covers.

In fact, I had the record for a few years before I even noticed that it included ‘Compared to What’!

Though it’s possible that McDaniels himself recorded his most famous composition at some point, I have yet to track it down.

I don’t believe that this version has ever been reissued.

It’s an inspired bit of soul jazz and yet another piece of a very interesting puzzle.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you later in the week.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (6)

By Larry, May 29, 2012 2:12 pm

Send Me Some Cornbread!

Listen/Download Russell Evans and the Nite Hawks – Send Me Some Cornbread

Greetings all.

The middle of the week is upon us and since it’s sunny and hot outside I thought I’d toss something greasy on the grill.

I first heard ‘Send Me Some Cornbread’ a while back when one of my many DJ friends posted a Youtube clip online.

It was another one of those “where has this record been and where can I get me one” things and though it took me a couple of months to put my mitts on a copy that was both playable and cheap, I finally did, so here it is.

There’s just this one thing…that being, no matter how hard I try, I cannot unearth a speck of info on this record, other than when it was released.

Interestingly, the sole 45 by Russell Evans and the Nite Hawks was released both in the US (the Atco copy you see here) and in the UK on Atlantic in the summer of 1966.

‘Send Me Some Cornbread’ is a soulful good time, with some fantastic gut bucket guitar, organ and a slightly wild chorus chanting the word ‘cornbread’ over and over again (much to my delight, I might add).

The flip, ‘The Bold’ is a tasty organ instro that will soon appear in an upcoming mix.

There are plenty of listing on the interwebs for this record, but little else to explain how someone capable of making such a groovy record could fade so deeply into the void.

I can’t find any trace of this record in Atlantic Records sessionographies,which suggests to me that it was picked up whole and issued by Atlantic/Atco from another source, but that’s just an educated guess.

The lyrics mention New York City, but that could signify nothing at all. If anyone has any info on Mr Evans and/or his Nite Hawks, please let me know.

That all said, ‘Send Me Some Cornbread’ is the kind of record that I absolutely live for, and I only wish there were more.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you on Friday.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 27, 2012 4:05 pm

Bobby Womack

Listen/Download Bobby Womack – Simple Man

Listen/Download Bobby Womack – Across 110th Street

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

If you are a longtime follower of the Funky16Corners blog, you’ll already know that this time of year usually brings our Pledge Drive, complete with a grip of new mixes.

If you know that, you’re also probably familiar with the difficulties here at the Funky16Corners compound.

This has been an especially trying year, with all kinds of challenges related to my wife’s treatment, as well as all the logistical issues that come with it.

I’m here to tell you that things are on track, and summer is nigh, so the Funky16Corners Pledge Drive will be happening (if a bit later than usual)  this year.

The mix requests have been sent out (some positive replies have already arrived) and I have a very groovy premium in the works, so stay tuned over the next few weeks for updates in that regard.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The last few months have seen funk and soul fans on the edge of their seats waiting for news about the health of the mighty Bobby Womack.

The 68 year old singer/songwriter had been diagnosed with what was thought to be colon cancer.

This week he was operated on and the tumor they removed proved to be benign.

We have been best by a seemingly endless string of deaths of soul, funk and disco greats in the past year, and the idea that Bobby Womack might be next was indeed chilling.

This all made me think that instead of another in memorium, it would be nice to celebrate Mr Womack while he was still with us.

The two cuts I bring you today are both exceptionally cool.

The first, ‘Simple Man’ is one of my favorite cuts from his 1972 album ‘Understanding’, which also yielded his Number One R&B hit ‘Woman’s Gotta Have It’.

‘Simple Man’ is a great slice of funky soul with some fuzzed out guitar, pulsing bass, rolling electric piano (with just a touch of synthesizer) and a very nice vocal by Bobby. If you can get your hands on the album, do so since it is packed with great music.

The second cut – please forgive the scratchy nature of the 45 – is the title cut from the 1973 crime drama ‘Across 110th St’.

Credited to Bobby Womack and Peace, the song, which made it into the R&B Top 20 in 1973 transcends the generally accepted ‘blaxploitation’ sound. It has a funky underpinning and some judiciously applied string flourishes. The album (I don’t have a copy of the whole soundtrack…yet) is split between songs written and performed by Womack and instrumental tracks written by famed jazz trombonist JJ Johnson (both men are credited with this song).

