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By Larry, February 25, 2010 6:54 pm

The Killer, in a quiet moment…

Listen/Download -Jerry Lee Lewis – Shotgun Man

Greetings all.

I hope every has spent the week ingesting Funky16Corners Radio v.82, on account of it’s packed from end to end with positively stellar soul 45s, each and every one deserving of close, individual scrutiny, but also groovy in a bunch (like bananas).
I’m already ruminating on the composition of my next Master Groove set, and a couple of recent acquisitions seem to be pointing me in a specific direction (yet to be revealed). Since it appears we’re going to spend the weekend buried in snow (again) I’ll have plenty of time to mull the subject over.
Also, a special word of thanks to Gregorious over at Ourstage for a very nice write-up on Funky16Corners!
Today’s selection is yet another in an ever growing string of tasty records, knowledge of which was imparted to me by the mighty Tony C over in the UK. Every once in a while Tony will drop me a line singing the praises of a record, and I know by now, if I’m not already familiar with it, I’d better find myself one because I’m going to dig it. That’s what they refer to as brand loyalty. Over the decades of my digging career (aren’t careers supposed to make you money??) I’ve been very fortunate in that any generosity I’ve given has come back to me tenfold.
This has a lot to do with hanging with other vinyl heads who know their stuff. If you head out on an expedition, and you have the benefit of another person’s digging skill set, shared information will always result in more cool records. My man Haim has been namechecked in this space countless times, because he has turned me on to an equal number of amazing records.
I’ve never had the opportunity to dig with Tony, but it is clear, via our correspondence that we dig the same kinds of music. Thanks to the fact that nobody knows all the great soul and funk records, and most people don’t know the same records, we are informed by one another when something cool comes along.
I’ve always thought that those in the collector/dj community who thrive on exclusivity – i.e. crate digger ‘secret squirrel’-isms* – were doing themselves, and the rest of us a huge disservice. There’s something unbelievably childish/selfish about things like that. Congratulations! You’ve found a wonderful piece of music and you’re going to keep it to yourself, so you, and only you can listen to it while locked in your mother’s basement, covered in potato chip crumbs and your own, special stink.
Kinda sad, n’est ce pas?
The record I bring you today is one of those 45s that I’d never come across until Tony brought it to my attention. I grabbed myself a copy, dug it a lot, and as a result I’m able to pass it along to you fine people this very day.
I have always been a fan of Jerry Lee Lewis. Of the giants that are blasted into rock’n’roll’s Mt Rushmore – Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley – it has always been a close race between Mr Penniman and Mr Lewis (with Mr Diddley coming in a very close third) as to who should be placed at the top of the pantheon.
Despite a very uneven career, it has always been clear to me that the Killer is one of the realest of the real, and this is in spite of the fact that he is a world class reckless badass. Head over to YouTube and take a gander at the man in performance, wrestling with his piano (and his unraveling pompadour), shooting sparks out of every part of his being and generally rolling like a juggernaut through the teenagers of the late 1950s. Only Little Richard – like Jerry Lee with a caboose full of dynamite – rocked harder, crazier and badder, specially since he was doing it in a segregated society.
As I said before, for one of the true giants of his era Jerry Lee didn’t have a tremendous amount of success. He only had about a half dozen significant hits (mostly in 1957/58) and by the early 60s most of his chart appearance consisted of covers of other people’s material. By the mid-60s he had switched labels, leaving Sun for Smash, and was weaving in and out of his stylistic lane.
It’s important to note at this point that while Lewis spent much of the 60s jumping back and forth between rock, country and soul (yes, soul) this wasn’t really much of a change. All of those elements were present to varying extents from the very beginning of his career, and it’s likely that any point where one of those influences became more pronounced than the others, someone else (like his record company) were attempting to push him where they thought he’d sell some records.
Today’s selection, ‘Shotgun Man’, which appeared on Lewis’s 1967 LP ‘Soul My Way’ – while unmistakably Jerry Lee Lewis – veers off into unusual directions. Those in the know might slap a ‘Mod soul’ label on this one, partly because of who the artist is, but also because it combines aspects of mainstream soul music (as it was in 1966/67) with older R&B roots and just a touch of propulsive rock’n’roll. I’d even go as far as to say that a little more emphasis on ‘the one’ would have nudged this into proto-funk territory (or at least hard edged sock soul). Penned by Jerry Lee’s road manager/brother-in-law Cecil Harrelson, ‘Shotgun Man’ makes references to a number of songs (‘Seventh Son’ ‘Agent 00 Soul’) and people (Howling Wolf, disc jockey John R) and at times sounds like James Brown pushed through a hillbilly strainer. There are points where it reminds me of some of his old labelmate Charlie Rich’s more soulful material.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday

Peace

Larry

*In saying this, I don’t include the Northern Soul practice of ‘cover-ups’, or exclusive dubs in the world of reggae soundclash, which are more a part of the theatricality of the experience. There’s an element of competition, but it’s less about keeping it to yourself than it is about bringing something special to the night.

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By Larry, February 21, 2010 5:12 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.82 – Groovin’ at the Go Go

Playlist

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By Larry, February 18, 2010 6:04 pm

The Average White Band

Listen/Download -Average White Band – Person to Person

Greetings all.

I come to you at the end of the week on the brink of exhaustion.
In addition to my regular fatherly, husbandly and bloggerish duties, I spent last night in New York City, meeting some groovy people, and most importantly, spinning some soul 45s.
It was another excellent evening at Master Groove @ Forbidden City with my cohorts DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis, both of whom laid down very tasty sets of funk and soul.
I put together an all Northern Soul set, and was planning on recording it live, but as luck would have it, I left the house without the proper cable to attach the recorder to the board, so the live recording was not to be.
However, as we speak, despite the fact that any sane person would be in bed, catching up on lost sleep, I’m sitting here recording that set at home, so that I can bring it to you on Monday.
As a result, I’m going to make this entry short, sweet and Master Groove-related.
The last time I did a set at Forbidden City, my man M-Fasis, who always drops something that blows my mind, whipped a familiar disc on the turntable that made my head turn. Way back in the day, when I had my first copy of the Average White Band’s ‘AWB’ album, the song that really blew my mind (aside from ‘Pick Up the Pieces’) was a a little number called ‘Person to Person’. Back in January, when M-Fasis played this very record, two things occurred to me.
First, why was I sleeping on this most excellent 45?
Second, why hadn’t someone sampled that very tasty guitar lick?
The answer to the first question is one of those basic ‘forest for the trees’ conundrums, in which your’s truly is surrounded by mountains of vinyl, and sometimes I get preoccupied and forget stuff.
The answer to the second question is, but of course the song has been sampled, at least twenty times by folks like Big Daddy Kane and Public Enemy.
So, there you go.
So how about some of that tasty Scottish funk to get your weekend started?
I’ll get back to work on that mix, and I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, February 17, 2010 8:10 am

That’s right kids. I’m heading back into NYC tonight for another set with DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis at Master Groove @ Forbidden City, Ave A between 13th and 14th Streets.

