| CARVIEW |
Since my schedule is still pretty hectic, I’m more than just a little grateful for this week’s much needed assistance from our very good friend BeyondBodyAndSoul (I’m sure you all remember his Paul Owens contribution from last year), who this week comes to the rescue with some dusty 7″ vinyls – all of them with an important common denominator: Nat Turner Rebellion!
And to be completely honest, this fiery post was supposed to be up like months ago. Keeping this soulful goodness away from your ears longer than necessary is almost inexcusable…so without further ado I hand the word over to BB&S:
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And your name it might be Caesar sure,
And got your cannon can shoot a mile or more,
But you can’t keep the world from moving around
Nor Old Nat Turner from gaining ground.
MID 19TH CENTURY FOLK LYRIC
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Being born and raised in Philadelphia, and knowing what I know about the city of brotherly love, it is not at all a surprise to me that our city commands such a profound musical legacy. There is something about the many moods of this town that has always fed the creative urge of sensitive people. Sometimes it is joyous and hopeful, other times it’s bittersweet and other times it can be both gothic and dark. Many people would defer to Gamble & Huff’s better known stable of artists on Philadelphia International when thinking of the signature sound of Philadelphia during the early 70’s. While the recognition of artists like Billy Paul or The Three Degrees as Philly institutions is certainly well-earned, there were other sounds out of Philly during this period – a little more raw, a little more heavy but just as compelling. Groups like the Brothers of Hope, Broad Street Gang, and the Nat Turner Rebellion may not be household names but they have succeeded in creating sounds that evoke the soulful truth of our city.
We turn our attention specifically to the work of the Nat Turner Rebellion and feature six of their tracks for your enjoyment. The original Nat Turner, sometimes referred to as ‘The Prophet’, lead a slave revolt in 1831. The appearance of a solar eclipse acted as the catalyst for his vision of the time that “was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first”.
In discussing the Nat Turner Rebellion the musical group, it seems appropriate to start with their paean to Nat Turner the individual in my favorite track from this group “Tribute to a Slave”. Two things may grab your attention at the beginning: a raw and heavy bass line and the sounds of the electric sitar followed by the line “My friend Nat…though our eyes never met”. The appearance of the electric coral sitar in soul music during this period is just another example of some of the creativity and cross-pollination of sounds and genres that was the hallmark of classic 60’s and early 70’s music. While my mind went to Freda Payne’s ‘Band of Gold’ when hearing the electric sitar, it is also impossible to not think of the Stylistics and the Spinners. It is also here where we find our first link to what little information is available about the Nat Turner Rebellion. Songwriting credit for “Tribute to a Slave” is attributed to Joe B. Jefferson who also penned some of the Spinner’s bigger hits. I’ve heard that Joe B Jefferson is, in fact, the brother of Major Harris who took on vocal duties with the Nat Turner Rebellion before replacing Randy Cain as singer of the Delfonics in 1971. It seems like a safe bet, then, that most of these tracks are recorded pre-1971, but it is hard to be sure. Certainly, a lot of their output seems to live squarely in the psychedelic soul sounds of 1969-1970 – the Funky 16 Corner website astutely identified the similarities between the Nat Turner Rebellion and the Whitfield production of the Temptations during this period.
Just listen to this excerpt:
While “Tribute to a Slave” is at the top of my list, ‘Getting Higher’ is awfully close. I love the organ and bass opening riff before the entrance of the vocals, how about you? As much as I enjoy the music on this track, however, it would be criminal to not consider the wild lyrical content. “Some kind of weird thing” is indeed happening. Dinosaurs and cavemen getting high? Doctors and lawyers too? If the dinosaurs do indeed get the munchies afterwards, here’s hoping they eat the lawyers.
I also enjoy “Plastic People” immensely – I particularly like how the music switches up at 2:42 after the line “from this point on we will no longer sing…we will talk”. The electric sitar is back again as a Wurlitzer appears to provide a nice rhythmic backdrop for a warning that “freaks are on their way!” Be advised that these freaks are “wakin’ and bakin’” and therefore could very well be the cast of characters from the previous song. Does anyone remember that Orlon’s song from Philly that goes “where do all the hippies meet? South street…south street…” Perhaps the guys from the NTR decided to check it out for themselves and do a little field reporting. Say what you will about the ‘freaks’ of the counter-cultural movement – there is still no way that anyone, and that goes for you too dear reader, would ever want to replace the vitality of Philadelphia’s south street during those days with the corporate graveyard of dead souls that it is fast becoming in the new millennium.