I hope you dig the music, and keep Bobby Womack in your thoughts that he makes a complete recovery.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 24, 2012 1:13 pm

Viola Wills

Listen/Download Viola Wills – If You Could Read My Mind

Greetings all.

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

I should remind 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 can’t make it at airtime you can always come by the blog and grab yourself a downloadable MP3 of the show (and more than 100 archived episodes) over the weekend.

The tune I bring you today is something that came as a bit of surprise to me the first time I heard it…sort of.

The first time I heard a disco version of Gordon Lightfoot’s 1971 hit ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ was on the soundtrack to the movie ‘54’. I thought it was very cool and set out in search of the record, only to discover that the version in the film was a re-recording (by Stars on 54) of the original disco-ization of the song.

That version, which you see before you today, was recorded in 1980 by Miss Viola Wills.

The surprising part, at least for me, was that all I ever knew of Viola Wills was her killer, early 70s funk 45 ‘Sweetback’ (which you can hear in Funky16Corners Radio v.6 – Bold Soul Sisters).

I had always assumed that Wills was just another one-shot funk singer and hearing her sing something like this was jarring.

Of course if I’d bothered to do any digging at all I would have soon discovered that Viola Wills had a number of phases in her long career.

She was first discovered in her native LA by Bronco-era Barry White, and recorded several 45s during the 1960s (some of them written and produced by White).

She recorded ‘Sweetback’ in 1971 (Wikipedia says that she performed the song on Soul Train!).

The most successful stage of her career comes during the disco era, when she placed records near the top of the Dance charts a number of times in the late 70s and early 80s, imcluding ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ which hit #2 in 1980.

Wills version of the song, so far removed from it’s acoustic, singer/songwriter origins actually makes for a fantastic disco record.

Despite his folkie origins, Lightfoot was an accomplished pop songwriter, and the melody translates well into Wills’ upbeat, dance floor interpretation.

While it certainly may not be everyone’s cup of disco, I dig it a lot and I hope you do too.

See you next week.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, May 22, 2012 3:02 pm

The Mighty Imperials LP

Listen/Download The Mighty Imperials – Thunder Chicken

Greetings all.

I am happy to pop back up here with an unexpected mid-week surprise post.

First off, I wanted to let you all know that there is a new, extra groovy Funky16Corners-related sticker on the way.

I’m not going to say what it is right now, but I assure you that you will dig it and want to use it to deface both your own, and other people’s personal property, marking your territory like any proper soul fan would.

I’ll be selling these stickers at a nominal cost. There are a few old Funky16Corners bumper sticker requests pending (thanks to the clusterfuck our lives have become around here) but if you good folks will hang tight I’ll toss one of the new stickers in the envelope and mail them out as soon as they get here.

That said, I have often used the term “slept on’ in this space to indicate when I (or anyone else) ought to have been aware of a particularly good piece of music (or artist) and was not.

Such is the case with the bone-rattling 45 I bring to you today.

While I would not describe myself as a rabid fan of a lot of modern soul and funk in the retro stylee, I do know what I like and when I hear it it goes into the rotation, both personally and on the Funky16Corners Radio Show (Friday nights at 9PM on Viva Radio, or whenever you feel like it on your iPod).

A while back I was tuned into my friend Michael Newman’s Hinky Dinky Time Radio Show and he dropped a bomb that grabbed me by the ears and shook hard.

Michael does not focus solely on soul and funk, but has impeccable taste in pop, soul and rock, so what he does choose to air is outstanding, and today’s selection is no exception.

While I had heard of the Mighty Imperials – they are after all a part of the consistently remarkable Daptone organization – I had not heard any of their stuff.

When Michael dropped ‘Thunder Chicken’ into his playlist I was all like ‘What the hey?’ (in a good way) and all “I got to get me some of this!’

As soon as I discovered that this was in fact a new(ish) record I was even more pleased.

I have a fair amount of modern soul/funk/afrobeat on the Funky16Corners Radio Show, but there’s a lot more that I do not spin, because – as was the case 25 years ago in the retro garage/mod scene – sometimes, despite the best intentions, people end up sounding like they’re trying too hard, by which I mean the music ends up (for a variety of reasons) lacking a certain organic quality.

Nothing sucks more than soul or funk without one or the other (or both) and because I endeavor to provide the folks that come here (and to the radio show) with a certain level of quality, when I am served weak sauce, I send it back to the kitchen.

This, however, is not one of those times.

‘Thunder Chicken’ is, in a word, slamming.

