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By Larry, April 29, 2014 12:09 pm

Listen/Download The Moods – King Hustler

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of the week.

The tune I bring you today is a very funky number by some Volcanos in transition.

At some point after they recorded their Harthon 45s (the one with the funky b-sides), and the departure of Gene Faith to go solo, but before they would emerge as the Trammps, the gentlemen of the Volcanos would record two (and a half) 45s as the Moods.

What information I have been able to find seems to place the 45s in question around 1970.

The group released three 45s.

The first – ‘Rainmaker’ b/w ‘Lady Rain’ came out on Wand in 1970.

The one you see before you today, ‘King Hustler’ b/w ‘Hustling’ was released on the local Philly label (maybe one-off) Reddog that same year.

The third – on Scepter – re-used ‘King Hustler’ on the a-side, placing it with a new flipside, ‘With a Woman’.

‘King Hustler’ is a great, hard-edged, Blaxploitation groover that is reminiscent of some of the heavier things the Temptations were laying down around the same time.

The song – co-written by Sherman Marshall and Len Barry – features lyrics that reference Philadelphia’s famous South Street, and going to see ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ at the movies (!?).

The group would reconvene as the Trammps two years later.

I hope you dig the track, 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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, April 27, 2014 12:53 pm

Baby Face Willette

Listen/Download Baby Face Willette – Amen

Greetings all

How about we get the week started fine and mellow with a little slice of Hammond heaven.

Roosevelt ‘Baby Face’ Willette is one of those players that was always kind of floating on the periphery for me.

While I saw his name pop up here and there, and saw pictures of his albums on inner sleeves, it was a long time before his actual playing entered my ears or his records found their way into my crates.

Willette was the son of a minister and a missionary, and when he started tickling the ivories, he did in service to the lord.

He ended up playing piano as a sideman in a number of R&B and jazz groups, eventually switching to the Hammond organ.

Willette recorded a few sessions as a sideman on Blue Note before waxing his own LPs as a leader in 1961.

He moved from Blue Note to the Chess subsidiary Argo, recording two LPs and a number of 45s for the label.

The disc you see before you today was released in 1965 and also appeared on his LP ‘Behind the 8 Ball’ that year.

The song ‘Amen’ often credited to Jester Hairston but almost as often listed as ‘traditional’ was a hit for the Impressions in 1960 and covered by the Winstons in 1969 (the one with the famous break).

Here Willette takes things slow and easy, swinging the choir loft as it were, with able assistance from guitarist Ben White and drummer Jerold Donavon.

It is a very groovy disc indeed, and a fine example of the kind of thing you might hear pumping out of a tavern jukebox back in the day.

Baby Face Willette passed away a few months before his 37th birthday in 1971.

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

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, April 24, 2014 1:14 pm

Toby Lark

Listen/Download Toby Lark – Shake a Hand

Greetings all

The end of the week is near, so I will take a moment to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there to dig it at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcst in iTunes, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a very groovy, very funky number by a singer you probably know under another name.

I can’t remember exactly when or where I picked up the 45 you see before you today, but I probably grabbed it because the name of the singer rang a bell.

As it turns out, when I saw the name Toby Lark, I was probably thinking of the name Tobi Legend, which is a good thing, since as it turns out, they are both the same person.

Bessie Grace Gupton was born in Alabama but grew up in Detroit.

She spent most of her early years performing gospel, before going to work as a backing singer for BB King.

She first recorded for Jay Pee records in the early 60s as Bessie Watson, changing her name to Tobi Lark in 1964.

She would record for the Palmer, Topper and USD labels under that name before signing with Mala in 1968 and recording under the name Tobi Legend.

It was under that name that she waxed the Northern Soul classic (one of the famous ‘Three Before Eight’) ‘Time Will Pass You By’.

The following year found her recording under the name on today’s selection, Toby Lark.

