Chris Bartley - The Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven

Chris Bartley

“Listen - Chris Bartley - The Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven - MP3″

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here and my poor, crater-marked brain is good and fried.
Pollen is kicking my ass like I owe it money.
I’ve been busy digi-ma-tizing, and subsequently mixing tracks for a couple of guest mixes that I was invited to do. The first, for the Right Side of Funky blog will be dropping on Monday. The second will be appearing later this month at my man DJ Prestige’s Fleamarket Funk blog.
All excuses aside, I’m physically (and mentally) tired, so I need to close out the week with one of my favorite slices of soothing, sweet soul.
I can’t remember when I first heard Chris Bartley’s ‘Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven’, but I suspect that it was sometime in the last ten years in the early stages of my Philly soul obsession.
This is not to suggest that Bartley was from Philly (he hailed from New York City), but he did record for the Cameo-Parkway subsidiary Vando, which is why I picked up the record in the first place. I had never heard of Bartley before, and as this was in the rustic days when I ventured out into the field unarmed (i.e. no portable), I took a chance.
Good thing I did, because when I finally dropped the needle onto the record it was immediately obvious that my two dollars* had been (very) well spent.
The first thing that hit me about ‘The Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven’ – aside from Bartley’s smooth voice- was the melody topped off by the wonderful hook that comes as the verse runs up against the chorus. Thanks for that go to the mighty Van McCoy, who wrote and produced the record in 1967. Interestingly enough, there’s a cool Hammond instrumental of the tune, on Truman Thomas’ Veep LP. I’ll have to post it here in the future.
McCoy discovered Bartley, who had been singing as part of group that started as the Soul Inspirations and eventually became the Mindbenders. Working with McCoy, Bartley recorded five singles and an LP for McCoy’s Vando label. He left Vando for Buddah in 1968, and recorded his last 45 for Musicor in 1971. ‘The Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven’ hit the R&B Top 10 and the Pop Top 40 in 1967.
Bartley eventually surfaced in a later version of the Ad-Libs, re-recording ‘The Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven’ in the 80’s.
I hope you dig the tune, and make sure you head over to the Right Side of Funky on Monday for that new mix.
Peace
Larry

*I only remember the price because I picked up the 45 in a store that marked the prices of all their old 45s in the run out grooves with grease pencil.

PSS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool Buffalo Springfield cover.

Funky16Corners Radio v.48 - I Got Ants In My Pants (And I Need to Dance)

Go Godfather!

Funky16Corners Radio v.48 - I Got Ants In My Pants (And I Need To Dance)

Playlist

Jackie Wilson – Why Don’t You Do Your Thing (Brunswick)
American Breed – Short Skirts (Acta)
Joe Tex Band – Chocolate Cherries (Dial)
James Brown – I Got Ants In My Pants and I Need To Dance (Polydor)
Sweet Cherries – Don’t Give It Away (T Neck)
Johnny Taylor – Hijackin’ Love (Stax)
Dickie Goodman – Ruthie’s Theme (Rainy Wednesday)
Dee Felice Trio – There Was a Time (King)
Johnny Griffiths – I Want Some Satisfaction (Triple B)
Four Larks – Can I Have Another Helping Please (Tower)
Ambers – Soul In Room #401 (Jean)
Ross Carnegie – The Kid (El Con)
Oliver Sain – London Express (Abet)
Fantoms – Junk (Power Funksion)
Joe Hicks – Home Sweet Home (Scepter)
Afro American Ensemble – Free The Black Man’s Chains (GSF)

 