Finally, we have two remaining tracks – the evocative ballad ‘Can’t go on living’ as well as the song taken from that old phrase ‘laugh to keep from crying’. The latter track really does remind me of the Temptations sound from this period, perhaps more then any other offering from NTR. Regarding the message: In the cauldron of early 70’s Philadelphia, I suppose a little bit of delusion could go a long way in terms of self-preservation. Sun Ra’s description of the city of brotherly love as ‘Death’s Headquarters’ may have been a little heavy-handed, but the mindless violence in our streets these last few summers makes the line about “I got to try to keep from dying” sadly prescient. In terms of the mechanics of the track itself, there appears to be some structural similarities between this track and Plastic People – particularly the change which roughly happens at the exact 2:42 point in both songs.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this review – I only wish I could’ve supplied you with more actual information about the band itself. I think you will agree that the Nat Turner Rebellion deserves much overdue recognition. I will leave you with the music to speak for itself as well as a line from Plastic People:
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“It’s time for us children to leave here –
we hope each and every one of you out there
as a people have been able to relate
with what we are trying to say…”
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Big thanks to BeyondBodyAndSoul for this awesome contribution – and for the thoroughly entertaining write-up!
Unfortunately, the Nat Turner Rebellion never released a full album, and apart from the six tracks we’re offering this week, I only know of six more: “Ruby Lee”, “You Are My Sun Sign”, “Handle With Care”, “Never Too Late”, “The Robot Pt. 1” and “The Robot Pt. 2”. All six cuts released in 1972 or later, by which time they had dropped the “Rebellion” part of their name – more polished, less gritty and no more electric sitars (well, the only exception might just be the weird novelty type track “The Robot”, which to some still could be seen as pretty gritty). But hey, It’s all good of course! Just listen to this snippet of “Ruby Lee”:
So if you want to add some more cuts to your collection for that “full album feel”, simply click right here to buy the extra tracks (at a mere $0.99 a piece), all available on the 1998 compilation “Philly Groove – Early Singles”!
If you’re longing for the original Nat Turner 7″ vinyls, here’s a good place to start your quest! It’s kinda interesting that it’s Nat Turner Rebellions first and last vinyl singles that are the hardest to come by. I’ve only found one copy of “Tribute To A Slave” ($140)…and to find a copy of the original “The Robot Pt. 1 & 2” feels like a complete waste of time…it’s extinct! So I guess them reissue tracks really are our best option.
Once again, mad props to BB&S for sharing the goodness…but first and foremost, Nat Turner Rebellion – thank you for the music!
See y’all next week!
/Laf & The B’s
Hello, friends!
First of all, sorry about our absence and the lack of updates – we’ve all been kept busy elsewhere…way too busy. But we’re back – and with us we bring both good news and good music! Because this week we are real proud to present you all with an exclusive promo sampler for what may well be the best album you’ll buy this year!
But don’t thank us – this is all coming together thanks to our new acquaintance Dan, who runs one of the finest little reissue labels out there, Family Groove Records! We got to know about Dan and his label through our good friend Calisoulbrother, who recommended us to check out a limited edition 7″ vinyl reissue of Lillian Alexander’s “A Dream Without You”. Which instantly had me wanting to know more about both Lillian and the Family Groove catalogue. So I sent an e-mail with some questions – and Dan responded within minutes! In his response he enclosed a track that blew me away…which basically is what Week 13 will be all about!
It’s gonna be all about The HE3 Project, the album “Chapter 1” (released today, March 30th) and the totally slept-on keyboard wizard/song writer/arranger/Bay Area session musician, Herman Eberitzsch III – who Dan bumped into by chance while doing research for the Lillian Alexander reissue project. I asked Dan about their first encounter – this is what he told me:
I called Herman and asked if he had any photos from the Lillian Alexander recording session, but he barely remembered the session and had no photos available. However, he said ‘I’ve got some tapes you may be interested in.’ I answered ‘what kind of music’ and he said ‘soul & funk.’ I had already planned a trip to San Francisco to work on the Alexander project. So it worked out perfectly. Still, I was a little skeptical until I entered Herman’s basement which he had set up like a private studio. It was like time had stood still in there. Dark, moody, with concert posters on the walls – and he opens up a locker and shows me tapes upon tapes. He played me some of his music, including “Rapture Of The Deep” and I couldn’t believe what I heard. All of this incredible music that had never been released…
Dan also confirmed my guess, that he almost crapped his pants first time he heard Herman’s music. Well, the first time I heard it, I almost did too. It’s just that good!
Still, you just might have heard a Herman Eberitzsch III joint or two unknowingly – at least one penned by him. The batch of songs remastered for release on this first (yes, three more installments are in the works) HE3 Project LP, simply called “Chapter 1”, includes three songs recorded as demos intended for Coke Escovedo’s 1975 debut album “Coke”. “Make It Sweet”, “Life Is A Tortured Love Affair” and “Easy Come Easy Go” made it onto the album (as did a fourth cut called “Rebirth”), and Lord knows I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all three – but after hearing Herman’s versions, none of Coke’s takes stand a chance in comparison! The difference is close to mindblowing – the crisp freshness of the “demos” is overwhelming and win every time.
