Earl Stanley and the Stereos

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Eddie Bo 1930-2009: Eddie & His Heavy Friends

March 22, 2009

NOTE: This mix, featuring the wide range of work Eddie Bo did with other artists (as writer, producer, arranger and often all of the above) was originally featured here in May of 2008. It’s not complete but it does give a pretty good overview of this side of Eddie’s career.
As the week goes on I plan on featuring a few more individual tracks, as well as a new “odds and sods” mix featuring some of Eddies earlier work and a couple of tunes by others that didn’t make it into this mix.
I hope you dig it.
Peace
Larry

Funky16Corners Radio v.49 – Eddie Bo Gets It Together Behind His Many Heavy Friends

Playlist

Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pts 1&2 (Seven B)
Art Neville – Hook Line and Sinker (Instant)
Candy Phillips – Timber Pt1 (Atlantic)
Chris Kenner – All Night Rambler (Instant)
Eddie Lang – Something Within Me (Seven B)
Little Buck – Little Boy Blue (Seven B)
Mary Jane Hooper – I’ve Got Reasons (Power Pac)
Oliver Morgan – Roll Call (Seven B)
Chuck Carbo – Can I Be Your Squeeze (Canyon)
Bobby Williams Group – Boogaloo Mardi Gras Pts 1&2 (Capitol)
Curley Moore & the Kool Ones – Shelley’s Rubber Band (House of the Fox)
Roy Ward – Horse With a Freeze Pt1 (Seven B)
Curly Moore & the Kool Ones – Funky Yeah (House of the Fox)
Oliver Morgan – The La La Man (Seven B)
Sonny Jones – Sissy Walk Pt1 (Scram)
The Explosions – Hip Drop Pt1 (Gold Cup)
James K Nine – Live It Up (Federal)
Doug Anderson – Hey Mama Here Comes the Preacher (Janus)

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

Greetings all.

The mix I bring you today – Funky16Corners Radio v.49 – is one that I’ve been thinking about since I started doing these podcasts two years ago. If you stop by here on the reg you already know that I ride for New Orleans legend Eddie Bo in a big way.

Bo, who’s career stretches from the late 40’s up until the present day made many a fine record under his own name (the biggest hit he was ever associated with was his own ‘Hook and Sling’, an R&B Top 10 hit in 1969) it is perhaps fair to say that his biggest mark was made behind the scenes. As composer, producer and arranger, Eddie Bo worked on some of the finest soul and funk records to come out of the Crescent City in the 60’s and 70’s.

Bo had the good fortune (and the smarts) to work with many a fantastic vocalist and perhaps the greatest of all the great New Orleans drummers, James Black.

Back in 2000 when I started the Funky16Corners web zine, I made the music of Eddie Bo a regular feature. When I moved into the blog-o-mos-phere four years later, I continued to salute the man and his work via write ups on individual tracks and inclusion of many of these records in New Orleans funk and soul mixes.

My discovery of Bo’s side projects has been itself a work in progress, digging up new records all the time. Through the years I’ve always wanted to put together a mix of these records that would show the breadth of Eddie Bo’s talents as a discoverer of talent, crafter of records and writer of great songs.

This past weekend, I was thinking about how I was going to lead up to Funky16Corners Radio v.50, which I plan on dropping during this year’s pledge drive, inspirado struck and I decided that in the spirit of keeping the funk flag flying, and the maintenance of forward motion, the time to collect these songs was nigh.

Though many of the records in this mix have appeared on the blog over the years, there are a few killers here that I’ve never shared. I won’t go into great detail, only because I have before, so if you have any specific questions (that can’t be answered via a “Funky16Corners _____________” Google search) ask them in the comments and I’ll do what I can to answer them.

One final note, in the spirit of full disclosure, the recording of ‘Little Boy Blue’ by Little Buck (which employs the same backing track as Eddie Bo & Inez Cheatham’s ‘Lover and a Friend’ is lifted from a tape made for me years ago by a reader of the web zine. I’ve never been able to score a copy of my own, but it’s such a great record I couldn’t put this mix together without it.

That said, I hope you dig the sounds and I’ll be back later in the week with some new discoveries.