Listen/ Download 53MB Mixed MP3

Listen/ Download 43MB ZIP FILE

Greetings all.
Here’s hoping that the beginning of another week finds you all well and ready to download and absorb some quality funk.
It’s been a little while since the last “straight funk” mix, and since my vinyl excavations of the last few months have turned up some gems (not to mention the existing stockpile which must be mined every once in a while) I decided that the time was right to whip a little of the funky stuff your way.
I’ve been – and will continue to be – busy, having been invited to concoct a couple of guest mixes as well as working on at least three mixes to be featured herein, including a new (and long overdue) soul ballads feature, and a Latin soul feature (as well as a couple of others that are still in the theoretical stages).
I just finished one of the aforementioned guest mixes for the one-year anniversary of my man DJ Prestige’s Fleamarket Funk blog. That ought to be dropping in a few weeks – he’s got some heavy guests lined up – and I think you’ll dig it.
That said, this mix is composed entirely of new(er) acquisitions, all having entered my crates since last November, some as recently as two weeks ago. Among that lot are a couple of long-time want list items, as well as a grip of things that are – at least for me – newly discovered/uncovered. The great thing is – and here’s a tip for the young bucks out there – no matter how long you’ve been in the game, no matter how deep your crates, no matter how sharp your focus, there is always (assuming you keep an open mind) something cool out there that you haven’t heard yet.
That said, things get started with something from the funkier side of Jackie Wilson. I grabbed the album from whence this track originates, so that I might have Jackie’s smoking version of ‘Light My Fire’ (which will of course be posted in short order). Naturally, as soon as I got the record home I let the needle wander therein so that I might deduce whether or not there was in fact gold in them thar hills, and, of course, there was. ‘Why Don’t You Do Your Thing’ sees Mr. Wilson laying down the gauntlet to the dancers in the room. It’s solid.
We follow that with another hot little thing from the streets of Chitown, a weird LP track from the American Breed. You might hear that name and think ‘Bend Me Shape Me’, but I ask you to keep in mind that some of these cats went on to form Rufus, and it is that fact that you should keep in mind when listening to a tasty bit of soul fuzz entitled ‘ Short Skirts’.
Thanks go out to my man DJ Bluewater, out of whose sale box came this tune by the Joe Tex Band. ‘Chocolate Cherries’ is a hard charging, horn led soul stirrer with some tasty organ toward the end.
Now, when I tell you that I slept on ‘I Got Ants In My Pants’ by the Godfather himself until I heard it on satellite radio, do not think poorly of me. I have unerring faith in the good works of Mr. James Brown, but I flipped past this record countless times because, in addition to having a ridiculous title (which of course I borrowed for this mix), but because it hailed from what I like to think of as the twilight of the funk, i.e. the tail end of Mr. Brown’s funky years. I’m not ashamed to admit I made a mistake, which was remedied, a week after I finally heard the song for the first time at the cost of exactly one dollar, courtesy of a box of busted looking 45s in Asbury Park.
Speaking of Asbury Park, I have my Asbury Park 45 Sessions partner DJ Prestige to thank for turning me on to the break-laden goodness of the Sweet Cherries. ‘Don’t Give It Away’ is of course a cover of the Isley Brothers tune, with the addition of a long break that sounds like the rest of the band needed to go out for a cup of coffee, so they gave the drummer some.
Thanks again to DJ Bluewater for selling me Johnny Taylor’s funky and rough ‘Hijackin’ Love’.
The old school record nerds in the room may recognize the name Dickie Goodman as the man who pioneered the ‘break in’ style of novelty records in the early 60’s. The funk heads may already be hip to the fact that some of his later novelty 45s happen to carry on their b-sides funk instrumentals, which, though credited to Mr. Goodman in all likelihood have nothing to do with him. ‘Ruthie’s Theme’ is one of them.
One of the aforementioned long-time wants was the Dee Felice Trio’s take on the master’s ‘There Was a Time’. The more I dig the more I find myself appreciating funky piano records (where I find them), and this is a very solid example. Keep your ears peeled for more stuff like this in future mixes.
I know next to nothing about keyboard man Johnny Griffiths, other than the fact that he was probably from the Motor City, and that the extra clavinet-ty ‘I Want Some Satisfaction’ appeared on the flip side of his instrumental version of Billy Sha Rae’s ‘Do It’ (which you will hear in this space in the coming weeks).
The Four Larks are best known for their Northern Soul classic ‘Grooving at the Go Go’ but I’m here to tell you (and illustrate musically) that you have to check out their later 45s on Tower for some funky goodness. ‘Can I Have Another Helping Please’ is such a record.
It was while out digging with DJ Prestige that he passed me a copy of ‘Soul In Room #401’ by the Ambers. This is a NJ based side, and instrumental b-side of a tune by the Northern Soul faves the Ambers. The fact that the name Lou Toby is on the label (as in “…and His Heavies”) suggests to me that he is probably responsible for the funky disco of ‘Soul In Room #401’.
I have yet to score myself a copy of Ross Carnegie’s ‘Cool Dad’, but I won’t complain about the very cool ‘The Kid’, also on the El-Con label. Carnegie is a NY based Hammond master emeritus who laid down some very heavy (and collectable) 45s, and also happened – for a time – to play cocktail piano in a classy NY area department store.
St. Louis-based Oliver Sain had a long, productive career making R&B, soul, funk and disco records from the 50’s to the 70’s. ‘London Express’ is from that period in the early 70’s when Mr. Sain and his sax-o-ma-phone were in transition from funk into disco.
The Fantoms were one of the tighter funk bands to come out of New Orleans in the 60’s and 70’s. They created the positively insane ‘Mau Mau’ (see the Funky16Corners Podcast Archive) and while ‘Junk’ takes the pace down a notch or two, it’s still real funky with some tasty flute and crazy fuzz guitar.
Joe Hick’s ‘Home Sweet Home’ is one of those records that I’d heard about for years but it was just one of those records that never crossed my path. Known to me as a Sly Stone-related side, I hadn’t even heard it until I spotted in a recent auction, heard the sound clip and knew I had to make it mine. This is some of that funky ass funkity funk I go on about now and again. Hicks – who was also the lead vocalist on ‘Life and Death in G&A’ by Abaco Dream (yet another Sly side) lets it rip over a very heavy horn section and some tight drums. I dig it much.
Things roll to a close with an interesting side that I only knew as a rumor for years. Since back in the day I’ve been picking up sides by a Philly mystery band called the Broad Street Gang, with sides on at least three different labels. One of those 45s featured a tune called ‘Free the Black Man’s Chain’, as well as a reference to it having come from a show of some kind. It was only recently that I discovered that there was – if not a show – a soundtrack to a show by a group called the Afro American Ensemble which featured not only ‘Free the Black Man’s Chains’ but another version of a tune released by the Broad Street Gang, ‘Fair Skin Man’. The versions of ‘Free the Black Man’s Chains’ are different, and the one I bring you here is from the LP. I’ll have to do a Broad Street Gang feature here in the future.
That all said, I hope you dig the mix, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace
Larry

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool cover of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’

Different Strokes - Sing a Simple Song

So who is this anyway??

