{"id":3180,"date":"2012-09-18T13:00:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T18:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3180"},"modified":"2012-10-20T10:58:44","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T15:58:44","slug":"odyssey-going-back-to-my-roots-roots-suite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3180","title":{"rendered":"Odyssey – Going Back To My Roots \/ Roots Suite"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"
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\nOdyssey (Lillian Lopez, left)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download Odyssey – Going Back To My Roots <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Odyssey – Roots Suite (Ajomora\/Going Back To My Roots\/Baba Awa) <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.<\/p>\n

I had something else in the on deck circle, ready to go for today, but then I fell victim once again to my relentless need to read, and stumbled upon the news that Lillian Lopez<\/strong>, the singer of the group Odyssey<\/strong> had passed away at the age of 76.<\/p>\n

Odyssey, best known for their 1977 disco classic \u2018Native New Yorker\u2019 (Top 10 R&B, Top 20 Pop) had a number of hits between then and 1982.<\/p>\n

Lopez started a group with her sisters Louise<\/strong> and Carmen<\/strong> which became Odyssey in the mid 70s after Carmen left and was replaced by singer Tony Lopez<\/strong>. Lopez was with the group for their first LP (and hits) and was replaced by William McEachern<\/strong> by the time they recorded their second record.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today is a great example of why you should always keep your ears (and options<\/em>) open.<\/p>\n

I have made mention many times in this space of how lucky I am to have had (and continue to have) a wide variety of musical \u201cmentors\u201d, i.e. fellow collectors and musicians who have always been generous with their time and their taste, turning me on to new sounds all the time.<\/p>\n

One of these good people is my man DJ Birdman<\/strong> down in DC, a long time friend who has been a significant influence (and source) for me when it comes to dance music, specifically disco and post-1980 soul.<\/p>\n

Birdman has always been very open about sharing his digging spots with me when I roll through DC, as well as always passing records on to me that he thinks I should hear.<\/p>\n

Last year, when the fam and I were down in out nation\u2019s capitol, we had ourselves a nice visit with Birdman and his family, after which he handed me a stack of vinyl, some of which I\u2019d asked him to grab for me, and others that he was giving me to check out.<\/p>\n

Not one to ever object to horizon-widening (especially when it comes to music) I expressed my gratitude, packed the wax in the ride and lead-footed it back to Jersey so that I might sample the goods.<\/p>\n

One of the records in the stack is the disc you see before you today.<\/p>\n

It was Birdman who had first hipped me to Lamont Dozier\u2019s<\/strong> OG of \u2018Going Back to My Roots\u2019<\/a> and it was he that introduced me to the most excellent cover by Odyssey.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s safe to say that left to my own devices, I may very well have passed this record by.<\/p>\n

While I knew of \u2018Native New Yorker\u2019 \u2013 and you know I dig disco<\/em> \u2013 it\u2019s not the kind of disc I\u2019d pick up unless I was looking to stash it with my DJ stuff, \u00a0amongst my \u201cwedding records\u201d.<\/p>\n

I was completely ignorant of the wider reach of Odyssey\u2019s catalog and was pleasantly surprised when I had a chance to drop the needle on today\u2019s selection.<\/p>\n

Originally recorded by songwriting legend Dozier in 1977, \u2018Going Back To My Roots\u2019 was given a somewhat smoother interpretation by Odyssey. Though Dozier\u2019s (fairly rare and sought after) OG is a 9-minute-plus epic, it failed to make it onto the charts whereas Odyssey scored in both the US and the UK.<\/p>\n

The Odyssey version of the song is \u2013 at least in my opinion \u2013 more consistently danceable than the original, even in its extended \u2018Roots Suite\u2019 version.<\/p>\n

Lillian Lopez continued to tour with a version of Odyssey until 2000, when she retired from the stage.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tunes and I\u2019ll be back on Friday.<\/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":"

Odyssey (Lillian Lopez, left) Listen\/Download Odyssey – Going Back To My Roots Listen\/Download Odyssey – Roots Suite (Ajomora\/Going Back To My Roots\/Baba Awa) Greetings all I hope the middle of the week finds you all well. I had something else in the on deck circle, ready to go for today, but then I fell victim […]<\/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":[58,46,32,14,64,12],"tags":[119,110,166,164],"class_list":["post-3180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-digging","category-disconot-disco","category-funky16corners","category-rb","category-soul","tag-dance-music","tag-disco","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-Pi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180","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=3180"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3262,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180\/revisions\/3262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}