Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Any Major Christmas Soul Vol. 3

December 8th, 2011 14 comments

Last year we had two compilations of classic Christmas soul (plus one featuring newer stuff); here is a third volume. It kicks off with a spoken intro by The Jackson 5. Jermaine is crying — and the manner in which that is established always makes my smile — and he needs yuletide comforting. Wonderful stuff.

Towards the middle we get socially conscious. Stevie Wonder, still just 17 years old, hopes for no hunger and no tears, but for peace and equality of man. Then the Harlem Children’s Choir, who sound rather older than children, provides some seasonal black consciousness from the ghetto, with an inevitable riff on notions of white Christmas.

The Shurfine Singers borrow a concept from Simon & Garfunkel as they sing Silent Night as a news broadcast runs in the background, speaking of war, protest and strife. As on the Simon & Garfunkel track, the news (now at 11pm, not at 7) becomes increasingly louder to drown out the hymn of peace. Unlike the S&G version, the news cast ends with an editorialising Christmas wish.

This is followed by two examples of a genre that was fairly popular at one point: the Vietnam Christmas song. We previously encountered Change Of Pace on Covered With Soul Vol 5 covering Freda Payne’s Bring The Boys Home as the more alliterative Bring My Buddies Back; here they send a letter from Vietnam, explaining that they won’t be home this Christmas. Johnny & Jon‘s Christmas In Vietnam is representative of the anger African Americans felt at the disproportionate number of young black man drafted for the war. So, where in a country song the lament of an unhappy Christmas because “there”s Vietcong all around me” might provoke defiant flag waving, this sombre Southern Soul number seethes with resigned anger.

Things soon become Christmassy again, and we come across a pre-fame Luther Vandross with his band Luther, who perform a song he wrote (two years earlier, he had co-written David Bowie’s Fascination). Vandross clearly didn’t like the two Luther LPs; he later bought the rights to them and prevented their re-release.

James Brown closes the set with the second song called Soul Christmas; needless to say, it’s not the same song as Count Sidney’s. I rather enjoy JB thanking and loving his fans (“people like you don’t grow on trees”) for their support, urging them to come to his next show. So it’s a bit ironic that the man should have died on Christmas Day…

This is the first of three Christmas sets I’ll post this year: the others will cover country music and the acoustic lot. All are timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and I”m making front and back covers for all.

TRACKLISTING
1. Jackson 5 – Christmas Won’t Be The Same This Year (1970)
2. Count Sidney and his Dukes – Soul Christmas (1967)
3. Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa (1968)
4. Otis Redding & Carla Thomas – New Year’s Resolution (1967)
5. Mack Rice – Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ (1972)
6. Brook Benton – You’re All I Want For Christmas (1963)
7. George Grant and the Castelles – At Christmas Time (1960)
8. The Staple Singers – The Last Month Of The Year (1962)
9. Aretha Franklin – The Christmas Song (1964)
10. The Temptations – My Christmas Tree (1970)
11. Stevie Wonder – Someday At Christmas (1967)
12. Harlem Children’s Chorus – Black Christmas (1973)
13. The Shurfine Singers – Silent Night & The 11 O’Clock News (1968)
14. Change Of Pace – Hello Darling (1971)
15. Johnny & Jon – Christmas In Viet Nam (1965)
16. Margie Joseph – Christmas Gift (1976)
17. Bill Withers – The Gift Of Giving (1972)
18. Donnie Hathaway – This Christmas (1970)
19. Luther – May Christmas Bring You Happiness (1976)
20. Smokey Robinson – A Child Is Waiting (1970)
21. Linda Lewis – Winter Wonderland (1976)
22. The Impressions – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (1976)
23. The Supremes – White Christmas (1965)
24. Booker T. & The MG’s – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1966)
25. James Brown – Soulful Christmas (1968)

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Any Major Ashford & Simpson Songbook

August 24th, 2011 9 comments

I was going to post another mix today, but when one of your favourite songwriters dies, priorities take over. And much as I love the recently dead Jerry Leiber’s repository of great lyrics — he was the Cole Porter of rock & roll — my tribute is for Nickolas Ashford, who with his wife Valerie Simpson wrote, produced and recorded over their career of five decades some of the finest soul music.

They deserve a lifetime achievement award alone for that string of wonderful songs they wrote and produced for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, Your Precious Love, You’re All I Need To Get By, The Onion Song, Keep On Lovin’ Me Honey and, of course, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. The Onion Song is rumoured to have used Valerie Simpson’s voice to stand in for the ailing Terrell (Simpson has denied it).