As far as I can tell it is close to (or a little bit more than) a decade old, and I am embarrassed to admit to having missed the boat in the first place on account of I would have been spinning this one out in funk sets if I had it, which I didn’t, but I will now, ‘cuz I can, so there.

The whole band is cooking but extra special big ups go out to drummer Homer Steinweiss who comes correct.

So dig the mighty Imperials, and if you do, head on over to Daptone (or Amazon, or Ebay where their stuff is plentiful) and grab yourself some.

I’ll see you all on Friday.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (7)

By Larry, May 20, 2012 1:27 pm

Freddie Scott

Listen/Download Freddie Scott – (You) Got What I Need

Greetings all.

I hope all is well in your corner of the universe.

I thought  – after what turned out to be an entire week of obituaries – we’d get the new week off to a killer start with a record that I chased for a long time.

There can hardly be a person left on the face of the earth who hears the opening bars of ‘(You) Got What I Need’ and doesn’t immediately think ‘Biz Markie!’

However, there are without a doubt a large portion therein who cannot follow that thought with the name of the original recording artist,  Freddie Scott.

I love playing this record for people whose eyes light up with the opening, and then get even wider when they hear an unfamiliar voice and song follow.

When Biz Markie hit in 1989 with ‘Just a Friend’ it’s hard to imagine that many of his contemporaries (other than the DJs) had any idea at all about the sample source.

Though Freddie Scott had a Top 40 R&B hit with ‘You Got What I Need’ in 1968 (the second to last hit in a chart run that started in 1963 with ‘Hey Girl’), the record did not subsequently find a spot in the rotation of oldies radio. His music was strictly the purvey of soul collectors and members of an older generation when the Diabolical Biz Markie slapped on a powdered wig and let loose.

As groovy as the Biz was (is) the really cool thing is, when you sit down and give the Freddie Scott OG a good listen and realize what a fantastic record it is.

Then you take a look at the label and get your second surprise, that being that ‘You Got What I Need’ was written and produced by none other than the mighty Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff!

Though Gamble and Huff had written and produced a grip of amazing local Philly stuff, when Bert Berns handed Scott over to them they had only had one national hit, 1967’s ‘Expressway To Your Heart’ by the Soul Survivors (the Intruders ‘Cowboys to Girls’ would hit the charts only a few months before ‘You Got What I Need’).

Scott had hit the R&B and Pop charts more than half a dozen times in five years. He had moved from Colpix/Columbia to Shout in 1966.

‘You Got What I Need’ manages to be both tuneful and funky (dig those drums), and a great showcase for both Scott’s voice and Gamble and Huff’s producing/arranging talents.

I’m surprised that the record didn’t make a bigger dent in the charts, but following Bert Berns’ death in late 1967, Freddie Scott would only record one more 45 for the label.

He went on to record briefly for Probe, and then Mainstream, but my the mid-70s had moved on to writing advertising jingles.

He passed on in 2004.

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

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, May 17, 2012 12:52 pm

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder

Listen/Download Donna Summer – I Feel Love 12″ Edit

Greetings all.

I should start be reminding you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. We have a very special tribute to the Ladies of Soul lined up for you, so I hope you’ll fall by and open up your ears. You can always come by the blog over the weekend and pick yourself up an MP3 of the broadcast, or any of the more than 100 previous episodes in the archive.

This has been an incredibly brutal week as far as losses to the world of soul, funk and now disco, with the news of the passing of the great Donna Summer.

Summer, who died after a battle with cancer at the age of 63 was a huge part of disco, and later the world of pop soul.

The song I bring you today is by far one of my favorite disco records, but was really much, much more than that.

I’ve gone on the record at length of my long and somewhat rocky history with the sounds and culture of disco, from my callow youth (when it was all going down) right on through to my more mature appraisal in recent years.

Back in the day, there were a lot of records now thought of as disco that I loved – and many that I did not – but few have such a solid place in the pleasure centers of my memory as the tune I bring you today, ‘I Feel Love’.

When Donna Summer first entered my ears in 1975 with ‘Love To Love You Baby’ I was smitten, but I think it would be fair to say that it had as much to do with the erotic nature of the song and its effects on my adolescent mind as anything else.

However, two years later when Summer’s collaboration with Giorgio Moroder ‘I Feel Love’ came pulsing out of my radio* my mind was good and truly blown.

