Keepin' On, Gittin' Down

Today is this blog’s 20^th anniversary. It’s a stretch to say it has been active for all those years as, in recent times, there have been quite a few, shall we say, hibernations. But, in any event, I think it’s an anniversary worth noting.

I realise I’m noting this landmark with my first post of 2026 but let’s hope it kick starts me onto a few more posts this year. I have one half written, started as long ago as the first week of February. It would have been finished and posted back then but I then felt a bit meh for a few days and it stopped me in my tracks. Subsequently the words that were bouncing around inside my cranium did no more than that – the writer’s block kicked in again. As I say it’s half way there, although it was a bit of ramble. But with a bit of editing and a following wind I am hopeful it will manifest itself in another post soon.

I don’t do New Year’s resolution’s but at the start of the year I made a decision that amounted to one I suppose. I have over 6,000 records now, and that is too many. So I have embarked on something of a purge. Well, the intent is there at least, and I have hardly bought anything in the charity shops this year either. I have taken a methodical approach to this venture which has initially involved documenting my album collection (1,700 + albums) on Discogs so that our children might have a better idea of the records that are actually of real monetary value in the event they are suddenly left with this vinyl mountain. In ploughing through this task I have been pulling out albums that I think I could let go. I am giving them one last chance on the turntable to extend their life in my collection. I say one last chance, in truth I think some of these records were bought over the last 15 years or so and tucked away in the collection without ever being played! I am having some success in the weeding out, but I know I am not being ruthless enough, and I will need to have another lap of the process next winter (summer is not the time for such things).

I have made a few half hearted attempts at purges in the last 10 years or so. I find it almost impossible to purge records I bought back in the 70s as I find I have a strong emotional tie to them, even if they hardly ever get a play. I can picture them in the collection and that seems sufficient, and can preserve the memories.

One such album I felt sure would be purged this time was my copy of L.T.D’s Gittin’ Down.

I reckon I bought this in 1976. It might have been 1977 though as that was when they had some success with the single Back In Love Again, which may have been the reason I was attracted to this album. Anywaty, it has been in the collection for about 50 years now! It has a sticker on it that reminds me where I bought it – Disc ‘N’ Tape, on Bristol’s Gloucester Rd, sadly no longer there, it succumbed I think just before the vinyl comeback happened. I can still picture the second hand bins where I bought a fair few records (there were good bargains to be had), although the layout of the rest of the shop is very fuzzy. So the album scores high on the memories front but I think I have only ever played it a handful of times. Anyway, onto the turntable it went and I played it through, all of it …. and it’s a keeper!

L.T.D. (Love, Togetherness, & Devotion) were originally Sam & Dave’s backing band (a fact I have only just discovered) and had a run of 10 albums released between 1974 and 1983. Gittin’ Down was their debut album. Jeffrey Osborne was one of their main vocalists until he left the band in 1980 to go solo. In 1974, when this album was released, it was all the rage for band members to have their star signs shown on the album cover and so we learn L.T.D. contained three Libra, two Sagittarius, one Cancer, one Pisces, one Gemini, one Scorpio, and one Virgo.

I think after all these years I may have finally got around to properly listening to this album, and what strikes me is the overall upbeat feel. The interplay between the vocals and horns are great, and the sound has what I can only describe as an open and airy quality; it has a sort of joyous outdoorsy feel, “street” I suppose. Now I come to think of it that is a feel I associate with a number soul and funk albums from the early 70s. It’s very much of its time and has firmly hit my nostalgia button.

The sound I might describe as light and airy, the album art maybe a riot of bright colours on a white background, but this is one tough album. It’s now survived probably three purges in recent years. Back from the brink, and after some years ago being relegated to Division Two in my own quirky way of organising my collection it has now, proudly, properly taken it’s place in Division One.

L.T.D. – Groove For A Little While 1974

L.T.D. – Your Love Is The Answer  1974

PS. Happy Birthday Candi Staton!

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 17

Here’s a bit of a curiosity. A funky record from 1977 celebrating Jimmy Carter making it to The White House.

The funk is tight, and the horns have some definite similarities with the horn arrangements that can be found on mid70s Parliament releases. No surprise at all as it happens – Walter Foster had links to the JBs, and Fred Wesley is credited as producer and arranger on this record. Walter had just a handful of 45s released over period of more than 20 years. This was his second release, some twelve years after his debut on Loma. That 45 was produced by James Brown, and I would think it is entirely possible Fred Wesley featured in the backing group.