“Listen - Different Strokes - Sing a Simple Song - MP3″

Greetings all.

This post ought to serve as a signal that I’ve survived yet another week of indentured servitude, slaving over a steaming keyboard for “the man” (whoever he is…).
I leave you this week with a record that is pretty much a complete mystery.
My man Haim – making yet another appearance – had this hot little biscuit on his sale list a while back, and me, a sucker for almost any version of ‘Sing a Simple Song’, I listened to the soundfile and knew at once that I had to have it.
Good thing too because when it fell through the mail slot and onto the turntable I knew that I had in fact made a wise investment.
Once I started looking for information I hit the proverbial brick wall, cold, hard and unforgiving. Aside from the fact that this record came out in 1969, adjacent in the Okeh discography to sides by Little Richard and Major Harris, I have been able to discover nothing about Different Strokes.

Nada…
Bupkis….
Zippity – freakin’-doo-dah….

The group name, obviously meant to meant to emphasize the already obvious Sly & the Family Stone vibe, suggests to me that this was merely an attempt to cash in on their fame. Good cash-in, though.
That said, the music contained within the grooves is a delight, with the group – whoever they may be, and my suspicion in these cases is always to assume that a group like this is a conglomeration of studio heads – taking a slightly slower, somewhat laid back (yet not unfunky) approach to the Sly classic.
As the beret wearing cats of yore were wont to say, I dig it the most.
I hope you do too.
Have a most excellent weekend and I’ll be back on Monday to whip a hot little funk mix on y’all.
Peace
Larry
Peace
Larry

PS Someone ought to sample this bad boy….

PSS Head over to Iron Leg for a new edition of the Iron Leg Digital Trip Podcast.

J.C. Heard - J.C.’s Grit Gitter

J.C. Heard (left) with his trio

“Listen - J.C. Heard - J.C.’s Grit Gitter - MP3″

Greetings all.

Happy Wednesday.
The tune I bring you today is a great example of a puzzle piece that once fitted into the larger picture, instead of bringing things into focus, serves only to make things more complicated.
The story begins a number of years ago when I picked up a 45 on the storied Harrisburg, PA soul label Soulville. The record in question, ‘Grit Gitter’ by a cat named Cha Cha Hogan was a very cool bit of piano funk (which can be heard in Funky16Corners Radio v.2 - Sookie). If memory serves I found my way to ‘Grit Gitter’ via the expert counsel of my good friend Haim, a man whose sage counsel has led to to many a great record.
I really dug the side but for a while was unable to discover anything about Hogan. Shortly after scoring the 45 I found out that ‘Grit Gitter’, while released on Soulville was not in fact a Harrisburg-based side, having originated elsewhere (though I did not know where).
I posted the 45 on what was then the Funky16Corners web zine, and after a few months I got an e-mail from one of Cha Cha Hogan’s children indicating that he had been based in Detroit when ‘Grit Gitter’ was recorded and later went on to play in Las Vegas. This was an intriguing development, but since I was unable to locate any other info, I was at yet another dead end.
Then, proving once again that this is a truly weird world we live in, I’m lounging around one night, channel surfing and I catch the end of an episode of ‘Sanford and Son’ and who’s name should appear in the credits as a guest star?
Cha Cha Hogan.
Huh?
Off I go to IMDB and discover that Mr. Hogan’s acting resume had exactly two entries, both being episodes of ‘Sanford and Son’, once as ‘old man’ and another time as ‘heckler’*. Intriguing to be sure, but this discovery did nothing to flesh out the story.
Since that day the only other clue I’ve discovered to the Cha Cha Hogan puzzle is that he once recorded a comedy album for the Laff label, home to a wide variety of ‘adult’ comedy albums, many featuring ‘Chittlin Circuit’ talents like Jimmy Lynch, Mantan Moreland and – bringing the ‘Sanford and Son’ connection full circle, Redd Foxx and LaWanda Page.
So, while my fevered brain is littered with Cha Cha Hogan trivia, I can’t tell you a whole lot about him.
Flash forward to earlier this year, and I’m patrolling the interwebs in my pith helmet and jodhpurs (look it up) in search of big game, and I happen upon a record with the very interesting title of ‘J.C.’s Grit Gitter’ on the Detroit label Sir-Rah. As luck would have it, there was a sound file on the auction which revealed that ‘J.C.’s Grit Gitter’ by J.C. Heard was – if not the same recording – the same song as the record by Cha Cha Hogan. A la Captain Spaulding I immediately loaded my elephant gun and whipped some lucre in the direction of the 45 and eventually (without too much of a struggle) bagged the beast and brought it home to stuff and hang in my trophy room.
A few weeks pass and eventually my friendly mail carrier drops the record through yon mail slot, after which I promptly drop it on the turntable to discover that ‘J.C.’s Grit Gitter’ did in fact employ the same backing track as the Hogan 45, adding a vocal to the mix.
As I said before, the addition of the J.C. Heard record didn’t do anything to solve this particular puzzle. All the info on the label did was confirm what I already knew, that being that ‘Grit Gitter’ was most definitely a Detroit record, bearing the name of Funk Brother Jack Ashford in the writing credits (with a few other names included on the two 45s, with Ashford’s being the only common link).
Things got even more interesting when I started looking for information on J.C. Heard.
When I got the record I thought that the name rang a bell, but I couldn’t remember why. Then I started to tip-toe through Google and discovered why.
J.C. (James Charles) Heard was one of the great journeyman jazz drummers of the 40’s and 50’s having played and recorded with Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Cab Calloway and many, many others during his long career. He moved to Japan in the mid-50’s where he spent some time working as a singer and drummer, eventually moving back to the US by the end of the decade.
By the mid 60’s J.C. Heard relocated to Detroit where he spent the rest of his life.
How J.C. Heard ended up doing the vocals (and maybe the drums) on ‘J.C.’s Grit Gitter’ is a complete mystery. I also have no idea which record – Heard’s or Hogan’s came first – and if Hogan was indeed the pianist on the Heard date (though since the backing tracks are the same I’ll go ahead and make the assumption that he was).
J.C. Heard - who had to be close to 50 when the record was made - was by no means the first musician of his generation to work the soulful side of the street, with contemporaries like Lionel Hampton, Bill Doggett and Louis Jordan all recording around the same time.
As far as I can tell he didn’t do anything else along the lines of ‘J.C.’s Grit Gitter’ and if anyone knows different (or has anything else to add) I’d love to hear from you. J.C. Heard passed away in 1988.
I hope you dig the tune.
Peace
Larry