‘Shake a Hand’ is a funky number, with Lark dipping back into her gospel roots, singing in a deeper, throatier style. The song, written by Joe Morris and first recorded in 1953 by Faye Adams (much slower, and a huge R&B hit), and covered over the years by everyone from Little Richard, to Magic Sam, to Elvis Presley.

She recorded two more 45s for Cotillion, and eventually settled in Canada, where she continues to perform.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, April 22, 2014 11:20 am

Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton

Listen/Download Big Mama Thornton – Wade In the Water

UPDATE: I just found out that Cultures of Soul has just reissued ‘Wade In the Water’ on 45 as part of the Andy Smith’s Jam Up Twist box set. It’s a great collection (put together by a great DJ) and a fantastic way to get this burner – among others – on 45.

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here and so in service of defeating the doldrums, I bring you something guaranteed to melt your face, and/or make your hair stand on end.

I do not recall where I first heard Big Mama Thornton’s epic reading of ‘Wade In the Water’ but I do remember being knocked back on my heels.

I have already mentioned in this space that the song in question is a big favorite of mine, and as such I like to pick up new versions wherever I find them.

What is most interesting is the fact that ‘Wade In the Water’ is at its base a gospel song with roots in the underground railroad.

Though is has been rerecorded in a number of non-gospel settings, most of those (or at least the ones I’m familiar with) were usually instrumental (though the rock version by Clover is a marked exception).

The version you see before you today, by Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton takes the song, strips it down to a skeletal framework (tossing the ‘gospel’ out the window) and rebuilds it as something else entirely.

Most people know of Big Mama Thornton for her original recordings of ‘Hound Dog’ (later done by Elvis) and ‘Ball and Chain’ (turned into a showcase by Janis Joplin).

Thornton. A singer, harp player and drummer had been recording blues and R&B since the early 1950s.

By the mid-1960s she had relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, and started recording for Arhoolie records.

She recorded ‘Wade In the Water’ in 1968, and it was released as a 45 (rare and expensive) but also released on the compilation ‘Ball and Chain’ (released in 1968 and 1974 and much less expensive).

Her version burns rubber like a top fuel dragster (one friend has referred to it as ‘the punk rock version’) and just gets faster and harder as it goes on. Big Mama wails, and the guitar solo by Bee Houston is killer.

It’s hard to listen to a record this elemental and singularly powerful without wondering why it wasn’t a hit.

The likely explanation is that it was a record ‘out of time’. It is light years heavier than most rock music from the time, and I can’t imagine what it must have sounded like to the blues fest crowds that she was playing to at the time.

It’s a lot closer to the MC5 than it is to Muddy Waters.

This, in addition to the fact that lyrically, Thornton divorces the song completely from its gospel roots, choosing instead to rebuild the lyrics as a loose, bluesy riff serving only to deliver her remarkable voice. It’s as if someone harnessed a hurricane and pressed it into the grooves of a record.

Heavy, heavy stuff.

I hope you dig it as much as I do.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, April 20, 2014 11:21 am

The good stuff…

Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – Lover and a Friend (Capitol)
Eddie Bo – Hook and Sling Pt1 (Scram)
Chuck Carbo – Can I Be Your Squeeze (Canyon)

Listen/Download Dust & Grooves Party Set: A Taste of the Bo-Sound

The listening party (Eilon Paz on the floor, DJ Bongohead on the right)

The massive sound system brought in for the occasion

DJ Pat James Longo bringing the heat

The assembled multitudes soaking in the sounds

Yours truly behind the decks
(thanks to Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus for snapping the pic)

Eddie and Inez under the needle

DJ Rebecca Birmingham

All photos by Larry Grogan/Funky16Corners

Greetings all

I hope the new week and the onset of spring (at last) finds you all well.

This Saturday I was very proud to participate in the opening party for the Dust & Grooves book (which I just happen to appear in, alongside over one hundred other wax wranglers).

The work of photographer Eilon Paz (with production coordination by may man Jamison Harvey, aka DJ Prestige of Fleamarket Funk), Dust & Grooves started out as a photo site, and over the years evolved into a book project that encompassed a world tour.