The inclusion of Kenny Lattimore and Chanté Moore’s version of You’re All I Need To Get By — it was that or that by Martha Reeves and GC Cameron — is rather nice, I think. Lattimore and Moore are a married couple, hopefully as solid (yeah!) as the writers of the song.

Then there were the Diana Ross songs: Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand), Surrender Remember Me, The Boss, It’s My House etc. Or the double-whammy for Ray Charles: I Don’t Need No Doctor and Let’s Go Get Stoned.

One clarifying note: the version of Reach Out And Touch Somebody’s Hand was the first hit for Diana Ross after she left The Supremes; the version here is that by the Ross-less Supremes with The Four Tops. This is, of course, the song which Ashford & Simpson sang at Live Aid with Teddy Pendergrass.

Well, let the music do the talking. Here is a mix of Ashford & Simpson songs (which is so good, it did not need the inclusion of their great hit, Solid).

Nick Ashford died of cancer on August 22, 2011. He was 69. May he rest in peace.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Ashford & Simpson – It Seems To Hang On (1978)
2. Quincy Jones with Chaka Khan – Stuff Like That (1981)
3. Diana Ross – It’s My House (1979)
4. Al Jarreau & Randy Crawford – Your Precious Love (1982)
5. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – Keep On Lovin’ Me Honey (1968)
6. The Marvelettes – Destination Anywhere (1968)
7. Ray Charles – Let’s Go Get Stoned (1966)
8. John Mayer & John Scofield – I Don’t Need No Doctor (2010)
9. Marlena Shaw – California Soul (1969)
10. Rosetta Hightower – Remember Me (1971)
11. Aretha Franklin – Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing (1974)
12. Gladys Knight & The Pips – Didn’t You Know (You’d Have To Cry Sometime) (1969)
13. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – The Onion Song (1969)
14. The Four Tops & The Supremes – Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand) (1970)
15. Chaka Khan – I’m Every Woman (1978)
16. Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (1970)
17. Kenny Lattimore & Chanté Moore – You’re All I Need To Get By (2003)
18. Roberta Flack – Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes) (1989)
19. Brothers Johnson – Ride-O-Rocket (1978)
20. Ashford & Simpson – Found A Cure (1979)

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If you like Amy Winehouse, you’ll like this…

July 25th, 2011 20 comments

I must confess that I find it hard to mourn the death of Amy Winehouse. Don”t think of me as a man possessed of a callous heart. Of course the death of a young, talented woman is a cause for sadness. But Ms Winehouse did not die in a tragic accident, as Otis Redding did, nor did a dread disease claim her, as it did Minnie Riperton. Amy Winehouse was a victim of her own excess; she lived a self-destructive lifestyle which first wounded her talent and then (as it appears) ended her life. My empathy is directed at her parents and those who loved Amy Winehouse without abetting her destruction.

There is tragedy in a life wasted, and sorrow in a talent not entirely fulfilled. I have both of Winehouse”s albums. They are good, but I couldn”t share in the excess of excitement that surrounded the Winehouse phenomenon. To be sure, she was a smart lyricist; a worthy successor of Marlena Shaw. Even her music was agreeable, in the way of a good pastiche. I don”t doubt that she had an affection for old soul music, and she treated the genre with great respect. But “” and here”s the rub for me “” why go for the copy if there is still so much of the source material to explore?

There is an argument Â that Winehouse”s retro offerings encouraged her listeners to explore the canon of old soul music. I don”t buy that. Winehouse”s success encouraged the proliferation of mediocre mono-named songstresses who say they are inspired by the soul music of the 1960s (and, usually, “all the old blues guys”, who then go unnamed).

So, to help the proponents of the former argument, here is a mix of songs which I might have named “If You Like Amy Winehouse, You”ll Like This”. I”ll call it, without any efforts to engage my imagination (for shortly I have a dessert to prepare for dinner), Any Major Soul Women. I imagine that Amy Winehouse would have been inspired by many of these singers; maybe she even based her sound on some of them. I can imagine her singing most of these songs.