.Peace
Larry

Posted in 45s, breaks, Earl Stanley and the Stereos, Eddie Bo, funk, funky ass funkity funk, funky16corners, Funky16Corners Radio, New Orleans Funk, Obituary, Pass The Hatchet, Podcasts, Roger and the Gypsies, soul | 8 Comments »

Eddie Bo 1930-2009: Pass Out the Hatchets One Last Time…

March 21, 2009

An Earlier Pic of Mr. Bocage

Earl Stanley & the Stereos (pic borrowed from the Ponderosa Stomp site)

“Listen – Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pts 1&2 – MP3″

Greetings all.

I woke up this morning and I had a song running through my fevered brain.
It wasn’t just any song either. It’s the record that in many ways is the cornerstone of my DJ box, and very likely my all time favorite 45 by any artist in any genre, AND it just happens to be an Eddie Bo record (sort of).
I can’t recall exactly when I first heard ‘Pass the Hatchet’ by Roger and the Gypsies, but I can say with absolute certainty that at that moment my mind was good and truly blown, its synapses snapped and rewired in such a way that going forth, all sound processed therein would be absorbed differently, judged against a new standard.
I’ve never gotten the story of how Bo became involved in ‘Pass the Hatchet’, but here’s a quick synopsis of what I do know…
The band playing on ‘Pass the Hatchet’, that actually composed the song was a group called Earl Stanley and the Stereos. Written by Earl Stanley (Oropeza), Roger Leon and Ray Theriot, ‘Pass the Hatchet’ was a super heavy bit of garage-hurtling-toward-funk that would have been enough – as an instrumental – to get any room up and dancing.
However…
At some point a certain journeyman musician by the name of Eddie Bo stepped in and was recruited (possibly by Seven B label owner Joe Banashak) to add vocals to the track, taking a great tune, and making into something else entirely. Adding Eddie Bo to the mix created a chemical reaction rendering an already volatile substance positively explosive.
The very second that Eddie calls out

“AWWWWWWW PASS OUT THE HATCHETS BABY!!”

It is immediately apparent that all that has gone before was mere prelude, and all that will come after irrevocably altered for all time.
This is – as the kids say – the shit.
Back in the day, when the Funky16Corners machine was still gestating in web zine form, I had a feature called the Eddie Bo Jam of the Month (no matter that it was never strictly monthly). The very first one was ‘Pass the Hatchet’ by Roger & the Gypsies.
Here’s some of what I wrote:

“Oooooohhhhhh MAMA!!! This is one of those records that when the needle hits the wax, if you ain’t dancin’ you’re DEAD! While Roger & The Gypsies were a real group (i.e. not a name dropped on an Eddie Bo studio creation) the “singing” here is Eddie, and the production SCREAMS Eddie Bo*. Opening with a super-solid bass drum beat – that feels like butts swinging in time, hands clapping and feet stomping – and Eddie’s order to “Pass out the hatchets baby!” this is a party starter of the first order. I cannot over-emphasize the power of the drums on this record. Though the beat is simple (compared to some of the mind-bending beats coming out of N.O.) – nobody….I mean NOBODY, recorded drums like New Orleans producers. They managed to capture a lot of the natural power of live drums on his records without sacrificing any of the clarity. The snares crack, the cymbals sizzle and the kick drum is DEEP. The bass comes in, followed by dual guitar lines. The first keeping a sub-beat (not unlike the multi-layered guitars in the J.B.’s) and the second soloing on top. The whole time Eddie keeps popping up with interjections of ‘Chop It!’, ‘Timber!’ and funky grunts (there is an ‘UNHH!’ on this record that manages to carry in it the weight of ALL recorded funk). The song breaks in the middle (just long enough for the dancers to catch their breath) and restarts: ‘The Bigger they come, the harder the fall! Let me chop it…let me chop it…LET ME CHOP IT!” and the drums begin again with renewed force, followed by the sinister rattle of maraccas. When it stops, it stops without a fade, leaving the dancers with their heads spinning. Powerful stuff.”

No matter what I wrote, you can’t really “get” ‘Pass the Hatchet’ without hearing it for your self (though I suspect many of you already kneel before it in awe). I’ve included both sides of the record, offering up almost six minutes of musical awesome-osity the likes of which have rarely ever been played, let alone held within the confines of a seven inch vinyl record.

‘The bigger they come the harder they fall!’, indeed.
The biggest of them all just fell in New Orleans.

Peace

Larry

Posted in 45s, Earl Stanley and the Stereos, Eddie Bo, funk, funky ass funkity funk, funky16corners, New Orleans Funk, Obituary, Pass The Hatchet, Roger and the Gypsies, soul | 7 Comments »