{"id":4707,"date":"2014-04-08T12:50:17","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T17:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2014-04-08T12:50:17","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T17:50:17","slug":"two-by-dusty-springfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4707","title":{"rendered":"Two By Dusty Springfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Miss Dusty Springfield<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

Listen\/Download Dusty Springfield – Live It Up <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Dusty Springfield – Go Ahead On <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

I have something exceptionally groovy for you today.<\/p>\n

A while back,my friend Gail Smith<\/strong>, proprietress of the most excellent \u2018Work Your Soul\u2019<\/strong> podcast (go ahead and take a minute to subscribe, if you haven\u2019t already) turned me on to the record you see before you today.<\/p>\n

Dusty Springfield<\/strong> is thought of today as one of the premiere \u2018blue-eyed\u2019 soul singers of the classic era.<\/p>\n

This is something that I grappled with quite a bit over the years.<\/p>\n

The concept of \u2018blue-eyed soul\u2019 i.e. soul music made by white singers, is a very flexible one, often expanded to include one-off \u2018soul\u2019 records recorded by decidedly non-soul performers.<\/p>\n

I have come to the point where I feel that the term ought to be disposed of, since there was a lot of \u2018bleed\u2019 if you will from both sides of the racial divide, with black, soul-identified singers recording pop music and a fair amount of white singers spending a lot of their time making excellent, soulful music.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s selection was by the mighty Ray Charles,<\/strong> one of the most stylistically flexible performers ever, who basically made whatever kind of music he felt like, each record succeeding by virtue of its excellence, categories be damned.<\/p>\n

Dusty Springfield\u2019s reputation as a soul singer is usually tied to her late-60s recordings, especially the 1969 \u2018Dusty In Memphis\u2019 LP which included her most enduring hit \u2018Son of a Preacher Man\u2019.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough \u2013 and I was stunned by this<\/em> \u2013 Dusty Springfield never hit the Billboard R&B charts!<\/p>\n

A look at her chart success reveals that here in the US, until \u2018Son Of a Preacher Man\u2019, her hits were almost exclusively pop songs and big ballads.<\/p>\n

My surprise had a lot to do with my perception of Springfield, and had me raising an eyebrow every time someone called her a \u2018soul singer\u2019 (many of these commenters never having heard of singers like Linda Lyndell, Lydia Pense, Bonnie Bramlett<\/strong> or Chris Clark)<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was only fairly recently \u2013 thanks to some direction by Gail \u2013 that I dug deeper into the Springfield canon and discovered a very prominent vein of R&B and soul material.<\/p>\n

The first track I bring you today appeared on Springfield\u2019s first US LP, 1964\u2019s \u2018Dusty\u2019.<\/p>\n

Though the bulk of the LP\u2019s tracks (including excellent versions of \u2018Can I Get a Witness\u2019 and \u2018Do Re Me (Forget About the Do and Think About Me)\u2019) was recorded in the UK with Ivor Raymonde<\/strong>, it also includes material from a session recorded in New York.<\/p>\n

What is especially interesting about this session \u2013 other than the fact that it produced the excellent \u2018Live It Up\u2019 \u2013 was that it was produced by Shelby Singleton<\/strong> and arranged by Ray Stevens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While both of these guys were doing heavy work in the 60s, they were doing most of it in Nashville, and I don\u2019t know what the impetus was for bringing them to New York to record with Springfield.<\/p>\n

\u2018Live It Up\u2019 is a stomper, with a blazing vocal by Springfield and some great, gospel-inflected backing vocals. The tune was released as a single but only had some small amount of regional chart success.<\/p>\n

The second track I bring you today is an especially tasty one.<\/p>\n

\u2018Go Ahead On\u2019 was the B-side of a UK-only 45 (the A-side, \u2018All I See Is You\u2019 was a UK Top 10 hit in September of 1966). It was co-written by Springfield and none other than the great US-born but UK-based singer Madeline Bell<\/strong>! Bell, along with Kiki Dee<\/strong>, had spent time working as a backing vocalist for Springfield.<\/p>\n

\u2018Go Ahead On\u2019 is a record that \u2013 had it been released in the US \u2013 might have changed the direction of Dusty Springfield\u2019s career a few years earlier. It is without any question a \u2018soul\u2019 record, with a Chicago\/Curtis Mayfield<\/strong> edge to it and an outstanding lead vocal.<\/p>\n

Aside from her biggest pop hits, her discography is filled with R&B\/soul covers, including tunes by Lee Dorsey, Marvin Gaye, Margie Hendricks, the Sand Pebbles, Laura Lee, Garnet Mimms<\/strong> and Mitty Collier<\/strong> among others.<\/p>\n

If \u2013 like me \u2013 you had your reservations about Dusty Springfield, especially in regard to her soulful side, the time is ripe for reappraisal.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tunes, and I\u2019ll see you on Friday.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

\u00a0<\/strong><\/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":"

Miss Dusty Springfield Listen\/Download Dusty Springfield – Live It Up Listen\/Download Dusty Springfield – Go Ahead On Greetings all I have something exceptionally groovy for you today. A while back,my friend Gail Smith, proprietress of the most excellent \u2018Work Your Soul\u2019 podcast (go ahead and take a minute to subscribe, if you haven\u2019t already) turned […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[37,80,14,12,18],"tags":[166,164],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-eyed-soul","category-equal-opportunity-soul","category-funky16corners","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1dV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","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=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4734,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions\/4734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}