Check out this short clip featuring both Coke’s and Herman’s versions of “Make It Sweet” – and prepare to be blown away:
Sure, both versions are good, but one is better than good – more like awesome…right?!
And it doesn’t stop at the Coke collab – Herman has worked with Lee Oskar (War), Greg Errico (Sly & The Family Stone), Little Esther Phillips and Linda Tillery, just to mention a few.
For more background info on the HE3 Project, check out our special HE3 Project page – also including a Herman Eberitzsch III artist bio…real must-read stuff!
In my opinion, the “Chapter 1” LP is just chock-full of never heard before greatness, including instant favourites like “Rapture Of The Deep”, “Funk Punk, “Easy Come Easy Go” and “In A Soft And Subtle Way” – from spacey jazz and psych, to raw funk and smooth soul music. Definitely the best “rare” funk/soul album so far this year…can’t wait for the second installment! Hopefully, with these HE3 Project releases (and our support) Herman finally gets the recognition deserved!
All in all, “Rapture” really is the spot on headline for this HE3 Project post…with rapture being best defined as An expression of ecstatic feeling or The transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven – well, to me it means Ecstatic trip to crate-digger heaven!
Download the “HE3 Chapter 1 Promo Sampler” (including “Easy Come Easy Go”, “Make It Sweet” and “Rapture Of The Deep”) right here – or via this SoundCloud preview. Enjoy the goodness, peeps!
Now, do yourself a favour – buy HE3’s “Chapter 1” already today! Available on vinyl, CD or as MP3’s over at Family Groove Records!
You won’t regret it! :¬)
And hey, if you’re in the Bay Area, why not book King Herman for a gig – I know would!
Mad props to Dan and Family Groove Records for their hard work digging up the good stuff! But first and foremost, Herman Eberitzsch III – thank you for the music!
/Lafayette
Hi there, and welcome back to another year together with 4BB Weekly!
How about starting this new year with some old music – and with old I actually mean a re-run…a reprise post off the old 4BB blog. Since our last Paul Kelly post, where we happened to mention his “Don’t Burn Me” LP from 1973 being posted before, people have been asking where they can find it…and since it isn’t available elsewhere on the blogs, we thought it would be in order with a re-up. Add to that, the Week 1 post of 2009 was Paul Kelly’s 1974 release, “Hooked, Hogtied & Collared” – so opening the year with a Paul Kelly joint could almost be considered a 4BB tradition!
OK, but before we reheat and serve that old post write-up, we got other business to attend to…like the “4BB Breaks” competition of Week 53! We’ve received a couple of mails with all answers correct, but the first one to get it all 5 “missing breaks” in order was T-Swift – congrats, homie…hit me up and we’ll sort out the handing over of the Grand Prize! :¬)
And for all you curious people out there, here’s a quick rundown of the songs missing in LP2’s playlist:
6. Archie Bell & The Drells “Tighten Up”, 11. The Jackson 5 “The Life Of the Party”, 16. MFSB “Family Affair”, 20. The Electric Indian “Rain Dance” and 26. Rhythm Heritage “Theme From S.W.A.T.”
Alright then, here’s the Paul Kelly re-up, originally posted over at 4BB 2.0 on September 23rd, 2008:
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Here’s another gem contributed by our old “Tunes From The Shed” buddy, Paros! And it’s yet another stellar Paul Kelly effort – the southern soul singer I had never heard of…until just recently. The scary part is that he’s close to being right up there with Al Green in my book…and, damn, I almost missed him! And judging from the comments on that last Paul Kelly post, you all almost did too!
“Don’t Burn Me” from 1973 was released the year before the “Hooked, Hogtied & Collared” album that we posted earlier – and this is also a Buddy Killen/Paul Kelly collaboration…so prepare yourself for another smooth production, with some typical Paul Kelly penned “should-have-been” soul classics! I just bought the only Paul Kelly re-issue available on the market, the Warner Archives compilation CD “The Best of Paul Kelly” (available here), and on the back cover there’s this plug by Bob Merlis (the former Warner exec) that really says it all:
“It’s almost pointless to write that Paul Kelly’s is one of soul’s greatest voices, you know it when you hear it – this is the very real deal.”
It’s hard to find reviews on “Don’t Burn Me”, but luckily I discovered that the great Ear Fuzz blog did a post on the album almost 2 years ago – with a spot on write-up of course, written by Junior, who really says everything I was about to say, but so much better:
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“The trail of artists destroyed by cack handed marketing and promotion is a depressing one indeed. So common was this in the sixties and seventies that Artists-robbed-of-global-success practically has it’s own category in my record collection.
Still, rather than once again harping on with pointless righteous anger about the shitty hand life can deal you let’s celebrate the music instead. Paul Kelly comes from the sweet soul stable of male vocalists, delivering a number of grown man soul albums in the early seventies. Wrongly dismissed as an Al Green imitator at the time, his albums actually offer an exceptionally high standard of soul music.