I’ve dipped into the crates and will be spinning a set of classic, upbeat Northern Soul that you will not want to miss. Things get going at 10PM, so fall by Forbidden City and get you drink (and eat, the food is excellent) on while letting your tired ears be massaged by the best in funk and soul, all spun at 45 revolutions per minute.

See you there.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, February 14, 2010 3:55 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.81 – The Piano Electrified

Playlist

To hear this mix, head over to the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

I hope reentry into the seven day cycle finds you all well.
I have just about recovered from all the snow-related exertion, and if we get another storm anytime soon I’m going to hunt down Mother Nature and kick her in the ass.
It is in the spirit of relaxation (though not too relaxed) that I bring you another in the recently mounted series of instrumental focus mixes, this time out a very tasty hour-long (plus) excursion into the world of the electric piano.
The electric piano – specifically the Fender Rhodes, though there are a couple of different brands/models represented here – is, like the vibes in F16Rv.79, one of my all time favorite sounds. Say what you want about the structure/genre of any kind of music, but when you boil it down, there’s something about the way a specific instrument sounds, whether it’s the vibes, electric piano, string bass, oud, flute, what have you, that gets deep inside my head and drills down into my pleasure centers on a primal, vibrational level, to the point where an immersive exercise like the one you see before you is the only prescription.
This has a lot to do with growing up around the piano. My Pop plays, and it was his second job for all of my childhood. If my love of music has a specific source, it’s because I grew up with a pianist/singer in the house. Whether it was on the out of tune upright at my Grandma’s house, the baby grand he entertained on at my wedding, or the electric keyboard he has now, my Dad has always instilled the value of a good (great) song in all of his children (which is why most of them play instruments).
I’ve been wanting to get down to working on this particular mix for a long time, but it was only in the last couple of weeks that I set foot in the record room – which is starting to outgrow its current location – and set to digging out the prime electric piano specimens in my crates.
While there is a funky edge to the majority of the selections herein, there are a couple of mellower things where you really get to hear the dreamy, chiming side of the instrument.
Things get underway with a song that is both a certifiable soul jazz standard, but also an oddity of sorts. Eddie Harris, who appears twice in this mix, but just once on the piano, is best known as a sax man, primarily as the number one proponent of another favorite sound of mine, that being the Varitone electric saxophone. The 1966 album ‘Mean Greens’, from which ‘Listen Here’ originates, is unusual because it includes an entire side on which Harris puts down the sax and works it out on electric piano and organ. Though Harris wasn’t giving any of the past masters of the keyboard anything to worry about, he acquits himself nicely on ‘Listen Here’, building a nice groove against a percussion base.
Herbie Hancock lays down a serious groove on the title track from 1969’s ‘Fat Albert Rotunda’. Featuring Hancock and a band of serious jazz heads (like Joe Henderson and Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath) ‘Fat Albert Rotunda’ (the song and the album) is a landmark of sorts, with the pianist settling into the funk for the first time.
Art Jerry Miller is one of those cats where I wish I could get more than a few, tantalizing clues about his story. He was Memphis-based, wrote for an played with Willie Mitchell, and recorded one very groovy album for the Stax subsidiary Enterprise Records in 1969. ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ is a classic of the three o’clock in the morning mood, and sounds like a distant cousin of King Curtis’ ‘Soul Serenade’.
Pete Jolly was a serious West Coast jazz pianist and studio musician who recorded steadily from the 50s to the 90s. ‘Prairie Road’ is a cut from his 1970 album ‘Seasons’, which was improvised and recorded in a single four-hour session. The album is sought out for the sample on ‘Plummer Park’, but I’m here to tell you that in addition to ‘Prairie Road’ – which is included here – you really need to get your hands on the entire album (in OG or reissue) because it is one sweet listen.
Mose Allison has long been a favorite of mine, but it wasn’t until last summer, when I was down in DC digging, that DJ Birdman hepped me to the album ‘Western Man’, the only one on which the mighty Mose ever played the electric piano. I finally found myself a copy last month, and it’s both amazing, and a little bit sad that Allison didn’t spend more time working in a similar groove. The mellow tune ‘Meadows’ is included here.
I remember a time when I didn’t know that Lonnie Smith (the Hammond cat) and Lonnie Liston Smith were two different people. It wasn’t until I picked up a couple of his early 70s Flying Dutchman albums that I got hip. Lonnie Liston Smith was a busy sideman (with Miles Davis among others) who broke off in the early 70s to make his own brand of spiritual fusion. ‘Voodoo Woman’ is from his 1974 ‘Expansion’ album, and while it gets off to a funky start, it quickly settles into a late night, quiet storm groove.
Hampton Hawes first made his mark as a hard bop pianist in 1950s Los Angeles. By the early 70s he had moved on to electric piano, and a funkier sound. ‘J.B.’s Mind’ is from his 1972 album ‘Universe’, and manages to whip a little bit of funk into the mix, alongside some serious jazz sounds from Oscar Brashear and Harold Land.
Bob James is known to most people as the man behind the theme to ‘Taxi’, but ask any crate digger, and they’ll let you in on the breakbeats that make his early 70s albums on CTI/Tappan Zee favorites. The most prominent of these comes toward the end of the tune included in this mix, ‘Nautilus’ from 1974’s ‘One’ album (break courtesy of Idris Muhammad).
Larry Willis is a journeyman jazz keyboardist who has played in a wide variety of settings since the 60s (including an early 70s stint in Blood Sweat and Tears!). ‘153rd St Theme’ is a cut from his 1973 Groove Merchant album ‘Inner Crisis’.
Neal Creque has appeared in this space before, in his capacity as sideman for both Grant Green (he wrote Green’s epic ‘Cease the Bombing’) and Mongo Santamaria. He was a versatile keyboardist, working on both piano and organ. His 1972 ‘Contrast’ LP for Cobblestone is a lost classic, with funk, jazz and just a touch of his roots in the Virgin Islands. ‘D Train’ is one of the funkier numbers on the album.
Eumir Deodato, one of Brazil’s most successful musical exports is responsible for the biggest hit CTI records ever had, his reworking of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ aka ‘2001’ which was a Top 10 hit around the world in 1973. The heavily sampled ‘September 13’ is another cut from the ‘Prelude’ album.
Les McCann and Eddie Harris were both jazz veterans when they hit the charts with their live, 1969 recording of Gene McDaniel’s ‘Compared To What’ which appeared on the ‘Swiss Movement’ LP. They reunited in 1971 for the album ‘Second Movement’, which featured the tune included in this mix, the funky, oft sampled ‘Shorty Rides Again’.
No mix focusing on the electric piano would be complete without a contribution from the mighty Ramsey Lewis. Lewis verily wrote the book on soul jazz piano in the 60s, and carrid on making huge contributions to jazz funk in the 70s. His 1974 ‘Sun Goddess’ album was one of his biggest hits, and in addition to his regular trio members (including Cadet house drummer Morris Jennings), the album also featured contributions from several members of Earth Wind and Fire. We close out this edition of the Funky16Corners Radio thang with his extremely cool cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living For the City’.
I hope you dig the mix, and I’ll be back later in the week.
Also, if you’re in or around NYC this Wednesday, I’ll be back spinning with DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis at Master Groove @ Forbidden City, Ave A between 13th and 14th Sts. If I can get my shit (and records) together it’ll be an all Northern Soul set, so fall by if you’re in the area (things get underway at 10PM).

