{"id":1659,"date":"2011-07-07T09:35:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T14:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2012-02-22T13:05:53","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T18:05:53","slug":"washington-smith-fat-cat-plus-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=1659","title":{"rendered":"Washington Smith – Fat Cat (plus 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Washington Smith aka Nat Wright<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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Listen\/Download – Washington Smith – Fat Cat<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Washington Smith – Don’t Take Your Love Away From Me<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

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

The end of an exceptionally long (in spite of the holiday) week is finally at hand, and in commemoration I bring you something exceptionally groovy.<\/p>\n

But first (always with the “but first”…) I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong>, your source for all things soul and funk, will once again be taking to the airwaves this Friday night at 9PM over at Viva Radio<\/strong><\/a>. As always, I promise you an hour of the best groovy gravy pulled from the catacombs of the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault<\/strong>, so fall by and glue your ears to the interwebs, or stop here at the blog over the weekend to pick up the MP3 version of the show.<\/p>\n

A little while back, Oscar winning songwriter Joe Brooks<\/strong><\/a> took his own life in the midst of a very dark scandal.
\nKnown mainly for writing the 70s uber-schmaltz of \u2018You Light Up My Life\u2019, Brooks also had a little known and incredibly cool chapter in his past.<\/p>\n

As covered here back in 2008, Brooks was the man behind one of the great breakbeat funk 45s of all time, \u2018Yo Yo\u2019 by Richard\u2019s People.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks in large part to the mighty Matt \u2018Mr Finewine\u2019 Weingarden<\/strong>, who provided some crucial information I was able to get to the bottom (or as close as possible<\/em>) of the story.<\/p>\n

When Brooks passed, Finewine made a Facebook post about it, first including a clip of \u2018Yo Yo\u2019, then a record I had never heard before, by a singer I\u2019d never heard of named Washington Smith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As soon as I hit the play button I was blown away, and even more so when I realized that the song in question \u2018Fat Cat\u2019 was another Brooks composition, and in this case (co) production.<\/p>\n

What it also was\/is, is as smoking a slice of Mod soul as you\u2019re ever likely to hear.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening with a vaguely Beatle-y bass\/guitar riff, the tune zips from zero to sixty in no time at all, with Smith (wait, there\u2019s more on old \u2018Washington\u2019<\/em>) blazing in with a Jackie Wilson<\/strong>-esque vocal, backed by a girl chorus and a pounding piano.<\/p>\n

Things get kicked up to another level when a wild harmonica solo comes in. Though not always a welcome addition to a soul record, the harp gives \u2018Fat Cat\u2019 a hot R&B edge that makes for absolute, soulful perfection.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, \u2018Washington Smith\u2019 appears to have been a nom de wax for a cat named Nat Wright<\/strong>, who also recorded under the pseudonym \u2018Nat Love\u2019<\/strong>. As Wright he recorded jazz, soul and R&B vocals, as Washington Smith and Nat Love soul and R&B, and then later on in his life, jazz again as Tony Moore<\/strong>. Wright also performed on Broadway in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

There are clips on YouTube of some of his other efforts (soul and jazz)\u00a0 as Nat Wright.<\/a><\/p>\n

The flip side of this 45 (which was originally issued on the Rainbow label, then picked up for national distribution by Okeh in 1967) is an excellent, Walter Jackson<\/strong>-esque ballad called \u2018Don\u2019t Take Your Love Away From Me\u2019 (also written by Brooks) which had a great deal of potential in its own right.<\/p>\n

That said, \u2018Fat Cat\u2019 is a gasser of the first order and will be traveling with me (in yon record box) the next time I spin the 45s.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I\u2019ll see you all on Monday.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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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 too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Washington Smith aka Nat Wright   Listen\/Download – Washington Smith – Fat Cat Listen\/Download – Washington Smith – Don’t Take Your Love Away From Me   Greetings all. The end of an exceptionally long (in spite of the holiday) week is finally at hand, and in commemoration I bring you something exceptionally groovy. But first […]<\/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":[14,55,64,12,18],"tags":[166,167,164],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-funky16cornersviva-internet-radio","category-rb","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-funky16corners-radio","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-qL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","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=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions\/1837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}