{"id":5618,"date":"2015-04-19T10:39:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T15:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5618"},"modified":"2015-04-19T10:39:48","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T15:39:48","slug":"the-souljers-chinese-checkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5618","title":{"rendered":"The Souljers – Chinese Checkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Example\"
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The Souljers (above), The Mixtures (below)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

Listen\/Download – The Souljers – Chinese Checkers<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

Today\u2019s selection is a bit of mystery record.<\/p>\n

Not that we don\u2019t know who it is \u2013 that would be the Souljers<\/strong> (aka the Soul-Jers<\/strong>) \u2013 but that the story attached to the group is composed of little more than loose ends.<\/p>\n

What we do know is this, the song \u2018Chinese Checkers\u2019 was originally recorded by none other than Booker T and the MGs<\/strong> in 1963 and appeared as the flipside to \u2018Plum Nellie\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Souljers version of the song was released on the legendary East LA Rampart label in 1966.<\/p>\n

As to who the Souljers\/Soul-Jers were, I think the cats in the picture above are Delbert Franklin<\/strong> and Phil Tucker<\/strong>, who recorded the \u2018Soul-Jers\u2019 45 \u2018Gonna Be a Big Man\u2019 and \u2018Crazy Little Things\u2019, which is a soul vocal.<\/p>\n

If you do a little digging, it appears that the Souljers \u2018Chinese Checkers\u2019 is in fact a re-release of the Mixtures<\/strong> (another Rampart\/East LA group) 1963 recording of the song from a few years earlier. In fact, both \u2018Chinese Checkers\u2019 and its b-side \u2018Poochum\u2019 appeared on two different Mixtures 45s on the Linda label!<\/p>\n

Even weirder, is the fact that the label of the Souljers 45 indicates that both tracks were from an album called \u2018Move Over Ramsey\u2019, which never appears to have been issued.<\/p>\n

How the Mixtures tracks ended up being reissued on Rampart as the Souljers is something of a mystery, though their Linda 45s are listed as Faro productions, and Faro and Rampart were both owned by impresario Eddie Davis<\/strong>, and Delbert Franklin<\/strong> appears to have been a member of both groups as the sax player.<\/p>\n

That said, \u2018Chinese Checkers\u2019 is a groovy track, following the mellow electric piano groove of the original, and adding in some vocal interjections and handclaps, giving it that \u2018live in the studio\u2019 feel.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it, and if you have any info to add that will help unravel the mystery, please let me know.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

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_________________________________________________________________________________________<\/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

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

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

The Souljers (above), The Mixtures (below) Listen\/Download – The Souljers – Chinese Checkers   Greetings all. I hope the new week finds you all well. Today\u2019s selection is a bit of mystery record. Not that we don\u2019t know who it is \u2013 that would be the Souljers (aka the Soul-Jers) \u2013 but that the story […]<\/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":[58,160,14,66,12,18,13],"tags":[166,164,165],"class_list":["post-5618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-east-la","category-funky16corners","category-instrumental","category-soul","category-soul-45","category-soul-jazz","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1sC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618","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=5618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5669,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618\/revisions\/5669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}