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By Larry, November 1, 2016 9:28 am

Sam Cooke

Listen/Download – Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come

Greetings all.

Due to the impending election, I’m going to be doing something special this week, under the banner of Soul the Vote (yeah, I know. Not the most original idea but it says what I want it to, so, y’know…).

I will be re-posting some socially/politically relevant classics all week long, culminating in a special Election edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show this coming Friday, 11/4.

Today is a post from December of 2014, on the 50th anniversary of Sam Cooke’s death. Though I’m reposting both sides, the one to focus on here (for obvious reasons) is ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’. Let’s all hope it’s a good one.

There is a lot at stake here, and while I realize that politics is not everyone’s bag, there is a tremendous amount at stake here, and if you are willing to throw your lot in with a maniac like that, then we don’t really have much to say to each other.

So dig the sounds, spread the word, and get your ass out there and vote.

Keep the Faith

Larry

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I hope the new day finds you well.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but in case I haven’t, here’s something…

As a more than casual student of the interconnected nature of the Tao, and someone who has experienced the (extremely) odd coincidence now and again, the way that my life intersects with certain records often causes me to take note.

Many a time, have I been in search of a particular disc for a long time, then I get a sudden urge to look again, and there it is.

The same kind of thing often happens when I write up a record (or get ready to do so) and then I discover that some important event tied to that record (birthday, death, anniversary etc) is coming up at the same time.

I had been trying to get my hands on Sam Cooke’s final LP ‘Shake’ (specifically to get the LP-only track ‘Yeah Man’) for some time. Considering the popularity of Cooke, and the fact that the album contained no less than three hits, it surprised me how scarce a record it was, and how hard it would be to get a copy at a reasonable price.

So this fall, when I had all but given up trying, I scored a copy of the ‘Shake’ 45, and then a few weeks later  a copy of the LP verily fell in my lap (sometimes – to paraphrase my man DJ Prestige –  it less me finding the record, than the record finding me).

Last week I sat down to digimatize the discs, and what should pop up on my radar but the fact that the 50th anniversary of Cooke’s death (12/11/64) was about a week away.

Cooke has been – thanks entirely to his untimely passing – at the top of the list of transitional (and hugely influential) figures of soul music.

This is not to say that he never made any ‘pure’ soul, because the tracks above will testify to that, but rather that the bulk of his post-gospel career was divided pretty evenly between R&B, pop music and crooning.

Cooke was a brilliant singer and songwriter, and there are all indications that he would (like Jackie Wilson, an artist who’s career paralleled his) have entered the soul ‘mainstream’ had he lived, but sadly, we’ll never know.

Today’s 45, which was released about a month before the ‘Shake’ LP (it was already charting within a few weeks of his killing) was a substantial hit, both sides making it into the R&B Top 10 by the end of January 1965.

It is a study in contrasts, with ‘Shake’, a hard driving (and influential) soul number, backed with the epic civil rights ballad ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’.

‘Shake’, later covered by Otis Redding and the Small Faces among others, features some surprisingly raw rhythm guitar (Bobby Womack) running through its middle, surrounded by booming horns and solid percussion. It was recorded at Cooke’s last session, less than a month before his death.

‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ is one of those records that has an eerie depth to it. It hearkens back to Cooke’s gospel roots, but despite the title, it has never seemed to me like a hopeful song. It has the ring of inevitable resolution about it, but only as viewed through great amounts of struggle and pain.

Cooke sang the song on the Tonight Show in February of 1964 (the performance has since been lost) and never performed the song live again.

Listening to ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’, it now seems inevitable that a song and performance so powerful would be seen as a landmark of sorts.

That it was released almost simultaneously with his death has cemented that status.

So toast the memory of the mighty Sam Cooke,  dig the sounds, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

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By Larry, October 30, 2016 12:59 pm

Judy Clay and the Youngbloods (inset)

Listen/Download – Judy Clay – GetTogether MP3

Greetings all.

Due to the impending election, I’m going to be doing something special this week, under the banner of Soul the Vote (yeah, I know. Not the most original idea but it says what I want it to, so, y’know…).

I will be re-posting some socially/politically relevant classics all week long, culminating in a special Election edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show this coming Friday, 11/4.

We’re going to get things started with Judy Clay’s epic reading of the Youngbloods’ ‘Get Together’, which was originally posted back in February of this year, during the primaries, when the unspeakable (Trump as a major party candidate) was still only a possibility.