The party was held at the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn, NY, right underneath the Manhattan Bridge.

There was a listening party (Quincy Jones‘ ‘Walking In Space’), sets by 20 of the NY area’s finest DJs and even some live music.

If you haven’t seen the book, it is truly a thing to behold. A huge, beautifully designed and printed collection of photographs and interviews with people deep inside the vinyl culture, including DJs, collectors, historian/archivists, and label owners.

This post includes my set from the show (we were each allotted 10 minute sets, so I devoted mine to the sounds of Eddie Bo, just like my original photo set/interview on the Dust & Grooves site).

I’m also including some pics from the event (above).

I got to meet some Facebook friends in person, and made some new friends as well.

It was a real gas, and something I was very happy to be a part of.

Dig it all, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 17, 2014 2:53 pm

Joe Zawinul

Listen/Download – Joe Zawinul – The Soul of a Village (45 Edit)

Greetings all.

The track you see before you today first appeared here at Funky16Corners back in August of 2010.

It is a very groovy one, indeed, and I thought it would fit in nicely beside both the mixes I posted this week.

Don’t forget to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or subscribe to it as podcast in iTunes.

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The middle of the week is here, and I may be tired, my nerves may be frayed, my brain may want to shut off, but I have a craving for some of that deep, deep stuff, so here we go.

The record I lay before you today is something I first heard during a long ago Asbury Park 45 Sessions, with my man Vincent the Soul Chef working the wheels du steel.

As I’ve said here many times before, the 45 Sessions are without fail, a DJs paradise, with the selectors slipping 45s under the needle that have the heads running up to the turntables to see what’s going on.

This blog has seen many, MANY sides that I first heard at the Lanes, and of we ever get it back up to speed, this will surely continue.

Anyway, when Vincent pulled this one out of his record box, and I heard the laid back but funky drums, and the electric piano (you know I love me some electric piano), and the spooky strings, my spidey sense started tingling, and when I found out that the music I was hearing had been created by none other than Joe Zawinul, I set out to find a copy of my own.

This took a little longer than I expected, and while I was waiting I pulled down the entire album from which it originated – ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ – and was surprised to discover that there wasn’t much on that album that resembled the 45 I had heard (though the flip side of this 45, an edit of the track ‘Lord Lord Lord’ has a decided gospel edge).

For those of you to whom the term ‘Third Stream’ doesn’t ring any bells, I’ll tell you that it was affixed to classically influenced jazz in the 50s and 60s by folks like John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. There’s a lot of string-based action on ‘Rise and Fall..’ but the overall effect is much more jazz than classical.

Zawinul (and the name should be very familiar) was the Austrian born pianist who made his mark in Cannonball Adderley’s band (Zawinul composed ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Country Preacher’ among others) , moving on to work with Miles Davis (on ‘In a Silent Way’), and then eventually as one of the founding members of Weather Report.

‘Rise of the Third Stream’ was recorded in 1968 and was only Zawinul’s second solo effort in 10 years. It came a year before his work on ‘In a Silent Way’, and echoes of ‘Soul of a Village’ can be heard in his work with Davis.

Though the 45 lists the piece as only ‘Soul of a Village’, the music you’re hearing is actually an edited version of ‘Soul of a Village Pt2’, having been preceded on the album by just over two minutes of prepared piano and strings droning in an approximation of an Indian raga.

The 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ has such a perfect, self-contained vibe that I’m torn as to whether you need to hear both parts. The album is overall a much more challenging listening experience than the 45, but if serious jazz is your bag, I’d suggest you seek it out.

That said, the 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ (roughly one and a half minutes shorter than the Pt2 on the LP) is a slice of groove perfection. It opens (again) with the drone, before Zawinul comes in with the electric piano, followed by funky drums (either Roy McCurdy or Freddie Waits), Jimmy Owens’ muted trumpet, and even more strings, and the really groovy thing is that the string section actually swings along with the drums.