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, February 11, 2010 6:57 pm

Cymande

Listen/Download – Cymande – Bra

Greetings all.
The end of the week is here, and so is the final installment in the ‘Disco/Not Disco’ series.
It’s been interesting – at least for me – in that this is something that I’d been wanting to do for a long time, and kept putting it off until I had enough time to give it the thought it deserved.
The original intent was to present a couple of what I considered to be representative tracks from David Mancuso’s Loft repertoire, so that those of you reading, who may not have heard of him before might go a little bit further and as they say, read up on your read ups. Check any and all of the books I mentioned: Tim Lawrence’s book “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979”. Lawrence’s tome, along with Peter Shapiro’s ‘Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco’ (since retitled) and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ for a comprehensive history of club DJs, including Mancuso and his NY scene contemporaries.
The third and last song of the week is perhaps the most challenging of the three selections.
I’ve written about Cymande (a band I love a lot) in this space before.
Though they never rose to the prominence of either Booker T & the MGs or Eddie Kendricks, Cymande did hit the charts here in the US, twice in 1973. First with ‘The Message’, a Top 20 R&B hit, and then again (and for the last time) with today’s selection ‘Bra’ which hovered outside the R&B Top 50. They did make it onto the outer reaches of the Pop charts, but nothing significant, which is shame because they definitely had crossover potential.
Earlier I suggested that ‘Bra’ was the most challenging of this weeks selections. I don’t mean to suggest that it was in any way far out, but rather that its off-center groove, with stop time interplay between the percussion and the bass, with a less than ‘straight ahead’ rhythm. It’s not that I can’t imagine people getting down to ‘Bra’, but it’s definitely the kind of record that dancers might have to warm to, gradually, as opposed to a stereotypical floor-filler.
And therein lies the rub my friends, because that’s precisely the kind of chance that Mancuso would take, i.e. pulling an LP out of the crates and dropping a track – like ‘Bra’ – that while unquestionably danceable, is as valuable a listening experience as it is for dancing.
Co-written by guitarist Pat Patterson and bassist Steve Scipio, ‘Bra’ does open with rhythmically unusual riff – backed up by the song’s signature horn riff – but by the time the chorus comes in, the addition of a strong rhythm guitar propels the beat, rounding its sharp edges and settling into a more conventional groove. This is not to say that the tune loses any of its complexity, but rather, like any dozen James Brown records, the polyrythms are woven together so tightly that even someone with two left feet would be compelled to move.
The first time I had a chance to listen to Cymande’s three album discography in depth (via an old CD comp) what I got out of the experience – aside from lots of quality music – was the impression that despite the group’s marginal chart success, the listening public really missed the boat. The old saw is to indicate that an artist was ‘ahead of their time’ but in the case of Cymande I wouldn’t say that this was entirely true. This is how I described their music when writing about this track almost exactly three years ago:

“Their music was a sophisticated mixture of American soul and funk, African pop, Latin sounds, rock and all of the various and sundry intersections of those sounds. A close listen to their first LP is like a drive through Harlem in the early 70’s with your car windows down, letting snatches of Curtis Mayfield, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Santana and a thousand lesser groups (woven securely into the fabric, but essentially lost to the ages) drift through the windows and into your ears.
There are elements of early-70’s prog-cum-stoner rock guitar, hard drums, jazzy bass and horns as well as a bedrock of polyrhythmic percussion.”

If my approximation of their sound is accurate, the conclusion you would reach is that they were very much of their time, and looking back, it seems amazing to me that they weren’t more popular. There were plenty of black acts incorporating elements of rock music into their sound, and by and large, though there are Jamaican influences (which had been popping in and out of radio playlists for much of the previous decade), they never overpower the band’s funky groove. While it’s understandable that a pop audience might not get too far into their sound, I’m puzzled that they didn’t make more inroads with the more progressive rock audience.
That said, placed against the other tracks in this week’s series, it’s ot hard at all to see why ‘Bra’ was so popular at the Loft. Earlier this week one of the readers requested that I post a Mancuso set list, so I pulled out ‘Love Saves the Day’ an retyped the list below, which doesn’t seem to represent any one night, but rather an amalgam of Loft favorites for the years 1970 to 1973. There are a fair amount of what one might consider to be ‘obvious’ dance records (James Brown, Beginning of the End, Manu Dibango*), a couple of less obvious tunes for the trainspotters, including jazz rock like Traffic’s ‘Glad’ and Brian Auger and the Trinity’s version of Eddie Harris’ soul jazz classic ‘Listen Here’, the breakbeat fave ‘The Mexican’ by Babe Ruth, as well as unusual (likely transitional, mood pieces) like the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and Exuma’s ‘Exuma the Obeah Man’. While there’s a fair amount of info out there listing individual records as ‘Loft favorites’ I was unable to find any specific playlists from the venue’s early 70s heyday.
Interestingly enough, Mancuso has kept some version of his Loft going (at a number of different locations) continuously (though with decreasing frequency) right on through the disco and house music eras. He still travels internationally, putting on Loft parties around the world.
If reading in-depth studies of dance music culture isn’t your bag, see if you can track down the 2003 documentary ‘Maestro’, that follows the development of New York DJ culture from Francis Grasso in the late 60s, all the way through to the end of the Paradise Garage (with Larry Levan) in 1987. It manages to touch on most of the major players, and there are lots of interviews with people that witnessed the development of DJ/club culture while it happened.
I hope that this week’s series has been enlightening (at least musically).
I’m going to see if a hot shower will soothe the muscles and tendons I wore down shoveling snow.
Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

