Some of last year’s Advent-ure was spent hanging around in Muscle Shoals, and I featured a 45 (Don Varner) on Quin Ivy’s South Camp label then. We’re back at the South Camp today.
This was Bill Brandon’s first appearance on wax. You may know the song Self Preservation as Percy Sledge recorded it during his career, but it was originally recorded by Bill in 1967 at Quin Ivy’s studio in Sheffield, Alabama.
Bill Brandon did not hit the big time like Percy Sledge but had a number of singles and one album released during a recording career that lasted eleven years. most, if not all, of his recordings were laid down in Alabama, the State of his birth. It is reported that he did not leave the music business until around 1987, presumably he was still making singing appearances until then. Subsequently he took up truck driving.
He had a great voice and has always been well respected on the soul scene, although not a lot has been written about him. I wasn’t clear whether he was still alive, and the trouble is that the sort of sites – e.g. Sir Shambling, Discogs – that you can rely on for some information on lesser known artists are not always kept up to date. Anyway, after some searching I found that, unfortunately, Bill Brandon is no longer with us having passed in 2015 at an altogether too young 72. You can find his obituary here.
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