5

Feel It is five today. Getting a bit long in the tooth now - for a blog at any rate.


If there any of you who have been regulars around here for at least a couple of years will possibly be aware that a Feel It birthday also means it is Candi Staton's birthday.

I spent a leisurely breakfast today playing a few of Candi's tracks on YouTube and then read a few old articles about her that are still available on The Guardian's website. One of them, from a couple of years ago, features a long interview with her (conducted in a modest London hotel room) that is well worth listening too. I know I'm biased but I find I'm moved by Candi's speaking voice almost as much as I am by her singing voice. 


During the interview Paul Morley laboured the Disco thing a bit too much to my mind. I know she has not one, but two disco/club anthems to her name that alone will mean her name will live forever, but that should not overshadow the significance of both her longevity in the music business and her wonderful Fame output in the late 60s and early 70s. But I'll forgive him because if you read his preamble to the interview you get the feeling he was just a little bit in awe of her, and I can relate to that.  


In the interview she mentions that back in those Fame days Rick Hall used to make her sing and sing until her voice became rougher and almost hoarse because that was the sound he was looking for. But she said that to begin with her voice was clear as a bell. In the very first post here at Feel It I featured the B side of her first Fame single, from 1968, "For You". The take for that song must have been one from fairly early in the day because you can hear the pureness and tenderness in her voice. Let's hear it again.      





Happy Birthday Candi!