The Loft – Selected Discography 1970 – 1973
From ‘Love Saves the Day’ by Tim Lawrence
Brian Auger & the Trinity – Listen Here
Babe Ruth – The Mexican
Barrabas – Wild Safari
Barrabas – Woman
The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun
Beginning of the End – Funky Nassau
Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot
James Brown – Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine Pt1&2
James Brown – Give It Up Or Turnit a Loose
Chakachas – Jungle Fever
Cymande – Bra
Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa
Equals – Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys
Exuma – Exuma the Obeah Man
Aretha Franklin – Ain’t No Way
Al Green – Love and Happiness
Willie Hutch – Brother’s Gonna Work It Out
Intruders – I’ll Always Love My Mama
JBs – Gimme Some More
Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind
Morgana King – A Taste of Honey
Gladys Knight & the Pips – It’s Time To Go Now
Little Sister – You’re the One
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
Dorothy Morrison – Rain
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
O’Jays – Love Train
Olatunji – Drums of Passion
Osibisa – Survival
Edwin Starr – War
Traffic – Glad
Tribe – Koke
Troubadours du Roi Baudouin – Missa Luba
War – City, Country, City
War – The World Is a Ghetto

*The story goes that it was the NY club DJs that made Manu Dibango’s ‘Soul Makossa’ a hit before it was widely available in the US, which explains the many covers/rip-offs of the tune that flooded the market before Atlantic released the song domestically

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By Larry, February 9, 2010 5:47 pm

Eddie Kendricks

Listen/Download – Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind

Greetings all.
As I write this, I still can’t feel the lower right side of my face, having spent the morning with the dentist and her assistant rummaging in my mouth like it was an old sofa and they’d lost a hundred dollar bill. I even got soup for lunch and STILL managed to bite my lip. Fortunately, the good doctor informs me that aside from an extraction, my dental worries for the year are at an end (until next year and the insurance starts paying again).
A look out the window at the foot or so of snow on the lawn is bad enough, but the weatherman is now forecasting another foot or so for tonight into tomorrow. Once again I ask, WTF? I don’t mind the weather as much as I’m terrified of venturing out onto the roads, alongside the large number of New Jersey residents who have no idea how to drive in the snow. Half of them are going way too slow, and the other half, cruising around in their gas sucking luxury behemoths are going way too fast, thus making the NJ highways – already a gauntlet of sorts – into a veritable death trap. With any luck, the wife and kids will have the day off, so we can stay home and sit beside the fire.
That said, it’s time to continue our week long tribute to David Mancuso and the records he played at the Loft.
Earlier this week, not long after I finished writing the post about Booker T & the MGs, it occurred to me that the vibe I got when reading about Mancuso, and his work as a DJ reminded me of a phrase I learned from a friend many years ago.
Back in the day, though (wisely) I never set foot on a surfboard, I became fascinated with the history of the sport – especially the big wave riders – and I had a couple of friends (thanks to living and working by the beach) who actually surfed. Now, the “waves” (quotes added for sarcasm) at the Jersey Shore rarely rise above a height considered safe for small children and old ladies (aside from those whipped up by the occasional Nor’Easter or hurricane). Despite this fact, no matter what time of year it is, if I take a ride along the beach –especially in the morning – there are surfers out there, making the best of what the ocean has to offer.
Why do I mention this? Because, (also) back in the day, my buddy Joe introduced me to the concept of the ‘soul surfer’. Obvious puns aside, what this refers to is an individual who is technically adept enough to compete with the big dogs, yet rides the waves solely for the sheer pleasure of it, making it into a spiritual endeavor. The more I thought about Mancuso, the Loft and the ideas he brought to the game (and how he inspired me) the more it occurred to me that it made sense to apply that term to Mancuso and those that follow(ed) in his footsteps.
I realize that there are all kinds of DJs out there, separated not only by genre, but also by their approach to spinning (though god knows the cats that actually use records are becoming an endangered species). Ideally, when you enter the DJ booth, your ultimate goal ought to be that the folks dancing, listening or both, have a good time. How good a time they have is dependent on a number of factors, the most important being the quality of the music, and the way you (the DJ) present it to the crowd.
The corner of the musical universe I tend to kick around in is generally concerned with soul and funk, of the vintage persuasion. The folks that come to hear and dance to this music are usually a mix of aficionados, i.e. your Mods and soulies that know their way around and are probably already acquainted with some of the rarer discs in my record box, and regular folks who just want to hear something they can dance to.
It probably goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the vast majority of DJs in this field are – like myself – what our friends in the UK refer to as anoraks and trainspotters, i.e. detail-oriented obsessives with an eye turned to the rare an obscure. The duty of this type of DJ is to balance their own love for the obscure against the true quality of the records in question (on account of the rarity of a record often- not always – has an inverse relation to the quality), and to offer up a playlist that is interesting, but ultimately satisfying to the largest possible number of people. Finding this balance isn’t always easy. I’ve seen people with incredible record collections step up to the tables and drop one ultra-rare stinkbomb after another. I’ve also seen people with less impressive crates (but spectacular taste) light up a dancefloor with dollar bin wonders.
Today’s selection from the Loft, Eddie Kendricks’ mighty ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ is from the less-obscure end of the spectrum. The song appeared on Kendricks’ landmark 1972 LP ‘People Hold On’, and though it wasn’t a hit*, he was well known from his years in the Temptations, and had scored a chart hit with that album’s opening track ‘If You Let Me’. Like Monday’s tune ‘Melting Pot’, I first heard ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ as a 45 edit. Unlike ‘Melting Pot’, ‘Girl…’ made an impact on me, even in its shortened version.
Written by Motown legend Frank Wilson and Anita Poree (though the 45 credits it to Poree and ex-Radiant Leonard Caston, who co-wrote a number of other songs on ‘People Hold On’), ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ is the ultimate illustration of the ‘disco/not disco’ tag.
Eddie Kendricks is unquestionably one of the fathers of what came to be known as disco. The two years after ‘People Hold On’ saw him have big hits with two of the genre’s important early songs, ‘Keep On Truckin’ and ‘Boogie Down’. While ‘Girl…’ isn’t quite as explicitly “disco” as either of those tracks, all of the stylistic cues are present, albeit not fully formed. Like ‘Melting Pot’, ‘Girl…’ contains multitudes in its seven and a half minute span. Though it works wonders as a three and a half minute soul single, it passes over into the realm of dance floor epic in the album version.
The opening riff, with a simple piano riff over spare percussion – soon joined by snare drum and horn flourishes, opens up into a relatively slow (yet danceable) verse. It’s around the two and a half minute mark, with Kendricks repeated ‘What you say to that?’ refrain, that the tempo escalates, backed by a muscular rhythm guitar (right about where the 45 version fades out). Things change again around 3:45, where everything except the lead guitar and tambourine drop out, the band gradually coming back in (the piano and rhythm guitar are especially sweet here) until the drums come in strong at about 5:10. It’s at this point where the picture of ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ as dance floor epic comes into full focus. Unlike many 12” singles that would drop in the coming years, ‘Girl…’ is both song enough for the radio, and (in it’s LP form) long enough for the dancers.
Things change yet again at 5:55 – and again this must have been absolutely magical over the Loft’s sound system – as we’re left with just the congas and Kendrick’s falsetto, followed in short order by the band returning to full power by the end of the record (sounding – at this stage – several years ahead of its time).
Interestingly enough, as proto-disco goes, it’s another ‘People Hold On’ track, ‘Date With the Rain’ – another big hit in the clubs that failed to score on the radio – a remarkable (but tragically short, at 2:40) dance record, that more closely fits the mold. It is also available (but much rarer) on 45.
I hope you dig the track(s), and I’ll be back on Friday with another great record.