As always, the mix is times to fit on a CD-R. Due to shortage of time, alas, no covers.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Anna King – Sittin’ In The Dark (1964)
2. Baby Washington – You Are What You Are (1966)
3. Betty Everett – Until You Were Gone (1964)
4. Rhetta Hughes – Cry Myself To Sleep (1969)
5. Irma Thomas – She’ll Never Be Your Wife (1973)
6. Laura Lee – Mama’s Got A Good Thing (1972)
7. Ila Vann – Got To Get To Jim Johnson (1967)
8. Erma Franklin – You’ve Been Cancelled (1969)
9. Fontella Bass – I Surrender (1966)
10. Marlena Shaw – Go Away, Little Boy (1969)
11. Mitty Collier – Little Miss Loneliness (1963)
12. Tami Lynn – I’m Gonna Run Away From You (1972)
13. Candi Staton – I’ll Drop Everything And Come Running (1972)
14. Jean Knight – Pick Up The Pieces (1970)
15. Sandra Wright – Wounded Woman (1974)
16. Esther Phillips – I Don’t Want To Do Wrong (1972)
17. Margie Joseph – Sweeter Tomorrow (1971)
18. Lyn Collins – Take Me Just As I Am (1973)
19. Marie ‘Queenie’ Lyons – Your Thing Ain’t No Good Without My Thing (1970)
20. Linda Jones – Don’t Go (I Can’t Bear To Be Alone) (1972)
21. Barbara Mason – I Miss You Gordon (1973)
22. Rosetta Hightower – I Don’t Blame You At All (1971)
23. Tammi Terrell – That’s What Boys Are Made For (1968)
24. Brenda Holloway – I’ll Always Love You (1964)
25. Dee Dee Warwick – We’re Doing Fine (1965)
26. Jean Wells – Have A Little Mercy (1968)
27. Lorraine Ellison – Try (1969)
28. Ruby Andrews – Overdose Of Love (1972)

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Saved! Vol. 2 – The Soul edition

July 13th, 2011 6 comments

The second SAVED! compilation gets righteous on your asses with a churchful of glorious ’70s soul — and it does so without going for the easy option of all those Stevie Wonder songs about God being a zillion lightyears away with whom you should have a talk (and did George Michael realise that he was singing a song of praise to God when he had a hit with Mary J Blige?).

While neither Stevie, Aretha nor Marvin feature here, Al Green does, though with a song that precedes his lesser Reverend Green phase. And, of course, Curtis Mayfield testifies, in his ways of social consciousness.

Most acts here did the Christian thing on the side; some of them may even be unexpected inclusions, such as soul songbirds Honey Cone, the legendary O’Jays, future disco diva Loleatta Holloway, Disco Inferno’s The Trammps, funksters The Bar Keys or William DeVaughn, whose Be Thankful For What You Got (featured in Any Major Soul 1974-75) is one of the widely forgotten giants of ’70s soul.

However, a couple of acts here did specialise in gospel music (remember, the genre is much broader than flamboyantly robed brethren clapping their hands or Winans knock-offs testifying in the glib ways of contemporary Christian music). The coolest of those was The Relatives. The gospel-funk-soul group recorded in the first half of the 1970s in Texas. Led by the Reverend Gean West, they released just three singles, and didn’t appear on CD until the small Hum Records label put out a collection of their released and unreleased material in 2009. The Relatives never broke through because the music was too funky for gospel, and too sanctified for the secular market. Reverend West is now in his mid-70s, and he’s still singing and preaching.

Another gospel-soul act is Detroit’s excellent The Rance Allen Group, whom we met before on Covered With Soul Vol. 5, with their reworked version of The Temptations’ Just My Imagination (which became Just My Salvation), and in the Rapture Day special, with the astonishing There’s Gonna Be A Showdown.

The third act here specialising in Christian messages is The Sons of Truth, whose testimony was rooted in ghetto life. They recorded on Stax’s Gospel Truth subsidiary. They are not to be confused with The Soul Children, who were an act put together by Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Their lead singer John Colbert later had a solo career as J Blackfoot.

Only one track on this mix was a proper hit (though God Bless This Child, performed here beautifully by Vivian Reed, is a classic). Stoned Love was The Supremes‘ first post-Diana Ross hit. Written in 1970, the song’s writer, Kenny Thomas, said the word “stone” refers to the strength of the bond of brotherhood the lyrics are calling for. It was supposed to be “Stone Love”, which is what The Supremes are singing, but a misprint on the label turned it into “Stoned Love”, and it was left at that.

Check out the drum break in the track by Carolyn Franklin (sister of Aretha and Erma) — has it been sampled to good effect yet? I also love the drumming on Sounds of the City Experience‘s Babylon. And talking of family connections, Milton Wright is the brother of Betty Wright (and obviously not the father of flight pioneers Orville and Wilbur).

Incidentally, the brilliant Touch Me Jesus might be credited to the excellent Glass House, but it was actually recorded by The Blossoms, with Darlene Love on lead vocals (there was a legal case about it).

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R (without the bonus track, obviously). Home-made covers are included.