*Interestingly enough one of the episodes with Hogan also features a cameo by Timmie Rogers, aka Clark Dark, aka Super Soul Brother

PSS Head over to Iron Leg for a new edition of the Iron Leg Digital Trip Podcast.

Soul Brothers Six - Some Kind of Wonderful

Soul Brothers Six

“Listen - Soul Brothers Six - Some Kind of Wonderful - MP3″

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end (doesn’t that sound like something you’d hear in a proctologist’s office?).
I’ve managed to snatch a pretty nice weekend from the jaws of a crappy week, taking a nice day trip with the fam, getting in some reading and attempting some sorely needed relaxation.
While taking a leisurely stroll through my to-be-blogged folder I grabbed a certifiable classic. ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ by the Soul Brothers Six is a record that I chased for a long time, resisting prohibitive prices patiently until a copy came along I was willing to pay for.
I’m not going to lie to you and suggest that I’ve been on the SB6 tip from day one.
My name is Larry and I’m a child of the 70’s…
As a result, it should be clear to almost anyone that the first time I heard ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ it was hurtling out of the grooves on a Grand Funk Railroad album.
That’s right, Grand Funk Railroad.
To quote the esteemed Homer J. Simpson:

“Nobody knows the band Grand Funk? The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner? The bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher? The competent drum work of Don Brewer? Oh, man!”

That’s right. Back in the day, when dinosaurs like myself roamed the earth clad in denim and flannel (both stained liberally with beer, pockets filled with what my pals and I used to refer to as “shake”), if you weren’t shaking your long greasy hair to Grand Funk, you were probably already passed out on the basement floor, with the tonearm of your stereo skipping over and over again in the runout groove.
And you know what? I STILL like Grand Funk.
There’s definitely something to be said for a certain flavour of Michigan hard rock, offered up by the law firm of Farner, Brewer & Schacher, as well as the MC5, SRC, Up, Frost, and the Rationals that found its roots growing in a very soulful variety of soil. This is not to say that any of these bands was a “soul” band, but that there was most definitely a soulful vein running through the records they made and the performances they let loose on stage. If you never heard the soul revival vibe on the MC5’s ‘Kick Out The Jams’ album, you need to go back and have yourself another listen.
I have no idea where Grand Funk picked up ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ – though it was a minor hit in 1967 and I can definitely imagine it being played in Detroit. No matter, their version is an ass-kicker of the first order.
The Soul Brothers Six, led by John Ellison got their start in Rochester, NY where they recorded their first (now very rare and costly) 45 for the Fine label (also home to some badass garage punk). They eventually relocated to Philadelphia where they were signed to Atlantic and recorded their best stuff.
The OG of ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ is – if you grew up jamming to the Grand Funk version – a record that takes some getting used to. The locomotive-like slam of the drums and bass is instead a rollicking, soul party in the amen corner vibe. I love the looseness of the guitar and the vocals, led by Ellison are incredible. The SB6 OG sounds as if someone was at bar and just happened to turn on the tape recorder as the band took the stage, and the refrains of ‘Can I get a witness?’, in which the boundaries between gospel and soul were never thinner (or harder to hear) are simply remarkable.
I said before that it took a period of assimilation for me to “get” the version of the song by the Soul Brothers Six, but I have to say that it wasn’t long before it displaced the Grand Funk cover (which I’ve loved for 30 some years) and became my go-to take on the tune.
Following a few, less successful follow-up singles for Atlantic (which are all worth grabbing), the Soul Brothers Six ended up recording some sides for Phil L.A. of Soul, where not long after their record of ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ hit the charts, a cover was released by the Fantastic Johnny C.
John Ellison still performs today.
See you later in the week.
Peace
Larry

PSS Head over to Iron Leg for a new edition of the Iron Leg Digital Trip Podcast.

Little Royal and the Swingmasters - Razor Blade

Little Royal

“Listen - Razor Blade MP3″

Greetings all.

