{"id":1353,"date":"2011-03-07T15:29:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T20:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=1353"},"modified":"2012-02-22T16:06:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T21:06:31","slug":"billy-vera-goes-to-mardi-gras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=1353","title":{"rendered":"Billy Vera Goes to Mardi Gras!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The mighty Billy Vera<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Billy Vera – Big Chief (Tu Way Poca Way) <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The tune I bring you today \u2013 in a very special early mid-week post<\/em> – is something very cool that I picked up last year.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I recall exactly how I came upon this one, but I suspect I was digging through the wilds of the intertubes for vinyl by one of my all-time favorite\u00a0 soul men, the mighty Billy Vera.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Though folks of a certain vintage may only be familiar with Vera\u2019s huge 1987 #1 Pop hit \u2018At This Moment\u2019, he had a long history before that. I\u2019m a big fan of his 1960s duet work with Judy Clay<\/strong> (Storybook Children, Country Girl City Man etc) as well as one of my all-time favorite 45s (billed as a Billy & Judy duet but actually just Vera and his band) \u2018Really Together\u2019.<\/p>\n

He worked through the 60s and 70s as a songwriter and performer, recording for Cameo and Atlantic, as well as a number of smaller labels.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also an actor, and most importantly (at least to me) a serious record collector who has annotated several reissue projects.<\/p>\n

Up until I scored this killer, I had no familiarity at all with his 70s stuff, and no idea that he had ever worked in Memphis with the legendary Steve Cropper.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The real reason for whipping \u2018Big Chief (Tu- Way Poca-Way)\u2019 on you is that this Tuesday is Mardi Gras.<\/p>\n

A while back, when I dropped the Dixie Cups\u2019<\/strong> \u2018Two Way Poca Way\u2019 (no relation, or is there??<\/em> See my 3\/8 post above), I mentioned that I had another interesting side in the to-be-blogged file that was both funky, and filled with Mardi Gras Indian<\/a> lingo.<\/p>\n

This is that very record, and a funky one it is.<\/p>\n

What you\u2019re getting is Mr. Vera leading a very tasty band (dig the guitar and keyboards) with the Mardi Gras chants. The atmosphere within the grooves is clearly aimed at a partying crowd and the dancers in the room.<\/p>\n

The cool thing is that Billy namechecks the Wild Magnolias <\/strong><\/a>indian tribe the same year (1974) that the band of the same name hit (featuring members of the tribe along with a NOLA all star band with the Turbinton<\/strong> brothers of the Gaturs<\/strong> and Snooks Eaglin<\/strong>) with \u2018Smoke My Peace Pipe\u2019*.<\/p>\n

How Billy Vera ended up in Memphis with Steve Cropper at the board, I do not know, nor am I familiar with the Orange label. This appears to be the only record he recorded for the label.<\/p>\n

If any of you good folks know anything more, please drop me a line in the comments.<\/p>\n

That said, this is a great, great record, and certainly fitting for any Mardi Gras celebration you might have planned.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*There is also a local 1970 recording\/issue of \u2018Smoke My Peace Pipe\u2019 (the flipside of ‘Handa Wanda’) on the Crescent City label<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some interesting late 60s pop.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mighty Billy Vera   Listen\/Download – Billy Vera – Big Chief (Tu Way Poca Way)   Greetings all. The tune I bring you today \u2013 in a very special early mid-week post – is something very cool that I picked up last year. I\u2019m not sure I recall exactly how I came upon this […]<\/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_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":[11,17,14,40,12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-new-orleans-funk","category-soul","category-soul-45"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-lP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353","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=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}