Have a contemporary funk group ever made a record singing the praises of the orange one, I wonder? I don’t know of one and I suspect the odds are vanishingly small.

Walter Foster – The Peanut Man (We Got A Friend) 1977

The B side is a nice slower number too.

Walter Foster – It Makes You Wanna Cry 1977

Now, that’s a title that could grace a song about the orange one.

I love a list

I am assuming that the majority of people who read this blog are over the age of about 55. That being the case my question to you is what were you doing 50 years ago yesterday?

If you were a diary writer and you have kept your diaries, as diary writers are wont to do I suspect, then you could dig out your 1975 documentation and answer the question pretty accurately. I was never a good diary writer but I can say with almost complete certainty one of the things I did on the 7^th November 1975, and I did it again yesterday!

In 1975 I was still at school, the 7^th November 1975, like yesterday, was a Friday, so, unless I was ill, I can conjure up how the day would have panned out. Breakfast, quite possibly Shredded Wheat (I have always been a fan, and that was breakfast yesterday). Grab the bike out of the garage and cycle/walk to school, meeting up with a couple of friends along the way. I don’t know which lessons I had that day but they would have included some, though probably not all, of: Pure Maths, Statistics, Economics, and Geography, those being the ‘A’ levels I took, and I was in the Upper Sixth that year. Lunchtime (at least!) would have almost undoubtedly been spent in the Sixth Form common room (unless it happened to be the day the floor in the terrapin structure collapsed!) and involved playing darts, cards, and records. Great times. I would have had sandwiches for lunch, probably cheese and pickle, made by mum (yesterday I had sausage sandwiches for lunch made by my wife). Sometime in the afternoon I would have ambled back home with my friends (we tended to chat a lot so pushed our bikes a fair amount when we were together). In the evening mum would quite possibly have served up fishfingers, chips, and peas as fish on Friday was very much still a thing (yesterday I had mushroom wellington, made by my wife, leftover from a little dinner party she had with some friends the night before). After that I probably strolled up to the Green Dragon to meet friends and drink Courage Best. (Although, thinking about it, I may have been shelf stacking and dealing with the “offy” empties at the Co-op in the early evening). There is a certain amount of conjecture in all of this of course, but if I had kept a diary I’m betting its narrative for the day wouldn’t have been far off this.

I can say with some certainty though there is one thing I did on 7^th November 1975, and that is read the Black Wax List #66. You can see in the picture I wrote the date in the top right corner. Exactly when I read it on that day I’m not sure, that would depend on whether or not the postie delivered it before I went to school. But I know I loved a list and I would have given an initial read as soon as I opened it.

Black Wax was a record shop in Streatham back in the day and sent out regular mail order lists. The first one of theirs I received was #57. I didn’t write a date on that one but it was probably sent out sometime in February 1975 (I think possibly I only wrote the receipt date of the list on the ones I ordered from). A fact I don’t think I knew at the time was that Black Wax was run by Tony Cummings, a respected soul music journalist who started and edited Black Music magazine in the early seventies. From 1974 on I had a copy of Black Music magazine delivered regularly by the local newsagent (I can’t imagine they delivered many, if any, other copies to the area). Black Wax obviously had a prominent advert in the magazine.

I still love lists and I have kept all the mail order lists I received back then (of course I have!), and so it was I found myself reading Black Wax List #66 exactly 50 years since I had first received and read it. You may be wondering what prompted me to do this? Well it was not an initially intentional anniversary act. The folder with all these old lists was to hand because I had, earlier in the week, had occasion to refer to another old list. Flicking through I noticed the date on this particular list and thought, well, I must read it to celebrate its anniversary! (The folder was relatively to hand because I had wiped the dust off it and given the lists a bit of of a going over, including this one, a couple of years ago and I intend to feature some more in subsequent posts).

In fact I did more than read it yesterday, I performed what amounts to a deep dive into it. An extra deep dive. It runs to 14 pages. The first three pages cover postage rates (11p to post a single 45), some other general information, and two pages and a bit pages of new releases – Donna Summer Love To Love You Baby (65p) was #1 in their Disco Chart. The subsequent 11 pages were dedicated to their “amazing “January Sale In November””. They were clearing oldies to make way for new stock (lots of which were probably going to be oldies too!). Just over 700 singles were listed (some feat of typing) at 30p each or 4 for £1.

So, what did I discover?