TRACKLISTING
1. Honey Cone – Sunday Morning People (1971)
2. The Soul Children – All Day Preachin’ (1972)
3. Carolyn Franklin – Soul Man (1976)
4. Al Green – Jesus Is Waiting (1973)
5. Curtis Mayfield – I Plan To Stay Believer (1971)
6. Ernie Hines – A Better World (For Everyone) (1972)
7. Milton Wright – Job (1977)
8. The O’Jays – Make A Joyful Noise (1976)
9. The Relatives – Rap On (1974)
10. Sounds of the City Experience – Babylon (1976)
11. The Glass House – Touch Me Jesus (1971)
12. The Supremes – Stoned Love (1970)
13. The Rance Allen Group – God Is Where It’s At (1972)
14. The Sons Of Truth – God Help Us All (1972)
15. Loleatta Holloway – H.E.L.P. M.E. M.Y. L.O.R.D. (1975)
16. The Trammps – Pray All You Sinners (1972)
17. Jerry Butler – A Prayer (1972)
18. The Bar Kays – God Is Watching (1972)
19. The Impressions – Preacher Man (1973)
20. The Four Tops – The Good Lord Knows (1972)
21. Vivian Reed – God Bless The Child (1976)
22. William DeVaughn – We Are His Children (1974)
BONUS TRACK: Donny Hathaway – Thank You Master (For My Soul) (1970)

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Any Major Christmas Soul Vol. 2

December 9th, 2010 14 comments

The first Christmas soul mix was very popular. Thank you to all the kind people who took the time to say nice things about it (and about my efforts here in general). Comments are always appreciated.

As I pointed out in the blurb for the first mix, I held back a lot of great stuff for the follow-up. So this one might be even better than the first compilation. You be the judge of that.

Be advised that in this batch are a couple of tracks that might not appeal to your mother: Rufus Thomas (Carla’s dad) makes little effort to disguise his punnery, missing out only on Santa coming only once a year. It may be necessary to point out that Clarence Carter’s Back Door Santa is not an invitation for yuletide anal sex (and here we welcome the lost and probably disappointed Google user); the back door of the title is just that: a door. With hinges.

Charles Brown, who appears here with Christmas In Heaven (not the Monty Python song), incidentally wrote one of the great Christmas pop songs: I’ll Be Home For Christmas. As in the first mix, the voice on the Rotary Connection’s track ““ here a psychedelic take on Silent Night ““ is that of the great Minnie Riperton. And there is a justification for the inclusion two takes of Silent Night: they are both excellent and very different from both, one another and the standard versions.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R. It also includes a really good (though long) bonus track and front/back covers.

TRACKLISTING
1. J Hines and the Boys – A Funky Christmas To You
2. Smokey Robinson – Christmas Everyday
3. Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Clowns – Silent Night
4. Lee Rogers – You Won’t Have To Wait Till Christmas
5. Carla Thomas – All I Want For Christmas Is You
6. Brook Benton – Soul Santa
7. Roscoe Robinson – Tis Yuletide
8. Baby Washington – White Christmas
9. Stevie Wonder – Christmastime
10. Solomon Burke – Presents For Christmas
11. Electric Jungle – Funky Funky Christmas
12. Rufus Thomas – I’ll Be Your Santa, Baby
13. Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa
14. Jimmy McGriff – Christmas With McGriff Pt1
15. The Twistin’ Kings – Xmas Twist
16. Otis Redding – Merry Christmas, Baby
17. The Soul Stirrers – Christmas Joy
18. The Persuasions – You’re All I Want for Christmas
19. Meditation Singers – Blue Christmas
20. Gene Toone – Baby Boy
21. Charles Brown – Christmas In Heaven
22. The Emotions – Black Christmas
23. Rotary Connection – Silent Night
24. Marvin Gaye – Purple Snowflakes
25. The Supremes – Silver Bells
26. The Temptations – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
27. The Funk Brothers – Winter Wonderland
Bonus track: Ohio Players – Happy Holidays

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Any Major Christmas Soul Vol. 1

December 2nd, 2010 16 comments

Christmas got funky, Christmas got soul! The analytical eagle-eyed reader may have deduced, by astute observation of the post’s title, that this year’s Christmas mix is dominated by soul music, and that there will be at least one more compilation. Indeed, there will be at least a second mix of Christmas soul tracks from the heyday of the genre ““ the 1960s and ’70s. I have held back a few cracking numbers anyway. Still, this is a really great bunch of songs.

The Flirtations, one of the great girl-bands of the late 1960s, are unjustly forgotten. One singer appears twice on this selection: Minnie Riperton first duets with Sydney Barnes on the Rotary Connection’s Christmas Love, and later reappears as the lead singer of the girl group The Gems, whom she split from in 1965.

As always, the mix is times to fit on a standard CD-R. It also includes a front and back cover.