The tune was written (like almost every track on the album, save one) by saxophonist/arranger William Fischer, who as far as I can tell was first and foremost a classical composer/musician, and as a result ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ must be considered a  collaborative work between Fischer and Zawinul (a prolific composer in his own right).

This is serious ‘head’ music, in that it both spins around the inside of the cranium for full, mystical effect, but also compels the head to nod with the rhythm. I wouldn’t go as far as to suggest that anyone not sufficiently intoxicated might get up to dance, but it’s not entirely out of the question.

A truly unique and captivating record, and I hope you dig 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.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 15, 2014 7:19 pm

Nina Simone – Seeline Woman (Philips) / Dorothy Morrison – Rain (Elektra) / Paul Jones – Not Before Time (Bell) / Titanic – Sultana (Epic) / Candido – Jingo (Salsoul) / Doc Severinson – Footprints of the Giant (edit) (Command) / Dixie Cups – Two Way Poc A Way (ABC) / Area Code 615 – Stone Fox Chase (Polydor) / Quartette Tres Bien – Boss Tres Bien (Decca) / Booker T and the MGs – Melting Pot (Stax) / The Peddlers – Impressions Pt1 (Philips) / Sly Stone – Rock Dirge (Woodcock) / Fatback – Going To See My Baby (Perception) / Brother Jack McDuff – Hunk of Funk (Blue Note) / Manu Dibango – New Bell (Atlantic)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: The Sound of the Drum

Greetings all

As promised on Monday, I come to you midweek with yet another new mix.

This one was created at the behest of my man Studebaker Hawk, and first appeared on his Acapulco Nights radio show on WMUA-FM, 91.1 in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This is another one of those mixes that was percolating for a long time, coming to life the first time I heard Nina Simone’s ‘Seeline Woman’ and then moving ahead when I found the Paul Jones b-side you hear in the mix.

I should also mention – though some of the deeper heads will pick up on it when they see the set list – that this mix owes a big debt to one of the pioneers of DJ/dance culture, David Mancuso.

It was Mancuso’s deep and far ranging tastes that brought all kinds of unusual and unexpected records onto the dance floor of his legendary Loft parties, some of which are included in this mix.

It’s called ‘The Sound of the Drum’ because that’s the thread connecting all of these records, whether it’s the insistent beat of hand drumming, the snap of a master on the traps (dig that Quartette Tres Bien!), or just a wicked break.

So slap on your headphones and dig in.

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, April 13, 2014 3:41 pm

The Mothership,now boarding…

Parliament/Intro
Afro-Samurai
Dick Hyman – Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose
Capt Sisko
Jimi Hendrix – 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
Morpheus/1
Scientist – The Dark Secret of the Box
Morpheus/2
Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations
Gene Harris – Don’t Call Me Ni**er Whitey
The Brother From Another Planet
Phil Upchurch – Elektrik
Lando Calrissian
Electrostats – 21st Century Kenya
Mace Windu
Isaac Redd Holt Unlimited – Listen to the Drums
Darth Vader
Roots Radics Band – Son of Darth Vader
Mr Spock/Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Brother Jack McDuff – Moon Rappin’ (Edit)
Lt Uhura
Rotary Connection – Tales of Brave Ulysses
Danger Mouse/Murs/Free Design – To a Black Boy
Shuggie Otis – Pling!
EddieHarris feat Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Were the Silver Cycles (F16C Mash)
Sun Ra

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: The Mothership Mix

Greetings all

Welcome to the new week.

I have something very groovy for you today.

A while back, one of my favorite Facebook-made acquaintances, the author Bill Campbell told me that he was assembling an anthology of afrofuturistic stories, and was thinking about using a mix as part of the Indiegogo campaign.

That anthology, ‘Mothership: Tales From Afrofuturism and Beyond’ is very, very cool, and I would suggest you avail yourself of a copy either in paper, or digital form. Make sure to check out the Rosarium Publishing web site as well.