There is a lot at stake here, and while I realize that politics is not everyone’s bag, there is a tremendous amount at stake here, and if you are willing to throw your lot in with a maniac like that, then we don’t really have much to say to each other.

So dig the sounds, spread the word, and get your ass out there and vote.

Keep the Faith

Larry

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Originally posted 2/25/16

The last few months (hell, closer to a year) in relation to the upcoming Presidential election have proven to be the rancid cherry atop the shit sundae that has been served up by the opponents of democracy over the last eight (or 36, depending on your frame of reference) years.

The group I speak of is composed of the usual suspects, giant corporations, polluters, homegrown religious fanatics, cowpoke seditionists and every possible iteration of Archie Bunker-esque “populist anger” blowing ugliness at the world from their easy chairs. The combination of hard-edged, professional undermining of society, from those that would straight up fuck any one of us to insert another shiny dime in their offshore tax havens, and the infantile, heavily-armed anger of the dying white hegemony has finally pushed us to the place where we have a leading candidate for the highest office in the land that comes on like PT Barnum and the local schoolyard bully had a baby, and then handed the baby a gun.

If you were so inclined, you could start writing your stack of ‘thank you’ notes to Ronald Reagan, and all of his disciples, who somehow convinced a lot of people that their enemies were not the bosses that busted their unions and converted their once prized jobs into Third World child labor, but rather the cold, tired and huddled masses yearning to breathe free mentioned on the Statue of Liberty.

We live in a world where any number of Republican governors and corporatist Democratic apparatchiks in the school privatization movement (eager to run schools with all the vision they apply to your local Wal-Mart) have people convinced that teachers are the enemy. The same world where the people we’ve elected will turn to us and with a straight face continue to repeat the same insane incantations about deregulation and trickle-down economics that time and experience long ago revealed as a colossal sham.

We live in a world where one side of the political spectrum has collapsed like an angry toddler that has to be dragged through a supermarket, and the other side throws their hands up, without the courage or will to do anything about it.

The amount of ugly debris resulting from this collision – generally hateful, and specifically racist and nativist – is terrifying.

The press, for a variety of reasons a mere shadow of its former self, is filled not with the thinkers that once helped us make sense of an often incomprehensible world, but rather packs of fools that have abdicated their sacred responsibilities and spend their time talking about the election like they’re broadcasting a football game. As a result we are surrounded by people that have been dumbed down, and are fatally disengaged from the process.

It makes me sad, especially since I have young kids who will have to grow into a world that seems increasingly out of control.

This is not to say that all hope is lost, nor should anyone be giving up and preaching the gospel of running away (to Canada, or Europe of anywhere Donald Trump isn’t) because I believe that ultimately, this country is worth fighting for.

I suspect that no matter what happens in November, whether we are suddenly saddled with a lunatic at the helm, maintain an unsatisfactory status quo, or take a difficult first step toward something better, that there will be a lot of unpleasantness ahead.

When someone like the current Republican standard-bearer is allowed to whip a mass of shitheads into a frenzy, that energy has to go somewhere.

Whether it manifests itself as a horrific stain on a once great country, or in impotent rage at a revolution denied, is yet to be seen.

What those of us outside of the bubble need to do is – first and foremost – speak up.

Don’t let the insanity go unchallenged.

Campaign for something better.

Shut off your TV, or at least the part of it that perpetuates the stupidity.

Read a book.

Make something.

VOTE.

Or listen to some music.

It is precisely because I believe in the power of music, to move people and sometimes carry a message, that I do this at all.

I know the political posts are unpopular in some quarters, but as long as I have the ability to lay down and amplify (on some small scale) my thoughts, I’m going to do it.

The song I bring you today should be very familiar to most people of a certain vintage as one of the great peace anthems of the 1960s, as delivered by the Youngbloods.

I have been a huge fan of Judy Clay over the years, both for her duets with Billy Vera, and her solo work. She had a powerful voice.

So when I picked up the 45 of ‘Sister Pitiful’ (her female take on the Otis Redding ‘Mister…’ classic) I was kind of knocked on my ass by the flip side, a heavy, swampy, soulful version of ‘Get Together’.

Where the Youngblood’s version of the song is ethereal and hymn-like, Clay’s take on the song – instantly recognizable as a Muscle Shoals production – is a call to arms.

When the song starts with the words ‘Love is just a song we sing’ but then follows it with the warning shot ‘But fear can make us die’, it ought to turn your head.