Don’t Burn Me, his 1973 album, is a classic example of the Paul Kelly sound, showcasing Kelly’s gorgeous vocal range. “Come Lay Some Lovin’ On Me” is the kind of track that wouldn’t seem out of place on an Hi album from the same period with it’s subtle use of strings, organ and horn blasts. “Don’t Burn Me” again features the high quality production of brass and strings with Kelly delivering the kind of seemingly effortless vocals that never stop amazing me.”
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Well put! :¬)
When listening to the album the first time, I instantly recognized the album opener “Come Lay Some Lovin’ On Me”….I had heard that song somewhere before, but with a female vocalist – and soon enough discovered that Margie Joseph, already in 1974, did her very own wicked version of it on her “Sweet Surrender” album (immaculately produced by Arif Mardin – another great one that passed away just recently)! But Margie’s not alone in tapping in on Paul’s songwriting skills – his songs has been covered by artists like Jackie Moore, Staple Singers and The Mighty Clouds Of Joy, just to mention a few.
A couple of great ballads, some finger poppin’ grooves – all in all, this album is the type to be with you through the good and the bad times, and Paul is there to sing all your troubles away…truly one of soul music’s great, yet almost forgotten, voices and writers. Just listen to this – the awesome title cut, “Don’t Burn Me”:
Now, do consider the original vinyl available right here (still sealed, mint promo copy), or why not the compilation mentioned earlier! And keep an eye open for Paul’s more recent material (fourth from the top) – always support the real artists whenever there’s an opportunity to pay some respect!
As always, big thanks to our friend Paros for the generous contribution…but first and foremost, Paul Kelly – thank you for the music!
See y’all next week!
/Lafayette
(Ps. If you want to hear Margie Joseph’s version of Paul’s “Come Lay Some Lovin’ On Me”, you better get yourself a doctors appointment A.S.A.P – it’s posted over at our good friend Doc Okeh’s place!)
High time for the last post of 2009, right?! Week 53 is all about 4BB Breaks Volume 2 – the second installment in the 4BB Weekly mixtape series! Once again our house DJ, LP2, takes us all for a joyride – through jazzy breaks, solid dance floor heaters, old party favourites, more recent funk outbreaks, deep afro-funk and some soulful steppers…all in all, the perfect musical companion and party backdrop to any successful New Year’s celebration!
Just so you know, LP2 had to work extra hard to complete this mixtape, all because he managed to lose the Serato playlist and the original digital tracks (another computer mishap) used in the project…which resulted in LP2 pulling an all-niter to manually identify the 29 song titles and artists. After figuring out 28 of them, LP2 did the smart move of scrapping the 29th track – just to be able to deliver on time (and to get at least a couple of hours of sleep)!
So, just to spice things up a bit (y’all know we like to complicate things at least a little by now), and to honor LP2’s manual labour, we’ve decided NOT to just give up the 4BB Breaks Vol. 2 tracklisting. Why not end this old year and start the new 2010 with a competition?! How about we give you the mixtape tracklisting, but leave y’all with 5 blanks for you to figure out…and that you get no less than a week to figure them out? And just for the hell of it, how about us throwing in a nice prize to the first person who figures out all 5 and gets the tracklist completed?! :¬)
But before we get to the competition, the incomplete tracklisting and the nice prize, here’s a short preview snippet of 4BB Breaks Vol. 2: The Break Out (Pt. 1) – just to get the groove juices flowing:
Sounding good enough to end this old year, right?!
OK, here’s the tracklisting, or rather the partial tracklisting – it’s kinda clear where you have to guess what’s what…and we’ve set the level of trickiness to medium, so that y’all can partake! Check it out:
Shouldn’t be that hard to figure out the missing songs/artists!
So, what about that fine prize for whoever figures this shit out first?! Well, how about a digital download from our favourite crate diggers/reissue wizards over at Numero Group…their latest release, “Good God! Born Again Funk“ (NUM030) will be available real soon – and judging from the previews, it’s a stunning collection of awesomeness that at least I’m gonna be all over as soon as it drops! Now that’s what I call a nice prize!
Aight, friends…fair trade, right?! You get a great breaks mixtape, and I get 5 correct answers – and you could be the New Year’s Competition Winner! E-mail your completed tracklist here (it might be wise to put “Competition!” in the header, so I don’t miss it) – the first e-mail with the right answers win! Keep your fingers crossed that no one beats you to the punch!
Mad props to LP2 for yet another awesome mixtape – as always, 4BB salutes you! And stay tuned for a third 4BB Breaks installment in a near future!
Happy New Year!
Now hurry up and download this heater, crank up the volume and get that 2010 party started! And when you sober up, make sure to figure out those tracks and enter the competition! :¬)
/Lafayette
(Ps. Just so you know, you don’t have to worry about Soulbrotha, Arkane1, Vinnie or LP2 – they’re all disqualified from the competition! So, go ahead with your bad self, and get 2010 started on the good foot!)
