{"id":528,"date":"2010-05-25T16:32:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T21:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=528"},"modified":"2015-02-04T09:14:10","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T14:14:10","slug":"la-may-free-the-soul-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=528","title":{"rendered":"La May – Free the Soul Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Listen\/Download – La May – Free the Soul Man <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

I just got in from mowing the lawn and I figured I\u2019d steal some time in which to blogify<\/em>, as it were.
\nGot me a busy shed-jool<\/em> this week, so I\u2019m trying to keep things going as smoothly as possible. In addition to the real world shit I have going every week, I have a normal blogging schedule, as well as preparation for next week’s Funky16Corners 2010 Pledge Drive.<\/strong> Things are moving along at a brink place, but I really need to keep my ducks in a row or else the chaos that is always on my tail is likely to overtake me and bollix up the whole deal.
\nThe tune I bring you today is something I picked up a while back in an e-dig. After hearing a sound clip I made my bid, and fortunately for me, this record is either slept on, or does not meet the strict requirements of the funk 45 diggers of the world, because I ended up getting it for a (relative) pittance.
\n\u2018Free the Soul Man\u2019 by La May<\/strong> is \u2013 I suspect, since I haven\u2019t been able to date it conclusively \u2013 a mid-to-late 70s side created by someone (La May, I assume) who was likely the president of the local James Brown<\/strong> appreciation society. Like some Lee Fields<\/strong> (and others, I\u2019m sure) 45s of a similar vintage, what you are hearing is something like the wake of the SS Soul Brother Number One<\/strong>, piloted by its funky captain who\u2019s influence was for a time so wide ranging as to be almost inescapable (and La May clearly did not escape).
\n\u2018Free the Soul Man\u2019, has some tight snappy drums, and a JB-esque vocal, but it also bears the mark of a later production era (as well as some synthesizers), so much so that I imagine that some of the crate diggers out there with impossibly high standards of the grit level in a funk 45 might not dig it, hearing something that is less gut-bucket than it is sequins and jheri curl and being drawn in by the orbit of the Disco Death Star.
\nThis is not to say that \u2018Free the Soul Man\u2019 is disco, on account of it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s clearly funk, and even though some of those Mothership\/FONK signifiers are there, the production is so enamored of James Brown that no matter how moogy\/arpy things get, the good foot is still in the picture.
\nAs far as provenance, SPQR \u2013 in its earlier days a storied R&B and soul label out of southern Virginia (with acts like Jimmy Soul, Lenis Guess<\/strong> and Sir Guy<\/strong>) \u2013 seems to have been reactivated in the 70s, since the discographies I\u2019ve been able to find for the label seem to trail off before the end of the 60s. The label says that the tune was recorded in New York City at Guess Recording Studio (Lenis Guess???), but the label address is \u2013 as in the old days \u2013 Norfolk, VA.
\nIf anyone knows more about La May, or the later years of the SPQR label, please drop me a line.
\nSee you on Friday.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n

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


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Listen\/Download – La May – Free the Soul Man Greetings all. I just got in from mowing the lawn and I figured I\u2019d steal some time in which to blogify, as it were. Got me a busy shed-jool this week, so I\u2019m trying to keep things going as smoothly as possible. In addition to the […]<\/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":[11,17,14],"tags":[163,166],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-8w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","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=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5449,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/5449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}