As I said I had looked at these lists a couple of years ago with a view to finding out, with the benefit of hindsight, how many bargains were on them. There were many, and I documented them. Back when these lists were issued there was, of course, no internet, Spotify, or the like and there was a lot of great ‘black’ music from the golden decade lying around in warehouses undiscovered, even though Northern Soul DJs were making inroads into that. Looking at Black Wax Lists #66 and #67 I made a list of 29 records in the 4 for £1 section that now have a Discogs median price of more than £50. To put that into perspective those 29 records would have set me back £7.25 in 1975, money I didn’t have then of course, never mind that the buying process was little more than sticking a pin on a page. In today’s money accounting for inflation that equates to around £77. The actual total of today’s median Discogs sold prices of these records is over £4000. In fact it’s reasonable to assume the majority records on these lists would have yielded some appreciation in value from the 2025 equivalent selling price of £2.68.

My deeper dive into this list yesterday was to see if at the time I ordered any records from it, and also to see how many 45s that appeared on the list I now own, mostly following my re-found obsession this century with little black round things with a big hole.

Deciphering little marks and squiggles I made on the list at the time I think I can identify three 45s still in my collection (I say still, but in reality if it is soul or funk I have never unloaded anything). Maybe I ordered more, but these were the only ones still in stock. The three are Betty Davis Git In There, Funk Inc. Dirty Red, and Ruth Brown Try Me And See. Betty Davis I knew of at the time, the others were very probably blind buys, so pot luck.

Now to the records on this list that I have subsequently bought over the years (mostly, no doubt, for more than the equivalent of 25p in 1975). I counted 70. So I now own about 10% of the records that appeared on this list. I think that’s quite a lot!

Some examples:

The most expensive/desirable record today that was on List #66 is Vivian Copeland Chaos In My Heart. This one has a current Discogs median sold price of £600. It has sold twice on Discogs this year, neither copy being in tip top condition. Of course back in 1975 the listed copy (or copies) would have almost certainly been mint dead stock.

One I wish I owned, and maybe I’ll splash the cash one day is Brothers Of Soul Candy / Dream. Current Discogs median sold price of around £270. It was on multiple lists in the cheap section back in 1975. Obviously dead warehouse stock, probably mostly brought into the UK by John Anderson of Soul Bowl fame. All of those have disappeared into collections now. My pot luck back in 1975 didn’t extend to one of them unfortunately.

Betty Davis Git In There. One I bought from the list. Current Discogs median sold price £22. It has sold a few times this year. A great slab of nasty funk from Miles’ ex.

Betty Davis – Git In There 1974

Gene Chandler There Goes The Lover. One of the 70 I have subsequently bought, probably about eight years ago. Current Discogs median sold price £12. A perennial favourite on the soul scene. A gorgeous slice of Windy City soul.

Gene Chandler – There Goes The Lover 1967

A nice break

We all know where Steve Davis is this week – well, snooker fans do, at least). The World Snooker Championship is in play in Sheffield and that’s where Steve will be, commentating and providing analysis. I know where Steve was on the first Saturday of this month - at my local record fair, and I went to it quietly confident he would be because he seems to be making a concerted effort to trim down his record collection and is frequenting the fairs quite a bit lately. That chimes well with me because he is continuing to offload a lot of soul 45s (the background to this I expanded upon a bit in my February post).

So I went a bit mad again and bought another 32 singles! Most of them came from the cheap (£2.50) boxes, but I indulged in a few higher priced gems too. I tell myself I am not likely to find this many of my go to type of record – i.e. 60s/70s soul with a big hole in the middle – in one place in the wild(ish) anywhere else in the UK so I better take the opportunity and “fill me boots”!

I did apply some quality control this time as the stack I originally pulled was probably twice as high as the one you see in the picture, but I religiously gave each one I didn’t know a needle drop on my Soundburger look-alike. This contraption got a few appreciative comments this time, strangely the first time I can remember that happening when I have been using it at a fair.

So, to use a snooker analogy, a think I amassed a nice break – plenty of reds (the cheap ones) but a few colours too (the relatively expensive ones).

A red: 

Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound in 1978, the studio is know known as Cypress Moon and where, almost exactly a year ago, Mrs Darce and I were taking a stroll along the river . 

Muscle Shoals was very much moving with the 1970s times with this one which has a distinctively funky feel.    

The Dealers - We Want To Get Through To You  1978

A colour: 

A classic Memphis sound, Barbara Brown either billed alone or with The Browns never made a bad record.   

Barbara & The Browns - If I Can't Run To You I'll Crawl  1971

Really feeling like we need to get back to the Deep South soon.

