F16C Halloween – Johnny Sayles – My Love’s a Monster

Mr. Johnny Sayles

Listen/Download -Johnny Sayles – My Love’s a Monster

Listen/Download – Clea Bradford – My Love’s a Monster (a whole ‘nother song…)

Greetings all.
The Funky16Corners Halloween thing continues today with a heavy slice of Chicago soul from the man Johnny Sayles.
This record (my copy of which sailed over from the UK courtesy of my man Tony C) is one that has been mentioned here previously, but never posted (on account of I didn’t have a copy).
The previous mention was in relation to a past Funky16Corners Halloween post of the late Clea Bradford’s song of the same title. When I first wrote about that record I knew that the Sayles ‘My Love’s a Monster’ existed, but could not figure out whether or not it was in fact the same song (which it is not).
Sometime between then and when Tony sent me the record I heard it on YouTube and started drooling immediately.
Johnny Sayles, born in Texas but transplanted to the Windy City started recording in the late 50s (one of his first records was with Ike Turner) and waxed his first record under his own name a few years later. Between 1963 and 1972 he recorded a grip of hot records for a variety of Chitown labels including Mar-V-Lus, Chitown, St Lawrence, Chess, Dakar and Brunswick.
‘My Love’s a Monster’, released in 1965 on Chitown is a storming Monk Higgins production with a gritty vocal by Sayles. It bears all the marks of prime, mid-60s Chicago soul and the choed handclaps alone are worth the price of admission.
If the hardcore soulful goodness wasn’t enough for you, you also get the spooky “BUM BUM BUM BUM BUMMMMMM!!!!” riff several times in the song moving it to the top of the list for any All Hallows Eve soul throwdown.
I’ve also reposted the Clea Bradford number to remind you how groovy that one is too.

I’ll be back on Monday for the beginning of the Funky16Corners Fifth Anniversary Celebration.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some more Halloween in a pop/rock stylee…

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

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The Return of Funky16Corners Halloween Spooktacular!!

Greetings all!
This rebroadcast of the 2007 Funky16Corners Halloween Spooktacular mix is a mid-week Halloween placeholder of sorts, to keep you all in the spirit until I return on Friday with a very solid slice of Halloween soul.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Friday.
Peace
Larry

Originally posted 10/29/2007

We Now Return to Blacula Meets Black Dracula!

Funky16Corners Radio Halloween Spooktacular!?!

Playlist

1. Lou Rawls – Season of the Witch (Capitol)
2. Souls Unlimited – The Raving Vampire Pt1 (Wig Wam)
3. Bill Doggett – The Worm (Columbia)
4. Clea Bradford – My Love’s a Monster (Cadet)
5. Fred Wesley & the JB’s – Doin’ It To Death (People)
6. King Coleman – The BooBoo Song Pt1 (King)
7. Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
8. Fame Gang – Spooky (Atlantic)

To hear this mix, head on over to the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

BOO!!!!
Heh, heh, heh…
I mean…Greetings all.
Halloween is upon us, so I thought it only fitting that we here at Funky16Corners should brew something up for the holiday. In the spirit of Dr. Frankenstein, my monster is also made from recycled parts, as every track in this mix (except for the drops) has appeared here in the past, a couple of them are even single tracks from Halloweens past.
Though there is an underlying spirit of Halloween consolidation, presenting these great songs for people who may have gotten on the Funky16Corners bus a few stops down the line from the rest of you, I have to admit to a certain preoccupation with what some would call “real world moves“. In all honesty, family obligations have taken a step up in the past week and there are some important things that need to be addressed which prevented me from stealing a few hours to exhume, and digi-ma-tize some “new” old stuff for your delectation.
Rest assured that it will not always be thus, and give the mix (not the individual tracks, which I provide as a courtesy, as always) a listen as I’ve tracked down some interesting, seasonal drops that take some of these tunes – barely related to Halloween – and recasts them in a spooky light (you may have to use your imagination a little, but then again that’s what Halloween’s all about). There are appearances by Halloween luminaries such s Count Floyd, Criswell, Gomez & Morticia Addams, The Simpsons, the Kids In the Hall, Monty Python, and of course Casper the Friendly Ghost.
You get Lou Rawls souling up Donovan, funky bloodsuckers from the Carolinas, a rare meeting between Frank Herbert and Bill Doggett, the mighty Clea Bradford with a romantic Frankenstein’s monster of a kind, funky murder from Fred and the JB’s, a shocking turn by King Coleman, the Axe Murderers national anthem, and in closing, a slightly funky reworking of the Classics IV.
So, I hope you dig it and that you have an excellent Halloween.
I’m going to go trick or treating with my wife and sons, and we’re all going to watch ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown’ three or four times.
Peace
Larry

