{"id":993,"date":"2010-10-26T10:16:29","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T15:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=993"},"modified":"2012-08-03T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T20:35:08","slug":"the-ballad-side-of-harthon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=993","title":{"rendered":"The Ballad Side of Harthon"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
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\nWeldon McDougal III<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – The Twilights – Shipwreck <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – The United Four – Go On <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Eddie Holman – Don’t Stop Now <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

As promised, I have returned to continue our tribute to Weldon McDougal III<\/strong> and the Harthon<\/strong> sound. I was originally planning to take it through to the end of the week, but then I looked at the calendar and realized that I had to do some shuffling.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be posting the election-themed mix that I mentioned a little while back later this week (and it will stay posted until the middle of next week).<\/p>\n

If you are one of the regular readers who doesn\u2019t dig it when I down-shift (up-shift?<\/em>) into political\/rant mode, you might want to give this one a pass because it is \u2013 as they used to say in the days of raccoon coats and rumble seats \u2013 a doozy.<\/em><\/p>\n

I will certainly return to the Harthon theme on the blog in the next few months, but I will devote the entirety of next weeks (11\/5) Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> on Viva<\/strong> internet radio to the Harthon sound, so make sure you fall by for that. It\u2019ll be a good one.<\/p>\n

That said, over the last few days I\u2019ve been giving Weldon McDougal III\u2019s legacy, at least as it applies to the records he helped to make while at Harthon, a great deal of thought.<\/p>\n

There are times here when I have to catch myself, and remember that not everyone that stops by the Funky16Corners blog to soak up the soul is a collector, and might not be as interested in the historical minutiae as they are in just soaking their ears in some good music.<\/p>\n

Taking that into consideration, it pays to remember that Harthon, as both a free standing label, as as a production entity that leased recordings to other labels, is almost completely unknown to most people, including a lot of soul fans.<\/p>\n

This, in and of itself is not unusual, since most of what gets posted here fits the description of \u2018obscure\u2019, or at the very least under-appreciated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not deluded in believing that everything that is obscure is also good, or at least good enough for most people to dig. However, a lot of it is good, and often enough great, which is why Funky16Corners came about.<\/p>\n

The more I dug for, listened to, and (where possible) read about soul music, the more I realized that it was quite literally a treasure trove, that once unearthed had to be passed on, record by record, so that it might live the life it deserved.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the musical equivalent of \u2018outsider art\u2019 either. I have certainly known (and still know) people that collect music created on the technical or emotional fringe, but the sounds created by Weldon McDougal III, Luther Randolph <\/strong>and Johnny Stiles<\/strong>, and their many collaborators during the few years that Harthon was in operation meets, and often exceeds the definition of the word extraordinary.<\/p>\n

That most of these records went largely unheard outside of the Philadelphia area when they were first released is a painful truth, but diminishes their quality not a whit. The fact that many of these records are as good, or in some cases far better than what hit the charts at the time is both mind boggling and infuriating, bringing us all back to the starting point where I have to dip back into the crates and share what I have with the folks that read the blog.<\/p>\n

Now, it bears mentioning that not everyone was ignorant of Harthon. The devoted people of the Northern Soul scene in the UK consider Harthon to be one of the truly great soul labels of the 60s, to the point where there was a fairly brisk trade in bootleg repressings of the label\u2019s best and often rarest productions.<\/p>\n

If not for the soulies and their enthusiasm I might never have heard so many of the records that I searched diligently for, and now consider to be the prizes of my collection.<\/p>\n

But outside of that scene, the stark reality is that Harthon records, in the tangible 45RPM form, are extremely hard to come by.<\/p>\n

Take a stroll over to Popsike.com<\/a> and plug in Harthon as a search term, and after the realization that these records are often expensive (though not in the multi-thousand dollar way that so many Northern Soul sides are), they don\u2019t seem to be that many of them changing hands.<\/p>\n

This is probably due to a combination of actual scarcity, and that once obtained, these records rarely re-enter the marketplace. That, and the fact that I\u2019ve never seen a complete Harthon discography compiled anywhere has made it difficult to track these records down.<\/p>\n

The selections I\u2019m featuring today are all from the ballad side of the label.<\/p>\n

The first of these is a 45 I picked up near the beginning of my interest in Philly soul which I only associated with Harthon a few years later. That it is also one of the most unusual soul records I own makes it all the more intriguing.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019ve never been able to track down any information on the Twilights.<\/strong> They recorded two 45s for Harthon, one released on the label, and the other (today\u2019s selection) on Parkway. \u2018Shipwreck\u2019 is a deeply atmospheric record that sounds like a darker \u2018answer\u2019 to records like \u2018What Time Is It\u2019 by the Jive Five.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken at a slow pace (almost plodding), with a funereal horn chart (which sounds like it\u2019s playing at too slow a speed), and a weird sound effect that sounds like someone is striking the reverb chamber (or a steel drum) in the studio. It\u2019s a hypnotic tune, but just as you\u2019re absorbed into the sound, the lead vocalist quite literally starts screaming. I don\u2019t mean soul shouting either, but rather screaming of the padded cell variety. It\u2019s both unsettling and provocative, making me want to track down Luther Randolph \u2013 who is credited with the arrangement \u2013 and asking him what was up.<\/p>\n

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

The second of today\u2019s records is \u2018Go On\u2019 by the United Four<\/strong>, the flipside of the Northern fave \u2018She\u2019s Putting You On\u2019. If ever a record predicted the sweet ballad sound that would come to be associated with Philadephia a few years later, this is it. The lead vocal is delivered in a dramatic falsetto, with harmony assistance from the rest of the group. The power of the vocals is juxtaposed with a fairly austere instrumental base, with drums, organ, spare guitar and glockenspiel accents. The song is co-written by Vivian McDougal<\/strong> (Weldon\u2019s wife), as is the flip.<\/p>\n

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

The last tune today is a fantastic b-side by the man who was in many ways Harthon\u2019s brightest star, Mr. Eddie Holman.<\/strong> Taking into consideration his work as performer and songwriter, Holman is almost elevated to an equal spoke in the Harthon wheel.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t Stop Now\u2019, the flipside to \u2018Eddie\u2019s My Name\u2019 showcases the falsetto that would bring Holman acclaim a few years later with \u2018Hey There Lonely Girl\u2019, and a wonderful, stylish arrangement with strings, unusual guitar accents and woodwinds. Written, like so many of his Harthon-related sides, by Holman and James Solomon, <\/strong>and with production credited as \u2018A Harthon Production by Randolph, Stiles, McDougal\u2019, \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Now\u2019 didn\u2019t make a dent upon its original release in 1966, but charted for Holman when he rerecorded it for ABC in 1970.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the sounds.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll see you on Friday.<\/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
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weldon McDougal III Listen\/Download – The Twilights – Shipwreck Listen\/Download – The United Four – Go On Listen\/Download – Eddie Holman – Don’t Stop Now   Greetings all. As promised, I have returned to continue our tribute to Weldon McDougal III and the Harthon sound. I was originally planning to take it through 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":[14,55,24,74,12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-funky16cornersviva-internet-radio","category-northern-soul","category-philly-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-g1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","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=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3014,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/3014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}