Always looking for an interesting challenge, I offered my services in furtherance of that goal, and Bill said yes.

The mix you see before you is one of those that I had rolling around the back alleys of my mind for a long time before I actually stated pulling out records, digging for drops etc.

The concept of afrofuturism is especially intriguing, and the thought of finding its application in musical form really got me thinking.

There are musicians included in this mix that worked the conceptual side of things rather directly, like Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton, and some that worked their way into the groove stylistically (Eddie Harris, Shuggie Otis) and others that just created a specific piece of music that seemed destined for inclusion in the mix (Dick Hyman’s epic reworking of JB for instance).

I was trying to create a vibe – which is what you ought to be doing with a mix, anyway – but in this instance, it was far removed from the dance floor and drilled deep inside the head (via the ears, naturally).

This is definitely one for the headphones, trippy, often deep, sometimes weird and in several spots traveling outside the known boundaries of the Funky16Corners universe.

I’m proud to have been given the opportunity to work with Bill, and very happy with the mix.

I hope you dig it too.

I’ll be back later in the week with another brand new mix.

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 10, 2014 1:34 pm

The Mighty Harvey Fuqua

Listen/Download Harvey – Any Way You Wanta

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which lights up the wireless each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you aren’t able to dig it at airtime, you can always keep up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

I thought I’d end the week with something very groovy.

The first time I heard ‘Any Way You Wanta’ by Harvey (courtesy of my man Michael Newman) I pretty much flipped my wig.

There’s a Latin term (dropped here from time to time), ‘sui generis’ meaning ‘in a class or group of its own’ or ‘not like anything else’.

If ever there was a 45 for which this term was seemingly invented, ‘Any Way You Wanta’ is it, brother.

It pays to start by mentioning that Harvey, was in fact Harvey Fuqua, late of the Moonglows (they even take the time to mention that fact on the label). Fuqua had had a solid and very interesting career prior to this record, recording with the Moonglows, and duetting with Etta James on Chess.

He eventually found his way to Detroit, where he fell in with the various and sundry figures that would eventually give birth to the Motown organization.

Fuqua worked with Anna Gordy (sister of Berry), married Gwen Gordy (their other sister, who co-wrote this 45) and in addition to work on the Anna label (home to Barrett Strong’s ‘Money’) started his own Tri-Phi and Harvey labels where he would record a number of artists that would end up on Motown, like the Spinners, Junior Walker and Shorty Long.

‘Any Way You Wanta’ was recorded in 1962, but sounds like it could have come from anytime in the previous five years, or from Mars or some other crazy place.

The musical backing is fairly simple and straight ahead, but the vocals are – in the words of the kids – cray cray.

Ho-lee-shizzle, there’s a reason this record is sweated bigtime (and pulls in serious coin), and that is because it is possessed of a kind of odd magic that sounds like a mixture of pure enthusiasm, Tarzan, glue-sniffing and that wolf from the old Tex Avery cartoons.

Harvey spends the better part of two minutes and forty five seconds singing, howling, stuttering, calling out dance steps and occasionally throwing in whatever he can pull from his grab bag.

It’s really something else, though perhaps too much so, since I can only find one instance of ‘Any Way You Wanta’ charting anywhere, and not very high or for very long.

That said, since its inception, ‘Any Way You Wanta’ has become a big favorite of soul/R&B fans, even finding its way onto Northern Soul playlists.

Harvey Fuqua went on to be an important figure in the history of soul, as a songwriter, producer, performer and discoverer of artists like Marvin Gaye, New Birth and Sylvester.

He was a very serious cat indeed, passing away in 2010 at the age of 80.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, April 8, 2014 12:50 pm

Miss Dusty Springfield

Listen/Download Dusty Springfield – Live It Up

Listen/Download Dusty Springfield – Go Ahead On

Greetings all

I have something exceptionally groovy for you today.

