Eggquisite

My first real memory of eating Crème Eggs was in about the 3^rd year of my senior

school. Cycling, or walking, home from school as part of a straggly pack of 

schoolboys we would inevitably call into a newsagents to buy (I was never into

stealing) sweets of some description and as far as I can remember

this was when I developed a real taste for the Crème Egg. This would have

been about the time they changed, in the UK, from being a Fry’s Crème Egg

to a Cadbury’s Crème Egg.

It has struck me how my taste for Crème Eggs, and similar sweet confectionary

has developed in directly inverse proportion to my love of sweet soul. 

Back in the early Seventies while stuffing Crème Eggs into my mouth on the

journey home from school if we were discussing music it would likely have been

all about Bowie, Elton, Roxy, or Zep. I had discovered Soul music and was liking

it too, except for that horrible sweet sickly stuff - I blame the Stylistics.

Now here we are in 2011 and, prompted by our children, being that certain

time of year, our house is again seemingly awash with Crème Eggs. I can’t stand

the things now though. Just the sight of one sets my teeth on edge, that gooey stuff

in the middle is just sooo sweet – ugh!  On the other hand I have noticed that over

the last few years my vinyl collection is getting increasingly laced with sweet soul records.

This new found appreciation of sweet soul really started to gather pace a few years

ago when I started delving more deeply into the back catalogues of groups that I

had previously only been vaguely familiar with, and somewhat dismissive of –

groups such as The Moments, The Whispers and, especially, The Delfonics. Now,

this year, I have suddenly developed a passion for another early Seventies group

– The Montclairs.

Their name sounds like it could be a good name for a sweet, a chocolate perhaps.

In fact this East St. Louis group took their name from a brand of cigarettes. 

Their recorded output was small – initially they had two 45s released on

Oliver Sain related labels Arch and Vanessa. Then, in 1971, Oliver Sain placed them

on the Paula label (there’s a Ronn link again!) and in an all too brief time between

1971 and 1974 they would have six 45s and one album released. Most of the 45s

reached the R&B charts with “Dreaming Out Of Season” being their biggest hit, 

peaking at #34. You can find more on The Montclairs here.

A feature of their sound was Phil Perry’s beautifully rich and pure falsetto which,

married to the lush arrangements, put them very much in the sweet soul bag.

Their arrangements though were often complex and quite unusual, I think, with

great structure. There is a sort of slowed down doo wop feel to the harmonies

and at times a skewed jazzy feel to the instrumentation. Describing them simply

as a sweet soul group doesn’t do them justice.   

                

Many of my friends do not share my passion for soul music, and of those that do

sweet soul can be a step too far. At best therefore they can maybe appreciate that

the unusual arrangements, and Phil Perry’s pure voice, make The Montclairs stand

out from the pack a bit – excellent in parts could be their verdict, a curate’s egg

perhaps? In truth until recently that may have been my verdict too, but now all

of the a sudden I find I can’t get enough of them. Right down to the hard centre

(for as I think their sound is so much more than your average sweet soul fare if it

were a chocolate egg it would possess a hard centre not a soft one like a sickly

sweet Crème Egg). 

Why not bite into The Montclairs and you too might find them thoroughly

exquisite throughout too – or should that be eggquisite?  :)

They don’t make them like this anymore…  part 84….

The Montclairs – Dreaming Out Of Season  1972

The Montclairs – How Can One Man Live  1973   (link works now)

Buy "The Montclairs: Make Up For Lost Time  The Paula Recordings 1971-74" 

RSD - something to remember you by

I missed Record Store Day last year but today I participated, and of course bought a record. Just the one, amazingly, but a good one and it feels like two because both sides are strong.

“St Nicks” Market in Bristol is full of interesting stalls and small independent shops including a few  record shops. Today they promoted Record Store Day with a mini sound system playing some cool reggae (in all its flavours) and soul sounds all afternoon. A great setting, and some great sounds. (The only shame as far as I was concerned was that Mrs Darce wasn’t with me to chill as she is currently on her annual jaunt to Turkey with her bestest friend).     