Ho-ho-ho, friends! :¬)
Week 52 and the Christmas holidays are here, and to me (and most grown-ups) Christmas is more or less all about the food! (Apparently there’s supposed to be some religiousness involved as well, but when you sit there, after that 5th helping of eggnog, full of turkey, stuffing and pie, you kinda zone out and everything becomes a bit blurry.) Yep, it’s ALL about the food, keeping kids happy, strategic positioning under the mistletoe and, naturally, the MUSIC! In the afterglow of a feeding frenzy, music is the only thing that gets through to me!
I always try to find as much good non-Christmasy Christmas music as possible a couple of weeks before the holidays…I’ve long since outgrown the standard Yuletide repertoire – well, Ella Fitzgerald’s “Swinging Christmas” LP still works for me, but that’s about it…even though the “Rudy Ray Moore Christmas Album” LP is part of the decorations this year (I got a still sealed original vinyl from my favourite vinyl shop proprietor as a Christmas gift the other day) it’s a tad too lewd to be played when the kids are around. So, yeah, I stock up on suitable holiday music…like Brother Jack McDuff’s fantastic “English Country Gardens”, Paul Desmond’s late 60’s “Easy Living” or anything from Ketty Lester’s album “When A Woman Loves A Man”– it’s about getting the right mood set, the perfectly luxurious arrangements and sweet, cosy, well-known themes…making the music come across just fine even on a modest volume (or through the cacophony you call family)!
I’ve got another fine example in this category of joyful non-Christmas music perfect for the holidays: The New London Rhythm & Blues Band and their LP “Soul Cookin'” (released on Vocalion in 1969). Pretty obviously a British outfit – we’re talking about a real upbeat bunch of skilled, yet anonymous, studio musicians. The only further info I’ve found is a hunch expressed by the all-knowing soul music purist’s and Hammond B3 connaisseurs over at Funky 16 Corners – they suspect that “the undisputed king of Library music composers” Alan Hawkshaw is involved…one way or another. Of course, it’s an unconfirmed suspicion/hunch, but it wouldn’t be all that surprising – Alan was basically in on all groovy UK recordings of the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Like a Christmas album, the “Soul Cookin'” LP consist of only well-known songs – but the “Jingle Bells” and “White Christmas” repertoire has been replaced with soul music standards like “Green Onions”, “Light My Fire” and “Soul Man”. It’s mostly funky, horn section driven instrumentals with plenty of reverb, but also includes cool vocal renditions of “Harlem Shuffle” and “Dancing In The Streets”. All in all, it’s the ideal Christmas music supplement – perfect for both your ears and your digestive system!
Just listen to this tasty snippet of The New London Rhythm & Blues Band’s bouncing version of Stevie’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”:
Praised by crate diggers and mods alike, yet never re-issued – lay your hands on a copy of the original vinyl here ($30) or here (from $40)!
And now, this is where the entire staff at 4BB Weekly (Soulbrotha, Vincent, Arkane1, Lafayette and DJ LP2) wishes all our readers and listeners a very Merry Christmas! Just remember to nap between meals and to keep the sticky, sugar-rushed kids away from your vinyls, and you’ll be alright!
New London Rhythm & Blues Band – 4BB salutes you! Mad props for making our Christmas even merrier! :¬)
/Lafayette
(Ps. And hey, don’t forget to come visit us again in time for our super special New Year’s post – we’ll make sure to kick-start your brand new year in a truly decade-turning fashion!)
Welcome back, friends!
We’re deep into Week 51, and the holiday season is closing in. So I guess an early Christmas gift is in order…how about this vintage Leon Haywood collaboration with the Page brothers?!
Yep, Leon’s 1974 release “Keep It In The Family” more or less keeps things in the Page family…Gene Page handling all arrangements and the conducting, and older brother Billy Page writing the irresistible “Sugar Lump” – the hit single off the album.
Released on 20th Century Records, with entrepreneur-extraordinaire Russ Regan at the helm (you know, the former UNI-boss who hired Barry White as a producer and later did us all a favor by coaxing Barry into recording as a solo artist as well) – which of course gives a clue on how Leon, Gene and Billy met up.
“Keep It In The Family” is definitely among my favourite Leon Haywood albums (long-time followers might remember a near complete discography post on the old blog, excluding only this one and only LP) – with wonderful cuts like the instrumental masterpiece “B.M.F. Beautiful” (written by Gene & Leon), the sweet and upbeat, yet socially conscious, “Sugar Lump” and the highly dramatic “Long As There’s You (I Got Love)”…the latter one sounding like the main influence for pretty much all songs on Portishead’s “Dummy”.