Though the Youngbloods released their version in 1967, it didn’t really explode until the middle of 1969. The wistful optimism of the Summer of Love had been washed away by war, riots (race and otherwise) and paranoia.

Clay recorded her version of the song in May 1969, replacing the hippy mellowness with a powerful, gospel-infused cry, pushed along by hard charging bass, drums and horns.

It should have become and anthem all over again, but despite its inarguably high quality, it went largely unnoticed (it doesn’t even get a mention in the Wiki about the song) .

That doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

Give it a listen, and see if you feel the power, too.

Remember that ‘Keep the Faith’ are words to live by, whatever your faith is,and the raised fist in our logo symbolizes the power of solidarity.

Pull down the ones and zeroes, and pass it on.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 27, 2016 11:08 am

Listen/Download – El Comite – Pasame El Hacha MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show. We come to you each and every Friday with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the Stitcher or TuneIn apps, check it out n Mixcloud, or grab yourselves and MP3 right here in the Radio Show Archive at Funky16Corners.com

The track I bring you today is the result of one of the strangest bits of musical import/export that I have ever come across.

I have stated here before, and many times in many other places, that ‘Pass the Hatchet’ by Roger and the Gypsies is my all-time favorite 45. Period.
So, you can imagine my surprise, many years ago when I discovered that there was a version of it by a South American group.

Then, take that surprise, and multiply it exponentially when I discover that there were two different covers of ‘Pass the Hatchet’ by South American groups.

Then, take THAT (bear with me, please) and double it, when I find out that this was all based off of a release of the original version of the song in Argentina in 1970!

I don’t know how London Records decided to release ‘Pass the Hatchet’ in Argentina in 1970 (years after it’s original US/New Orleans release on Seven B), but when they did, it was popularized by a local DJ (whose name – once passed to me by a collector but since lost – I do not know) popularized it, so much so that it was covered by El Comite in 1971 and issued in both Argentina and Colombia on the Microfon label, and then again by Nicky and the Magnificents (on Interdisc, in a more new wave style) in 1977.

Naturally, king sized record nerd/obsessive that I am, I had to have both of these, which took me several years/dollars, but I did find them (an Argentinian pressing of Roger and the Gypsies still eludes me…).

That said, of the two covers, the version by El Comite is my favorite.

Sounding like it was recorded in a crowded subway station (though likely just ‘fake live” sound effects added in after the fact), ‘Pasame el Hacha’ moves along at a brisk pace with a heavily tremeloed guitar, pulsing bass, and drums.

The singer does his best to imitate Eddie Bo’s grunts and interjections, and the group adds a slightly psyched-out coda to the song with a guitar solo.

It may not pack the punch of the OG – and frankly, nothing does – but it’s such a cool/weird story, that as a ‘Hatchet’ completist I would be remiss were I not to bring it to you.

So dig it, and if any of you knows who that Argentinian DJ was, please drop me a line.

Until next week, let me chop it…

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 25, 2016 9:58 am

Funky16Corners: You Gotta Have Soul!
An Hour of Soul and Funk Instrumentals

Booker T and the MGs – One Mint Julep (Stax)
Brothers and Sisters – Shake a Lady (Capitol)
Travis Wammack – Karate Time (Atlantic)
Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band – Brown Sugar (WB)
Chip and Dave – 7th Round (Sure Star)
Daddy Kae Trio – Shug!!! (Fairmount)
Lloyd Price Orchestra – I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Turntable)
E Rodney Jones – R&B Time Pt2 (Tuff)
Marketts – Richie’s Theme (WB)
Buena Vistas – Here Comes the Judge (Marquee)
Ricky Allen – Skate Boogaloo (Bright Star)
Sam Rhodes – Shake Your Soul Honey (Inst) (Capitol)
Alvin Cash and the Registers – No Deposit No Return (Mar V Lus)
Soul Machine – Twitchie Feet (Pzazz)
Leon and the Burners – Crack Up (Josie)
Johnny Watson – Coke (Okeh)
Little Sonny – Latin Soul (Revilot)
Gravities (Johnny Newton’s Band) – Do the Whip (Inst) (Mercury)
Sandy Nelson – I Don’t Need No Doctor (Imperial)
El Dorados – New Breed (Port)
The Peddlers – Steel Mill (CBS UK)
EJ’s Ltd – Black Bull (Back Beat)
Noble Watts – F.L.A. (Brunswick)
Les Demerle – The Raven (UA)
Soul Continentals – Bowlegs (Sound Stage 7)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners Presents – You Gotta Have Soul 112MB/256K Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

The mix you see before you today is something I whipped up a while back for the great This Is Tomorrow blog.