A while back,my friend Gail Smith, proprietress of the most excellent ‘Work Your Soul’ podcast (go ahead and take a minute to subscribe, if you haven’t already) turned me on to the record you see before you today.

Dusty Springfield is thought of today as one of the premiere ‘blue-eyed’ soul singers of the classic era.

This is something that I grappled with quite a bit over the years.

The concept of ‘blue-eyed soul’ i.e. soul music made by white singers, is a very flexible one, often expanded to include one-off ‘soul’ records recorded by decidedly non-soul performers.

I have come to the point where I feel that the term ought to be disposed of, since there was a lot of ‘bleed’ if you will from both sides of the racial divide, with black, soul-identified singers recording pop music and a fair amount of white singers spending a lot of their time making excellent, soulful music.

Monday’s selection was by the mighty Ray Charles, one of the most stylistically flexible performers ever, who basically made whatever kind of music he felt like, each record succeeding by virtue of its excellence, categories be damned.

Dusty Springfield’s reputation as a soul singer is usually tied to her late-60s recordings, especially the 1969 ‘Dusty In Memphis’ LP which included her most enduring hit ‘Son of a Preacher Man’.

Oddly enough – and I was stunned by this – Dusty Springfield never hit the Billboard R&B charts!

A look at her chart success reveals that here in the US, until ‘Son Of a Preacher Man’, her hits were almost exclusively pop songs and big ballads.

My surprise had a lot to do with my perception of Springfield, and had me raising an eyebrow every time someone called her a ‘soul singer’ (many of these commenters never having heard of singers like Linda Lyndell, Lydia Pense, Bonnie Bramlett or Chris Clark)

It was only fairly recently – thanks to some direction by Gail – that I dug deeper into the Springfield canon and discovered a very prominent vein of R&B and soul material.

The first track I bring you today appeared on Springfield’s first US LP, 1964’s ‘Dusty’.

Though the bulk of the LP’s tracks (including excellent versions of ‘Can I Get a Witness’ and ‘Do Re Me (Forget About the Do and Think About Me)’) was recorded in the UK with Ivor Raymonde, it also includes material from a session recorded in New York.

What is especially interesting about this session – other than the fact that it produced the excellent ‘Live It Up’ – was that it was produced by Shelby Singleton and arranged by Ray Stevens.

While both of these guys were doing heavy work in the 60s, they were doing most of it in Nashville, and I don’t know what the impetus was for bringing them to New York to record with Springfield.

‘Live It Up’ is a stomper, with a blazing vocal by Springfield and some great, gospel-inflected backing vocals. The tune was released as a single but only had some small amount of regional chart success.

The second track I bring you today is an especially tasty one.

‘Go Ahead On’ was the B-side of a UK-only 45 (the A-side, ‘All I See Is You’ was a UK Top 10 hit in September of 1966). It was co-written by Springfield and none other than the great US-born but UK-based singer Madeline Bell! Bell, along with Kiki Dee, had spent time working as a backing vocalist for Springfield.

‘Go Ahead On’ is a record that – had it been released in the US – might have changed the direction of Dusty Springfield’s career a few years earlier. It is without any question a ‘soul’ record, with a Chicago/Curtis Mayfield edge to it and an outstanding lead vocal.

Aside from her biggest pop hits, her discography is filled with R&B/soul covers, including tunes by Lee Dorsey, Marvin Gaye, Margie Hendricks, the Sand Pebbles, Laura Lee, Garnet Mimms and Mitty Collier among others.

If – like me – you had your reservations about Dusty Springfield, especially in regard to her soulful side, the time is ripe for reappraisal.

I hope you dig the tunes, 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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, April 6, 2014 10:46 am

Spanish Picture Sleeve and 45

Listen/Download Ray Charles – I Don’t Need No Doctor

Greetings all

The new week is here, and as I am feeling (temporarily) invigorated, I thought it wise to whip something especially heavy on you all to make sure you all are as well.