Allow me to depart from my prepared remarks for a moment as I spin a tale of woe, in which my job –a generally tolerable affair made more so by a cool boss – turned yesterday into an experience not unlike being rolled down (apologies to Eddie Cochran) 20 flights of stairs in a garbage can.
Sweet weeping jeebus what a day I had.
My head is still spinning.
As a result, I don’t have a whole lot to say in this post.
That’s OK though, since the tune I bring to you to close out the week is a bit of what I like to call funky ass funkity funk, brought to you courtesy of Little Royal and the Swingmasters.
The tune I bring you today is probably - at least amongst the funky cognoscenti - their best known track, the instrument powerhouse ‘Razor Blade’.
Little Royal – know to his mama as Royal Torrance – recorded for a number of labels in the 60’s and 70’s, creating his best known/remembered for the Tri-Us subsidiary of King records.
The King association is apt because the artist that ought to come to mind upon hearing much of Little Royal’s material is none other than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.
‘Razor Blade’ is a very solid bit of meat and potatoes funk 45-ism, with a rubbery pimp-walk of a guitar line laid over a snappy 4/4 drum beat (with a break, of course…) and a sharp horn chart. Things aren’t too JBs-y, working – at least in my opinion – a more Kool and the Gang-y side of the street. Of course Little Royal himself doesn’t do much (if anything) here, but I like to think of jiving around on the side of the stage while mopping his brown and sipping a cold beverage.
That said, dig the sounds, have a groovy weekend and I’ll be back on Monday.
Peace
Larry

PS The esteemed Stepfather of Soul ran a piece on this track a few years back in which he made not of the fact that the ‘Razor Blade’ was re-used as the instrumental backing for the tune ‘Living In Depression’ by Sebastian.

PSS Head over to Iron Leg for some tasty 60’s pop.

Funky16Corners Radio v.47 - Cosmic Sea

To infinity, and beyond!

Funky16Corners Radio v.47 - Cosmic Sea

Playlist

Mystic Moods – Cosmic Sea (WB)
Miles Davis – Spanish Key (45 Edit) (Columbia)
Jackson 5 – I’ll Bet You (Motown)
Miles Davis – Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (45 Edit) (Columbia)
Jose Feliciano – Light My Fire (RCA)
Herbie Mann – If I Were a Carpenter (Atlantic)
BB King – Ghetto Woman (ABC)
Herbie Hancock – Tell Me a Bedtime Story (WB)
Ramsey Lewis – Slipping Into Darkness (CBS)
Brother Jack McDuff – Flat Backin’ (Blue Note)
Freddie McCoy – Salem Soul Song (Prestige)
Johnny Hammond – Rock Steady (Kudu)
Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations (Cadet)