PS I got a rock…

F16C Halloween – Mike Sharpe – Spooky

“I got a scan of the wrong side of the album…and a rock…

Listen/Download -Mike Sharpe – Spooky

Greetings all.
Despite the surplus of real world activity in my life these days, I am approaching the Halloween season prepared (unlike previous years) on both blog fronts.
Though I’ve never been what you might describe as gung-ho about this particular holiday, I have always seen it as an opportunity for fun, monster movie fan that I am (and by that I am referring to monster films of the old school, not the current wave of mutilation porn that passes for horror cinema), and since the inception of the blog, part of that fun is tracking down and whipping some Halloween grooves on you good people.
This year both of the new selections you’ll be hearing this week made their way into my crates thanks to my man in the YOU-KAY Mister Tony C.
Not too long ago Tony said that he had picked up the Mike Sharpe 45 ‘Break Through’ and that I might be interested in the flipside, a version of the Classics IV tune ‘Spooky’. I had heard of ‘Break Through’ before via the mod soul crowd (and a couple of Northern Soul set lists), and set out in search of my own copy. I wasn’t able to grab a copy of the (more expensive) 45, but I did find a clean copy of the LP, so I grabbed it.
Though I’ve been DJ-ing as part of an all-5 night for years, I like to grab soul/funk LPs where I can find them because I love discovering cool, LP-only tracks (and the Sharpe album had a few of those).
I started to do a little research and much to my surprise I discovered that Mike Sharpe (real last name Shapiro) was an Atlanta-area sax player/songwriter who had actually composed and recorded the original (instrumental) version of ‘Spooky’. It was picked up by the Classics IV’s manager Buddy Buie and guitarist Jimmy Cobb who laid some lyrics on the tune, it was recorded by the band and became their first big hit (spawning countless cover versions on almost as many genres). Sharpe played the sax solo on the hit version of ‘Spooky’ as well as a number of other Classics IV hits.
Sharpe’s OG ‘Spooky’ features a backing of an unusual sounding organ, vocal chorus and of course his saxophone in the lead. It compares favorably with the better known version and was itself a regional hit.
Sharpe went on to record a few more albums for Imperial. I’ll make sure to post ‘Break Through’ some time in the future.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something a little heavier.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some more Halloween in a pop/rock stylee…

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

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James Booker – Gonzo

Genius at Work: James Booker

Listen/Download -James Booker – Gonzo

Greetings all.
I for one couldn’t be happier that this week is finally coming to a close. To borrow a well worn phrase from the Bard, life is currently beating me like a rented mule, leaving me tired, frazzled and ready to shut my brain off for a day or two. This has been one of those weeks that has been chock-a-block with stuff to do, places to be and spending far too little time in bed, sleeping or otherwise occupied.
Fortunately I have a block of restorative time penciled in for the weekend, during which I look forward to doing little more than making sure my sons are safe and fed, and feeding the non-creative section of what’s left of my brain with movies and such (and maybe a touch of light reading if I can muster up enough concentration.
The tune I bring you today is an old fave, which could land in either of two crates in the Funky16Corners vault, those being New Orleans and Hammond grooves.
The artist in question is the mighty James Booker.
Revered during his day as a keyboard master (on piano and organ both) and a dude with a talent for living on the edge (over which he eventually plummeted), James Booker wove his way in and out of the fabric of New Orleans music from his early days in the 1950s through his untimely death in 1983 (he was only 44).
Booker was not only gay at a time when that would have made his life difficult on a number of levels, but was also – sadly –  an alcoholic and a junkie.
He recorded his first 45 in 1954 and eventually hit the charts with today’s selection, ‘Gonzo’ in 1960 which was a Top 5 R&B hit, floating just outside of the Pop Top 40. Booker recorded a number of excellent 45s for Don Robey’s Duke and Peacock labels (one under the name of BB King’s drummer Earl Forrest), all of which Robey took writing credit for (under the pseudonym ‘D. Malone’).
Booker also did a stint playing organ in the band of fellow New Orleans-ian Lloyd Price, an example of which can be heard in Funky16Corners Radio v.23.5 Old School Hammond.
It’s not hard to imagine legions of people dropping their nickels into jukeboxes all over the country to cut a rug to ‘Gonzo’, which features Booker on the organ as well as a sweet flute solo (maybe James Rivers??). It has an infectious melody and the production is wonderful.
I hope you dig it.
You can hit the old Funky16Corners web zine for a little more info on Booker (follow the link and then scroll down).