The Feel It Advent-ure 2021: Door 22

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic for the 70s this last few days, probably fuelled by watching episodes of Fawlty Towers and The Sweeney (it's a Christmas thing with me).

The early 70s was when music first became an essential part of my world, and the wah wah funk of this track places it unmistakably from that era.

Very little is known of Timmy Willis, or Henry Sapp to give him is real name. That information I found in this article which, amongst its many side turns, does a good job of mapping out his singing career, or at least as much of it as anybody knows. I notice he was, for a short time, in a group called The Suspicious Can Openers! (I would love to know how they came up with that name).

This was Timmy Willis' last of six single releases (the B side actually), released late in 1972 in the US and getting a UK release in the Spring of 1973. I guess you would call him another journeyman in the Soul world, but all his singles are worth picking up and I'm looking out for them.

Timmy Willis – Don't Want To Set Me Free 1972

The Feel it Advent-ure 2020: Door 5

Jean Elias made only one record as far as anyone seems to know. The Duke/Peacock/Back Beat stable of labels made almost no use of Muscle Shoals recording studios, but this is where both sides of this 45 were laid down. I don't think  this 45 troubled the chart compilers though, the only Billboard references I can find to the single are listings in the "ones to watch" section in late November 1971. It is a mystery why Jean never found her way onto wax again as she is a good singer, this 45's tracks are above the average, and a Duke label stable Billboard advert as late as August 1972 was still listing Jean as being on their roster. I suspect for Jean it was a case of right place, wrong time. By 1972 the more "down home" Soul was starting to struggle to be heard in the face of the rapidly emerging Philly style and more lavishly arranged up town soul and funk.  

I thought I had posted the B side - How Can I Go On Fooling Myself - before, but it seems not. Of the two sides it certainly seems to be referenced much more frequently on the internet; it was, I am sure, the reason I bought this 45 a few years ago now and it has been the only one that has stuck in my mind. However, playing both sides again today I'm thinking the A side deserves some love too.

Jean Elias - You Made Me A Anybody's Woman  1971

  

The Feel It Mini Advent-ure: Door 20

I wish you a Funky Friday.

Jesse Johnson – Kickin' The Habit 1972

A big tick

Back in my teens... as I sit here now, gingerly, because my back is twinging (again) those days seem a very long time ago... Anyway, as I was about to say, back in my teens I developed a long record wants list. The list was long because I was young and had discovered this giant musical sweet shop but pocket money, and then pin money earned shelf stacking at the local Co-op, didn't stretch nearly far enough to fund all the great music I was hearing. Take yourself back to your teens and I'm sure you were similar. I don't remember ever writing my list down, I just carried it around in my head. Forty or so years on there is of course a danger that the memory plays more than a few tricks, but I am reasonably sure that a certain Dr John album was on my wants list and I'm happy to say that, although it's taken a long time, I can finally cross it off the list. A local charity shop came up trumps recently. I had never seen a Dr John album in such surroundings before, they had three. To be fair it is not exactly your typical charity shop. They have an upstairs “inner sanctum” where they keep some records they deem to be more desirable. It is a mini record shop really, reflected in the prices. Nevertheless, I was happy to pay the asking price for this album.

Was it worth the wait? You bet. If I tell you that besides singing in his inimitable style and playing guitar and piano the good Doctor also plays muted fingernettes and zigola(!) you know it's on its way to being a winner. Now mix in The Meters and Allen Toussaint playing the most elegant* funk you could wish to hear and bingo! The whole album is an irresistible gumbo of New Orleans goodness. (*Maybe read slinkilicious – believe me, funk can be elegant without losing any of its power).

Can the album be summed up in just two words? Well, a track on the album has a good stab – Mos' Scocious – but the album title says it perfectly: Desitively Bonnaroo!

Dr. John – What Comes Around (Goes Around) 1974

Fridays on my mind

I am surrounded by people I know who are either recently retired, talking about retiring, or reducing their working hours. It's my age – and theirs - of course. So, for a few months now, this topic has been in the forefront of my mind, and it had made me a bit restless. Retire as soon as you can and enjoy life while you are still able is something I often hear – but what would I do to fill the time? I feel like I need at least some sort of plan - don't worry about that, just do it and you will soon find things to fill your days. Hmmm. I don't feel ready to retire just yet, but at the same time working five days a week holds no attraction anymore (and we are in the fortunate position that I don't really need to work full time from a monetary perspective). So I made the decision recently to reduce my working hours, something my employers were amenable to. Today, therefore, was my last working Friday. Four days (also slightly shorter) working and three days play seems a good work-life balance for the time being. That gives me a bit more space to think about what shape retirement should actually take. I guess I'm on retirement's nursery slopes.