TRACKLISTING
1. The Flirtations – Christmas Time Is Here Again
2. Rotary Connection feat. Minnie Riperton – Christmas Love
3. The Emotions – What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas
4. The O’Jays – Christmas Ain’t Christmas (Without The One You Love)
5. William Bell – Everyday Will Be A Holiday
6. The Salem Travellers – Merry Christmas To You
7. Isaac Hayes – The Mistletoe And Me
8. The Staples Singers – Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas
9. Soul Duo – Just A Sad Christmas
10. Carla Thomas – Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas
11. Kim Weston – Wish You A Merry Christmas
12. The Supremes – Twinkle Twinkle Little Me
13. The Skyliners – You’re My Christmas Present
14. Stevie Wonder – A Warm Little Home On A Hill
15. The Soul Stirrers – Christmas Means Love
16. The Gems – Love For Christmas
17. The Jackson 5 – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
18. Al Green – I’ll Be Home For Christmas
19. Marvin Gaye – I Want To Come Home For Christmas
20. Ike & Tina Turner – Merry Christmas Baby
21. Gary Walker – Santa’s Got A Brand New Bag
22. Otis Redding – White Christmas
23. Joe Tex – I’ll Make Everyday Christmas (For My Woman)
24. Soul Searchers – Christmas In Vietnam
25. Smokey Robinson & The Temptations – The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)
26. Booker T. & The MG’s – Jingle Bells

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Any Major Soul 1978/79

November 25th, 2009 7 comments

It”s tempting to dismiss the soul music produced in the disco era. I think this mix shows that it was still a golden era for soul, if not of quite the incredible standards a few years earlier when there was the happy confluence of the influences exerted by the likes of Philly, Motown, Hi, Muscle Shoals, Atlantic, and the Chicago scene.

If I was asked which of these tracks in this mix I”d take with me to a desert island, I would be hard pressed to choose between Bill Withers” Love Is and Minnie Riperton“s Never Existed Before. I think the latter would win. Released after her death from cancer, Minnie”s vocals are equally cute and sexy (nobody has done cute and sexy as well as Minnie did). It”s not the best-known track from the Minnie LP, but it is my favourite Riperton song.

Several of the songs here are touched by disco golddust. The Gary Toms Empire are perhaps more disco than soul. Former Motown writers Ashford & Simpson certainly were in their disco groove, and You Know How To Love Me by Phyllis Hyman (another wonderful soul singer who died too young, in 1995, the same year Bobby DeBarge, featured in the bonus tracks, died) is the sort of mid-tempo song one can dance or chill to.

Cheryl Lynn is better remembered for one of the great dance tracks, Got To Be Real. The track featured here, You”re The One, comes from the same eponymous 1978 album, one of the few ballads on the LP on which the 21-year-old Lynn delivered a fine, octave-traversing vocal performance. Signed by CBS on strength of her winning performance on the TV talent programme The Gong Show, Cheryl Lynn was a prodigious session singer too. It”s her soaring voice on Toto”s excellent Georgy Porgy, and she also backed Lenny Williams, whom we encounter in the bonus tracks.

Peabo Bryson does not have a good reputation among soul fans (with that name, it”s surprising he ever enjoyed any credibility), while Natalie Cole“s soul credentials have taken a knock with her endeavours to become her father. Don”t let such perceptions worry you as you hear their excellent jazzy cover of Bobby Caldwell”s What You Won”t Do For Love.

Jean Carn (later rendered as Carne, for “numerological” reasons) sang with Duke Ellington”s orchestra just before his death. Through her stint as a regular on US TV shows she was picked up by Gamble & Huff for their Philadelphia International Records label.

The Jones Girls also found success with Gamble & Huff, via two soul legends. The Chicago sisters were first mentored by Curtis Mayfield, through whom they got to work with Aretha Franklin. It was as a support act for Diana Ross that the Jones Girls “” Shirley, Brenda and Valerie “” came to Gamble & Huff”s attention. Besides releasing their own albums, they also provided backing vocals for the PIR roster.

Johnny “˜Guitar” Watson was cited by Jimi Hendrix as a major influence. He might also have been nicknamed “Organ”, for he played keyboard for Herb Alpert during the 1960s, reuniting with Alpert for his 1979 hit Rise [EDIT: Apparently he didn’t. See comments]. Before that, the man known as “Elvis” private guitar player” had toured with Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. Here he gets seriously funky, providing one of the few instances of snoring released on vinyl. Another legend, Wilson Pickett, made a brief comeback fusing the funk with old school soul, creating a sound which Tom Jones has tried to emulate for years, but never coming near his ambition.

The “Pops” in the title of the penultimate track is, of course, Berry Gordy, paid tribute here by four of the greatest stars in music history. I”d not have included it was it not for this year being Motown”s 50th birthday.