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for podcast looking at the career of sunshine pop legend Curt Boettcher

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

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Faye Ross – Faith Hope and Trust b/w You Ain’t Right

Listen/Download -Faye Ross – Faith Hope and Trust

Listen/Download -Faye Ross – You Ain’t Right

Greetings all.
I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.
I almost wasn’t going to do a post today, as I am up to my ass in the proverbial alligators, but I managed to get the little Corners off to dreamland in a timely manner, so I sit here, typing, digi-ma-tizing some vinyl and being otherwise productive.
The tunes I bring you today are both sides of a mid-60s (I’m guessing) Los Angeles area 45 by a singer named Faye Ross. Aside from the fact that Ms. Ross recorded at least one other 45 for the Trevor label, I have been able to discover nothing about her.
The a-side ‘Faith Hope and Trust’ is a great Northern Soul-ish banger, the flip a nicely produced, bluesy torch song.
Naturally, as is always the case, when I can’t turn up anything on a performer, I start digging into the other info on the label to see what I can find.
As the label itself goes, Round Records was probably based in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California. I’ve found a couple of direct and indirect connections to the LA-based Kris label, but aside from the three Round 45s I own, by Jimmie Preacher Ellis, BW Souls and Faye Ross, little else.
‘Faith Hope and Trust’ was written by Kent Harris. Harris was born in Oklahoma and moved west in the 50s. Under the name Boogaloo and His Gallant Crew he recorded the 45 ‘Clothesline’ b/w ‘Cops and Robbers’ in 1956. Both sides of that record would be redone (and apparently unfairly appropriated) as big R&B hits, first as ‘Cops and Robbers’ by Bo Diddley, and in 1960 the Coasters retitled ‘Clothesline’ as ‘Shopping for Clothes’ (originally credited to Leiber and Stoller, but later shows up with Harris’ name in the credits).
Harris went on to marry and work extensively with LA soul diva Ty Karim, writing and producing many of her records through the 60s.
As I said, I haven’t been able to find any info on Faye Ross. She had a great voice, and the sound of ‘You Ain’t Right’ suggests to me that she was as comfortable singing the blues as she was with straight-ahead soul.
It’s a cool record, and if any of you have anything to add, please drop me a line.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for podcast looking at the career of sunshine pop legend Curt Boettcher

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Bobby Freeman – Do You Wanna Dance, 1970

Mr. Bobby Freeman

Listen/Download -Bobby Freeman – Do You Wanna Dance, 1970

Greetings all.
How’s by you?
By me it’s raining for the third day in a row, and I’m sitting here writing an entry for a funk and soul blog while listening to Von Suppe’s ‘Light Cavalry’. Lest you think I’m making a move into the classical realm, this exalted fare is in response to my five-year-old who was galloping around the house singing the ‘William Tell Overture’, asking if it was a real song. Fortunately I just happened to have a disc of Von Suppe and Rossini overtures on hand.
But wait!
Next time you’re out digging, and discover such a record, grab it and take it home.
“Why?” you ask, shaking your head in disgust.
Because my friends, the overtures of Rossini and Von Suppe are perhaps the greatest classical source for cartoon music, having been plundered by Carl Stalling and others and planted into decades worth of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig cartoons like a time-release culture bomb.
How many among you were wandering aimlessly in a record store or coffee house when a familiar sound grabbed your ears, only to make you think of carrots and cartoon violence? You can thank those two great 19th century composers (and Raymond Scott, among others) for making your Saturday mornings a little more meaningful.
But enough eggheadery….
The tune I bring you today is another Asbury Park 45 Sessions discovery that leapt into my skull fresh out of the crates of Mr. Pat. James Longo. Truth be told, I had been forewarned that he might attempt to blow my mind with something funky by an artist not generally associated with drum breaks and what not, but I could not have been prepared for what was about to happen.
Mr. Longo took to the tables, whipped that familiar yellow and black Double Shot label out and dropped the needle on a sweet, sweet break, followed by a truly funky update of a song from the 1950s.
The artist in question was Bobby Freeman, and the song was ‘Do You Wanna Dance, 1970’.
Now, as any record collector worth his/her salt will tell you, the world of funk and soul is riddled with such updates, in which an artist tries to play on his previous success by reworking old material and slapping the current date on the end of the title so the fans would be able to distinguish the old from the new. This scheme, more often than not, resulted in sub-par work, marking the very moment a performer sailed off the end of the world into obscurity.
This is only partially true in this instance.
Bobby Freeman first hit the charts in 1958 with the original version of ‘Do You Wanna Dance’, returned in 1960 with ‘I Do the Shimmy Shimmy’ and then had his biggest hit in 1964 with the Sly Stone produced stormer ‘C’Mon and Swim’. He moved from Autumn to Loma in 1966, eventually landing at Double Shot (home to Brenton Wood and the Count Five among others) in 1969.
‘Do You Wanna Dance, 1970’ opens with en extended break, moves on into the soul clapping and then busts out into a hi-test reworking of his first hit.
It’s definitely one of those “how did I not know about this” records, which of course is a moot point because I know about it now, and once you pull down the ones and zeros, so will you.
I hope you dig it.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for podcast looking at the career of sunshine pop legend Curt Boettcher