The car boots have shown some promise this year in the early weeks of the season proper. Let's hope this continues after a fairly dismal 2015 and 2016. I was chuffed to pick up a copy of Kool & The Gang's Wild And Peaceful album for 50p last weekend. Kool & The Gang, at least in their early Seventies incarnation, have always been a favourite band of mine but I had never owned this particular album before. Singles such as Funky Stuff – which is on this album – and Jungle Boogie* were some of my earliest clubbing memories, and on the back of such singles they became known a s a funk band. But they were always so much more than that, and there was always a large dash of jazz to be found in the grooves of their albums of the time, as you will here on the title track.

Kool & The Gang – Life Is What You Make It 1973

Kool & The Gang – Wild And Peaceful 1973

[* EDIT: I must be going blind in my old age; Funky Stuff and Jungle Boogie are both on this album, as is Hollywood Swinging. I was probably as guilty as the rest of us at the time for thinking these would be the highlights of the album and the other tracks would probably be just funk heavy soundalike tracks.] 

Changing times

Yesterday turned into a beautiful early Spring day. All the more beautiful because I had the day off work. This is the second week running I have taken a Friday off and made it a long weekend (last weekend that long weekend was taken in a bracing, but thankfully dry, Cornwall). Fridays off are a current experiment with a view to reducing my working hours and making it a fixture. A much better work – life balance and gradual wind down to retirement is my thinking.

Taking advantage of the weather Mrs Darce and I took a sunny stroll to a new favourite local watering hole. There, spurred on by some successful DIYing earlier in the day that entailed putting our fridge freezer back on an even keel (we think a leak of some description had caused a floorboard to rot), conversation turned to the subject of more general house maintenance and room makeovers. By the end of the pub visit we had a plan. Oh dear! DIY and decorating have not been on the agenda for some years.

So it seems changes are afoot.

I guess it is thoughts of approaching retirement (which have been occupying my mind a lot recently), but I have been feeling nostalgic this past week or so, and in particular nostalgic for my 70s disco days.

With changes in the air it made me think of Brass Construction. They were a go to band for me in the mid 70s. The band originally formed in the late 60s, with Randy Muller the 'leader', but in their early years only had only one record release, a 45 in 1970 on Jeff Lane's DOCC label Two Timin' Lady / Take It Easy. It can be found on YouTube (what can't!?) and it is noticeable that their brass sound was immediately fully fledged, and somewhat ahead of its time I think. However, it was another five years before they committed to vinyl again. Their debut album, released in 1975, stood out from the crowd. The brass was prominent, the guitars were insistent, and a novel string sound had been added to the mix. BT Express had featured a similar string sound a year earlier? Yes but that had also been the brainchild of Jeff Lane and Randy Muller. A Wax Poetics article from 2004 is an excellent in depth appreciation of the group and also adds some interesting detail on how the string sound came to be. They go on to feature a number of tracks that feature Randy Muller's involvement. It is interesting to note I hve nearly all of them. 

Kool & The Gang and the Fatback Band had been dancefloor fixtures with their feel good funk vibe for a while but Brass Construction's sound, although anchored in funk, seemed to mark an entry point into a new, more sophisticated, disco sound and also lay down some early markers for the jazz-funk scene.

Pulling out my copy of Brass Construction for the first time in years I was puzzled by the Virgin price sticker on the front cover. I thought I had bought this album on its initial release, but the price sticker suggests it was a few years later. Perhaps until then I had been surviving with the singles that this album spawned, or maybe I lost my original copy and bought a replacement? It's all too hazy now. Scary, I'm sure only a few years ago my memory would have been sharp enough to have had this puzzle nailed.

The whole album sounds really fresh I think after all these years. Every track is a winner.

Brass Construction – Changin' 1975

At risk of blowing my Box download bandwidth again (be sure to tell me when that happens) her is another track. This one was overshadowed by a few of the other tracks at the time but it it's finally got some well deserved love from me now.

Brass Construction – Love 1975

Put It On The Hawg

No great missive today. Sometimes it's enough to let the music speak for itself.

Some great funky blues here from Jimmy Dawkins.

Jimmy Dawkins – Put It On The Hawg 1972  

Atlantic flossing

It has been gruelling at the car boot sales lately. 2016 is rapidly turning into the “...it is now” to 2015's “they think it's all over...”.