On that topic, I prolly should mention Leon’s massive influence on hiphop…his next album, “Come And Get Yourself Some” from 1975, included the massively sampled “I Want’a Do Something Freaky to You” – which instantly should have you reminiscing on Dre & Snoop and their 1993 epic, “Nuthin’ But A G Thang”! Funny enough, if you go dig up your copy of “The Chronic”, you’ll find that Leon is wrongfully credited as “L. Hayward”!
Now, check out to this short preview of the Leon/Gene/Billy collab “Sugar Lump”:
For those not in the know regarding Leon Haywood, here’s a short but efficient recap courtesy of AMG’s Richie Unterberger:
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Soul/funk journeyman Leon Haywood periodically dented the charts in the 1970s with hits that tapped into the grooves and musical hooks of the day’s trends. An accomplished songwriter and arranger, Haywood never pretended to be an innovator, and his hits are cheerful derivations of ’70s midtempo funk and romantic ballads, usually embellished by smooth string charts. His best material recalled the late-’60s/early-’70s Motown sound; on the slower material in particular, his vocals bore a resemblance to those of Marvin Gaye.
Haywood’s roots extend way further back than the ’70s; he toured and recorded with R&B saxophonist Big Jay McNeely’s band (which also backed Sam Cooke on the road) in the early ’60s. In the mid-’60s, he had his first chart entry with “She’s with Her Other Love” on Imperial. In 1967, he had a solid R&B hit (and small pop one) with “It’s Got to Be Mellow,” whose commercial soul sound betrayed his Motown influence.
He didn’t come into his own as a solo artist until the mid-’70s, when he had big R&B hits with “Strokin’,” “Come and Get Yourself Some,” and “Keep It in the Family.” His biggest single, “I Want’A Do Something Freaky to You” (with orgasmic female gasps and moans that made it pretty clear what “freaky” really meant), crossed over to the Top Twenty pop listings. The discoish “Don’t Push It Don’t Force It” was his biggest splash, making #2 R&B in 1980. After the mid-’80s, he eased out of the record business into business ventures; in the 1990s, he produced blues albums by Jimmy McCracklin and others on his own EveJim label.
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Aight, that should do it! :¬)
To buy yourself a copy of the original vinyl for less than $15, click here! If you just won the lottery, you might be interested in this $172.50 CD compilation “The Best Of Leon Haywood” from 1996 right here?!
Leon Haywood – 4BB salutes you!
Just two more weeks to go for a complete first year for 4BB Weekly…and we sure got some sweet surprises up our sleeves to make these two last weeks count! See y’all next week!
/Lafayette
(Ps. Damn, almost forgot…can’t really do a post on Leon Haywood without including this groove – one of the ass-wiggliest beats ever, sure to fill any dancefloor in an instant!)
It’s Week 50 already – time for something new…and old. Or well, a combination of sorts.
Thanks to the dynamic duo, LP2 and Vincent The Soul Chef, we are happy to present the first installation of “4BB Breaks” – a series of mixtapes built solely on the best breaks in soul and funk music! On this “Vol. 1″ mixtape our resident DJ, LP2, got to choose favourites from Vincent’s vast collection of 7” singles.
Vincent, a long-time collector of them dusty vinyls with the big center-hole, ripped 80 of his darling 45’s – LP2 chose to go to work on 14 of these (probably saving some for the upcoming volumes)…and voila, we got ourselves a kick-ass, footstomping great start to the series. Clocking in just under 40 minutes, this is the perfect rush for any beathead…or seasoned soul music lover. Just glancing at the tracklisting, you’ll know this one’s a winner:
Here’s a tasty 3 minute preview for your listening pleasure:
While you listen, here’s a shameless plug for LP2 – and some info on Vincent:
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We first got to know LP2 when participated in the 4BB Beat Logo competition in 2008 (and yeah, he won it…that’s why all our downloads includes his “4BB theme”). LP2 was also the mastermind behind the fantastic Phoenix – The Resurrection Mixtape – celebrating 4BB’s return to the blogosphere back in April. And I’m pretty sure you had LP2’s entries in the recent 4BB/Damn! Remix Competition among your favourites, right?! His rework of Damn!’s “Headstone” made it all the way to the finals, and is featured on the “Damn! Remix EP” – available for download right here! If you want more info on LP2, go visit his Myspace!
Vincent The Soul Chef really don’t need a formal introduction. Apart from being 4BB Weekly’s 7″ specialist (according to blog statistics, his much appreciated 7″ Sisters post back in Week 22 is still 4BB Weekly’s most visited page), he also runs a great blog of his own – the legendary Fufu Stew!
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Basically, this is all you need to now to be sure this mixtape will rock your world – at least for about 40 minutes! :¬)
Big thanks to Vincent (for the hard work ripping all them 45’s) and DJ LP2 (for the mad skills) – helping “4BB Breaks” to a great start!
Without further ado, here’s 4BB Breaks Vol.1: These Are The Breaks! To ensure a great experience, make sure to set your speakers to “stun”!
See you all next week!
