{"id":773,"date":"2010-08-03T19:05:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T00:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=773"},"modified":"2012-08-03T16:08:02","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T21:08:02","slug":"love-thats-the-way-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"Love – That’s the Way It Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\n
\nGeorge Semper, from the cover of ‘Makin’ Waves’<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download – Love – That’s the Way It Is <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greetings all. <\/strong>
\nI come to you midweek with a somewhat mysterious 45.<\/em>
\nI can\u2019t even recall how or when I picked this one up, but my suspicions suggest to me that it was procured at a record show.
\nI think I pulled it out of a box of 45s because I recognized the label (I already had a Jimmy Reed<\/strong> 45 on RRG), but I\u2019m sure I decided to buy it when I noticed that both sides were written, arranged and produced by George Semper.<\/strong>
\nIf that name is not familiar, head over to the podcast archive and search for his name, which appears in no less than four different mixes in his capacity as a creator of Hammond grooves, which until I found this 45 was the only thing I knew about him.
\nHammond heads will already be hip to his \u2018Makin\u2019 Waves\u2019 LP, and the funky 45 version of \u2018It\u2019s Your Thing\u2019 by the George Semper Rhythm Committee.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ll only go as far as to state that Semper was a West Coast cat, since I\u2019ve seen references that base him in both San Diego and Oakland and have no way to be sure which one (or both) is the correct location.
\nThe fact that the band was called Love <\/strong>\u2013 though it was immediately obvious that it was not the Arthur Lee <\/strong>organization \u2013 is unusual, since this 45 likely dates from the late 60s or very early 70s (or at least that\u2019s the way it sounds to me) and the LA\/Arthur Lee band was still a going concern, on a major label.
\nOf course they had their only hit in 1966, so it\u2019s entirely possible they didn\u2019t pop up on Semper\u2019s radar, but the name of the band is a minor issue that only stands in the way of Google-based research.
\nThe sound of ‘That’s the Way It Is’\u00a0 is interesting and funky, with some electric piano and clavinet (no doubt provided by Semper), restrained strings and a cool lead vocal. I don\u2019t really know who the singer is, and I\u2019m reluctant to suggest that it\u2019s George Semper, since all of his other work (that I\u2019m aware of) is instrumental in nature.
\nAs far as the provenance of the RRG label, it seems to have been a Wally Roker<\/strong> led imprint that existed for a brief time after the demise of the Canyon label. Roker was also involved in the Roker and Soul Clock labels around the same time. They released a handful of 45s by Jimmy Reed (then in his decline and trying all kinds of things to stay relevant) and at least one by Doris Duke <\/strong>and of course the Love 45.
\nAs far as I can tell the RRG 45 was the first and last thing that this \u2018Love\u2019 recorded. That\u2019s too bad since the tune is memorable and the record definitely had (unfulfilled) commercial potential.
\nI hope you dig it, and if you have any more info to fill in the blanks, please drop me a line.<\/p>\n

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

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


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

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

NOTE: Thanks to commenter Piet who included a Popsike link to an issue of this same 45 on the Law-Ton label!
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n


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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some Chicago garage punk.<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Semper, from the cover of ‘Makin’ Waves’ Listen\/Download – Love – That’s the Way It Is   Greetings all. I come to you midweek with a somewhat mysterious 45. I can\u2019t even recall how or when I picked this one up, but my suspicions suggest to me that it was procured at a record […]<\/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":[11,17,14,68,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-hammond-grooves","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-ct","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","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=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}