Most of the records in this year’s Advent-ure were doorstep finds, so to speak. This one, though, I found (along with a few other little ones with the big hole) in a record shop in Ludlow, of all places.
Syl Johnson could have been Al Green, that is to say the hit machine for Hi in the first half of the 70s. He had been invited down to Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studio before Willie signed Al, and he recorded some tracks with the Hi rhythm section, including the hit single Dresses Too Short. But Syl returned to Chicago – for the time being – and then Willie discovered Al Green. By the time Syl did join the Hi stable in 1971, after the Chicago Twinight label folded, the Al Green horse had already bolted into the charts. (Syl’s decision at the time wasn’t all bad because before he finally joined Hi he recorded and released the album Is It Because I’m Black – a stone cold classic in anybody’s book). At Hi Syl was forever in the shadow of Al Green (in fact all the singers – including Ann Peebles – were in that shadow, with the lion’s share of promotional push constantly going Al Green’s way).
Syl Johnson recorded four albums for Hi. The first three, issued between 1973 and 1975 are quality affairs and I’ve always had a real soft spot for them. In 1976 Syl had had enough of being in the shadows at Hi and effectively went on strike. This lasted until late in 1977 when this 45, and one other was issued. With That Wiggle Syl revisited two of his tracks that had been cut about a decade before – Different Strokes and Soul Strokes. The Disco boom was into it’s stride by then though and these 45s, not being in that bag, sunk without trace. Syl would leave Hi a couple of years later, his contract not renewed.
The information imparted here I gleaned form the booklet included in Numero’s Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology six album box set. Highly recommended.
Also recommended is a documentary on Syl that was released in 2017, I believe. You can find it here on Vimeo still for a very small rental cost.
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