/Lafayette
(Ps. Wow! Just need to share this with you all – Harry J. Elston, the founder of Friends Of Distinction, left us a comment the other day…thanking for the attention and the props, and that he’ll be following our weekly updates from now on: “Keep up the good work”! Now, how cool is that?!)
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OK, here’s the “official” Damn! Remix EP – including both the two original tracks “Headstone” and “Get Your Grown Man On, as well as the six best remix competition entries.
The tracklisting is as follows:
01-Headstone (Original Mix)
02-Get Your Grown Man On (Original Mix)
03-Headstone (Gorque’s Champion Remix)
04-Headstone (LP2 Remix)
05-Get Your Grown Man On (Gorque Remix)
06-Get Your Grown Man On (C.H. Remix)
07-Get Your Grown Man On (Saft Sthlm Remix)
08-Get Your Grown Man On (Mofo Trio Remix)
Enjoy!
(Ps. Big thanks to Damn!, all the contestants, the label, the partners, the collaborators and the sponsors – let’s do it again sometime real soon!)
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Welcome back for another week’s worth of the good music!
Week 49’s post will be all about one of our favourite male vocalists, Paul Kelly. Initially it was our long-time follower and collaborator Ricardo who re-sparked our interest by contributing a rip of Paul’s 1974 album “Hooked, Hogtied And Collared”, posted in August last year on the old 4BB blog (you’ll find it reposted right here as well, go check out our Week 1 post)! About a month after that, thanks to our buddy Paros, we posted another Paul Kelly gem – “Don’t Burn Me” from 1973. So when I stumbled upon a just good-enough copy of Paul Kelly’s 1977 release “Stand On The Positive Side” on my latest trip to my favourite vinyl shop – this week’s post was a given! Especially after realizing that this album also is the perfect comeback to the recently posted Gene Page album (Week 39) – since Gene co-produced, arranged and conducted all tracks on “Stand On The Positive Side”! Can’t really miss an opportunity like this, right?!
Conveniently, the liner notes proved to be the perfect source for the write-up…check out Joe McEwen’s perfect “beginners guide” to Paul Kelly briefing:
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Saying that Paul Kelly is the Von Freeman of soul music probably won’t mean much to a lot of people (Laf’s edit: Check this!). But the comparison is a compliment of the highest sort. Kelly, like the highly regarded Chicago tenor saxophonist, is something of a cult figure – a man whose body of recorded work for almost a decade has been laudably consistent, personal and cliché free.
Paul Kelly is a Southern singer and songwriter in the classic mold. A product of the intensely competitive Miami soul arena, Kelly’s style was honed singing with local groups like the Del-Mires, an outfit fronted by Miami stalwart Clarence Reid (Laf’s edit: To most, Reid’s alter ego Blowfly is more well-known). As a solo singer, Kelly continued his association with Reid who wrote and produced Paul’s first chart success, “Chills and Fever,” in 1968. It was also Reid who introduced Kelly to Buddy Killen (Laf’s edit: For more info on Buddy’s work, check this!), a Nashville country producer who was responsible for producing all of Joe Tex’s soul hits. Under Killen’s direction, Paul recorded for Dial and Phillips (including a little known gem called “Cryin’ For My Baby”), but it was a record on Buddy’s Happy Tiger label that made a lot of people aware of Paul Kelly. Conceived while listening to a preacher evangelize on the radio, “Stealin’ in the Name of the Lord” provided a potent message for listeners:
People I tell you what I see
A parasite is he
Ain’t much difference in what he’s doin’
Than B and E, that’s breaking and entering
That man is stealin’ in the name of the Lord
The song created a furor among many members of the black church who didn’t take kindly to Kelly’s wry observations. But the single hit home with an audience who recognized the type. A subsequent album, reissued on Warners as “Dirt,” offered a further glimpse of Paul Kelly’s considerable skills as a writer. “Poor But Proud,” “Hangin’ on in There” and “509” are effective and poignant narratives, heightened by some moody, understated gospel-soul arrangements. Though Paul worked effectively in the traditional soul vein, he explored other avenues as well: “Soul Flow,” for one, is an ambitious concoction of busy rock guitar and stormy, Southern funk that some aspiring band would do well to cover.
Since “Dirt,” two more albums have been released – “Don’t Burn Me” and “Hooked, Hogtied and Collared.” Both are more seamless than “Dirt,” with rough edges still intact; both were recorded in Nashville with Buddy Killen. More recently, Kelly released a rocking, iconoclastic single called “Get Sexy” that, sadly, barely dented the bottom of the soul charts.
“Stand On The Positive Side” is the first Paul Kelly record to be recorded outside Nashville in almost a decade. Smoother and more stylized than past efforts.
“Stand” still finds Paul Kelly deeply immersed in gospel and soul rootsiness… Fans of his previous albums will find “Feather In The Wind” and “God Can” much to their liking, while hopefully a new audience will be proselytized by songs like “To The Bone, Get It On” and “Ain’t Nothin’ Better.” Get positive.
