{"id":1039,"date":"2010-11-16T15:22:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T20:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=1039"},"modified":"2012-08-03T15:26:44","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T20:26:44","slug":"richard-popcorn-wylie-funky-rubber-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=1039","title":{"rendered":"Richard ‘Popcorn’ Wylie – Funky Rubber Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Popcorn Wylie blasts off in his leisure suit… <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Richard ‘Popcorn’ Wylie – Funky Rubber Band <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greetings all. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The middle of the week is upon us, and in response to the cold, gray skies, falling leaves and various and sundry major and minor irritants, I come to you with something upbeat and funky so that we may all be warmed (at least spiritually) and forward motion may be maintained.<\/p>\n

Before we get started, some news, that being that all of the mix archives have been updated, with 14<\/strong> mixes in the Soul Club<\/strong>, 28<\/strong> episodes of the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong>, another 14<\/strong> in the Guest Mix Archive<\/strong> (haven’t done one of those in a while), and 96<\/strong> mixes in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive<\/strong>. That’s 152<\/strong> mixes stacked neatly awaiting delivery to the pleasure centers of your fevered brains.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t heard them all, and you need something to do…<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s selection is another entry in a relatively small, yet not insignificant dance craze movement, centered around the lowly rubber band.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the assumption here is that the rubber band in question is not the object, but rather a dance named after it.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I have found \u2018Rubber Band\u2019 45s by the mighty Eddie Bo<\/strong> (under his own name with the Soul Finders <\/strong>and under the rubric of Curley Moore and the Kool Ones<\/strong>), the mighty Meters<\/strong> and Atlanta DJ Alley Pat. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there must be some others that I have yet to hear and\/or excavate, but they currently escape me.<\/p>\n

The record I bring you today is 1971\u2019s \u2018Funky Rubber Band\u2019 by the legendary Richard \u2018Popcorn\u2019 Wylie.<\/strong>
\nWylie, a Detroit pianist, singer and arranger was an important part of the early years of Motown as a recording artist (with Popcorn and the Mohawks)<\/strong>, arranger and pianist and leader for a time of the Motortown Review.<\/p>\n

Though his own discography is fairly short for a cat who worked all through the 60s and 70s, the more you dig, the more you discover he was a very busy man.<\/p>\n

He left Motown in the early 60s, recording a number of 45s under his own name for Epic, and working as a producer\/arranger for artists like Edwin Starr<\/strong> and JJ Barnes<\/strong> on labels like Ric-Tic and Golden World.<\/p>\n

He also founded the short-lived, but legendary Soul Hawk label, where he recorded Jimmy Soul Clark<\/strong>, the New Holidays<\/strong> (who Wylie also produced for Westbound), Eric and the Vikings<\/strong> and the Mighty Lovers <\/strong>among others.<\/p>\n

Among his freelance work were recordings with the Fabulous Counts<\/strong> (producing the classic \u2018Jan Jan\u2019), Jerry-O<\/strong> (he co-wrote \u2018Funky Football\u2019), Jamo Thomas<\/strong> (he co-wrote \u2018I Spy (For the FBI)\u2019) and co-writing the Northern Soul classic \u2018With This Ring\u2019 for the Platters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following his last Epic 45 in 1964, he only recorded sporadically under his own name through the 60s, laying down 45s for the Karen and Carla labels in 1968, and then \u2018Funky Rubber Band\u2019 for Motown\u2019s SOUL subsidiary in 1971.<\/p>\n

\u2018Funky Rubber Band\u2019 without any question delivers on the \u2018funky\u2019 part of the title, as well as the classic \u2018dance craze\u2019 framework in that the lyrics are composed largely of dance step instructions. You also get funky guitar, Wylie\u2019s own clavinet, hard hitting drums and a tight horn section.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very solid \u2013 and affordable <\/em>\u2013 funk 45.<\/p>\n

Wylie had a revival of sorts in the 80s and 90s when he discovered his popularity with the Northern Soul crowd in the UK.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it, and I\u2019ll be back on Friday with something groovy.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Popcorn Wylie blasts off in his leisure suit… Listen\/Download – Richard ‘Popcorn’ Wylie – Funky Rubber Band   Greetings all. The middle of the week is upon us, and in response to the cold, gray skies, falling leaves and various and sundry major and minor irritants, I come to you with something upbeat and funky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,17,14,24,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-northern-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-gL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3000,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions\/3000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}