Listen/ Download 72MB Mixed MP3

Listen/ Download 56MB ZIP FILE

Greetings all.
I hope the new week finds you all well.
I’m posting this a little bit early today becausemy allergy related headaches are still kicking my ass (head, whatever) and I expended much of my available energy digging at the local record fair, stockpiling a bunch of funk and soul for here and garage and psyche for Iron Leg. I’ll be digi-ma-tizing it all soon, so there’ll be a lot to look forward to.
Today I bring you a new edition of the Funky16Corners Radio podcast, number 47 to be exact; ‘Cosmic Sea’.
Like some of the previous mixes I’ve laid on you, this was less a pre-planned “theme” effort than the product of inspirado crossed with several fairly random piles of records (45s and LPs). This is not to say that once things got going I didn’t hit the crates looking for a specific side to throw into the pot, but that what came out at the end was somewhat different than what I started with.
This has a lot to do with a couple of recent acquisitions. The landscape of my record room is a cluttered maelstrom of vinyl that no one – not even myself – understands completely. On the desk adjacent to my turntable and computer – wherein all the digi-ma-tization takes place – there are several rotating stacks of wax; a mixture of things that I’ve put aside for future use (either individually or as part of a mix), newly dug records and – of course – lots of stuff I haven’t gotten around to putting away yet.
When I hit the Asbury Lanes record swap a few weeks ago I picked up copies of a couple of things that I’d been looking for on vinyl (the Jackson Five, Ramsey Lewis and Johnny Hammond LPs especially). These got me in the mood to get a mix together, thus the internal formulation began. Then, a few days later the mailman brought me my shiny, minty copy of ‘The Cosmic Sea’ by the Mystic Moods and things really got rolling.
I decided then that I was going to go for something that started with a bang but quickly relocated to downtempo territory, with an emphasis on the groove. A few hours later and I had all of the raw material for this particular mix burned to disc, and set it next to the ‘podcast lab’ (i.e. the laptop in the living room) for use the following night.
When I began assembling the mix a few of the tracks I had recorded ended up on the scrap heap (at least temporarily) and I grabbed a couple of things from the hard drive.
When the mix was finished I was definitely pleased (as I hope you will be as well) and have been listening to the mix repeatedly for the last week and a half (I like to stagger the mixes on my two blogs, which is why it hasn’t been posted sooner).
Things get rolling – after a sound bite by the late great Carl Sagan – with the aforementioned Mystic Moods 45. I have to admit that I was largely ignorant of this record until recently. I had certainly heard of it, but it wasn’t until my man DJ Prestige let it rip during his last Asbury Park 45 Sessions set that I knew I had to have it. Fortunately for me a copy came up for bid on E-Bay shortly after that and I bagged it. The Mystic Moods made a bunch of easy/mood LPs during the 60’s and 70’s. Knowing that, the sounds on ‘Cosmic Sea’ are a solid kick in the head, sounding as if DJ Shadow hopped in the Waybac Machine and whipped a little funky turntable action on the squares. This is a stone killer, with the funky breaks, the clavinet and the soulful wailing in the background (not to mention a synth sound that would be resurrected by no less than Rush a decade later).
Things get a little darker with the first of two Miles Davis 45 edits from the Bitches Brew LP. I found this record years ago and have wanted to use it on the blog for a while. The first tune, ‘Spanish Key’ is the more offbeat of the two, and a testament to the editing abilities of Teo Macero. You have to admire the chutzpah of a man who could wade into the mountain of tape that became ‘Bitches Brew’ and squeeze two 45 sides – less than three minutes apiece – out of it.
Emerging from the Miles trumpet comes an unusual side by the Jackson Five. One of the many versions of the Funkadelic classic ‘I’ll Bet You’ (some - like Theresa Lindsey and Billy Butler -  recorded before Funkadelic), the Jacksons version may not be quite as freaky as Mr. Clinton and his pals, but it’s WAY freaky for little Michael and his brothers, with the fuzz guitar, the moaning and the crazy screams.
We segue back into the other side of the Miles 45, ‘Miles Runs the Voodoo Down’ which is a touch more peaceful, showing (distant) traces of his earlier electric work on ‘In a Silent Way’.
Getting mellower yet, Miles gives way to one of my favorite records of the 1960’s, Jose Feliciano’s cover of the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’. Feliciano’s vocal is nothing if not soulful and the arrangement, with his acoustic guitar balanced/blended with the string section is a little bit of magic.
Bare-chested flute wrangler Herbie Mann was a seriously prolific artist during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Say what you will about jazzers going pop, but I have a grip of Herbie’s LPs and they all have something very groovy to recommend them. His subdued 1968 take on Tim Hardin’s standard ‘If I Were a Carpenter’ opens with a great, throbbing bass line by Miroslav Vitous and runs on with lots of flute and the ringing vibes of Roy Ayers.
Despite the fact that B.B. King’s 1971 ‘Ghetto Woman’ was recorded in the UK with an all-star group of rock performers, the Dave Clark who co-wrote the tune is not THAT Dave Clark. Nonetheless, ‘Ghetto Woman’ is a wonderfully dark and moody record with King’s classy guitar soloing under a periodically heavy (dig that echoed string bass) string section.
‘Tell me a Bedtime Story’ is another track from Herbie Hancock’s 1968 ‘Fat Albert Rotunda’ LP. Whereas the track I used in the last mix was on the funky side, ‘Tell Me..’ sees Herbie working his Rhodes magic in a mellow groove alongside a great horn section.
Yet another Asbury Lanes find, Ramsey Lewis’ version of War’s ‘Slipping Into Darkness’ is a fantastic, downtempo electric piano feature with bass by Cleveland Eaton and drums by Morris Jennings Jr. Ramsey really stretches it out here for a smoky, late night feel. It’s a funky funk, but a slow funky funk, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
How does one follow a long, groovy track by one of the keyboard masters of the jazz age? How about an even longer track by another master? ‘Flat Backin’ (clocking in at over 10 minutes) is another track from Brother Jack McDuff’s amazing 1969 ‘Moon Rappin’ LP, one of the most innovatively played and arranged organ dates in the history of the Blue Note label (or any label for that matter). Though much of the album has a free-form (but never “out”) feel, you just have to sit back and marvel as Brother Jack and his band (including drummer Joe Dukes) slip in and out of the funk. Sit back, relax and wait for a very tasty break in this one.
Freddie McCoy made some wonderful albums for the Prestige label in the 60’s. They’re hard to come by, so I grab them wherever I can. ‘Salem Soul Song’ appears on the ‘Soul Yogi’ LP, alongside his stellar cover of the Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’.
Johnny Hammond Smith’s 1971 cover of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Rock Steady’ is, like the Ramsey Lewis track earlier on a great example of slow funky grooves, with an excellent break by none other than Bernard Purdie. There’s a lot to recommend on this LP, maybe the finest on the Kudu label.
As I mentioned before, I pulled a track off of the hard drive, and Dorothy Ashby’s ‘Soul Vibrations’ is it. I previously included it as part of a guest mix I did for the Souled On blog, but when I was thinking of what tune to finish up this podcast with it came to mind immediately. Ashby’s Richard Evans-produced Cadet records are all wonderful, but ‘Soul Vibrations’ is positively sublime, mixing wild elements like theremin with solid beats and - of course – her harp. It’s all worth hanging in for the last ten seconds of the record which are absolute perfection.
That said, I hope you dig the mix.
I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace
Larry

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some local 60’s Punk.

Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers - If You Love Her

Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers (Tommy Chong at right)

“Listen - If You Love Her - MP3″

Greetings all.