Peace

Larry

*CORRECTION – I just dug out my Billboard R&B Chart book, and discovered that ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind Pt1’ (the 45 edit)  was in fact a Top 20 R&B hit.

PS: Don’t forget this Wed 2/10 at Master Groove @ Forbidden City – DJ BlueWater, DJ Prime Mundo, DJ Prestige

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By Larry, February 7, 2010 6:24 pm

Booker T and the MGs

Listen/Download – Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot

Greetings all.
I hope that those of you located in the path of the big snowstorm are well, shoveled out and warm. Unlike the last time storm, during which my snowblower was locked in the tool shed, its get up and go having got up and went, the most crucial of snow battling machines was up and running this time, making for a much neater, much less labor intensive experience. There’s still a shit-stack of the white stuff surrounding the Funky16Corners compound, but ingress and egress are assured.
This week is another one of those Funky16Corners ‘theme’ extravaganzas, in which I dip into the vault and run a Sesame Street – ‘How are these things like one another’ – game on you, but provide you with the answers (or at least my version thereof).
Last year, one of my major reading experiences was Tim Lawrence’s book “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979”. Lawrence’s tome, along with Peter Shapiro’s ‘Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco’ (since retitled) and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ when taken together form a de fact encyclopedia of modern DJ culture. All three are well written and deeply informative, but more than that, they introduce you to a couple of seminal personalities without whom DJ-ing (and dance music) would not exist as it does today.
Because of these three books, I came away with a deep and abiding respect (bordering on idolatry) for the work of David Mancuso. It was Mancuso (pictured above), who in 1970 threw the first dance party in his loft (which became The Loft), calling it Love Saves the Day (get it? Nudge, nudge say no more…). Though there were many other important figures in DJ culture (especially Francis Grasso who paved the way for Mancuso in New York City), for me, Mancuso rises above all others.
From the very first time I entered a DJ booth, I’ve endeavored to create an experience for the people on the dance floor turning solely on the gears of good music. Some of it was rare, some of it extremely common, but the idea was to drop the needle on something that the dancers would dig, and do my best to lift the room. Years later, when I became aware of Mancuso through the books listed above I realized that he was in many ways the ur-DJ.
If you’ve spun records for a crowd, you already know (or should) that nothing feels better than laying down some quality sounds and feeling the energy on the dance floor build, incrementally, layering record on top of record, shifting the tempo up (most of the time anyway) but always attempting to build on that increase with a parallel increase in the quality of the music coming out of the speakers. There’s something to be said for the idea that on a perfect night, a DJ is something akin to the ancient cats drumming around the fire, whipping their fellow tribesmen into a lather, drumming harder as they dance faster until the lot of them were participants in a musical hive mind of sorts, connected by the beat. When you’re spinning records, sometimes it only comes together for a couple of songs, sometimes not at all, but when it does there’s nothing better. Certainly the vast majority of people in a dance club are there first and foremost to have a good time, but there’s no reason in the best of all possible worlds that it can’t also be elevated to the spiritual level.
Before you can get to that specific place, a DJ has to do two fundamental things.
First and foremost, keep your ears (and your mind) open. The more you listen to, and the more time you spend among others that really know and seek out good music the larger your internal repertoire/reference library is going to be.
Second, and if you’ve spent any time following the going on here at Funky16Corners you probably picked up on this one: keep digging. The more time you spend actively seeking out new music in the field, the more likely it is that when the time comes to pull some heat out of your crates and drop it on the ones and twos that you’ll be making a good choice.
Certainly there’s the issue of taste, but even that can be improved with enough study.
That all said, what I came away from all three of those books knowing about David Mancuso, was that his tastes were expansive. A look at his playlists reveals that alongside many accepted classics (many of those placed in the canon by Mancuso and his contemporaries) there were a lot of – for lack of a better term – ‘unusual’ choices. Half a decade before guys like Kool Herc and Flash were cutting rock breaks in the Bronx, Mancuso was playing all manner of rock, jazz, world music and pop sounds at the Loft, alongside a healthy portion of what are now considered ‘consensus’ dance records.
Remember, we’re talking about an era where the large majority of genres that rule the dance club world today hadn’t yet been codified. ‘Disco’ was years away from common usage and 12” singles – with their dance floor specific extended versions – did not yet exist. Though there were some records on his playlists that are now considered part of the vanguard of what would come to be known as disco (especially some Eddie Kendricks jams, one of which will be featured later this week), Mancuso mixed in just about anything else that made sense in the context of his sets.
The Loft parties, though conceived on an intimate scale, were hugely influential, with regular attendees/devotees including Nicky Siano (the Gallery), Larry Levan (Paradise Garage) and Frankie Knuckles (the Warehouse, from which ‘house’ music got its name) all of whom went on to marks on dance music culture in their own ways.
The first track I’m going to bring you this week is a perfect (capsule) example of all that was great about the Loft. Oddly enough, the first time I heard Booker T and the MGs doing ‘Melting Pot’ it was on a 45, with the vast majority of its power stripped away. After reading about its place of honor at the Loft, I sought out the 1971 LP of the same name. I finally scored a copy when I was DJing down in DC last year. Once I got it home and had a chance to drop the needle on the LP version of the title song, it became obvious why Mancuso used it at the Loft.
‘Melting Pot’ is, inside of its eight minute playing time, a microcosm of an entire set. The song opens with rimshots by Al Jackson, but it’s Steve Cropper’s pulsing rhythm guitar that sets the pace. When Booker T’s organ and Jackson’s drums come in the groove is locked down. The band – one of the tightest of the classic soul era – only really works up a full head of steam at the three minute mark, which explains why the 45 lacks the punch of the LP version.
It’s important to note the atmosphere in which the ‘Melting Pot’ album was created. It was the last album by the classic MGs lineup. Booker T Jones was fed up with the new regime at Stax and was on the verge of leaving the group. He refused to record in Memphis, so the album was recorded on the road in NYC. The sound of the album is a serious departure from the band’s earlier work, revealing a more expansive, more progressive Booker T and the MGs. While tracks like ‘Chicken Pox’ – with the MGs channeling the Meters – show that they might not have been leading the pack anymore, a cut like ‘Melting Pot’ shows that had they stayed together, they might very well have moved to the front once again.
As I mentioned before, ‘Melting Pot’ is almost like a small, self-contained DJ set. The song has several distinct sections in which the MGs bring up the tempo gradually, hit a peak and then chill out, only to re-state the groove again and again, bringing the dancers along for the ride. Listen at around 4:15 where Jones and Duck Dunn fall back, leaving Jackson and Cropper to rebuild the song from the opening statement. Dunn drops back in with a repeated, almost circular bass line, and Jones solos over the top of it all. I can only imagine what Al Jackson’s punchy bass drum accents sounded like pouring out of the Loft’s sound system. While ‘Melting Pot’ is clearly not ‘disco’ as it came to be known, the second half of the song is definitely a prototype for extended dance mixes to come. The temptation, as the song fades out just past the eight minute mark, is to cue up a second copy and keep the groove going.
‘Melting Pot’ which was the last 45 by the classic Booker T and the MGs line up, and strangely enough the flip side is another drastically truncated long jam,’Kinda Easy Like’ which also runs over eight minutes on the LP. It grazed the Pop Top 40 and hit the R&B Top 20. Following the ‘Melting Pot’ album, Booker T Jones would leave the group and relocate to California where he would work with artists like Bill Withers. Cropper would also leave the fold, with Dunn and Jackson reconstituting the MGs with a new organist and guitarist.
All in all, ‘Melting Pot’ is – at least for those that haven’t heard it – a revelation, and a great way to start a week of Loft tracks.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