It features a solid of of soul and funk instrumentals, guaranteed to make you get outcha seat and onto the floor (whether your dancing, or just on the floor is up to you).

There are a grip of recent acquisitions, including many tunes that have not appeared on the blog or the radio show before.

As always I hope that you dig it, and I’ll be back with some more stuff on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 23, 2016 10:17 am

Joe Hicks

Listen/Download – Joe Hicks – Home Sweet Home Part 2 MP3

Listen/Download – Joe Hicks – I’m Coming Home Part 1 MP3

Greetings all.

The new week is here and I come to you today with an old favorite of mine, that has been marinating in the ‘to-be-blogged” on deck circle for a long time.

Naturally, there’s no good reason for that, other than every now and then I circle a record warily, waiting for just the right moment (Tenacious D referred to it as ‘inspirado’), when the need to whip it on you and the right time to tell the story intersected perfectly.

Or, I might just have waited too long and it got too far back in the queue.

Today’s selection is kind of a “combination of the two”, which was also the name of a song by Big Brother and the Holding Company, who were from San Francisco, which is where this record was made, so kismet being a force that I am (usually) unwilling to go against, I finally got my shit together and added ‘Home Sweet Home Pt2’ by Joe Hicks to the line up.

It has been so long, in fact, since I first picked up the 45 that I have no solid recollection as to where I heard it first.

The time that it’s been recorded and in my crates suggests to me that I either heard it or heard about it from someone at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions, but I can’t say for sure.

When I mentioned kismet above, there really was something in the Jungian, collective unconscious/web of life that was nudging me toward this point.

Last summer, whilst the fam and I were grabbing a nosh in our local burrito joint, staffed largely by alternative/tattoo/music types, where they always have interesting music on the PA, I was about to shovel some spicy chicken mole into my maw when my ears perked up.

Though I was almost certain that I was listening to Jimi Hendrix/Band of Gypsys, I was also pretty sure that they were playing a medley of Sly Stone-related tunes, including the famous riff from ‘Sing a Simple Song’ and, very strangely, a piece of Joe Hicks ‘Home Sweet Home’, a tune written and produced by Sly, but light years more obscure than ‘Sing..”

Naturally, as soon as I got home I kept on Googlin’ (as opposed to chooglin’, vis a vis San Francisco) and what do I discover but A) That WAS the Band of Gypsys, with Buddy Miles on vocals and B) That WAS ‘Home Sweet Home’.

As is turns out, Jimi and band were paying tribute to Sly by working two of his tunes into a medley of sorts with ‘We Gotta Live Together’, credited the whole shebang to Buddy Miles (in a way that would never pass muster today) and that was that.

Joe Hicks was a San Fran Bay Area homeboy of Sly’s who had done some earlier recording with Pat Vegas (of …and Lolly/Redbone fame) and then a few singles with Sly, including a massive version of ‘Life and Death in G and A’, and then went on to record an LP in 1973 for the Enterprise subsidiary of Stax.

Hicks was also a songwriter, working with Bobby Womack and Delaney Bramlett, and having his tunes recorded by Delaney & Bonnie and Aretha Franklin.

Oddly enough, though listed as ‘Home Sweet Home Pt2’ on the label, the song is actually a continuation of ‘I’m Goin’ Home Pt1’ aka the other side of the record (‘Home Sweet Home’ actually starts at the end of the other side).

‘Home Sweet Home’ is the funkier side of the record, and as soon as the horns drop in there is no disputing that this is a Sly Stone joint.

The tune has the kind of funky punch of ‘Thank You Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin’ by the Family Stone, and Hicks has a powerful, raspy voice that matches the funk power of the instrumental backing.

There’s not much out there about Hicks. The Enterprise album seems to be the last time he recorded (there’s another side listed in Discogs but I think it was attributed in error) and in a later interview Sly mentions that he (Hicks) had eventually gotten strung out on, and killed by drugs.