I would have liked to have bought some reggae but it’s all so expensive. (In truth I could have bought any number of new 45 presses at £4 each but I’m getting picky in my record buying – I want the originals, but can’t afford them – stupid, I know).

Still, I’m more than pleased with my purchase. After digging through a few boxes in Wanted Records I found this Marvin Smith 45. I featured a Marvin Smith 45 not too long ago and today I found another one of his Brunswick releases (there were only four). I had not heard either side of this 45 before so it was a real bonus to find it.

So this is something to remember Record Store Day 2011 by.

Marvin Smith – I Want (Something To Remember You By)   1967

Marvin Smith – Love Aint Nothing But Pain  1967

... Ronn

Looking around on the Internet I haven’t been able to find out any background on Barbara West, beyond details of her Ronn releases. It seems her only output were four 45s released on Ronn in the late 60s. (Barbara A. West on Nu Sound may also be her). “Congratulations Baby”, her last on Ronn from 1969, has some favour on the Northern Soul scene which would account for its higher going price in relation to her other releases, most of which lean more towards a deep and slow style, with a strong southern/gospel feel. Just how I like them, in fact.

“The Love Of My Man” was Barbara’s first release on Ronn, in 1967. When I heard it recently I assumed it was a) Barbara West’s original and b) a song I had not heard performed before. I was wrong on both counts. The song was originally recorded by Theola Kilgore in 1963, and I’m sure by many other artists since. Bouncing around YouTube I also found a cover by Gayle Adams recorded in 1980 – and included on an album of which I have a copy!  Gayle’s version absolutely had not stuck in my mind (in fairness, at the time I bought Gayle’s album I was in the middle of my DJ phase and so it was the dancefloor slanted cuts on that album that would have had my attention – and there are some crackers). Theola’s version is there on YouTube too (what isn’t nowadays?!). All versions referred sound very much of their time.           

After buying this 45 recently I am fast developing a mini obsession with Barbara West and will be adding to my collection soon I think. My intentions in this regard are evidently in sharp contrast to someone whose comments on “The Love Of My Man” I stumbled across on some old forum thread while I was looking for information on Barbara. The forum thread was entitled “Candidates for the world’s worst record” and this individual had this to say:

“The worst 45 I ever had (and one of the few records I ever parted with) was "The Love of My Man" by Barbara West. The singer's voice was totally overshadowed by the out-of-tune piano. It was in one of those sight-unseen 10-record 45 packs that sold for a dollar (you could see one of the labels on one end of the box, which was a record I wanted). I gave it away with a turntable I sold.”  !!

(Incidentally he also cited Archie Bell & The Drells “Do The Choo Choo” for a dishonourable mention. He obviously never bothered to turn that 45 over and play the B side!)    

Hmmm. Well, I agree the piano sounds like it could do with a tune, but in those days  in the studios the takes were few, and in the long hot days from what I understand the tuning could go off pretty quick. With the recording sessions packed in there probably wasn’t time to keep tuning the instruments. I’ll forgive them that because there is the guitar to listen to too… and then there are the horns… oh, and the strings… and not least Barbara West’s strong voice, which by no means could be said to be drowned out. The piano’s “noise” just adds a certain charm I think. Well that’s my opinion, anyway. I’ll let you make your own mind up.   

Barbara West – The Love Of My Man 1967

Do Do Ronn...

Ana-B and Derek have both posted Ted Taylor tracks in recent days. Being a fan of Ted myself I thought I would make it a hat-trick of posts.

This may not be the greatest song Ted Taylor ever recorded but it certainly could lay claim to being one of the best titles of a song that he recorded (and penned).

Ted Taylor has appeared on Feel It before and it was then that I mentioned my love of the Ronn label. The label was named after Stan Lewis' younger brother Ronny (the related Paula label being named after Stan's wife). The label has a distinctive design and to my mind an old fashioned feel (especially when you consider it's design remained unchanged well into the Seventies.). Also the printing on the label of this particular 45 looks like it was prepared using a child's John Bull printing kit. The quoted time is completely wrong too; altogether it has a real down home feel to it, as does what's in the grooves.

More from the Ronn label next time.      