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Another Guest Mix!

A very cool poster made up by the guys at Soul:Good…

UPDATE: Download an MP3 of the entire show here…

Set List:

Curly Moore & The Kool Ones – Funky Yeah (House of the Fox)
AB Skhyy – Camel Back (MGM)
Bill Sha Rae – Let’s Do It Again (Triple B)
Funkadelic – Super Stupid (Westbound)
Dramatics – Get Up and Get Down (Volt)
Sod – Too Loose To Get Tight Pt 1 (Decca)
Buena Vistas – Kick Back (Marquee)
Johnny Griffiths – Do It (Triple B)
War – Me and Baby Brothers (UA)
ST-4 – Funky (Scepter)
Marvin Holmes & the Uptights – Ride Your Mule (Revue)
Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers – Raw Funky (Tower)
Marva Whitney – Things Got To Get Better (King)
Cymande – Fug (Janus)
Donald Austin – Crazy Legs (Eastbound)
Woody Guenther & Cheaters – Bang Dangin’ Time (Shout

Greetings all.
The end of the week has arrived, and so has another patented Funky16Corners guest mix.
A while back the good folks at Soul:Good over in the ex-USSR wrote and asked if I’d be interested in doing a mix for their radio show.
Naturally, I was psyched about spreading the funk 45 word over in the hinterlands, so I said yes.
The mix in question – which will drop Friday afternoon (around 1PM EST) – is on the heavy side, with some rock breaks, acid-funk and the like, all guaranteed to set your hair on end, get your ass off the sofa and set the volume to LOUD.
You can follow these links to check out the Soul:Good web presence and check out a short interview I did with them. After the show airs I’ll make sure to post an MP3 download link.

http://www.myspace.com/soulgoood
http://www.urbansoul.ru/staytuned/45rpm
http://lebowskisays.wordpress.com
http://vkontakte.ru/club5892799

You probably already get this, but it behooves me to warn you that a lot of the above is in Russian…

In other Funky16Corners news, the fifth (yes, FIVE years) anniversary of the Funky16Corners blog will be here in a few weeks. I’m planning a special two part mix, so make sure you drop by to check out the festivities.
I hope you dig the guest mix, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some jangly garage folk

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs – My Reason For Livin’

Mr. Maurice Williams

Listen/Download -Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs – My Reason For Livin’

Greetings all.
I hope that the middle of the week finds you well.
The tune I bring you today was one of those bonus beats, in that I picked up the 45 for the funky A-side and got a nice, sweet soul surprise when I flipped it over.
I doubt that there are many among you that haven’t heard of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, mainly by virtue of the omnipresence of their 1960 Number One hit ‘Stay’, which is as close to a rock/soul standard as there is.
However, I’d be willing to wager that a lot of you didn’t know that Williams and the Zodiacs kept recording through the 60s and 70s for labels like Vee-Jay, Deesu, Sea-Horn, Scepter and Atlantic.
Williams got his start in South Carolina* as a member of the Gladiolas, who recorded the original version of ‘Little Darlin’ (later a hit for the white, Canadian group the Diamonds) in 1957. The Gladiolas broke up and Williams formed the Zodiacs, recording ‘Stay’ and hitting the top of the charts in 1960 for the Herald label.
They eventually ended up in New Orleans, recording a couple of singles with Allen Toussaint and Marshal Sehorn, including ‘May I’ which eventually became a minor hit in a version by Bill Deal and the Rhondels.
Williams and the Zodiacs recorded only one 45 for the Veep label, 1969s ‘Four Corners’ (featured in Funky16Corners Radio v.71).
Today’s selection, ‘My Reason For Livin’ appeared on the B-side of that record. A wonderful, melodic slice of sweet, group soul, ‘My Reason For Livin’ was written by producer/arranger Horace Ott and Randy Evretts**. The lead vocal (I’m assuming it’s Williams, but can’t be sure) has touches of Levi Stubbs and the arrangement, with a pulsing bass, understated strings and touches of vibes is really nice.
As far as I can tell this cut hasn’t been comped (the mid-to-late 60s Zodiacs sides don’t ever seem to show up on their ‘Greatest Hits’ comps), so check it out here, and get the other side in the F16 Radio mix referenced above.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Friday with yet another guest mix.