As it is, he remains one of the more interesting Sly-related artists, with a short but solid discography that hints at the possibility of bigger things that were never delivered.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 20, 2016 11:27 am

Larry Bell

Listen/Download – Larry Bell and the Soul Pack – Experienced MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which comes to you each and every Friday with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the Stitcher and TuneIn apps, check it out on Mixcloud or grab an MP3 right here in Radio Show Archive at Funky16Corners.com

The 45 I bring you today is by Larry Bell, one of those artists that only recorded a few records in his career (in Larry Bell’s case, three singles between 1969 and 1978).

Bell, who appears to have been part of the Omaha, Nebraska music community (a surprisingly large and interesting hub including artists like Preston Love, Donald Harris of the Rhythm Machine, and Buddy Miles.

The record I bring you today was Bell’s first, recorded (as it seems all of his 45s were) in Los Angeles in 1969.

The A-side is a very cool, but oddly anachronistic version of Ray Charles’ ‘Mess Around’, but the flip, and the tune I bring you today is a very tasty, deep soul ballad called ‘Experienced’.

Opening with some very nice guitar (by Bell), ‘Experienced’ sounds like it could have come out of any of the great southern soul studios in Memphis, Atlanta, Muscle Shoals, Mississippi or Texas.

The backing (especially the horn chart) is very nice, and Bell’s vocal is excellent.

Perhaps, had the A-side had a more timely, radio friendly sound, ‘Experienced’ might be better remembered today.

Bell was inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame, and passed away in 2004.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 18, 2016 11:12 am

Charles Edward Anderson Berry of St Louis, Missouri…

Listen/Download – Chuck Berry – Back Too Memphis MP3

Greetings all.

I come to you today with a previously unscheduled communique on the occasion of the 90th (holy shit…) birthday of the mighty Chuck Berry.

It is tempting to say – considering what the initial response would be from most people who actually remember who Chuck Berry is – that Mr B has managed to outlive his greatness.

There is little disputing the fact that Chuck Berry hasn’t made a significant recording for more than 40 years. His last chart hit was in 1972, and ironically (considering what many people remember him for today) it was ‘My Ding-a-ling’ (it hurts to type that).

Chuck’s ding-a-ling having been the source of much of his troubles….

That said, it would be downright tragic if those of us that knew better, weren’t continuously engaged in reminding people how monumental and long-lasting Chuck Berry’s musical/cultural footprint was prior to 1972, and raising hell about how that mark has been minimized by an ugly combination of race, cultural appropriation, the simple passage of time (and the death of the American attention span) and decades of gross misunderstandings of rock’n’roll.

Chuck Berry was a goddamn genius.

His numerous peccadilloes aside (and frankly, aside from the demonstrably pervy stuff – and if that’s a sticking point Rock and Roll Penitentiary is going to be a very crowded place…Jimmy Page…COUGH) it would be very difficult for anyone without tin ears to make even a cursory survey of his oeuvre and not come out on the other side hail hail-ing Chuck Berry.

From the intial shot across the bow, ‘Maybelline’ in 1955, Chuck stomped into, and right through America’s consciousness (at least the consciousness of the emerging youth culture and Black America – he rode the R&B charts as aggressively as the Pop charts) laying a granite-strong musical foundation, without which little else of rock consequence would have been built in the rest of the 50s and all through the 60s.

Of course, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, and in a more elemental way (maybe they were in the quarry cutting out the granite in the first place) giants like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed, were right there beside him, but Chuck is – at least in my opinion – the most important of all in a purely musical sense.

Though it seems like a painfully obvious thing to say now, Berry was black. He was physically black, which in the 1950s and early 1960s was clearly a huge pain in the ass for the person wearing the skin, especially if he managed to intrude upon the artificial quietude of White America, and it got old Chuck into all kinds of extra trouble he probably would have been spared had he been, say, as white as an Elvis or Jerry Lee, two other rockers with a taste for teenage girls.

The glaring hole in his chart history indicates the period (1960-1963) when Chuck Berry went to prison for violating the Mann Act. The story of how he ended up in prison is a complicated one, and undoubtedly the kind of thing that people before him and after him (mostly, but not exclusively white) walked away from. That Berry didn’t walk, but sat on ice for what should have been three of the most productive years at the peak of his career, and climbed right back onto the charts in 1964 with some of the best stuff he ever did is a testament to his greatness (and also to what might have been).

All of the great early figures of rock were synthesizers, of blues, gospel, jump blues/R&B, and most of them were explosive stylists in both sound and presentation, but Chuck Berry’s stew – even though it appeared seamless to the naked ear – was a much weirder, finer thing altogether.

