{"id":2991,"date":"2012-08-26T15:01:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T20:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2991"},"modified":"2012-09-20T14:20:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T19:20:49","slug":"the-nat-turner-rebellion-tribute-to-a-slave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2991","title":{"rendered":"The Nat Turner Rebellion – Tribute To a Slave"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Listen\/Download The Nat Turner Rebellion – Tribute To a Slave<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

It’s good to be back in the saddle here at the Corners.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fam and I spent the week on vacation, half of which saw yours truly sick enough to go to the doctor.<\/p>\n

Fortunately I made a snappy comeback and we managed to have to some fun, and I even got in a very fruitful dig in on the way home (digimatizing in the background as I write this).<\/p>\n

I hope the new week finds you all well, and that you’re ready for something heavy from my Philly crates.<\/p>\n

Every once in a while (though not so much anymore<\/em>) you stumble upon a very groovy 45 with a name conjures up images of \u201cone-off\u201d-ness, i.e. the single recorded effort of a groovy but obscure\/lost band\/artist.<\/p>\n

The first time I found a disc by the Nat Turner Rebellion<\/strong>, I instantly thought this was the case.<\/p>\n

The record in question \u2013 \u2018Tribute To a Slave\u2019 on the Delvaliant label \u2013 popped up while I was excavating the hinterlands of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. It looked cool, sounded even cooler and took a place of pride in my Philly crates.<\/p>\n

That was more than ten years ago.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the next few years, I found two more 45s by the group on two more labels (Philly Groove and Philly Soulville), and started to recognize some familiar names on the labels.<\/p>\n

The fist of these was Major Harris<\/strong> (the group is sometimes listed at the Nat Turner Rebellion featuring Major Harris<\/strong>), a singer that would have a huge hit in 1975 with\u2019Love Won\u2019t Let Me Wait\u2019.<\/p>\n

The other was Joe Jefferson<\/strong>, Philly area songwriter\/producer\/label honcho (he ran the Del-Val imprint).<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Major Harris and Joe Jefferson were in fact brothers, and cousins of MFSB<\/strong> guitarist Norman Harris<\/strong> (who produced and co-wrote at least one of their 45s).<\/p>\n

It took me a while to reconcile the vocalist on the Nat Turner Rebellion sides with the singer of \u2018Love Won\u2019t Let Me Wait\u2019.<\/p>\n

Where the latter is the ne plus ultra of mid-70s, late night, bedroom soul, the Nat Turner Rebellion sides are funky, and sometimes militant (the group name having its own racial\/political meaning<\/a>), sounding like the product of an especially hip Blaxploitation soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The cut I bring you today, \u2018Tribute To a Slave\u2019 is a tiny bit more subdued than the flip (the very cool \u2018Plastic People\u2019 which can be heard in Funky16Corners Radio V.1 \u2013 Funky Philadelphia<\/strong><\/a>) but the vocal interplay in the group, in the Temptations<\/strong> stylee, is outstanding, as is the guitar\/electric sitar riff running through the record.<\/p>\n

The lyrics are a tribute (natch\u2026<\/em>) to the group\u2019s namesake, calling out to him in the racial climate of the early 70s, closing with the repeated chant of \u2018We ain\u2019t slaves no more!\u2019.<\/p>\n

The production is first-rate, and I\u2019m more than a little surprised that the group \u2013 especially with this record \u2013 didn\u2019t make more of a splash.<\/p>\n

Since Major Harris left to join the Delfonics<\/strong> in 1971, the assumption is that most of the NTR tracks predate that departure.<\/p>\n

There are at least four different 45s on three different labels, and rumors of others as well.<\/p>\n

If anyone has any info on the other members of the group, please drop me a line.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the track, and I\u2019ll see you later.<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
\n___________________________________________________________________________________________
\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

<\/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":"

Major Harris Listen\/Download The Nat Turner Rebellion – Tribute To a Slave Greetings all It’s good to be back in the saddle here at the Corners. The fam and I spent the week on vacation, half of which saw yours truly sick enough to go to the doctor. Fortunately I made a snappy comeback and […]<\/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":[46,11,17,14,74,75,12,18],"tags":[163,166,25],"class_list":["post-2991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digging","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-philly-soul","category-politics","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-philly-funk"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-Mf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991","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=2991"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3189,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991\/revisions\/3189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}