We have returned, following a long, long, long-assed day on Wednesday when we had to take my youngest son (leaving the house at 5AM) to have a surgical procedure on his ears. Short story being, some little kids are prone to repeated, painful ear infections which sometimes have to be treated by placing drains in the ears to relieve pressure therein. The end result is that the ear infections go away, the suffering is alleviated and the need to treat the infections over and over again with antibiotics is ended.
Things went very well with the little guy (despite having undergone general anaesthesia, which was the terrifying part for my wife and I) back to his old self by the afternoon. It was a hell of a way to spend the day, but if you have kids you’ll know the feeling.
That said, I’ve been hanging onto this track for a while, having digi-ma-tized it a few months back, simply waiting for inspirado to strike and push me to the keyboard. This should not be an indicator that the track is in any way lacking, because is it a fine bit of late 60’s soul, with an interesting story attached, but sometimes I just take a look at the ‘to be blogged’ folder and something just grabs me a little harder than something else.
Anyway….
As a child of the 70’s, former consumer of magical herbal refreshment and thus a longtime Cheech and Chong fan, I knew of Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers for many years before I heard a single note of their music.
Why do I mention these two seemingly disparate facts? Because they are in fact not disparate at all, with the legendary Mr. Tommy Chong having been a member of both the comedy team and the soul band.
Chong,a native of British Columbia hooked up with well-traveled soul journeyman Bobby Taylor in the early 60’s. Taylor and Chong soon joined forces in the band Little Daddy & the Bachelors, and as operators of a club in Vancouver, BC.
Legend has it that sometime in the mid-60’s members of the Supremes heard the band while passing through British Columbia and as a result they got signed to Motown. Their name changed to Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, the band recorded three singles and an LP for the label’s Gordy subsidiary. The first of those 45s, ‘Does Your Mama Know About Me’ was a Top 40 hit in 1968.
Today’s selection was the flip side of their second 45 (‘I Am Your Man’ which was in the high end of the Top 100), and is in my opinion the finest thing they ever did.
‘If You Love Her’ is a fantastic, upbeat slice of sweet soul with a propulsive beat, some wailing organ and guitar (courtesy of Mr. Chong) and a great vocal by Taylor.
I’m not familiar with the band’s recording history (as in where and with whom) but while there are certainly Motown touches to the arrangement (especially the background vocals) the Vancouvers really had a sound of their own.
Interestingly enough, Taylor is credited with having brought the Jackson Five (an opening act for the Vancouvers) to the attention of Motown. Taylor and the band also did time as the backing group for none other than Chris Clark (‘Love’s Gone Bad’).
Taylor went on to record a number of 45s and an LP for Motown and its VIP subsidiary. After leaving Motown Taylor recorded singles for a few different labels into the mid-70’s, with his last single being a duet with Thom Bell on Philadelphia International.
Tommy Chong – of course – went on to fame and fortune as one half of Cheech and Chong, later becoming a martyr in the insane, Republican “drug war”, spending time in federal prison for selling bongs. If you get a chance (and are so inclined) check out his memoir of that period, ‘The I Chong’ which is a pretty good read.
That said, I’ll be back on Monday with a very interesting edition of the Funky16Corners Radio podcast. I’ll be digging on Sunday with my new Numark portable (my trusty Columbia GP3 having gone to portable turntable heaven), so I’m sure there will be more solid sounds coming.
Have a great weekend.
Peace
Larry

PS Check out Iron Leg for a new UK Psyche podcast!

PSS If you’re in the area tonight (Friday 4/18 ) and dig the sounds of old school hip hop fall by the World Famous Asbury Lanes for the latest installment of the Fourth and Kingsley Soul Club where your host DJ Prestige and his guest (and a fine gentleman) DJ Jack the Ripper will be rolling the wheels of steel. Kangols optional.

PSSS Tomorrow (Sat 4/19) is Record Store Day, in which the few surviving independent record stores left walking the earth celebrate their tenuous grasp on life. You already know that I think it’s a more than worthy cause. Folow the link above for more info.

San Remo Golden Strings - I’m Satisfied

“Listen - I’m Satisfied - MP3″

Greetings all.

I’m going to make this one especially brief because right now I have a blazing headache (THE POLLEN?!?!?) and the littlest of the Funky16Corners crew has to go in the (very early) AM for a surgical procedure, so everyone has to get their asses in their bunks early tonight.
Today’s selection is one of those records I picked up very cheaply some time ago, and waited a long time before I gave it a serious listen. I first heard of the San Remo Golden Strings at about the same time I encountered the world of Northern Soul.
The “group” (I will refer you to a series of San Remo-related posts by the esteemed Red Kelly at his B-Side blog for an in depth approach to the story, make sure to follow the “continued” links at the end of the posts), was basically an imaginary construct (created under the aegis of Detroit label owner Ed Wingate) that included in it’s ranks various and sundry moonlighting Funk Brothers, thus that pure, soulful Detroit sound coming out of the grooves.
There were a series of 45’s and an LP on Ric-Tic, a reissue of the Ric-Tic LP on Motown (the label that Wingate sold his entire operation to in 1967) and a second LP on that label as well.
Don’t let the name fool you, as ‘I’m Satisfied’ isn’t any more ‘string-y’ than your run of the mill, high class Northern Soul 45, and it packs a solid beat, memorable melody and is enough of a mover for the dancers in the crowd.
It’s a great record, which if you’re anything like me you’ll find yourself giving repeat plays.
I hope you dig it, and if all is well I’ll be back on Friday.
Peace
Larry

PS Check out Iron Leg for a new UK Psyche podcast!

