{"id":3274,"date":"2012-10-28T12:42:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T17:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3274"},"modified":"2019-02-22T15:34:23","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T20:34:23","slug":"jackie-shane-any-other-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3274","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Shane – Any Other Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nJackie Shane on ‘Night Train’<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download – Jackie Shane – Any Other Way<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

Welcome to another week here at the home of digital soul.<\/p>\n

We are under threat of what promises to be a nasty storm. Our hatches are battened, our larders filled with supplies, so keep your fingers crossed that the folks here on the East Coast make it to the other side of this one intact.<\/p>\n

The tune I ring you today is one of those great discoveries that happens when you flip over a record expecting nothing and realize that what you\u2019re hearing is the real \u201ctop\u201d side of the disc.<\/p>\n

If memory serves, my initial encounter with the story of Jackie Shane<\/strong> was a lucky accident.<\/p>\n

Before I was fortunate enough to pick up the record you see before you today, I had only heard her voice via a single, blurry performance clip from the TV show \u2018Night Train\u2019.<\/p>\n

Shane was, during the 1960s a popular club singer and recording artist, who was an out, gay\/trans man who lived and performed as a woman.<\/p>\n

She was nothing if not enigmatic.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Nashville, but with the bulk of her career spent North of the border in Canada, Shane had a life seemingly lifted from a screenplay.<\/p>\n

Starting in the early 60s Shane recorded and performed R&B and soul based out of Toronto, CA . She layed down sides for a few different labels, often backed by Frank Motley<\/strong> (also an American) and the Hitchhikers<\/strong> (who went on to record some sought after funk records).<\/p>\n

Shane performed in drag \u2013 though what little biographical information I\u2019ve been able to turn up suggests that this was more than a drag persona, leaning more in the direction of a full time transgender life. That she was also openly gay (or as open as the times allowed) was \u2013 as my friend Jason Stone<\/strong> aka the Stepfather of Soul<\/strong> said in a 2007 post<\/a> \u2013 unusual, but not unheard of, considering the careers of Little Richard, Esquerita<\/strong> and Sylvester.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her cover of William Bell\u2019s<\/strong> 1962 hit \u2018Any Other Way\u2019 – a significant Canadian hit, almost reaching Number One – was a fairly dramatic re-casting of the original.<\/p>\n

Shane\u2019s delivers the song\u2019s lyrics \u2013 full of regret \u2013 in a much more melancholic setting. Where Bell\u2019s approach is aggressive and upbeat (at least as far as the tempo is concerned) Shane\u2019s is almost elegiac.<\/p>\n

Though she delivers the song in its original gender, it\u2019s hard not to read something into it (and I\u2019m hardly the first to make note of this) when Shane sings:<\/p>\n

Tell her that I\u2019m happy<\/strong><\/em>
\n Tell her that I\u2019m gay<\/strong><\/em>
\n Tell her I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

…the line seems to take on more meaning.<\/p>\n

I initially grabbed this record for the version of \u2018Sticks and Stones\u2019 on the flip, but soon fell in love with this cut.<\/p>\n

Shane\u2019s discography is spare. Her 1963 recording of \u2018In My Tenement\u2019 (recorded a year before Roosevelt Grier\u2019s<\/strong> version) is sought after by soul fans, as is a fantastic live record, which, though dated \u201cLive \u201863\u201d on the cover was clearly recorded a few years later, since it includes covers of songs that\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0be released until 1966.<\/p>\n

Once\u00a0you’ve\u00a0listened to her relatively small \u2013 yet undeniably powerful \u2013 catalog, it becomes obvious that Shane was a versatile and dynamic vocalist and performer.<\/p>\n

She was a powerful soul shouter, but was also capable of something approaching fragility when working a ballad.<\/p>\n

The cool thing is, though Shane\u2019s records run from moderately rare right on into wallet-wrecking hen\u2019s teethery, you can go on iTunes and grab a fairly comprehensive collection of her 45s and the \u2018Live \u201863\u2019 album for about six bucks each! I assure you in advance that this will be money well spent.<\/p>\n

The singles are all excellent, and the live album is a revelation.<\/p>\n

Shane was a bold, uncompromising stage performer, strong in voice and persona, and the Hitchhikers were an extra-tight backing band.<\/p>\n

The album deserves to be much better known, and is worth having if only for the extended monologue during her cover of Barrett Strong\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Money\u2019.<\/p>\n

Apparently Shane was still alive (though seemingly inactive as a performer) as late as 2010, having returned to her birthplace of Nashville, TN.<\/p>\n

Make sure you check out the CBC radio documentary about Jackie Shane \u2018I Got Mine: The Story of Jackie Shane\u2019 over at Soundcloud.<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you dig the record, and I\u2019ll see you all on Wednesday with some Halloween goodness.<\/p>\n

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

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

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\n\"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><\/p>\n

Also, 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

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/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":"

Jackie Shane on ‘Night Train’ Listen\/Download – Jackie Shane – Any Other Way Greetings all Welcome to another week here at the home of digital soul. We are under threat of what promises to be a nasty storm. Our hatches are battened, our larders filled with supplies, so keep your fingers crossed that the folks […]<\/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":[58,14,64,12,18],"tags":[166,164],"class_list":["post-3274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-rb","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-QO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274","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=3274"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7583,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274\/revisions\/7583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}