The song, which managed to hit the Top 10 on the R&B and Pop charts, was a remarkable bit of visionary dance floor artistry that would anticipate a lot of what was to come in dance music of all stripes over the next decade.

It’s always interesting to listen to the evolution of the synthesizer, from its roots in experimental music, on through novelty, psychedelia and on into dance music.

That its users struggled to imbue it with real musicality is without question.

That Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte managed to win that fight and create something remarkable is also – once you’ve slapped on the headphones and poured this concoction into your brain – a certainty.

Listening to ‘I Feel Love’ 35 years later, even after High Energy, House, and synth pop, it still sounds new and innovative.

A lot of this has to do with Summer’s remarkable voice, the element that managed to take the mechanical pulse of the synthesizers into the human realm.

The mix I bring you today clocks in at just a hair over eight minutes, but there was also a 15 minute mega-mix of the song and it’s not hard to imagine a disco full of chemically altered party people moving with the beat for the whole record, eventually collapsing into a blissful heap.

This is the record about which Brian Eno is reported to have raved –

“I have heard the sound of the future. ‘This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.”

Donna Summer went on to have a huge career in the 80s, crossing over heavily into the pop market with a much more conventional sound (which can still be heard on oldies radio, and at weddings wherever they happen).

Nothing she did, though, hits me like this.

The song was later covered by Bronski Beat (with Marc Almond) in a very cool version.

I hope you dig it.

Lets all hope for a better week next week.

Keep the faith

Larry

*I wore out the 45 I bought back then and upgraded to this 12″ a few years ago

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, May 16, 2012 4:20 pm

Chuck Brown

Listen/Download Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers – Bustin’ Loose Pt1

Greetings all.

Well….

A crappy week just got even worse with word coming down that the mighty Chuck Brown, longtime DC fixture and the Godfather of Go Go had passed away at the age of 75.

Though he is known to most for heat like the Soul Searchers’ uber-break/mega-sample ‘Ashley’s Roachclip’  (featured here back in 2008, I just reactivated the link) Brown was bringing the funk from the 1960s (the early Soul Searchers recorded a fantastic, and rare cover of James Brown’s ‘There Was a Time’) , first backing other artists before forming the Soul Searchers.

It was with that band that he recorded a couple of outstanding albums for Sussex, ‘We the People’ (1972) and ‘Salt of the Earth’ (1974).

The Soul Searchers hit the R&B Hot 100 five times (many of those in the Top 40) between 1972 and 1975, and then again in 1978 with the hot biscuit I bring you today, ‘Bustin Loose Pt1’ which made it all the way to Number One (hitting the outer edges of the Pop Top 40 as well).

The cut is a burner from start to finish, and might be familiar to some of the younger heads from its recent appearance in a commercial for chocolate chip cookies.

Chuck Brown was a master, and he will be missed.

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (9)

By Larry, May 13, 2012 2:44 pm

The Mighty Duck

The Law Firm of Jones, Dunn, Cropper and Jackson Esqs

Listen/Download Booker T and the MGs – Sing a Simple Song

Listen/Download Booker T and the MGs – Chicken Pox

Listen/Download Booker T and the MGs – Melting Pot

Greetings all.

I had other plans to start the week (how many times have I typed those words in the last year?) but when I woke up this morning and turned on my phone, the very first thing I saw, while I was still rubbing the sleep from my eyes was news of the passing of the mighty Duck Dunn.

Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, the longtime bassist for the legendary Booker T and the MGs died in his sleep while on tour in Japan.

He was 70 years old.

It is at this point that I make a somewhat embarrassing confession (at least as far as soul is considered) that being that the first time Duck Dunn really came onto my radar was as a member of the Blues Brothers.

I was 16 years old when ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’ came out, and like zillions of others my age (and otherwise) I bought the album.

Though I knew who Booker T and the MGs were – ‘Green Onions’ was then, and still is an elemental part of my musical foundation – I had never heard the names of Dunn and guitarist Steve Cropper before the Blues Brothers came onto the scene.

That album was the first place my fragile young mind touched base with the sounds (once removed) of Junior Wells, King Floyd, the Chips and a few others. As odd as it may seem, that first Blues Brothers album (I never bought another) was a serious jumping off point for me (as many other unlikely records would also be in the following decades).

What I didn’t know at the time, was that I was already deeply in love with the sound of Booker T and the MGs, via their role as Otis Redding’s band on the Monterey Pop recording.