It could just be me. I don't seem to be able to get up quite as early as I used to so I may miss most of the worms. My lack of any real finds leads to dejection which leads to apathy and ends up with me not going so regularly. I am getting more choosy maybe. Oh, and of course I haven't got the space for any more records anyway – not that that has stopped me before!

But I am hearing the same story from other vinyl hunters. We grumbled about 2015 and we are shaking our head over 2016. It's a vinyl desert out there.

I found myself bottom feeding last Saturday. Why do I class it so? Firstly, I missed the start of the booter by a good 30 minutes – first of all I had to overcome the apathy mentioned above, then I had to overcome the traffic. So if there were any records the chances were the best had gone. Certainly, and predictably, vinyl - of any description - was hard to find. Secondly I found myself on a known dealer's pitch looking through every last single he had on offer in a couple of boxes. It was odds on it would be a ragbag of well known rock and pop in questionable condition he just wanted to offload. But I needed to look through some records. So I did, and I was pleasantly surprised to come away with seven 45s for the grand sum of £1.50. Included in this seven were The Hollies, The Troggs, Nancy Sinatra, Ronnie Lane, and the Mo-Dettes which were representative of the spread of much of the singles in the boxes.

The other two 45s to make up my seven 7s were these two slabs of funk goodness on the UK Atlantic label – both released in 1973 and certainly atypical of the rest of the material in the boxes. They are not particularly rare, and the artists should need no introduction, but I am very happy to have found them, and they have gone a little way towards restoring my faith in trawling the car boots.

In fact I think I may already have this Betty Wright 45 on its original US Alston label. But there is always a little thrill in finding a superior slice of funk/soul on a UK label, and it always leads me to wonder how few copies it probably sold when it was released. Be sure to listen all the way through and not miss Betty's impressive shriek at the end.

The Dr John track I remember hearing on the radio when it was released – John Peel, Alexis Korner would have undoubtedly played it, probably Emperor Rosko too – a time when I had yet to appreciate the mightiness of New Orleans funk. And it's a Promo, and that big A gets me every time.

For the picture I thought I would lay this brace of Atlantics on a bed of shells very recently collected from a Portuguese beach (yes, I will collect anything!).

Dr John– Right Place Wrong Time 1973

Betty Wright – Let Me Be Your Lovemaker 1973

Hokey cokey belly buttons

Here we go then.

Quite why we, the Great British Public, are being entrusted with a simple yes no vote on something that could significantly effect our future, and our childrens' future, I have no idea. Then again, it could turn out to be of little significance. There's the rub, after all this campaigning we still have little or no idea, do we, really? 

By the way, that question is not designed to spark a political debate, I don't do politics here. It is a good excuse to play a Willie Hutch track though, and I have a feeling Willie had something else on his mind when he recorded it.

Willie Hutch - In And Out  1982       



 

First (technically)

I have been told of not one but two new record shops that have opened in my neck of the woods during the last couple of months. As they keep saying, vinyl is making a comeback.

I visited one of these on its opening day at the end of April. A friend had mentioned an ex colleague of his was opening a new record shop, he was going along to the grand opening and would I like too as well. Yes, of course. Although I am, I suppose, a bit of a vinyl nut I am, frankly, not tuned in to the local vinyl grapevine and hadn't picked up on either of these new ventures so I was thankful my friend alerted me.

Arriving at the shop it turned out I know the owner through bumping into each other and engaging in general record b*llocks talk occasionally at a local car boot in the last couple of years. All I can say is good luck mate - you are very brave. The shop is Longwell Records in Keynsham (that's K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M).

I picked up a couple of things out of the yet to be priced bin which I'm very happy with, one of which was this great comp from the early 00s - JohnnyOtis & Friends - Watts Funky.

If you are a regular here you may remember I have posted more than one Johnny Otis 45 in recent years and I have become a huge fan of his, especially his largely obscure late 60s & 70s funk, jazz, and disco infused productions.

On one level at least this album could be said to be the first record ever bought in Longwell Records. I asked Ian, the shop owner, to tuck it behind the counter while I continued to browse, although a lady did beat me to actually handing over readies for something. Talking with another record hound at (yet another generally fruitless) car boot recently he said that Ian apparently did not quote Watts Funky as the first purchase though. From his point of view I suppose he's right as he would have been focussed on the record that put the first takings in the till. I would maintain that it is at least a moot point. 

Down home....

Johnny Otis Show - Country Girl  1968

A groove, and love the keyboards....

Johnny Otis Show featuring Barbara Morrison - Hey Boy! I Want You  1976

Back to the future

A belated Happy New Year to you all.