PW is amdwhah.

1. Gary Toms Empire – Welcome To Harlem
2. Ashford & Simpson – It Seems To Hang On
3. Jean Carn – Don’t Let It Get To Your Head
4. Bill Withers – Love Is
5. Rufus and Chaka Khan – Stay
6. Cheryl Lynn – You’re The One
7. Denise LaSalle – A Miracle You And Me
8. Neville Brothers – Washable Ink
9. Minnie Riperton – Never Existed Before
10. Natalie Cole & Peabo Bryson – What You Won’t Do For Love
11. Phyllis Hyman – You Know How To Love Me
12. The Jones Girls – You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else
13. Johnny Guitar Watson – It’s A Damn Shame
14. Wilson Pickett – Lay Me Like You Hate Me
15. The Whispers – Let’s Go All The Way
16. Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & Stevie Wonder – Pops, We Love You
17. Roberta Flack – And The Feeling’s Good

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Any Major Soul 1976-77

September 25th, 2009 8 comments

Any Major Soul 1976-77

The cull to bring the 1976/77 mix down to CD-R length was more brutal than I had anticipated. So much good music that failed to make the cut (hence all the bonus tracks)! Here then is a mix of a few fairly well-known songs, a couple of album tracks, and a handful of quite rare “” and certainly not familiar “” numbers. A few of these rarities are not of great sound quality; I hope the excellence of the music compensates for that.

To me the centre piece in the mix is Marlena Shaw“s Yu-Ma/Go Away Little Boy, the boy of the title being a bit of a waster whom Marlena knows she ought to get rid of “” but when he nibbles her earlobes”¦ooooh! Here Shaw recorded her big-bandish song from the 1969 The Spice Of Life album and added the Yu-Ma monologue. It is marvellous.Â Shaw is treasured among the soul and jazz cognoscenti, but wider fame has sadly eluded her. Shaw”s career, which started with a performance at age 10 at the Harlem Apollo, was certainly distinguished. She was not yet out of her teens when she co-wrote the jazz classic Wade In The Water with Ramsey Lewis. Careering between jazz and soul, she fronted the Count Basie band from 1968-72, and before that came up with some soul gems, such as California Soul and Liberation Conversation. By the mid-’70s she had no recording contract. A CBS record exec heard her sing Go Away Little Boy at a nightclub, and signed her up, giving her career a new lease.

The singer with the most off-putting name in this set must be Bunny Sigler. Born Walter Sigler, the nickname refers to the timing of his birth: two days before Easter 1941. The Philadelphia native was an early collaborator with Philly Soul godfather Leon Huff. He had a couple of minor hits in the 1960s, including 1967″s Let The Good Times Roll (featured on Any Major “60s Soul Vol. 1), and was central in the ascent of Philly Soul in the “70s, not only as a singer but also as a writer and producer. Like Marlena Shaw, Sigler continues to perform today.

Billy Paul“s Let “˜Em In is a cover of the Wings song, but with entirely different lyrics, paying tribute to Malcolm X, Martin Luther Kind, Louis Armstrong et al. Vastly superior McCartney”s original, a truth I hold as self-evident.

Arthur Alexander occupies a rare, perhaps unique, position in music history: he had his original songs covered by the Beatles (Anna), Elvis Presley (Burnin” Love) and the Rolling Stones (You Better Move On). More of a writer and arranger than a hitmaker, Alexander enjoyed a very brief revival in the mid-“70s. The gorgeous Sharing The Night Together, which was written by Muscle Shoals composers Ava Aldridge and Eddie Struzick, reached only #92 in the R&B charts. Typically, somebody else had greater success with it, in this case Dr Hook. Thereafter Alexander drifted out of the music industry, working as a bus driver. Just as he began making music again in 1993, he died of a heart attack. He was 53.

Bo Kirkland and Ruth Davis represent the disco influence in this mix. They were both recording independently until put together at Claridge Records, to whom both had signed. The smoothly funky You’re Gonna Get Next To Me was their only hit, reaching #12 in Britain in 1977.

The New World (not to be confused with the early”70s Australian group) were Curtis Mayfield proteges who did not seem to have recorded much more than one single. We”re Gonna Make It was the flip side of Help The Man, a funky number which you can find at the I Wish You Would blog. Curtis Mayfield is represented here with a really lovely track from 1977″s Never Say You Can’t Survive album .

The Fiestas were veterans by the time their Philly soul-a-like was released. The group had enjoyed some success since starting out as an R&B group in 1959, when they had a #11 US hit with So Fine. They later also covered Arthur Alexander”s Anna. Released in 1977, Gonna Hate Myself made no chart impact at all, which is a great shame.