Peace

Larry

*Williams and the Zodiacs have been longtime fixtures on the Beach Music scene in the Carolinas

**Ott and Evretts composed at least one other song together, Aretha Franklin’s ‘Prove It’ (also recorded by Pat Lundy on Deluxe)

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some wild folk rock

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

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Jay and the Techniques – Here We Go Again

Jay and the Techniques

Listen/Download – Jay and the Techniques – Here We Go Again

Greetings all.
I write to you as I recuperate from yet another – hopefully the last – encounter with kidney stone related surgery. My intrepid urologist (there’s a phrase you don’t hear too often) located and blasted the remaining stones, and if all goes as planned I won’t have to go back the hospital anytime soon (this was my fifth trip this year, only two of which were planned).
Fortunately the body parts required for operation of the Funky16Corners blog – listening ears and typing fingers – appear to functioning properly, so we plow ahead.
The tune I bring you today is something I was turned on to in the early days of the Asbury Park 45 Sessions.
Back then, the AP45 crew had a distinctly different composition than it does today. One of the early DJs, who left the fold after only a few appearances was Garden State Soul’s own Jay Boxcar. Like another ex-AP45er, Connie T. Empress, Jay brought a more classic/Northern soul vibe to his sets. When he dropped the tune I bring you today I took a run up to the turntables and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the high quality tune I was hearing was no stone rarity, but rather a neglected b-side by Jay and the Techniques.
A multi-racial soul band, Jay and the Techniques hailed from Allentown, PA, and had their first and biggest hit ‘Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie’ in 1967. The tune I bring you today was the b-side of their second hit, ‘Keep the Ball Rollin’.
‘Here We Go Again’ is a storming dancer with a pounding organ/horn riff and a wonderful vocal by Jay Proctor. Produced and arranged by Philly legends Jerry Ross and Joe Renzetti ‘Here We Go Again’ is a departure from Jay and the Techniques ‘nursery rhyme’ tunes and is a wonderful slice of pop-inflected soul. The grooviest thing of all is that you ought to be able to pick up your own copy at the next flea market/boot sale for less than a dollar.
I hope you dig the tune and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some wild folk rock

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Alan Hawkshaw & Alan Parker – Hot Pants

Alan Hawkshaw – The Hawk Strikes Again!

Listen/Download – Alan Hawkshaw/Alan Parker – Hot Pants

Greetings all.
This is gonna be short and sweet (just like today’s selection) on account of I have a ton of non-bloggy stuff on the agenda that has to take precedence.
The tune in question is something that verily blew my mind back in the early days of my funk jones.
Way back in the halcyon days of nineteen and ninety nine, just before the turn of the century I was sitting on my divan, head resting securely on the antimacassar with a snifter of carbonated beverage cradled in my hand, enjoying a program on the television machine. Suddenly, as the program I was watching took a break I was startled out of my reverie by the soundtrack to an advertisement.
Seriously.
The advertiser was the internet site CNET and the music in the commercial was a funky number with some absolutely fantastic flute action. My instincts told me that this was old music (as opposed to something newly created for the ad) so I started to search on what was then an admittedly a less robust version of the interwebs.
I came up snake eyes.
Then, spurred on by a serious NEED to track down the song, I tracked down the ad agency that had created the commercial and inquired directly as to the source of the music. The reply I received, i.e. ‘The song is called ‘Hot Pants’ from a KPM album.’ Was my very first introduction to the world of library music.
It was a while before I was able to wrap some context around my discovery, and a full ten years before I was able to secure a copy of the record, that being ‘KPM 1080: Flute For Moderns’.
The very groovy thing – a bit of the context I mentioned before – is that the majority of the record was composed and performed by none other than the mighty Alan Hawkshaw and Alan Parker (see Mohawks, Keith Mansfield, Rumplestiltskin etc).
Hawkshaw’s catalog is by and large the very definition of unfadeable, and while the emphasis here is on flute and not my beloved Hammond (of which Hawkshaw is an accepted past master), I still get a rush when I put this record on.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a folk rock cover version from an unusual source.

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

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