PS: Don’t forget this Wed 2/10 at Master Groove @ Forbidden City – DJ BlueWater, DJ Prime Mundo, DJ Prestige

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for something by the Beach Boys

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By Larry, February 4, 2010 5:09 pm

Marvin Gaye

Listen/Download – Marvin Gaye – One More Heartache

Greetings all.
The end of the week is upon us (like a lion on an impala) and in the spirit of great forces of nature, I bring you one of my favorite 45s by the mighty Marvin Gaye.
The first time I heard the song ‘One More Heartache’ was probably 25 years ago at the height of the mod/garage revival, when it arrived in my ears via a cover version by UK R&Beatsters the Artwoods.
Remembered as much for what their members went on to do (Jon Lord, Keef Hartley) as their fantastic music, the Artwoods (named for their singer Art Wood, brother of Face/Rolling Stone Ron) layed down some serious transitional heat, updating American R&B for a modernist audience. It was on the greatest hits lp ‘100 Oxford Street’ that I first heard a number of amazing songs that I would later discover to be covers of artists like Solomon Burke (‘Keep Looking’), Benny Spellman (‘I Feel Good’) and of course Marvin Gaye.
Though I loved the song ‘One More Heartache’, and was aware that it had been done originally by Gaye, it was another 20 years before I actually got my hands on a copy of the original.
When I did, and the needle hit the wax my mind was good and truly blown.
This, my friends is because Marvin Gaye’s recording of ‘One More Heartache’ is nothing less than a monument to the greatness of soul music. Recorded in 1965, ‘One More Heartache’ – written by Warren ‘Pete’ Moore, Smokey Robinson, Marv Tarplin, Robert Rogers and Ronald White – was a minor hit in the spring of 1966, scraping the outer limits of the Pop Top 40. Why it wasn’t a bigger hit may have as much to do with its dark message as it does with the huge surplus of musical competition at the time. A quick look at a chart (see below) from almost exactly 44 years ago reveals pop and soul classics jamming up the charts so thickly that even a record as mighty as ‘One More Heartache’ was unable to fight its way closer to the top.
It may also have something to do with the record sounding oddly familiar.
The day I got my hands on this particular 45 I digi-ma-tized it, and then proceeded to listen to it at least a dozen times on the old MP3 delivery device, during which time it dawned on me that ‘One More Heartache’ is something of a musical restructuring of Gaye’s hit from the previous year ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’. The framework of the song is similar and at times ‘One More Heartache’ sounds as if the composers of both songs (who by the way are the same, and were also all members of the Miracles) took the bright, upbeat ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ and rewrote it as a darker, minor key, mirror version of itself.
Musically, the record (produced by Robinson) is incredible, built – like a James Brown side – on interlocking bits of musical clockwork, with a chiming guitar riff (played by Marv Tarplin) over a pulsing organ (the master Earl Van Dyke), snapping snare drum, finger snaps, tambourine and eventually saxophone. Gaye’s vocal is a masterpiece of soulful pleading, with a lyric that at times sounds like a not too distant cousin of Titus Turner’s ‘All Around the World’.
No matter how you slice it, ‘One More Heartache’ is a heavy record. If you know someone who’s concept of soul is lacking, you need only lock them in a room with this record and a turntable, refusing to let them out until they ‘get it’.
I know you’ll dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