Oh, and about the Lou Rawls” title: it is not me taking liberty with the Queen”s English.

1. Billy Paul – Let ‘Em In
2. Arthur Alexander – Sharing The Night Together
3. The Fiestas – Gonna Hate Myself
4. The Spinners – The Rubberband Man
5. Innersection – I’m In Debt To You
6 . Curtis Mayfield – Show Me Love
7. High Inergy – You Can’t Turn Me Off (In The Middle Of Turning Me On)
8. Marlena Shaw – Yu-Ma/Go Away Little Boy
9. Bessie Banks – Try To Leave Me If You Can (I Bet You Can’t Do It)
10. Bunny Sigler – That’s How Long I’ll Be Loving You
11. Candi Staton – Before The Next Teardop Falls
12. L.T.D. – Love Ballad
13. Lou Rawls – See You When I Git There
14. Tavares – Whodunnit
15. Bo Kirkland & Ruth Davis – You’re Gonna Get Next To Me
16. Eddie Kendricks – Skeleton In Your Closet
17. New World – We’re Gonna Make It
18. Dee Edwards – I Can Deal With That
19. Brothers Johnson – I’ll Be Good To You
20. Marvin Gaye – After The Dance

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Any Major Soul 1974-75

September 11th, 2009 8 comments

Any Major Soul 1974-75

By the mid-1970s, soul had by and large left behind its R&B roots and the influence of funk and what would become widely known as disco was beginning to manifest itself “” many soul acts of the period crossed back and forth between soul, funk and disco.

A few notes on some of the featured acts:

The Impressions had soldiered on after Curtis Mayfield went solo in 1970. By the time they had a trio of hits in 1974/75, Mayfield”s successor as lead singer, Leroy Hutson had departed as well, having been replaced by Reggie Torian and Ralph Johnson (the latter left in 1976). The song featured here was not a hit, but might be the best Impressions song of the period. The Natural Four, incidentally, were signed to Mayfield”s Curtom label and produced by Leroy Hutson at the time of Can This Be Real.

William DeVaughn sounds vaguely like Mayfield channelling Timmy Thomas. DeVaughn paid $900 to record Be Thankful For What You Got in 1972 in Philadelphia, with the MFSB band backing him. On its release in 1974 it became a massive hit. Yo La Tengo and Massive Attack fans will know the song from those groups” covers. It”s a boss groove which Squeeze must have known when they conjured the chorus of 1987″s Hourglass. Everybody now: “Diamond in the back, sunroof top, diggin” the scene with a gangsta lean.”

The Soul Children were formed in the late 1960s by Isaac Hayes and David Porter for Stax. The group included John Colbert (who would take the stagename J Blackfoot), who before becoming one of the four soul children had been serving a prison sentence with Johnny Bragg of The Prisonaires. After his release he met Otis Redding who invited him to travel on the plane that would kill Redding and most of the Bar-Keys. There was no room on the plane.

“I”ll Be The Other Woman, written by Homer Banks and Carl Hampton, belongs in the canon of great cheating songs. Here “the other woman” warns her adulterous lover not to cheat on her.

Sidney Joe Qualls was billed as “the new Al Green” when he appeared on the scene. He never reached the Reverend”s great heights, but his How Can You Say Goodbye To Someone might well be one of the best Al Green tracks Al never recorded.

The Moments, whose Sexy Mama is much better than the title would suggest, soon would have to change their name for contractual reasons, despite having recorded under that moniker for close to a decade, even scoring two UK Top 10 hits and a UK #3 hit with Girls, their collaboration with the Whatnauts. We will meet them again in this series as Ray Goodman Brown. Sexy Mama would be a great companion piece to Billy Paul“s Let”s Make A Baby (posted here as a bonus track).

Gene Page, whose instrumental All Our Dreams Are Coming True is this set”s most conspicuous nod to disco, was noted more as an arranger, having worked with artists as diverse as Buffalo Springfield, The Righteous Brothers, The Supremes, Elton John and Barbra Streisand.

Syreeta featured on the 1970/71 mix as a co-writer of Stevie Wonder”s If You Really Love Me. She was briefly married to Wonder, who continued to promote her career after they split, to the extent that the 1974 album on which the bluesy Black Maybe appears was titled Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta.