This should be a time for looking forward but I always find myself in a contemplative mood and looking back, thinking about the passage of time. It probably has something to do with my birthday being on New Year's Eve.

In recent days I've been digging deep into my collection and have pulled out a few albums I haven't played enough down the years. When you have 1000+ albums an equally large number of singles I suppose that statement will actually apply to most of my records!

I thought I had featured The Bar-Kays 1972 album Do You See What I See? before here, but a quick trawl through my old posts seems to say not. If in fact it has featured and I have bent your ear with the following musings before, I apologise.

In line with my contemplative mood there are a few things worth saying about this album. In my teens a friend of mine had a copy of this album. Those were the days when department stores used to have racks of cut outs, and I think that is where he probably found his copy. He was very artistic and it was the cover that probably attracted him to it. Of course we only had pocket money, or a Saturday shelf stacking job (in my case) to provide meagre funds for record buying then, so we couldn't afford to buy much, especially blind. I shudder to think what we passed on in those racks back in the day. Anyway I remember listening to this album at his parent's house a few times and it stuck in the memory.

Fast forward to 2004. That was when I joined the ebay hoards and I thought it was time I started acquiring some of the albums I had loved down the years but never owned. This Bar-Kays album was one of the first records, if not the first, I ever purchased on ebay. When I bought it I probably played it maybe three times at most and so for the last 10 years at least(!) it has been filed away in the collection unplayed – until today. Even so, ever since I first heard it at my friend's house back in the Seventies, it has been one of those records that has been with me in my mind, every now and then popping into my thoughts, or jumping onto my mental jukebox. It's funny how just certain records can do that, specific memories give some a helping hand I suppose.

And now here we are in 2016. I understand the vinyl revival continues apace. Apparently the biggest selling home audio product on Amazon this Christmas was a $50 all in one turntable. Most of these have been bought by, presumably young, people new to the wonders of vinyl I would guess. So a whole new generation will be buying their first records. The format kind of demands the music contained is listened to at home, and in the case of albums, straight through. No listening on the move through headphones, no constant skipping and shuffling the virtual collection. Maybe such behaviour will cause a few more records to be lodged in peoples' memory for the long term, just as this Bar-Kays album has in mine.

Do You See What I See? has great packaging – incidentally probably one reason why people are flooding back to vinyl – a gatefold sleeve of thick card, matt finished, with striking artwork. The artwork documents many of the big themes and questions haunting America in the early Seventies and hints at the tone of social consciousness that courses through many of the tracks on the album, although there are some killer ballads, in the simpler vein of love, on the album too. Here are two tracks to give you an idea.

The Bar-Kays – You're The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me 1972

The Bar-Kays – It Ain't Easy 1972

The Feel It Advent-ure 2015 #23

The holiday is approaching (actually, it's here! yippee!). This may allow me to relocate a box or two of singles into the record room and give them some love over the next week or so. I buy all these records, play them a couple of times, and then they get filed. Madness really. 

Since a refiling exercise earlier this year this C & The Shells 45 has been at the front of one of the boxes. Too few times I've been to those boxes this year, but whenever I have it seems C & The Shells have been crying out "play me". Now, finally, this 45's time has come.

C was Calvin White, and the Shells were Lonzine Wright and Andrea Bolden. They started recording in 1967 on Calla as The Sandpebbles. At the end of the Sixties they moved to Cotillion and that was then when they changed their name to C & The Shells. On an old Soulful Detroit thread Jerry Williams Jr (Swamp Dogg), who produced some of their earlier output, says that Lonzine was the main female lead. In their two incarnations they released 14 singles in all. This was their first on Zanzee, it came out in 1972 and only two more would follow before they called it a day in 1973. I don't know for sure if any of the group members carried on in the musical world. A Lonzine Wright, probably the same lady, did have a few 12" releases on Tyson, which presumably date to the early Eighties. Calvin White started out in the Gospel world and possibly he returned to his roots, he passed away in 2007.    

C & The Shells - You'd Better Know It  1972      

   

The Feel It Advent-ure 2015 #12

X Factor on the tele was my cue to move into the record room.

Something prompted me to pull this Fat Larry's Band album out the other day, but I can't remember what it was now. It's called Feel It! I must admit I had forgotten that, and before you ask, no, this album was not the prompt for the title of this blog, but it does contain two tracks I do really feel.

The lyrics to Center City may be banal in the extreme but the rise and fall of the song and the chorus just get me every time. This one is for all of you in the City Centres today - whether it was shopping or partying.

