{"id":978,"date":"2010-10-17T13:56:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T18:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=978"},"modified":"2012-04-30T22:26:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T03:26:51","slug":"general-johnson-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=978","title":{"rendered":"General Johnson RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\nGeneral Johnson.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download – Chairmen of the Board – From the Days of Pigtails (and Fairy Tales) <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I hope everyone had a stellar weekend.<\/p>\n

We got the sad news last week that soul legend General Johnson<\/strong>, who led the Showmen<\/strong> in the early 60s and the Chairmen of the Board<\/strong> later in the decade had passed away at the age of 67.<\/p>\n

His career as a singer and songwriter (he wrote ‘Patches’, a huge hit for Clarence Carter, and co-wrote ‘Want Ads’ for the Honey Cone<\/strong>) was long and rewarding, and in addition to their chart success, the Chairmen of the Board became legends on the Beach Music scene in the Carolinas.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today appeared hear four years ago, after I happened upon it in a mix and was blown away.<\/p>\n

It quickly became a fave and I rarely take my DJ box out without it.<\/p>\n

I hope you all dig it, and take a moment to remember the great General Johnson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Originally Posted 4\/2006<\/strong><\/p>\n

“So, anyway, how\u2019s about some music?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gone on before about the joy of discovering a great new track, and haven\u2019t been above admitting the instances when I had been unable to see the forest for the trees. This is one such instance. A few weeks ago, via a Myspace friend, Spain\u2019s own Gruyere DJ,<\/strong> I received a link to download his New Years Eve DJ mix.<\/p>\n

I did so, and the mix was excellent, featuring a wide variety of rare funk nuggets, as well as a bunch of stuff that was not familiar to me. One such track appeared less than 15 minutes into the mix, and it was a killer. I immediately recued the tune (three of four times), listening to see if I might recognize the singer(s), or if any of the lines might reveal a familiar title.<\/p>\n

No such luck.<\/p>\n

So, I tried to contact Gruyere DJ to ask him who it was. The Myspace link wouldn\u2019t load. So, I posted a query over at Soulstrut, figuring that one of the learned heads over there would recognize the refrain. Snake eyes\u2026. Then I tried Google-ing the lyrics, only to discover that the main line in the chorus also appeared in a Jackson Five<\/strong> song (this was clearly not the same song, nor was it the Jackson Five). I thought I had reached a dead end.<\/p>\n

Then Myspace started working again, and I got a message through to my amigo in Spain. He got back to me in short order, and informed me that the track was \u2018Since the Days of Pigtails (and Fairy Tales)\u2019 by the Chairmen of the Board<\/strong>. So I start searching around to see how I an get myself a copy of this funky gem, and lo and behold, it turns out to be residing on the b-side of a huge hit, \u2018Give Me Just A Little More Time\u2019. Well, dip me in shit and call me stinky! <\/em><\/p>\n

Naturally, I found a nice copy for under ten bucks, and had it drop through the mail slot a few short days later. If you\u2019ve heard the song (which I\u2019m sure someone out there does), you\u2019ll already know how smoking hot it is. If you\u2019re as blissfully ignorant as I was, it should come as a very nice surprise indeed.<\/p>\n

The Chairmen of the Board was one of the top acts in Holland-Dozier-Holland\u2019s<\/strong> Invictus\/Hot wax stable. Formed in 1968, by General Johnson \u2013 who had previously been in the Showmen, who\u2019s Beach Music anthem \u2018It Will Stand was a hit in 1961 and 1964 (for Minit and Imperial) \u2013 Danny Woods<\/strong> and Harrison Kennedy<\/strong>, hit the top ten several times between 1970 and 1973.<\/p>\n

\u2018Since the Days of Pigtails (and Fairy Tales)\u2019 appeared on their 1970 debut LP, and was credited to Ronald Dunbar<\/strong> and Edith Wayne.<\/strong> The Dunbar\/Wayne credit, which was also attached to Freda Payne\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Band of Gold\u2019 (among other tunes) was in fact a pseudonym for Holland-Dozier-Holland who were still contractually obligated (as songwriters) to the Motown organization. That LP also featured the original recording of Patches (written by General Johnson) which went on to be a huge hit for Clarence Carter. <\/strong><\/p>\n

While the a-side of the 45, \u2018Give Me Just A Little More Time\u2019 is one of the most fondly remembered early 70\u2019s soul classics \u2013 which strangely enough did better on the Pop charts (#3) than the R&B charts (#8) \u2013 it\u2019s killer flipside is what we\u2019re hear to talk about today.<\/p>\n

Starting off with a funky guitars and tambourine, the good General drops in with the first few lines before the congas, and then the drums kick the tune into gear. The first chorus takes things to another level entirely, bolstered by the horn section. The arrangement is clean, mean and delicious, with enough kick to please the funk fans and the dancers, and plenty of hooks for the pop crowd.<\/p>\n

Why this didn\u2019t catch on to create one of the great two-sided hits of all time is beyond me. I\u2019d place it up there with \u2018Band of Gold\u2019, and Laura Lee\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Crumbs off the Table\u2019 as the absolute best of Invictus\/Hot Wax. So the next time you\u2019re prowling garage sales and flea markets, bring along an extra quarter. You\u2019ll be able to get your own copy of this killer. You can thank me then.”<\/p>\n

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

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


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

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/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 proto-powerpop
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General Johnson. Listen\/Download – Chairmen of the Board – From the Days of Pigtails (and Fairy Tales)   Greetings all. I hope everyone had a stellar weekend. We got the sad news last week that soul legend General Johnson, who led the Showmen in the early 60s and the Chairmen of the Board later in […]<\/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":[11,17,14,67,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-obituary","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-fM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","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=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2745,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions\/2745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}