Ted Taylor - I'm Just A Crumb In Your Bread Box Of Love 1971

Queen B

It was time for another tidy up of my vinyl collection at the weekend. The haphazard piles of newly acquired records and old ones pulled out of the collection for playing (or even just looking at) had grown to the point of triggering an OCD style tidying instinct. It’s also a good way of finding out exactly what I have got (oh, I had forgotten about that one; ah, so I’ve got two of those now!). In the end the singles were only partly done and the albums were untouched. More happy filing weekends to come J

This sort of exercise always seems to take longer than you think. The first thing to consider is whether a new filing structure should be pursued. To an extent that is what I decided to do this time which meant the random piles of records temporarily grew as they were pulled out of one box to be subsequently put in another. Then, of course, you come across some records that just have to be played, and a few that get looked up on the internet, and… well you know how it goes.

As part of this filing frenzy the soul and funk (sub division: original collection, bought in the 70s) M to Ps (hardly any Ns strangely enough) were shifting from the back of one box to the front of another as I attempted to reduce their packing density so I could actually flick through them more easily. In the end the Ms didn’t move box. (Exciting this isn’t it? J)

In the Ms were, reasonably enough, as one lasting regime to my filing is alphabetic by surname for individual artists, some Jackie Moore singles. I’ve always been somewhat ambivalent towards Jackie Moore, I like her well enough to have collected a few of her singles, but her voice and her records, for me, seem to have retained a sort of permanently elusive quality to them. Sometimes when I think of, or hear, one of her records I can be quite dismissive, but then I find I keep coming back to her and giving her another listen. Her voice can seem somewhat nondescript, and yet at the same time totally distinctive (at times I can detect similarities with the quieter, hurt side of Candi Staton; and Gloria Gaynor; and how about this for a curve balI – I read a comment on another blog that likened her to Carly Simon,the blogger didn’t get that, but I think I can see it). Her delivery can sound uninvolved but at the same time achingly soulful. The arrangements are never less than competent but are they any more than that?  

Digging out the records I have of hers the over the weekend prompted me to look at her career in some more detail. (Considering her solid recording career, information seems somewhat thin on the ground. - there you are: elusive again). Having done so it has made me appreciate her a good deal more and, even with so little information on Jackie the person, her career  demonstrates a degree of consistency and “stickability” that leaves me with the feeling that those traits would be mirrored in her life and that those who know her will see her as a rock and a great friend.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1946 Jackie Moore has spent most of her life in that State. She moved briefly to Philly in the late 60s where she started her recording career on the Shout label. From then until the early Eighties Jackie was a regular visitor to the studios, and she continued to record sporadically into the Nineties.

Jackie was very much an artist of the Seventies though. She seemed to steer a steady, if not dramatically successful, course throughout that decade, releasing (by my count) 17 singles and 3 albums (plus another one that sneaks into 1980) neatly bookended by probably her two most well known songs and biggest hits: “Precious, Precious” (1970), and “This Time Baby” (1979). After moving from Shout to Atlantic she would then move labels only twice more in the Seventies (Kayvette, and then Columbia). Working with relatively big name producers and arrangers – Dave Crawford (her cousin), Clarence Reid, Brad Shapiro, and Bobby Eli – her output was generally consistent both in quality and style and was not greatly affected by the changing fads in black music. Her sound, although rooted in southern soul, often had a lighter (radio-friendly?) feel to it. Output in the latter half of the decade did inevitably, on occasion, tip its hat to the disco floor - witness “This Time Baby”, for my money one of the great disco records, except that it is so much more than just a disco record. But it would appear there were always good song choices made and a sufficient variety of tempo and tone on her albums. This is well demonstrated by the two songs featured here I think which are both album tracks that each found their way onto B sides of, to my mind, more commercial, but weaker songs.

First up is the flip side of “How’s Your Love Life Baby”. I did not remember having this single, and I’m wondering whether the weekend was the first time I had ever turned it over and played the B side. It immediately struck me that this could “go massive” if it got some exposure on today’s modern soul scene. A feel good song. From the album “I’m On My Way”.