Berry’s music blended R&B (as well as pure blues, and even jazz) with a huge dose of country (if he was a car he’d be running down rockabilly singers right and left) and it was all assembled with a songwriting talent as big as just about anyone who people take seriously as a songwriter, including everyone from Tin Pan Alley, Broadway or anywhere else.

He was an absolutely brilliant lyricist in a time when anything that appealed to teenagers was immediately dismissed by critics, and was a powerful enough performer, and record-maker (sometimes mutually exclusive pastimes) to drill those lyrics, many of them purely poetic, deep into the brains of a generation of Americans in a way that made them seem like they’d always been there, like the green grass and the blue sky.

It isn’t often that a popular musical figure has an impact like that, but Chuck Berry did.

Bo Diddley and Little Richard were elemental, as was Chuck Berry, but his contributions were further reaching, making their way into the DNA of culture and stringing themselves up on the double helix like a set of Christmas lights.

He was a 30 year old man preaching (and converting) legions of teenagers by speaking to them in their own language and making them dance, which as far as pearl-clutching Middle America was concerned was pure corruption. Cultural miscegenation.

And they were right.

Too bad.

So sad.

Sometimes things have to die for a reason and McCarthyite American needed stake driven through its ugly heart, and Chuck was – along with a bunch of others- right there, hammering away.

If you don’t already, see if you can get your hands on the compilation ‘Chuck Berry – The Anthology’, released in 2000 by Chess/MCA.

Though old Chuck has been anthologized, rehashed and repackaged dozens of times over the years, this 2-CD set (which you can still get in iTunes) is as fine a distillation of his catalog as you’re likely to find.

Clocking in at just over two hours (even if you omit the 4:18 of ‘My Ding-A-Ling’) it manages to present a solid picture of why I said everything I just said about Berry, as well as why he was an idol at his peak, why the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things (among many others) worshiped at his altar, and why you should ignore every stupid thing Chuck Berry has done in his life (or has had done to him) and listen to his music.

Because the music is what’s important here, and it is VERY IMPORTANT.

And for those of you who think all Chuck Berry songs sound the same, you are wrong, because Chuck Berry’s songs don’t sound the same any more than Mozart does, and the only way you’re going to figure it out is to stop treating it all like wallpaper and use your ears like a vault instead of a kitchen junk drawer.

It’s all there.

So go get it – or head to a decent record store, or to Amazon, or anywhere they stock fine Chuck Berry music – and set aside two hours to listen to it. And when you’re done (unless you’re already hip and have been shaking your head in assent the whole time you were reading this) see if you don’t think differently about him.

I think you will.

The song I bring you today isn’t on that comp, because it comes from the chart desert that stretched from the end of 1964 to the arrival of ‘My Ding-A-Ling’ in 1972.

That period, when Chuck was recording for Mercury and Chess alternates between treading water and making some of the most interesting and neglected music of his career.

It would be a lie to say that these years were as significant as 1955-1964, but to hear Chuck whipping a little soul into the mix, and keeping his eyes on the prize, hands on the wheel before colliding with (and climbing onto) the Nostalgia Express is a thing of beauty.

Today’s selection, ‘Back To Memphis’ was recorded in Memphis (on the album, titled, unsurprisingly, ‘Chuck Berry In Memphis) with the American Studios band, and produced by Roy Dea and Boo Frazier.

‘Back To Memphis’ has something unusual in Chuck Berry records, that being a big, fat bottom, with the bass and drums pushing the record along like a kick in the ass, with the horn section and Chuck’s guitar at the wheel. It is a dance floor killer, and a reminder that Berry was a force to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately, nobody was listening here in the US, though ‘Back To Memphis’ was a Top 40 hit on the pirate station Radio London, in the UK (1966’s ‘Club Nitty Gritty’ had also been a hit on the pirates, charting on Radio London, and Radio City, both).

So go home tonight and play some Chuck Berry. Open the windows, turn the speakers toward the street and crank it up until your neighbors start dancing, or hammering on your front door, in which case turn it up more.

Happy Birthday Chuck.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Thank you, Jim Bartlett

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 16, 2016 12:06 pm

Buddy McKnight

Listen/Download – Buddy McKnight – Everytime Pt1 MP3

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

For today’s tune, please turn to page 245 in your hymnal to “Always Make Sure To Turn Over Your 45s’.

