Not enough Roots

Looking at my vinyl collection a regret I have is that it doesn’t feature enough reggae. My DJing days, way back when, steered me into buying a lot of disco and jazz-funk, many of which just don’t lend themselves to being played outside the context of a hot sweaty club and some of which now, frankly, sound second rate. Oh how I wish now that I could swap at least 50% of my disco 12” singles for ones of the reggae variety.

My collection of reggae 12” inchers is highly treasured, but unfortunately distinctly limited. Most of them, including the one featured here, are now worth considerably more than any of the disco counterparts they rub sleeves with in the roll-top cabinet, although that is definitely not the point. Accept in a way it is because I feel like I missed a trick – I love Roots reggae in particular and I was buying a lot of 12” singles at the time that Roots was at its height. If I hadn’t been such a slave to the disco decks I would probably have a bigger Roots collection, and buying them new then would certainly have worked out cheaper than trying to acquire them now.   

Never mind.

Here’s one of my treasures, from a former I-Three.

Judy Mowatt’s Black Woman backed with Joy Tulloch’s “dub poem” Black Beauty was originally released on the JA label Ashandan, as early as 1977 I think. This 12” on Grove Music appeared in the UK in 1980.   

Judy Mowatt /Joy Tulloch – Black Woman / Black Beauty 1980 

Labelled with love

Pull up a stump by the fire with me (this one is a bit crackly).

Car Boot sales have just about finished now but there is one (at least) in my area that seems to continue through the winter. I paid it a visit this morning, pickings were thin, but I did come away with this 70/71 thereabouts Atlantic compilation album. The sleeve attracted me initially, and then I pulled the record out and saw it was an Atlantic plum/orange label so that was it – I knew I was going to buy it. There is something about the this label that presses all the right buttons for me, don’t ask me why though, It’s not as if it triggers a wave of nostalgia as my interest in music and records started at about the time Atlantic retired those particular colours on their album labels, and I never owned one at the time.

The album turned out to be rather more scratchy than I had hoped (why is it I can’t see half of the scratches and scuffs until I get home?), but was well worth the 65p I paid for it. Side One, Track Five (sandwiched between Yes and Led Zeppelin) really made me prick up my ears. Janis Joplin I initially thought, but then realised whoever it was would relegate Janis to a distant also ran in any singing competition. The tracklisting told me it was a group called Cold Blood. I admit I had not heard of them before. 

A quick bit of Googling later I can tell you that the singer is Lydia Pense (great voice) and Cold Blood hailed from the Bay Area. They released four albums between 1969 and 1973 and then a couple more with Lydia as main billing, and are still touring. 

This track is, of course, a cover of Barbara Lynn’s classic that came out on Tribe (another great label design) and was issued as a 45 on the San Francisco label (yet another great label design!) which is where Tower Of Power started life, and I’m wondering if ToP’s mighty horn section are making an appearance here.     

  

Compilation and sampler albums raison d’etre was undoubtedly to make you explore artists and bands you may otherwise not. Well, 40odd years after this one was released its power is still intact as it has certainly got me wanting to hear more of Cold Blood, and Lydia Pense!    

Cold Blood – I’m A Good Woman  1970                  

That’s with an R instead of a V and without the I and,yes, it’s with an L

Here’s a great 45 whose fire unfortunately didn’t burn at the time of its releases in the 70s.

I say releases because it was released twice, once on each side of the pond, with completely different mixes and slightly different titles. It first appeared in 1974 on Darnel Records as “You’ve Gone” by Georgie Flame (incidentally Darnel Records address was 254 W 54^th in New York, in 1977 that address would open its doors as Studio 54). The track then reappeared in 1976 in the UK with a completely different mix and a slightly faster tempo on the President Records offshoot Seville as “You’re Gone” credited to George Flame. I guess the people at President/Seville thought they should go with a plain George to try and avoid confusion with Georgie Fame. The song  was written by Herb Rooney, once of The Exciters.

The only information I can find on George Flame was that he co-wrote, with Joe Beck, a number of tracks on Gloria Gaynor’s 1977 album “Glorious”.

