{"id":6618,"date":"2016-09-08T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T16:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6618"},"modified":"2016-09-08T11:09:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T16:09:01","slug":"taj-mahal-a-lot-of-love-45-edit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6618","title":{"rendered":"Taj Mahal – A Lot of Love (45 edit)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Example\"
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Listen\/Download – Taj Mahal – A Lot of Love MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong>, which drops each and every Friday with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove. You can (and should) subscribe in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, check it out on Mixcloud or grab yourself an MP3 right here at Funky16Corners.<\/p>\n

You all know that I am all about a groovy cover version, and especially when it comes from an unexpected source.<\/p>\n

I have been a Taj Mahal<\/strong> fan since way back in the day, but always associated him with a more hippy\/bluesy train of sound (if you will), from his early days with the Rising Sons<\/strong>, through his Woodstock-era sounds and beyond.<\/p>\n

So, when I picked up an old CBS records loss-leader (so budget-y that it was released with two LPs jammed into a single sleeve?!?) and discovered Taj working it out on one of my fave soul tunes, Homer Banks<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018A Lot of Love\u2019, I was stunned!.<\/p>\n

The version in the LP was a longer (4:00) LP edit, but when I started looking on the intertubes for information, I discovered that there was also a much tighter 45 edit (2:44) that had a certain amount of popularity with the Northern Soul crowd.<\/p>\n

I set myself a saved search, and before long the 45 popped up and I grabbed it for my playbox.<\/p>\n

One of Taj Mahal\u2019s greatest strengths (and also, oddly enough, a weakness of sorts) is that he was an able interpreter of all kinds of material. This is something that was for decades and essential talent in singers, but in the rock era kind of fell by the wayside.<\/p>\n

He took full advantage of this talent over the years, and as as a result, his managed to avoid being pigeonholed, but also (unfortunately) avoided the charts.<\/p>\n

\u2018A Lot of Love\u2019 originally appeared on his 1968 LP \u2018The Natch\u2019l Blues\u2019 which included traditional material like \u2018The Cuckoo\u2019 and \u2018Corinna\u2019 alongside soul material like \u2018A Lot of Love\u2019 and William Bell\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018You Don\u2019t Miss Your Water\u2019.<\/p>\n

While the longer, LP version of \u2018A Lot of Love\u2019 is excellent, the 45 edit is trimmed nicely to give it a lot more dance floor\/jukebox appeal, thus its popularity with the soulies.<\/p>\n

Aided by a tight band, including a couple of Leon Russell\u2019s<\/strong> Okie homeboys, Jesse Ed Davis<\/strong> and Chuck Blackwell<\/strong>, Taj kicks up the tempo of the original, and delivers a very groovy vocal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tasty bit of late 60s soul, and I dig it a lot.<\/p>\n

I hope you do, too.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \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

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

Taj Mahal Listen\/Download – Taj Mahal – A Lot of Love MP3 Greetings all. The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which drops each and every Friday with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove. You can (and should) subscribe in iTunes, listen on your mobile […]<\/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":[58,14,24,12,18],"tags":[166,169,164],"class_list":["post-6618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-northern-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-northern-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1IK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618","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=6618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6649,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618\/revisions\/6649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}