I originally picked up the 45 you see before you today after hearing it’s flipside, ‘Everytime Pt2’ on the essential ‘Vital Organs’ comp back in the day.

I think I probably had it for a year or two before I bothered to flip it over, and when I did I was stunned (and then very pleased) to discover a very groovy vocal!

As far as I can tell Buddy McKnight recorded a few 45s for the Florida-based Pine Hills Recording label, including an early version of ‘Everytime’.

He did a new version of the record for the LA-based Renfro label (which has a long and interesting discography in the 60s and 70s) in 1968.

That version of the 45 includes the groovy organ instro on the one side, and the stellar vocal version of the song (that you see before you today) on the other.

The tune opens with an oddly shambolic guitar line, before McKnight, who has a cool, raspy voice, and the band drop in.

The bass is way up front, the horns slightly out of tune (in a charming way) and the rhythm guitar and snare drum are locked in sync with each other.

The tune is a popular dancer on the UK scene, but the Renfro issue of the 45 is still a 30-50 dollar record, which, considering its quality, is a bargain.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 13, 2016 10:11 am

Slim Harpo

Listen/Download – Slim Harpo – I’ve Got My Finger On Your Trigger MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, so I beseech you to keep your eyes and ears peeled for the weekly arrival of the Funky16Corners Radio Show. The podcast drops each and every Friday with the best in soul, funk, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn and Stitcher apps, check it out on Mixcloud, or grab yourselves a download right here at Funky16Corners.com

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Before we get started, take a moment to head on over to Mixcloud (by clicking on the graphic above) and vote for the Funky16Corners Radio Show as best funk/soul radio show!

When prompted for an example of the show, just click on this link and select the address of the page as an example.

Thanks very much, and now, on with the post….
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We close out the week here with something funky by the mighty Slim Harpo.

Slim, aka James Moore has been a huge favorite of mine since wayyyyy back in the day when my man Johnny Bluesman passed me a tape of Slim’s best stuff which good and flipped my wig.

Slim was one of those guys who is associated with the blues, but is something a little different, mixing sounds and styles in his own way, with a unique singing style.

He is best known for his earlier classics, like ‘Shake Your Hips’, ‘I’m a King Bee’, and ‘Baby Scratch My Back’, all of which became standards of the rock era.

By 1968 Slim was stretching out a little and working a little funk into the mix.

The funkiest of these tracks is ‘I’ve Got My Finger On Your Trigger’ (spelled ‘TRIGER’ on the label).

Written by Ben Keith, Billy Cox (of Hendrix’s ‘Band of Gypsys’) and Bob Wilson (all Nashville-associated music cats), ‘I’ve Got My Finger…’ combines a wah wah guitar, some very funky bass (Cox??) and a tight horn section.

Though it didn’t chart anywhere (though Slim was still having hits in 1968) is is one of his finest, and ought to be better known.

If you don’t have any Slim Harpo in your record box, go out and grab some. There’s plenty available in reissue, and it’s all good (really).

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 11, 2016 10:25 am

The Vibrations

Listen/Download – The Vibrations – Soul A-Go-Go MP3

Greetings all.

Before we get started, take a moment to head on over to Mixcloud (by clicking on the graphic below) and vote for the Funky16Corners Radio Show as best funk/soul radio show!

When prompted for an example of the show, just click on this link and select the address of the page  as an example.

Thanks very much, and now, on with the post….

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Heart not started right?

Coffee not doing the trick?

Down in the dumps?

Well, my friends, prepare to get your wagon fixed, because the 45 I am about to lay on you is one of the pumpingest, slammingest, four on the (dance) floor moving, soul grooving, blood pressure elevating burners ever committed to wax.

The Vibrations are one o the truly great groups of the classic soul era, and have appeared here before (and will again).

Though they never had a lot of crossover success in the pop market, they did manage to make the R&B Top 40 half a dozen times between 1961 and 1968, making great records in Los Angeles, Chicago, and later on in Philadelphia.

‘Soul a Go Go’ was released in 1966, arranged by the great Teacho Wiltshire and produced by a cat named Manny Kellem who seems to have spent most of his time recording mainstream/adult pop by people like Mike Douglas, and Jane Morgan with the occasional soul or rock artist in the mix.

The song was written by Del Shahr (aka Vibrations member Carl Fisher, who wrote a bunch of amazing soul tunes), Ricky Castel and Roscoe Johnson.