Jackie Moore – Do Ya Got What It Takes 1979

“Tired Of Hiding” is the B side of “Disco Body”. It was written by Phillip Mitchell. Just look at some of the songs Phillip has written and who has performed them, that’s some list! For a long time I have known and loved Millie Jackson’s rendition of this song, which appeared on her classic “Caught Up” album. In the past I was not a great fan of covers which I think made me reluctant to listen to Jackie Moore’s version. Now, after a few listens I am feeling Jackie’s version too.

Jackie Moore – Tired Of Hiding 1975

After playing my Jackie Moore singles I went onto YouTube where, of course, I found more Moore - I’m particularly taken with “With Your Love”. This weekend just gone I finally found that elusive quality of Jackie Moore and I love her a whole lot more now.

Buy Jackie Moore CDs

Spring at last

So far this year charity shop trawls have yielded hardly anything worth buying. (I suspect more and more of them now have their own local or in-house “experts” who are cherry picking the incoming donations and selling the best through other channels, and who can blame them I suppose, they are just trying to maximise their income after all). Couple this with the seasonal absence of car boot sales – and, in truth, not much action on the ebay front either - it’s meant a relatively dull few months in pursuit of the holy vinyl.

But, just as Nature is waking up from its winter slumber, there were also signs of life on the digging front over the last few days. My interest was initially reawakened last Friday by a few scores at my most local chazza, namely a couple of 12” disco/boogie monsters from back in the day “Act Like You Know” by Fat Larry’s Band, and Dinosaur L’s “Go Bang!”; John Hiatt’s 1987 album “Bring The Family” (which seems to have lots of rave reviews on the Internet, but left me pretty cold on first hearing); and a great compilation album of mainly 50s R&B, jump blues, jazz, and doo-wop – more of which in a minute.

This prompted me to check when the local car boot sales were starting up again. Normally they seem to start with the Easter bank holiday, but with Easter being so late this year I guessed they may be starting around now - and I was right. One has been going for three week already and another started up again over the weekend. Opportune! So I hauled myself out of bed at a relatively early hour for a Sunday and kicked off my 2011 “booting” season yesterday. (Starting the car, Archie Bell’s “Here I Go Again” was the first thing on the CD player – quite!).

I came back with a few things, nothing to get the pulse racing, but I was pleased to find a copy of Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic” (I already have a copy but it’s cover is on the wall and the this latest copy is a US demo first issue in great condition), another Steely Dan album “Aja” which I have only ever had on CD before, and a couple of 45s (Chairmen Of The Board’s “Dangling” – oh how I love the look of that Invictus label, and it was in a dark blue company sleeve - and The Originals “Down To Love Town”).

Incidentally, I also found a pair of pictures which, for £2, I couldn’t resist. Predictable response from Mrs Darce though when I got them home: “What did you buy those for? They’re a bit old fashioned aren’t they? You’re not putting those on the wall!”.I had a response lined up ready: “Well, I thought Mum would like them anyway, I’ll give them to her.” To which the reply was “don’t do that yet, perhaps we can find somewhere to put them”. Ah ha, maybe Mrs Darce is warming to them!

From a digging point of view then, I feel 2011 is off and running now (but I had better watch the off curriculum purchases!).

The compilation album I mentioned above is called the “The Official Sampler”. Official being the record label (out of Copenhagen apparently) and the album being a selection of tracks from the various artist specific releases they had lined up. The sampler dates back to the late 80s but I don’t know whether the individual albums were ever released. The selection is generally excellent, with at least five tracks that will happily shuffle around on my ipod over the next few weeks. It has also introduced me to a few artists that are new to me. I have noticed that lately my music listening is tending to take me further and further back into black music’s history but, for example, Linda Hayes is a new name on me.

I now know that Linda was born Bertha Williams in 1923 in Linden, New Jersey (hence Linda?) and is the sister of the Platters lead singer Tony Williams. In the 50s she had a number of hits on the Hollywood label. You can read a bit more about her and pick up a compilation album of her recordings here.  

Here are a couple of tracks from the Official Sampler that both have a similar stop start structure.  

Linda Hayes – Yes! I Know 1952

Chuck Willis -  Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Baby Leaves You 1956  

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!