{"id":2790,"date":"2012-06-12T13:04:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T18:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2012-06-21T15:57:50","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T20:57:50","slug":"esther-phillips-use-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2790","title":{"rendered":"Esther Phillips – Use Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Listen\/Download Esther Phillips – Use Me<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/del><\/p>\n

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

The middle of the week is here and with all the details in place, must inform you that the Funky16Corners 2012 Pledge Drive\/Allnighter is a go!<\/p>\n

We have eight new mixes from all of your Funky16Corners faves, including Tony C, DJ Prestige, Tarik Thornton, DJ Bluewater, M-Fasis, DJ Prime Mundo<\/strong> and yours truly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Things will get going this coming Monday, so get your ears and your hard drives humming because you’re in for a treat.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today is a groovy cover of a groovy original, which in the end is (very<\/em>) groovy.<\/p>\n

Redundancy aside, if you\u2019re not hip to Esther Phillips<\/strong>, may I suggest you get so.<\/p>\n

I remember first hearing (seeing) her as a musical guest in the early days of Saturday Night Live (actually the fourth episode of the first season) performing her then Top 20 hit of the old standard \u2018What a Diff\u2019rence a Day Makes\u2019.<\/p>\n

Years later, when I started digging for soul 45s I was surprised to see her name pop up in an earlier context with one of her 60s-era Lenox 45s with Big Al Downing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was only (much) later that I discovered that by the time she hit SNL she had been recording (and hitting the charts) for a quarter of a century.<\/p>\n

Discovered by none other than Johnny Otis<\/strong>, Phillips had her first R&B hit in 1950 with \u2018Double Crossing Blues\u2019.<\/p>\n

She had a run on the charts that lasted until 1952, then disappeared for nearly a decade, charting again (sporadically) during the 60s.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons Phillips\u2019 career contained those gaps was her long-term battle with drug addiction.<\/p>\n

She recorded through the 60s for Atlantic and Roulette, before landing at Kudu in 1972 (which is where we pick up the story).<\/p>\n

Phillips recorded her cover of Bill Withers’<\/strong> hit \u2018Use Me\u2019 on her 1972 album \u2018Alone Again, Naturally\u2019.<\/p>\n

I picked up the album because I always grab Kudu stuff whenever I find it, but I was unprepared for how cool her version of \u2018Use Me\u2019 was.<\/p>\n

The understated drums (Billy Cobham<\/strong>) and electric piano (Richard Tee<\/strong>), in contrast with her distinctive voice and the interjections of the horn section make for an extremely cool interpretation of the tune.<\/p>\n

The arrangement, by Pee Wee Ellis<\/strong> is spot on.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, though Phillips hit the R&B Top 40 a few times around this period, this particular cut, despite its obvious quality, did not.<\/p>\n

Phillips’ struggles with drugs continued for the rest of her life and she passed away, not yet 50 in 1984.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it, and I\u2019ll see you all on Friday.
\n <\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\nAlso, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/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 too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Esther Phillips Listen\/Download Esther Phillips – Use Me Greetings all. The middle of the week is here and with all the details in place, must inform you that the Funky16Corners 2012 Pledge Drive\/Allnighter is a go! We have eight new mixes from all of your Funky16Corners faves, including Tony C, DJ Prestige, Tarik Thornton, DJ […]<\/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":[58,11,17,14,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-J0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","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=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2899,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}