Opening with a powerful drum roll, and joined by a blazing horn section, bass, and guitar, ‘Soul a Go Go’ is one of those records guaranteed to get people out of their seats and on to the dance floor.

The propulsive energy of the song is just about relentless and it kind of boggle my mind that it wasn’t a hit on the R&B or Pop charts (though the other side of the 45, a version of the Beatles ‘And I Love Her’ was a hit in Chicago.

It’s nothing less than a killer, and ought to have a home in the playbox of any self-respecting DJ.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 9, 2016 9:04 am

“Doctah Jawwwn, known as the Night Trippah…”

Listen/Download – Dr John – Big Chief MP3

Greetings all.

If you checked in to the recent (10/6) edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, in which I went into one of my musical obsessions, that being the New Orleans/LA Connection – of which our hero Mr Rebennack was a HUGE part – you will have heard me refer to the good Doctor as close to a genuine national treasure as we have.

He is a towering sequoia in the world of modern music (generally) and one of the last links to the old school of New Orleans giants (specifically), and the piano tradition therein (very specifically).

He has been playing and recording since the 1950s, and has also inhabited the guise of the Night Tripper since the late 60s.

He has appeared in this space (and on the podcast) many times, as leader and sideman, and today’s selection sees him returning to his roots and giving props to another giant.

Another king of the New Orleans sound, Roy Byrd, aka Professor Longhair, aka Fess, is the man who among other things, went into the studio with Earl King in 1964 and laid down one of the greatest pieces of music ever to explode from the grooves of 45RPM record, ‘Big Chief’.

When Dr John whipped out ‘Dr John’s Gumbo’ in 1972, with a cast of NOLA runnin’ pardners, working it out on a grip of Crescent City classics, ‘Big Chief’ is one of the songs he chose to do.

Dr John’s version of the song takes the piano of the original and moves it over onto the organ, and while he slows the pace somewhat, that second line swing is still there in all its glory.

Featuring some groovy rhythm guitar by none other than Alvin Robinson, an arrangement by Harold Battiste (with Dr John) and production by Battiste and Jerry Wexler, this version of ‘Big Chief’ has a sort of early 70s, smoked out vibe to it, which is cool, and it presents a nice, relaxed counterpoint to the piano-led atomic bomb of the original.

That said, if’n you don’t got you no Dr John, go and git you some.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 6, 2016 11:00 am

The High Keys featuring Troy Keyes

Listen/Download – Troy Keyes – Love Explosions MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which drops a brand new episode each and every Friday with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. You can subsribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via Stitcher and the TuneIn app, check it out on Mixcloud or grab a download out of the archive here at Funky16Corners.

This week’s show is a very special edition of the podcast, about the New Orleans/L.A. Connection, in which a bunch of NOLA expats, including Mac Rebennack, Jessie Hill, Harold Battiste, Alvin Robinson and King Floyd head out to California in the mid-60s and worked on a grip of amazing records. It’s almost two full hours of music and information, so make sure to check it out.

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We end the week with a very groovy bit of stylish, Northern Soul by Troy Keyes.

Keyes is an interesting performer in that he goes back to the doowop era with the Velours, moves on into the classic soul era as the lead vocalist in the High Keys/Keyes (‘Living a Lie’ is a stone classic) who recorded for Atco and Verve between 1963 and 1966, and then went on to record under his own name.

The High Keys managed to record with both the duo of Bob Crewe and Charlie Calello (famous for working with the Four Seasons) who produced the group’s 1963 hit version of ‘Que Sera Sera’ and then George Kerr (who would also produce Troy Keyes solo 45s).

Though it has East Coast fingerprints all over it (Kerr, Richard Tee) ‘Love Explosions’ has the sound of a Detroit joint (specifically something out of the Four Tops oeuvre).

Opening with a female backing chorus, and waves of harp over a pulsing rhythm section, Keyes joins in, sounding like a more tightly wound Levi Stubbs.

The song (written by Kerr and Gerald Harris) has enough push for the dance floor, and a great, anthemic chorus.

Though the record made it into the Top 20 in a bunch of Mid-Atlantic/Northeast markets, it didn’t break through nationally.

It did however catch on with the soulies in the UK, where it was issued in 1968 and the reissued a year later to satisfy demand.

Keyes went on to have a local New York hit with ‘If I Had My Way’ in 1971, and has performed in the UK at Northern Soul shows.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.