1. Billy Preston – Nothing From Nothing
2. The Main Ingredient – Just Dont Want To Be Lonely
3. The Tymes – You Little Trustmaker
4. Blue Magic – What’s Come Over Me
5. William DeVaughn – Be Thankful For What You Got
6. Sydney Joe Qualls – How Can You Say Goodbye
7. Major Harris – Love Won’t Let Me Wait
8. Rufus & Chaka Khan – Sweet Thing
9. Minnie Riperton – Simple Things
10. Latimore – Let’s Straighten It Out
11. Soul Children – Ill Be The Other Woman
12. The Impressions – If It’s In You To Do Wrong
13. Aretha Franklin – I’m In Love
14. Syreeta – Black Maybe
15. Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes – Wake Up Everybody
16. The Moments – Sexy Mama
17. Gene Page – All Our Dreams Are Coming True
18. Natural Four – Can This Be Real
19. The Spinners – Mighty Love
20. Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s The Way Of The World (Latin Expedition)

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Any Major Soul 1972-73

August 25th, 2009 4 comments

I was delighted to see a comment from Jerry Plunk, lead singer and drummer of the Flying Embers, thanking me for including the group”s Westbound #9 in the Any Major Soul 1970/71 mix (and a comment from Jerry Lawson from the Persuasions, appreciating the inclusion of his group”s version of He Ain”t Heavy/You”ve Got A Friend in The Originals Vol. 30). I hope that this series of “70s soul mixes will create some interest in acts and songs that are not as widely remembered as they ought to be. So this compilation excludes the most obvious picks for the years 1972/73, and includes what I hope are a few great new discoveries, or indeed re-discoveries. As before, it was a struggle to keep the mix down to the standard CD-R length.

As I was playing this collection, my wife heard Jermaine Jackson“s Daddy”s Home. She remembered that in her youth, this song and Earth, Wind & Fire”s Reasons (both by then a few years old) were the clarion call for young guys to ask the girls of their desire for a slow dance. Invariable, according to Any Major Wife With A Big Heart, the hapless girls who”d accept the invitation would feel something hard pressing against their stomachs; sometimes they”d have to fend off slobbering teen boys” mouths. If they succeeded in their horny designs, the song the boys should have played while making love is Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack“s Be Real Black For Me (sampled to good effect by Scarface for the excellent My Block);

The era under review saw the rise of Philadelphia”s soul scene. The O”Jays, Billy Paul, Three Degrees and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes fell victim to the not-too-obvious rule, but represented here are still a number of exponents of Philly Soul, such as the Delfonics, Futures, Intruders (“She”s choice Grade A beef”!!!) , First Choice, Trammps and soul veteran Joe Simon, an early member of the Gamble & Huff stable.

Denise Lasalle may be better remembered for her disappointing 1985 hit Don”t Mess With My Tutu. Far better to get to know her through her gorgeous self-penned Trapped By A Thing Called Love produced by Memphis soul legend Willie Mitchell, who also produced Al Green in his soul prime, including the second cut on the Let”s Stay Together album, represented here. Sandwiched between the Mitchell-produced tracks is Barbara Jean English“s So Many Ways To Die, which is a bit of a showstopper, I think. Listen to the lyrics!. And talking of lyrics, check out the Free Movement: she tells him tearfully that she”s splitting for another guy; he tells her to calm down because he”s had an affair as well. A dirty, clean split.

Bloodstone supported Al Green on a UK tour before releasing their 1973 debut single and album, both titled Natural High. Their drummer, Steve Ferrone, later joined the Average White Band, which did a very good cover of the Isley Brothers” Work To Do.

Terry Callier was a friend of Curtis Mayfield”s in the Chicago scene who fused his soul music with folk. He later recorded with Paul Weller and Beth Orton. He should receive credit also for this entirely agreeable cover art. Keep your game UP-tight, Terry.

Bobby Womack“s Harry Hippie, by the way, is named after his brother Harry, who a few years later died in a traffic accident.

1. Joe Simon – Step By Step
2. The Trammps – Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart
3. First Choice – Smarty Pants
4. The Isley Brothers – Work To Do
5. Cymande – The Message
6. Al Wilson – Show And Tell
7. Denise Lasalle – Trapped By A Thing Called Love
8. Barbara Jean English – So Many Ways To Die
9. Al Green – La-La For You
10. Jermaine Jackson – Daddy’s Home
11. Ronnie Dyson – When You Get Right Down To It
12. The Delfonics – Think It Over
13. Free Movement – I’ve Found Someone Of My Own
14. The Futures – Love Is Here
15. Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack – Be Real Black For Me
16. The Four Tops – Nature Planned It
17. Bobby Womack – Harry Hippie
18. The Intruders – She’s A Winner
19. Terry Callier – Ordinary Joe
20. Bloodstone – Natural High
21. Don Downing – Lonely Days, Lonely Nights
22. Jimmy Helms – Gonna Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse
23. Gladys Knight & The Pips – It’s Gotta Be That Way…

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