Both versions of this song have a really dark feel to them and the 1976 version has a sort of sleazy arrangement too. It certainly lights my fire!

George Flame - You're Gone 1976

You can also hear the original 1974 version here.

M25: 25

Apparently the M25 is 25 today.


A good excuse to play this, which probably played on many a car cassette player driving round the said motorway back in the day. I can't believe I haven't got this on vinyl:







But then, I thought, I have got this, which, weirdly, is equally appropriate!

Atlantic Starr - Circles 1982   

I nearly missed a month!

Right, let’s try and get this show back on the road.

The holiday on the Cote D’Azur seems a long time ago now. The sun shone all day every day. Our new favourite place. 

That was swiftly followed by another weekend away in North Devon, where 12 of us sampled the delights(?) of indoor camping!  Interesting, but sleeping in a sleeping bag on a mattress in an unheated, and damp, loft is no match for the real thing under canvas. Still, during the day the sun shone again and a good time was had by all.

The car boot season has just about finished now. I’m rather anal so once again I have listed everything I have bought this year at boots and chazzas. 2010’s haul has been surpassed already and  I’m a little bit shocked to see that I have accumulated 226 (and counting) black round things so far this year at boots and the like. Of course, being resident in the UK means that nowhere near enough of these records have been of the soul or funk variety (reggae also continues to be elusive unless it's so beat up as to be virtually unplayable). My intention alI year has been to start up another blog to feature some of my non soul/funk/reggae purchases but I’m finding it difficult enough to keep this one going at the moment. Still, those long winter nights are just around the corner so maybe I will get ‘round to it soon.   

The record featured today was one of only a few soul 45s I picked up this year at boot sales. It was the last sale of the season at one my favoured venues. In the end it wasn’t exactly a surprise that I found it as the seller is a known soul dealer on the Internet. But in a whole box of soul 45s this was just about the only one that tempted me. Glad I bought it though.   

Roscoe Shelton was born in Tennessee in 1931 and passed away in the same State in 2002. His singing career started in the early 50s with gospel groups. His   first solo 45 was released way back in 1958 on Excello. From then on he would release numerous 45s all the way up to the late 60s moving from Blues styles through R&B and into Soul mainly on the Excello, Sims and Sound Stage 7 labels . He left the music business in 1970, eventually to return in the 90s. In the early 70s, John Richbourg reissued a number of his earlier releases on the Sound Plus label. This Sound Plus 45 dates to 1972 and was a reissue of a 45 that first appeared on the Sims label in 1964. I really like this.

(There are a few pops evident on this rip, I haven’t had a chance to clean this record properly but looking at it I’m sure those pops will disappear with a good rub of the magic liquid).  

Roscoe Shelton – Love Comes And Goes  1964, reissued 1972

Buy "Deep In My Soul”

Checking in

I’m still here.  It’s been busy busy busy lately, too busy to give proper attention to Feel It I’m afraid.

But I thought I should just say don’t drop me off your links. I will get back in the groove soon…. but not for another couple of  weeks. Mrs Darce and I will have been married 25 years next week so we thought we would indulge ourselves a bit and we are off to the South of France for 10 days of what will hopefully be more sun in the vein we have been belatedly enjoying here in the UK in recent days.  

These following two tracks will hopefully keep you going until posting resumes in earnest. 

Josephine Taylor only released five singles, all in the mid to late sixties, but just listen to that voice.   

These songs are both sides of Josephine’s first 45 – not a bad debut! The sentiment in these songs goes out to my best girl from one of my favourite singers.

Josephine Taylor – Good Lovin’ 1966

Josephine Taylor – You’re The Sweetest Thing 1966   

Wardell Quezergue R.I.P.

We're on a bad run of late. Three big names from the world of Soul have left us in recent times: first Jerry Ragavoy, then Nick Ashford, and yesterday Wardell Quezergue passed away at the age of 81. I've learned that finding any of those names in the writing, arranging, or production credits of a record means there is quality in the grooves.  

Currently my blogroll is clear testament to the esteem in which Wardell is held. I can't really add anything to the heartfelt comments found in those posts so let's just listen to another beautiful Wardell Querergue arrangement.


King Floyd - Handle With Care  (1974)