The Isley Brothers – Pop That Thang

They shoulda called them the Fly-sley Brothers…

“Listen – Pop That Thang MP3″

Greetings all.

Despite the fact that this has been a very busy weekend (if you’ve been falling by the spot you’re already aware of that fact) I decided that since there was no freaking way that I was going to be able post tomorrow (Monday’s my late night at work and I suspect that I’ll be a touch on the exhausted side), I’d better get something up tonight.
So…
Flashing back a bit to Friday night’s Asbury Park 45 Sessions – and why not – there was a bit of vinyl synchronicity, in that the always tasteful and wonderful Connie T Empress whipped a little something on the turntables that I just happened to have digi-ma-tized and waiting for posting here on the Funky16Corners blog.
There have been a few instances in the past where another Asbury 45 spinners set has filled me with inspirado, and sent me back into the crates to get something out and recorded, but this was the first time something like this happened.
The odd thing is, it was an older CTE set (which included another hot Isley Brothers side) that made me pick this 45 out of a box in the first place, so what we have here is a long form manifestation of the old what goes around comes around, and in that records are always going around – literally and figuratively – and I’m just about swimming in them (records that is) – this side was bound to come around sooner or later.
Sooner it is.
I have to begin by stating that as major funk and soul artists go, and my relation to them as a fan and collector, few are as slept on as the mighty Isley Brothers.
Slept on in my case that is.
It may be a case of taking the obvious for granted, as the Isleys have a catalog of serious depth behind them, but as I’ve discovered while listening to other DJs reveal hidden treasures, there are a LOT of great Isley Brothers records that I’ve never heard before. Such was the case when Connie dropped ‘Keep On Doin’ at one of the AP45 Sessions this year and blew my tired mind when I realized that what I was hearing was the previously unknown (to me) blueprint for one of my personal faves, that being the JB’s ‘The Grunt’.

I won’t say that the JB’s “stole” that song, but the Isleys came first, the two sound pretty much the same, and you do the math. What bugged me was that I’d been listening to the JB’s 45 for years and had no inkling, not an iota of an idea that they were in fact treading on ground already covered by the Isleys.
I should have known, but I didn’t, and I felt like a rube.
So, as a result, I’ve been paying closer attention to the Isleys already in my crates, the sides I see in the field and sides yet to be dug.
That effort at increased Isley-fication resulted in my pulling the 45 I bring you today from a pile of unattended to vinyl in the basement.
Some years back my father-in-law delivered unto me something in the vicinity of 3,000 45s which I spent a summer examining. Naturally, in a haul that big not everything gets the attention it ought, and as a result the Isleys ‘Pop That Thang’ made it into one of many record boxes that found their way into what passes for cold storage at my crib.
As you’ll hear after passing the ones and zeros from my server to your computer, it’s a good thing I take the time to do things like this because ‘Pop That Thang’ is quite a tasty bit of laid back, ever so slightly stoned funk, which ought to put a little bit of heat back into the rapidly escaping summer, what with the ‘Bang bang bangs’ and the funky guitar wiggling it’s way around the piano.
The Brothers whipped ‘Pop That Thang’ (I wonder what “thang” they wish to pop? Hmmmm….) on the world in nineteen and seventy two, two years on from ‘Keep On Doin’’ and just a year before their mega-hit ‘That Lady’.
I happened to have this heater in my record box on Friday, and when Connie dropped it I must confess I had a twinge of ‘that shoulda been me’, but it was soon erased by my deep and abiding respect for the Empress and her taste as a selector, as well as the fact that that very respect (for every one of my AP45 compadres) is what causes me to pack a wide variety of “extra” records in the box every time we gather to spin. When you have a whole room of DJs with serious crates (and taste), it behooves you to expect duplication here and there, and to be ready to adapt accordingly (which I did)*.
That said, if you weren’t there on Friday – and you ought to have been – you’ll have another chance in November (tentative date 9/30).
Peace
Larry

*Someone investigating psychic phenomena ought to check into the fact that this happens to almost every one of us EVERY time we get together for the 45 Sessions. Spooky, n’est ce pas???

PS As far as the JamNow archive of the mixes, I managed to save mine by recording it in Audacity, doing a little import/export magic and creating an MP3, for posting herein. If you wish to save any of the other sets from Friday, you’ll have to do something along those lines. As long as we continue to broadcast via JamNow, I will continue to save and repost my sets.

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