Ray Charles needs no introduction, but for those of you that have been asleep at the wheel (or too young to know better), Brother Ray was one of the giants of 20th century music.

He was one of the (if not THE) most important transitional figures in the birth of soul music, building bridges from jazz, to R&B and on into soul (and beyond).

Ray Charles’s catalog was the famous Walt Whitman quote ‘I am large, I contain multitudes’ taken musical form.

While his almost half-century long discography touches on a wide variety of sounds, the effect is less like genre-hopping than it is the history of music being refracted through the prism of Ray Charles.

The tune I bring you today is what any sane observer would rate a stone classic, and is perhaps the finest, pure soul record that Brother Ray ever laid down.

This has a lot to do with the song’s authors, Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson and Jo Armstead, the trio that had penned his #1 R&B hit ‘Let’s Go Get Stoned’.

‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’, which grazed the R&B Top 40 in December of 1966 is as hard-hitting a number as he laid down in the 60s.

Opening with a wild bass note, and then exploding into a thundering piano/bass/drums trio, the song builds subtly, adding percussion, horns (dig the competing horn lines later on in the song) and finally the Raelettes until it’s a veritable juggernaut.

The centerpiece is – of course – the voice of Ray Charles, one of the great, elemental sounds ever associated with the making of music.

That ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ wasn’t a bigger hit kind of boggles the mind (at least my mind) today, but a look back at the charts from the end of 1966 proves once again that the mid-60s was a remarkable time for music. Charles was competing for airtime/chart space with Wilson Pickett, the Supremes, Bobby Darin, Question Mark and the Mysterians, The Four Tops, the Yardbirds, the Hollies and dozens of others*. Listening to airchecks from 1966 and 1967 is a remarkable experience, making me wish I’d been beyond old enough (I was four years old) to soak it all in.

That said, you and I can take all the time we want to dig it now.

See you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Himself included. Charles had no less than eight hits in the R&B Top 40 in 1966 and 1967!

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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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, April 3, 2014 12:28 pm

Euro P/S for ‘Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree’

Listen/Download George Tindley – Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree

Greetings all

The end of the week is rolling in, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, coming to you this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airti,e you can always stay abreast of the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove (all on original vinyl) by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

Today’s selection is one of those records that I scooped up in an early Philly soul dragnet.

If you take one look at the label for George Tindley’s ‘Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree’ it sends up a variety of Philadelphia-identifying red flags, most especially the names of Bobby Eli, Len Barry and John Madara.

When I first picked up the 45, I had no idea who George Tindley was.

As it turns out, he had a long and interesting performing history, which ended in 1970 with the release of this 45.

Tindley was a Philadelphia-area singer who got his start in the early 50s with the Dreams, a group that recorded several sides for the Savoy label in 1954.

He eventually joined Steve Gibson and the Red Caps, with whom he recorded a number of well-remembered doowop 45s in 1959 and 1960, before Tindley took over leadership duties (changing the group name to the Modern Red Caps), continuing on into 1966.

He eventually recorded three solo 45s for Wand in 1969 and 1970, all with Madara. One of them, ‘So Help Me Woman’ co-written by a young Daryl Hall.

His excellent cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ made it into the R&B Top 40 in  the summer of 1969, with this record just missing that mark  in the Spring of the following year.

‘Wan-Tu-Wah-Zuree’  – the title of which is a corruption of the Zulu phrase for ‘good people’ – sounds a lot like the kind of thing the Temptations were recording at Motown around the same time, but the backing track is 100% Philadelphia (listen for those Vince Montana vibes).

The record, which has a funky, upbeat rhythm with a pop edge, ought to have been a hit, but only managed minor regional airplay in and around Philadelphia.

It does not appear that Tindley worked as a performer after that, though he does have a number of production and arranging credits (C and the Shells, Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers, Evelyn Champagne King) in the 1970s.

I have seen a reference that indicates that Tindley passed away in the 1990s, but aside from that the trail goes cold.

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.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.