Ernie K. Doe - Gotta Pack My Bag

The Mighty Ernie K. Doe

“Listen - Gotta Pack My Bag - MP3″

Greetings all.

I hope the beginning of the week finds you well, loins girded against the woes of working for a living (assuming that you – like myself – still have to do so), assured that one need only hang in for another five days for that carrot at the end of life’s stick, i.e. the weekend.
Today’s selection is just a taste of the kind of music one might want to program for use during the weekend when ingestion of cold beverages – alcoholic or non – and hot music combine to loosen, massage and recharge the soul.
Surely you’ve all heard of Ernie K. Doe?
One of things we blogger types do, assuming that we have an ego (and we all do) is track the statistics, i.e. how many of you stop by to check things out, what it is you’re checking out and when you’re doing it. The good folks here at WordPress have always provided a very nice built-in stats program, which they recently revamped (again). One of the new items on the dashboard is a small listing of the three most traveled posts in the history of the blog.
So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been acclimating myself to the new set of stats, and learning to navigate the dashboard, so it was a little while before I took notice of this particular bit of numbers crunching. When I did my eyes almost rolled back into my head.
The Funky16Corners blog gets a fair amount of traffic. Not as much as some, but still a lot more that I ever imagined when I started things up almost four years ago. Every once in a while the incoming stats see a spike, usually the result of an outside link of some kind on a message board, or on some site better traveled than my own.
A while back I posted a fantastic, funky side by Ernie K. Doe. That tune ‘Here Come the Girls’ was a long time fave that I had been trying to snag (in the OG form, I’d had it on a comp) for some time. When I finally bagged a copy of the album on which it originated, 1970’s ‘Ernie K. Doe’ I was pleased to find that it was hardly the only great song on the record, which of course should have come as no surprise since it was a collaboration between Ernie and the mighty Allen Toussaint.
Anyway…I posted the track, left it up for a while, and then killed the link.
Almost a year later I got a couple of requests to repost the track, and as the file was still on the server, I repaired the link and assumed that a couple of folks would download it, and that would be the end of that.
Well, apparently the renewed interest in the tune was because some wiseacre in the UK (with impeccable taste) decided to use the track in a commercial for a chain of drug stores, and all of a sudden every Nigel, Clive and Harry in the land of limes had to get their hands on an MP3 thereof. As a result, in very short order my daily hits just about doubled, and then briefly tripled as folks stopped by to check out the tune.
Of course someone out there needed to capitalize on K Doe’s newfound (and sadly posthumous) popularity, and the rights-holder of this particular tune e-mailed me and asked me to take the link down so they might reap the windfall therein. I did so, but the traffic kept coming anyway (I posted a link redirecting them to the legal download site).
After a while I stopped paying attention, and eventually the spike disappeared and things got back to normal (or as normal as they ever are around here).
So, when I finally paid attention to these new stats I discovered that the all time biggest post on the Funky16Corners blog was the aforementioned ‘Here Come the Girls’, clocking in at almost 13,000 views, and still counting, the next highest being the Podcast Archive (which is kind of a running concern), followed distantly by the memorial I posted when James Brown passed away.
As I mentioned earlier, Ernie K. Doe is no longer with us, having slipped the surly bonds of earth back in 2001. In his day he was one of the most dynamic, flamboyant performers in the Crescent City. Though he began his recording career back in the early 50’s, it was in 1961 that he topped the charts with the biggest hit to ever come out of New Orleans, the great ‘Mother-In-Law’. Unfortunately, aside from a few glancing hits on the charts, it was pretty much downhill from there. Though K Doe never let up creatively (I’d place the 1970 LP near the top of his resume), he never again had the kind of impact that he did with his first hit.
This is not to say that he stopped working. Far from it.
After he parted ways with Toussaint in 1965, he spent the next five years working for the notorious Don Robey and the Houston-based Duke/Peacock concern. He had a few minor hits in 1967, but nothing of any significance. It was during his years with the labels that he starting to work the funky side of the street, and today’s selection, 1968’s ‘I Gotta Pack My Bag’ is a great example of that sound.
Though I can’t say for sure, my gut feeling is that K Doe’s Duke/Peacock tunes were New Orleans records only in the sense that K Doe made that city his home. They don’t sound like New Orleans sides (aside from the guitarist on this one), nor do I believe that Robey made a practice of recording there (if I’m wrong, drop me a line).
Either way ‘I Gotta Pack My Bag’ is a fine, funky record, with an opening drum break (and one later on as well), some tasty horns, piano and that guitar. K Doe’s vocals are excellent, and he manages to produce a James Brown-influenced side without sounding (like so many others did) a whole lot like James Brown. It could be that the groove is just a little bit looser (that NOLA vibe?), a little more Deep South, a little more funky in the broader sense of the word. In the end it matters not why, because funky it is and there aren’t that many of us who feel the need to parse the funk so thoroughly, most satisfied merely to absorb it, let it rush through the veins, quicken the pulse and satisfy.
Satisfy it does.
If you are so inclined – and haven’t done so already – get yourself some more K Doe. There are reissues to be had, and his 45s (aside from ‘Here Come the Girls’, the value of which went through the ceiling as a result of that commercial) are pretty easy to come by. You will not be disappointed.
Peace
Larry

PS Check out Iron Leg for a new UK Psyche podcast!