Twelve

This blog continues to stumble along and today has reached the ripe old age of 12. Something of a dinosaur in the whirlwind that is the internet and “soshul “ media now.

If the blog stats can be believed then a few people still drop in. But the numbers have dropped off markedly, with another dive in the last couple of years. Then again, my posting frequency has dropped off too. It seems, like many things, the blog stats are not quite as good/believable/revealing as they once were. The complexity nowadays of internet routing and server location may have something to do with it I suppose, but the link and referring stats seem to be of little use. I sometimes go to a blog or site that has, so say, linked here and often find the blog has no evident links here, and is usually not even music related.

To my few regulars and any of you who continue to drop by I say thank you. It is nice to think you do, and it continues to keep me going.

The 45 I present on Feel It's 12^th birthday is one I picked up at the local record fair earlier this year. I had gone only with the intention of catching up with a friend and perhaps just idly browsing. I wasn't feeling the urge to buy (I often don't nowadays at mainstream record fairs), but found a new (to me) dealer who had a few boxes of interesting Soul stuff. This 45 wasn't cheap, but was a good deal anyway.

Almost nothing is known of Alice Clark. She has left us with a recording legacy of just three high quality singles and one rare and highly sought after album, released in 1972. The 45 I'm featuring was her first, and amazingly it also actually got a UK release (on the Action label). Typical of mid to late Sixties Soul 45s it has an upbeat dancer on the A side and a deeper slowie on the B. If you are a regular here you will know the deep and soulful ones are really my bag, and so it is the B side of this 45 that seems particularly apt to share on this blog's birthday.

Alice Clark – Say You'll Never (Never Leave Me)  1968

PS: Happy Birthday Candi Staton.