WMCA Countdown Survey for Week of February 10, 1966
FABULOUS 57

1. Lightnin’ Strikes – Lou Christie
2. Uptight – Stevie Wonder
3. A Well Respected Man – The Kinks
4. Don’t Mess With Bill – Marvelettes
5. These Boots Are Made For Walking – Nancy Sinatra
6. My Love – Petula Clark
7. No Matter What Shape – T-Bones
8. My World Is Empty Without You – Supremes
9. Barbara Ann – The Beach Boys
10. Working My Way Back To You – Four Seasons
11. We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper – Beatles
12. Going To A Go-Go – Miracles
13. Lies – Knickerbockers
14. Ballad Of The Green Berets – Sgt. Barry Sadler
15. Love Makes The World Go Round – Dean Jackson
16. Listen People – Herman’s Hermits
17. Hurt Yourself – Frankie Valli
18. Cryin’ Time – Ray Charles
19. Stop! – The Moody Blues
20. Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel
21. 634-5789 – Wilson Pickett
22. In My Room – Verdelle Smith
23. Husbands And Wives – Roger Miller
24. Elusive Butterfly – Bob Lind
25. I Fought The Law – Bobby Fuller Four
26. Batman Theme – The Marketts
27. Little Bit Of Soap – The Exciters
28. Call Me – Chris Montez
29. Take Me For What I’m Worth – Searchers
30. The Duck – Jackie Lee
31. Like A Baby – Len Barry
32. Night Time – Strangeloves
33. When Liking Turns To Loving – Ronnie Dove
34. At The Scene – Dave Clark V
35. Just Like Me – Paul Revere & The Raiders
36. Since I Lost The One I Love – The Impressions
37. Somewhere There’s A Someone – Dean Martin
38. This Golden Ring – The Fortunes
39. It’s Too Late – Bobby Goldsboro
40. Up And Down – The McCoys
41. It Won’t Be Wrong – The Byrds
42. This Can’t Be True – Eddie Holman
43. My Baby Loves Me – Martha & The Vandellas
44. Keep On Running – Spencer Davis Group
45. Whenever She Holds You – Patty Duke
46. Promise Her Anything – Tom Jones
47. Why Can’t You Bring Me Home – Jay & The Americans
48. This Old Heart Of Mine – Isley Brothers
49. One More Heartache – Marvin Gaye
50. The Cheater – Bob Kuban
51. California Dreamin’ – Mamas & Papas
52. Baby Scratch My Back – Slim Harpo
53. Custody – Patti Page
54. You’ll Be Needin’ Me – Lettermen
55. Shake Me, Wake Me – Four Tops
56. My Prayer – Johnny Thunder
57. Daydream – The Lovin’ Spoonful

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By Larry, February 2, 2010 8:03 pm

Isaac ‘Redd’ Holt Unlimited

Listen/Download – Isaac ‘Redd’ Holt Unlimited – Listen To the Drums

Greetings all.
Welcome to a previously unplanned midweek post.
My errands are done, the kids are quiet and I just finished paying a $130 traffic citation for talking on my cellphone while driving, like a jackass (which is a term I generally reserve for the people I see doing the very same thing), so I thought that being a little more productive than usual (an act of contrition, of sorts) would make me feel better. The end result is that you all get yourselves another tune, so in the words of Hot Chocolate, every 1’s a winner, baby.
Before I get to today’s selection I should get the news out of the way. Your’s truly will be returning to Master Groove at Forbidden City (Ave A between 13th and 14th Streets, NYC) for another hot set on the evening of Wednesday February 27th. Fall by if you’re in the area and feel like getting down. Even if I’m not there, try to make the scene since DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis know how to bring the heat (and the food is good too). Things get rolling at 10PM.

Master Groove February Schedule
3rd – DJ BlueWater, M.Fasis
10th – DJ BlueWater, DJ Prime Mundo, DJ Prestige
17th – DJ BlueWater, M.Fasis, Funky16Corners
24th – DJ BlueWater, M.Fasis, Mr. Robinson (Dig Deeper, BK)

Also, a reminder about the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio (www.viva-radio.com). I was shifted in the schedule recently and the show now drops every Thursday at 5PM. Make sure to check it out if you’re hanging around the interwebs during that time. As always, the most recent four or five shows are always archived and available for your listening pleasure.
In other interesting news, I got an e-mail from the folks at www.ACIDJAZZHISPANO.com informing me that I had been nominated for ‘DJ of the Year’. This came as quite a surprise, and I must say that I am honored. The text on the site is in Spanish, but if you follow the link here, and are so inclined, you can register and vote for your’s truly. There’s always room in the Funky16Corners trophy room for another massive loving cup.
That all said, the tune I bring you today is a little something I grabbed at the last Allentown show (not the all-45 one). If you’ve spent any time at all reading this blog, you’ll already know that I ride for Young-Holt, whether in their Trio, or Unlimited forms. Bassist Eldee Young and drummer Isaac ‘Redd’ Holt started out bringing the rhythmic heat in the Ramsey Lewis Trio, before moving off into their own thing and waxing a number of fantastic albums for Brunswick and Paula.
Holt eventually split and put his own group together, calling it Isaac Redd Holt Unlimited (not a huge change, but a change nonetheless). Between 1973 and 1975 the group released three 45s and an LP for the Paula label.
The tune I bring you today appeared as both a 45 and LP track. ‘Listen To the Drums’ sees Redd and company working a slow, funky, Moog-y vibe. Redd asks over and over again ‘Can you dig it?’, and naturally the answer is yes, especially with his drums laying down a throbbing foundation. Though not exactly danceable – sounding more like the soundtrack to one of those blacklight sex position posters – it is undeniably funky. I have yet to get my hands on the album (or the other two 45s) so I can’t vouch for the rest of the material, but I suspect it’s worth hearing.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday with some more soul.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, January 31, 2010 5:52 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.80 – Forbidden City Organs