I didn’t start buying soul 45s until I was in my mid-20s, but when I did I grabbed each and every Stax 45 that popped up in front of me, whether at record shows or at dusty flea markets (there twarn’t no interwebs back then, kids…), and many of them were either by Booker T and the MGs, or featured some or all of them as the backing band.

The decades that followed saw me – like any other self respecting soul fan – picking up Booker T albums wherever I found them.

While their oeuvre was, like every other instrumental band of the era, seasoned liberally with filler, they had more high points (and quite a few Everests) in their catalog than just about any other similar outfit.

The MGs were as tight as they came, with Dunn and uber-drummer Al Jackson creating as deep a pocket as has ever been heard.

The selection of songs I bring you today is by no means comprehensive, but I think you’ll find it quite groovy nonetheless.

There will be no Green Onions served, since Dunn wasn’t yet a member of the group* when it was recorded.

I have included a very tight Sly and the Family Stone cover, and two brilliant tracks from the last album the band did together.

Their cover of Sly’s ‘Sing a Simple Song’ comes from their 1969 LP ‘The Booker T Set’ and opens with a bit of a drum break from Jackson, soaked thoroughly in reverb, before the band kicks in. It sees the heavy kick of Jackson’s bass drum move into a more explicitly funky place, and while it never really moves into Sly-esque overdrive, it is tasty indeed.

‘Chicken Pox’ the first track from the group’s 1971 LP “Melting Pot’ (the last by the classic line-up) is the sound of the Meters breathing down the MG’s collective neck. The band is moving into a funkier place, and doing so with style, but the spectre of their Crescent City competition always seems to be there. Oh, how I wish this one was on a 45…

The last cut I bring you today is the title cut from ‘Melting Pot’, and by far one of the most interesting things they ever did.

Lasting in excess of eight minutes, ‘Melting Pot’ is important not only because it shows signs of the MGs stretching out into more progressive directions, but also because it became one of David Mancuso’s deeply influential Loft parties in New York City.

I’ll spare you an excess of words here, but if you have any interest in digging a little deeper, you can refer back to the piece I wrote on the record in early 2010.

Suffice to say, if all you ever knew was ‘Green Onions’, ‘Melting Pot’ will be a revelation.

Duck Dunn was – in addition to his better known gigs – a prolific session musician, both during and after the Stax era.

He was a legend, and he will be missed.

See you later in the week.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Though Dunn was a longtime part of the Stax/Memphis crew, being a boyhood friend of cats like Cropper and Packy Axton (Dunn was in the Mar-Keys) he didn’t join the MGs until he replaced Lewis Steinberg in 1965

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (7)

By Larry, May 10, 2012 10:22 am

Little Milton means it ladies!

Listen/Download Little Milton – Just a Little Bit

Greetings all.

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

I should remind 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 can’t make it at airtime you can always come by the blog and grab yourself a downloadable MP3 of the show (and more than 100 archived episodes) over the weekend.

If you travel through the highways and byways of the Funky16Corners then you will already know that I am often preoccupied with the species known as the soulful bluesman.

During the classic era these giant roamed the earth, guitars (and or harmonicas) in hand dominating any ecosystem they happened to stomp in.

You had your Syl Johnson, Junior Wells, Alberts King and Collins, and, perhaps the souliest of them all, Little Milton.

During a long and fruitful career he laid down some of the finest example of the sub-genre, especially groovers like ‘Grits Ain’t Groceries’ (his reworking of Little Willie John’s ‘All Around the World’) and ‘More and More’ (covered ably by Blood Sweat and Tears).

I grab Little Milton 45s wherever I find them because his work was consistently and reliably good.

It was only in the last year that I finally encountered one of his LPs in the field. It was a ‘Greatest Hits’ but it included several tracks I didn’t have yet so I grabbed it and took it home.

Among the new (to me) cuts was Milton’s outstanding coverof Rosco Gordon’s 1959 classic ‘Just a Little Bit’.

I already had the 1965 cover by Roy Head (done in the style of his previous hit ‘Treat Her Right’) but despite the fact that it was a Top 20 R&B hit in 1969 I had never heard Little Milton’s version of the song.

Milton takes the song at a somewhat slower, ever so slightly funky tempo, adding in plenty of organ and of course his own sweet voice.

It is not in any way earth-shattering – the song has after all been covered dozens of times – but it is a groovy tune and any Little Milton is quality Little Milton, and so I bring it to you.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you when I see you.

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.