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If you need a more comprehensive bio, go check out Wikipedia’s entry on Paul right here!
Now, have a quick listen to one of my favourite tracks on the LP, the title cut “Stand On the Positive Side”:
To lay your hands on a copy of “Stand On The Positive Side” on precious vinyl, click here!
To support Paul and his music, please consider buying one of his later albums – like this one, available both on CD and as digital download!
Paul Kelly – 4BB salutes you! Thank you for all the fantastic music!
(Ps. By the way, I happened to mention to Paros that I was going to post this album next, and he e-mailed me back directly with a batch of Paul’s earlier work, including some of the 45’s mentioned in the liner notes…like “Chills and Fever” and “Cryin For My Baby” – I’ll be including them all in bonus link in the comments to the post!)
Hey, all!
The 4BB/Damn! Remix Competition 2009 is over, and it feels kinda comfy to get back into our old weekly format. Once again, congratulations to Gorque – our newly crowned remix champion…and please, a big round of applause for Damn! and all the contestants in the competition! Thank you! And as promised, the “Damn! Remix EP” (including the two original Damn! songs, as well as the six finalist entries) is now available for download right here! Just so you know, the special Remix Competition pages are still up and running – click here to get to the main page…where you’ll find links to the entries, the jury, the prizes etc.
OK, so how do we best celebrate our return to being just about them dusty LPs? Well, how do y’all feel about a rare, dusty 1975 LP with The Directions? This is yet another fine contrib from our “brother in arms”, Paros – and in my humble opinion, a damn fine way to kick things off!
Let’s begin at prestigious Chicago-label Brunswick, led by the legendary Nat Tarnopole (president and owner) – home of fine acts like Jackie Wilson, The Chi-lites, Barbara Acklin, Young-Holt Unlimited and Gene Chandler. Naturally, Nat had plenty of other artists and musicians working for him – like any other label of the time. Not much is known, but I’m sure The Directions wasn’t really signed to the label as a group, but was rather a handful of talented session vocalists working on various Brunswick projects, who befriended a bunch of local session musicians – on this album known as the The Directions Band.
Back in the early 60’s, when Brunswick ran into some image problems with womanizer Jackie Wilson’s extra-marital affairs, Nat Tarnopol had Jackie’s touring manager, mobster Johnnie Roberts, hiring a special guy just to look after Jackie. According to Tony Douglas excellent book “Jackie Wilson – The Man, The Music, the Mob”, published in 2001, the perfect guy for the job was a certain August Sims: “Roberts employed a minder to look after Jackie. He was August Sims, a hulk of a black man weighing around 230 pounds. He provided protection as well as ensuring Jackie made his concert dates – and stayed out of trouble.”
Well, more than 10 years later big August Sims had become one of the regulars hanging around the Brunswick recording studios, and was by now friends with pretty much every one recording for the label. August was also the guy who talked Nat Tarnopol into giving his buddies in The Directions Band, led by bassplayer Tommy Meeks, a chance…and together with vocalists Earl Haskin (baritone), Willie Morrison (lead, tenor), Kenneth Perrey (bass), Howard Hopgood (lead, tenor) and Lawrence Wooden (tenor), they got to cut an album of their own! The production was handled by August’s buddies Benny Clark (writer and arranger) and Willy Bridges (arranger and saxophone player) – who both had been working for Brunswick for years.
What about the end result? Well, apart from being the most sought after 1975 Brunswick release by far (a worn copy of the original LP was sold for over $270 earlier this year), the outcome is best described as “all over the place”…genre-defying and highly varied to say the least. Perfectly arranged vocal group soul mixed with funky instrumentals songs – sweet ballads mixed with great funk cuts…and as a bonus, a couple of instrumental versions of some of the songs! Luckily, the thing that ties it all together is the fact that you actually can hear how much fun The Directions and The Directions Band had recording it all!
My personal favourites on the album are “We Need Love” (beautiful harmony soul), “Copy Cat” (great funky instrumental), “Soup Line” (fast horn-driven funk) and “She’ll Never Say It” (another great group soul track)! If you wanna know why people pay a lot of money for this LP – just listen to this:
So, now that you want to own a copy of the album, you’re wondering where you can lay your hands on the LP, right?! Well, the original vinyl is really hard to find…luckily there seems to be a Japanese CD-reissue (not sure if it’s a bootleg or not) in circulation – there’s a reasonably copy available right here. But the purists shouldn’t be discouraged – keep sifting through them vinyl bins…eventually you’ll strike gold! :¬)
Again, mad props to Paros for supplying us with the good music…but first and foremost, August Sims and The Directions – thank you for the music!
(Ps. Sorry about the delays regarding the weekly updates – we’ll be playing catch up this week for sure! The delays was mainly caused by a complete hard drive crash on my laptop…people, remember to do regular back-up’s!)