Recorded Live in NYC 1-27-10

Playlist

Head over to the Funky16Corners Podcast Archive to hear this mix

Before we get started, I want to say that after serious consideration with the Funky16Corners board of directors, and close consultation with some serious heads (not the least of whom being my man DJ Prestige) I have decided not to deep six the old versions of the blog (WordPress and Blogger). While I did deactivate all active content links on both sites (replacing them with redirects where necessary), since I was unable to do a full export of the WordPress blog, and could not bring over the comments on the old blog posts, AND since I consider reader commentary to be an important part of the process (mainly because so many of you contribute information via those posts) I figured it would benefit all parties to keep the old sites up and running (with any luck as long as this sentence).
Anything you might travel back there to hear, can now be heard here in the new Funky16Corners Radio Podcast and Guest Mix Archives.
The mix you see before you today was supposed to be up in this space on Friday, but I just had too damn much to do, and so I had to put it off for a couple of days. I think, however that you will be pleased when you pull down the ones and zeros and stuff it in your ears.
For you see (hear), Funky16Corners Radio v.80* is just about an hour of high octane, Hammond fueled groove grease guaranteed to get you off your ass, slipping and sliding across the floor, with the hip-shaking, and the wild gesticulation, and the shaking of the hair, gospel wailing and general good times.
Big words those, but I think once the sounds have been ingested, you will concur.
It all started thusly…
Back before Christmas, my lovely wife asked me what I wanted as a holiday gift. I generally reply to these queries with a shrug and a ‘Don’t worry ‘bout me on account of I pretty much have everything I need’. However, this year there was something I had my eye on, so I sent my wife the link, and ‘Bob’s yer uncle’ a brand new digital recorded dropped into my stocking.
My main motivation in requesting this new bit of hardware was so that my casting of the pods would be facilitated, but as is the norm when I get a new toy, I find some other, more interesting way to put it to work, and so I did.
It was at the last Asbury Park 45 Sessions that I brought my recorder along and attempted to record my set right off the board. I thought everything had gone swimmingly, until I got up the next morning, transferred the file onto my laptop and discovered that Einstein (that’s me, heh heh…) hadn’t read the instructions properly, and what I had recorded was not the mix off the board, but all the ambient noise surrounding it. I tossed that one into the old electronic wastebasket and set my sights on my next set at Master Groove.
Well my friends, it was a success.
I had spoken to my host the esteemed DJ Bluewater about what I would play this time, and I suggested a ‘theme set’ of sorts. He thought this was a good idea, so I sat down in the midst of my record vault and started digging. I had originally thought I might do a Northern Soul thing (next time out maybe) but I happened upon a clump of solid Hammond 45s, so I took that as a sign and continued in that direction.
What you have here is an actual live mix, recorded directly from the booth monitor line on the mixer, no fiddling/editing involved.
If you’ve visited with me here over the years, you’ll already be aware that I am a first class Hammond organ nut, and my crates run deep. When I started pulling stuff to compose my set, I extracted enough records for three or four sets, and then sat down with the turntable and selected a little over an hour’s worth of faves.
The records you’ll hear in this mix are the very cream of the dancefloor Hammond crop, with lots of your big keyboard wranglers (Messrs Earland, Doggett, McCall, Lewis, Van Dyke, Frog and Carnegie) a couple of unusual sources (Albert Collins and the Turtles, yes, the Turtles) and a few things you may not have heard before.
As stated previously, my intention here was to whip something up to get the dancers moving, so if you’re playing this inside your corporate veal pen, try not to spill your coffee/disturb your neighbor. If you’re on the bus, piping it in via earbuds, don’t be surprised if your neighbor attempts to administer first aid, since you may appear to be involved in convulsions of some sort.
That said, I will refrain from further comment, letting the sounds speak for themselves.
I hope you dig the mix, and rest assured that I will endeavor to bring you more of the same (both live, and organ mixes) in the coming months.

Peace

Larry

*I was rapping with my man DJ Bluewater last week about how I can’t beleive how many mixes are in the Funky16Corners and Iron Leg Archives (combined mounting up to well over 100 mixes in less than four years)

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Comments (8)

By Larry, January 28, 2010 4:49 pm

MFSB, almost definitely including everyone on this record.

Listen/Download – Daley Diggers – I Can Dig It

Greetings all.
I hope the end of the week finds you all well.
I’m tired, bit what else is new? A long week of the normal family commitments, combined with a shitstack of interwebs labor (the blog switch-over and such) and a night in the city spinning records for the folks, I am just about ready to hibernate (if only I could…).
Speaking of the night at Forbidden City, it was a gas, with visits from some very groovy people (big ups to Per, Simon and Colin) and to my own increasing (however incremental) tech savvy, which allowed me to record the live set, which I’ll be posting on Monday. I was going to drop the solid hour of Hammond organ burners today, but errands (and, shamefully, slumber) did not allow enough time to do the write up, so Monday it is.
In bloggy news, I shut down the Podcast and Guest Mic archives over at the old blog, redirecting folks to this site. You can still get all the old content, you just have to come here to get it.
I’ve been a record collector for a long, long time. Over the years, I drift in and out of periodic fascinations with certain artists, genres and labels, and while I’m not really a completist, every once in a blue moon I find myself wandering down a blind alley. Instead of turning around and backing away into the mainstream – which would be the logical thing to do – I find myself compelled to explore further.
One such case is with the Philadelphia label Marmaduke Records.
One of the very first funk 45s I ever dug up was a copy of ‘Bo Did It’ by the Hidden Cost, which – I must admit – I mistook for a garage/psyche record (this was the mid-80s). The song title, in combination with the crazy record label – a cartoon Indian chief holding an artist’s palette, with an electrical cord reaching an outlet with the slogan ‘We Turn You On’ – suggested to me that I might have my hands on something interesting, which I did (just not what I thought).
I always thought it was a cool record, and years later, when I started concentrating on funk 45s, with a concentration in the sounds of Philadelphia, I discovered that Marmaduke Records was in fact the brainchild of Bernie Binnick, and Philly hitmaker Len Barry. Not only did they put out obscure funk 45s by the Hidden Cost, Norma and the Heartaches, the Impacts, Power Play* and others, but also created/produced the Electric Indian. Though the Electric Indian LP was released on United Artists, the initial 45 release of their breakbeat classic ‘Broad Street’ was released on Marmaduke.
What all of these records had in common – including today’s selection ‘I Can Dig It’ by ‘The Daley Diggers’ – was that the musicians involved were almost always pulled from the same pool that recorded on scores of Philadelphia records, and eventually became the core of the Philadelphia International Records house band, aka MFSB. Featuring Bobby Eli, Norman Harris, Ronnie Baker, Earl Young and Vince Montana (among others), this revolving musical cast of characters provided the backing for some of the finest soul and funk records of the 60s and 70s.
They also recorded – pseudonymously – a bunch of cool 45s, one of which was today’s selection. While the A-side was a vocalist named Larry Daley performing ‘For the Good Times’, the flip was the funky instrumental ‘I Can Dig It’, which lined up against any number of tracks in Funky16Corners Radio v.58 – Right On! Philly Funk 45 Instrumentals, is clearly the work of the same band.
‘I Can Dig It’ has a solid, mid-tempo groove, featuring Vince Montana’s vibes prominently and some in the pocket drums by Earl Young. I actually had a copy of this record for many years, that was the very definition of a record collectors “place holder”, i.e. it was all but unplayable, but kept the rest of my Marmaduke 45s company in my Philly crate. It was only recently that I managed to score a clean copy at a bargain price, and here it is today.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday with that new mix.

Peace

Larry

*If anyone has a copy of the Race Street Chinatown Band 45, let me know…

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