{"id":4642,"date":"2014-03-13T11:34:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T16:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4642"},"modified":"2014-03-13T11:34:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T16:34:15","slug":"the-jon-lee-group-pork-chops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4642","title":{"rendered":"The Jon-Lee Group – Pork Chops"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The Jon-Lee Group (aka Jon – Lee and the Checkmates<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download TheJon-Lee Group – Pork Chops <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

The end of the week is approaching so it\u2019s time to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> sends its sounds out into the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio<\/strong><\/a>. If you can\u2019t be there at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes or by grabbing an MP3 download here at the blog.<\/p>\n

The jam I bring you today is one of my favorite discoveries of the last year, and the way I found it is, as the kids say, cray-cray.<\/p>\n

Some of you may know that I also write about 60s pop\/garage etc over at my other blog, Iron Leg<\/strong><\/a>. It was in my capacity as an Iron Legger that I was involved in doing some research related to 60s sunshine poppers the Cowsills.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was chasing down a lead about a band called Bodine<\/strong> (that recorded an LP in 1969, produced by Billy Cowsill<\/strong>) when I discovered a fantastic site devoted to the band Rhinoceros<\/strong>,<\/a> which shared some members with Bodine as well as the Daily Flash<\/strong> (great, mid-60s folk rock group) and a group I\u2019d never heard of called Jon-Lee and the Checkmates.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As it turns out, some of the Rhinoceros guys got their start in Jon-Lee and the Checkmates (later the Jon-Lee Group)<\/strong>, a mid-60s white R&B\/soul band from Toronto.<\/p>\n

Though they performed widely and recorded a number of tracks, only one single was ever released, \u2018Bring It Down Front\u2019 b\/w \u2018Pork Chops\u2019 (on ABC in the US and Sparton in Canada.<\/p>\n

The a-side is a mid-tempo, Stax-ish soul harmony number, but it is the flipside that really blew my mind.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pork Chops\u2019 (written by Duke Edwards<\/strong>, later of Duke Edwards and the Young Ones<\/strong> on Prestige) is a mind-blowing, wig-flipping ass-kicker of a Hammond instrumental.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to hear the roots of Rhinoceros\u2019 hit \u2018Apricot Brandy\u2019 (which featured Jon-Lee organist Michael Fonfara<\/strong> as well as Duke Edwards) in \u2018Pork Chops\u2019, but the earlier record is about ten times as manic.<\/p>\n

Taken at breakneck speed, \u2018Pork Chops\u2019 features wailing organ, pounding bass and drums and just enough fuzz guitar to let you know that it was 1967.<\/p>\n

The Jon-Lee Group wouldn\u2019t last much longer, with Fonfara and singer John Finley<\/strong> (the Jon in Jon-Lee) leaving to join Rhinoceros at the end of 1967.<\/p>\n

This is a blazing track, and I hope you like it as much as I do.<\/p>\n

See you on Monday.<\/p>\n

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

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> <\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0PS There’s some great video of Jon-Lee and the Checkmates performing live!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> 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).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0 <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jon-Lee Group (aka Jon – Lee and the Checkmates Listen\/Download TheJon-Lee Group – Pork Chops Greetings all The end of the week is approaching so it\u2019s time to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show sends its sounds out into the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,17,14,68,66,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-4642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-hammond-grooves","category-instrumental","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1cS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642","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=4642"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4670,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions\/4670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}