Fascination is a great soulful and funky reworking of the David Bowie track, ooh those horns.       

Brings back memories of my early DJing days.

Fat Larry's Band - Center City  1976

Fat Larry's Band - Fascination  1976

A hot one...

... hot on my turntable, at least.

Friday posts are back and now the "double headers" are back too. I thought I might have posted a Louis Curry 45 before, but a quick search seems to indicate not. As far as I can tell Louis Curry only had four 45 releases, - one on the Reel label, which is a rare record, and three on the Detroit based M-S label that all came out in 1968 and are none too common either. His first for M-S was the superb A Toast To You which was a sizeable regional hit. I picked up a copy of it a few years ago but it is not in fantastic condition. That 45 put Curry on my radar and I recently acquired a top copy of his final release on M-S.

There is almost no information out there I can find on Louis Curry. An old thread on Soulful Detroit offers some tantalising glimpses including a wonderful story surrounding the recording of A Toast To You. But there is little else tangible. I wonder what happened to Louis, his vocal ability certainly deserved more success.

As was commonplace with Sixties Soul 45s one side is a slow burner and the other is aimed more at the feet. God's Creation is a gem and has really got me hooked, it has a distinctive and quite complex arrangement; there is certainly nothing run of the mill about it.

This 45 would have been issued only a matter of months after Martin Luther King's assassination and the uptempo B(?) side I've Got To Get Away From Here demonstrates the change in the air that was sweeping through Detroit and black American music in general in the late Sixties, triggered to an extent by that terrible event. It has a noticeably funky edge and is lyrically more serious and aware, reflecting the particularly troubled times that were being experienced. You can sense the the tension of the streets in its grooves.

Louis Curry – God's Creation (Loves Me) 1968

Louis Curry – I've Got To Get Away From Here 1968

Opposites attract

I usually feel a bit short changed by a single whose B side is merely an instrumental version – often simply the backing track - of the A side. So am I short changing you today? Well read (and listen) on.   

Linda has just finished recording the A side and needs a break. She pops out of the studio for a cigarette – actually that will help her vocals for the B side she wants to lay down as she wants her voice to sound huskier for this track. Meanwhile back in the studio her backing band Soul Express continue to mess around and, after Linda’s dead slow song, fancy a bit of fun and a work out. While Linda smokes outside, Soul Express are smoking in the studio. They play so loud and fast it triggers the tape machine and, wow!, that’s one for the can. “Hey Linda”, they say, “have another cigarette, save your voice for another day – the B side’s sorted”!

OR

Soul Express have had a long day in the studio. They’re happy with a breakneck little instrumental they’ve laid down but they’re whacked now. Linda, the tea lady, comes in with some refreshments (in truth, something a little stronger than tea). She’s been pestering the studio guys for a while now – “I can sing”, she says, “let me get behind that microphone, I’ve got a little song Mr. Billups wants me to sing”. As I said, it has been a long day for the Soul Express guys. But Linda’s refreshments are helping them unwind and they’re feeling mellow right now. “Go ahead Linda”, they say, “but we got to take this one at a slow place, OK?”. Linda kills it. The unanimous feeling around the studio is that a star is born, and her song is going on the A side.   

    

Howver it came about, this is one 45 with an instrumental side that is definitely worth picking up because all is not as it seems.

Why does a certain (or should I say uncertain) Mr Billups gets his name in big writing on this 45? He is in the writing credits but was he a member of Soul Express? His brother, Shorty, has stated that Eddie was a keyboard player. So just possibly it is Eddie on the organ on these tracks. Mainstream picked up this 45 from a local label HELPP which it is possible Mr Billups was connected to. You can read more about him (or his brother) in this little piece of mine from last year.

Linda Perry – I Need Someone  1973

Soul Express Eddie Billups – I Need Someone  1973 

The 2014 Advent-ure : #19

Lifers around here will know I'm a big fan of Millie Jackson. I picked up my 9th and 10th album of hers this year. So, borrowing the title from one of them, let's pause for a moment's pleasure from Millie. 

Actually, I would have liked to offer you, not one, but two moments of pleasure from her 1979 album but bandwidth is becoming a problem. After you have listened to the track I've posted head over to youtube and catch her version of  Rising Cost Of Love, there are so many great versions of this song and Millie's is certainly one of them.   

I'm posting this track because it's Friday... TGIF.... yes, something to shake a butt to is in order.   

Millie Jackson - We Got To Hit It Off  1979