Preoccupied

Most of my computer time this last few days has been spent on Ebay. I'm usually obsessing with my buying hat on but this time it's selling that's been taking up all my time.


I'm relatively new to the selling lark I'm selling records of course. My experience so far is that it takes up an inordinate amount of time in preparing the listings - snapping the record, agonising over the correct description of condition, and battling with the ebay editor which appears to have a mind of it's own sometimes.


Once listed I can't stop looking at my items for sale to see if there is any interest. This is particularly true at the moment as I have a handful a rare ones listed. Of course I know that there will be very little action until the last few hours and the snipers will come in at the last minute (hopefully) - but it doesn't stop me looking constantly. Stop it, I say, but I can't.


The listings end over the weekend and the suspense it now starting to get to me, I can't concentrate on anything else. Is it worth it? I ask myself. 


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On another topic, after more than 4 and a half years of this blog I have, in the last month, received my first (2) post takedowns. The very official and seemingly detailed emails and information given are completely useless in helping me understand why the takedowns have happened. mp3? image? link? words? So it is I have removed everything but my, surely uncontroversial, words from my recent Freda Payne post, and left an old Candi Staton post permanently in draft.    


This blog could disappear completely at a moment's notice.


Preoccupied, and paranoid!


Fortunately I have a dose of something seriously soulful to sooth my furrowed brow.


The 45 featured dropped through the letterbox a few hours ago (the postman delivered at 4pm today!).


It has no right to sound so loud and clear as it does considering the number of scratches and scuffs it has.


(The US record industry went to hell it seems, especially into the 70s - this 45 dates from around 1967 and is on a tiny label, but the mastering, and the vinyl it was recorded, on were definitely of the highest quality for this record to sound so good in the condition it's in after so many years. I would say the majority of the US 45s I have from the 70s are vastly inferior. Of course technology, in the form of CDs , digital compression and delivery et al have just continued the trend.)


Enjoy this stunning slice of Detroit soul by Don Hart & James Shorter NOW. You never know, it might be gone tomorrow.             


Don Hart & James Shorter - It's In My Mind 1967?


You can find it on this CD.                




PPS: Follow the Dust & Grooves link in my blogroll. For some reason it doesn't refresh when new posts are made. But a new post there is. Frank "Voodoo Funk" Gossner is featured. A great read and you HAVE TO listen to the Mary Afi Usuah track.  
    

And then there were three :(

Our household is feeling sad right now. We had to take one of our cats to the vet last night to be put to sleep.

Hank was a bit of a scraggy stray when she moved in on us seven or so years ago. Bigger than our other cats she was named Hank by our daughter after the baby in Jacqueline Wilson’s “Bed & Breakfast Star” – we had assumed Hank was a he initially). She became a very sweet and loving cat – a true lap cat. We love all our cats, but Hank was a real character.

The house is feeling a bit empty right now. 

RIP Hank.

Thelma Jones - Salty Tears 1976

Here come the girls #3

Both sides of this storming 45 have domestic references and I can guarantee it will get you dancing around the kitchen table.

Georgia Soul has featured this single before (and a great picture of Delia), and you can also get the lowdown on Dee Dee (Delia) here.

Putting two and two together from a post at In Dangerous Rhythm (can't find it now to link to!) I could suggest that it is Freddie Terrell on guitar and it may have been recorded in the Sound Pit in Atlanta.

I paid very little for this record but I have seen it commands a good price on eBay, though my copy differs from pretty much all the scans I have ever seen of this record in that there are numerous small differences in the label detail. Those scans are all of promo releases though, but could this be a second issue or pressing? Then again I always wonder why such an obscure record would justify such a thing?

Who cares. Enjoy!

Dee Dee Gartrell - I Must Be Doing Something Right 1969?

Dee Dee Gartrell - If You Got What It Takes 1969?

PS: You may have noticed the fonts and font sizes on my posts have been a bit variable lately. Truth is Blogger seems to have a mind of its own in this area when I use copy/paste. In the end I chose a standard Blogger font for this one - Georgia - which is certainly appropriate here. 

Here come the girls #2

Irma Thomas in Muscle Shoals – a potent brew.

Rick Hall’s studio was the hot destination in the late Sixties.But having set up a seemingly perfect marriage Chess only released three singles from the sessions and left the rest in the can. Irma soon moved on. As they say: go figure.

Of the three singles this one was the only one to dent the Billboard charts, reaching #42 R&B in February ’68.

Twenty-odd years after the event Irma’s all too brief Muscle Shoals excursion was finally released on CD by MCA/Chess in 1990. Now here we are another 20 years later and that CD – “Something Good: The Muscle Shoals Sessions” is itself very hard to find (at least at a reasonable price). 

It shouldn’t be so hard to hear great music.

Irma Thomas – Good To Me 1968

Irma Thomas – We Got Something Good 1968

Here come the girls #1

Life has been full again this past week with no time to contemplate blog entries.

So it's fortunate that this, and the following two entries, feature records so strong they need little by way of introduction - let the music speak for itself.

I had promised I would feature some more of my purchases from a recent local record fair. So here they are in a little mini-series called “Here Come The Girls” (that gives you a clue).

First up is Linda Jones, who died much too young at only 27.  

Raw emotion...

Linda Jones – Give My Love A Try 1968

And a storming dancer...

Linda Jones – I Can’t Stand It 1968

And, yes, it hadn't struck me before but Teena Marie must be a fan - the vocal similarities here are striking...

A bluesbird over....

There was a record fair in town last weekend. It’s in a great venue - the new foyer/cafe bit of the good old Bristol Colston Hall. I went to one earlier in the year but from memory didn’t buy anything.

In truth I’m a bit ambivalent about record fairs, especially in the UK. For one thing I like a bargain, and I know they are going to be few and far between at fairs where savvy sellers are manning the stalls. Also I know I will be lucky to find much soul (especially of the 45 variety with the big hole in the middle), although as it’s a fair I sort of expect to find some, so I end up doubly disappointed when I don’t.

So it was I was in two minds whether to go, but Mrs Darce said “you know you want to really and I’ll drive you down and pick you up”! I couldn’t turn that offer down!

As I got out of the car I said I would be anything between 45 minutes and 2 hours (you see – low expectations). It turned out I was 3 hours )and I could have been a lot longer if I had decided to take up residence at the reggae man’s stall).

The first hour did live down to my expectations. Lots of looking with nothing to get the heart racing. It’s funny, if I had been looking at the exact same records at a car boot sale I would have been perfectly happy because there would have been that air of mystery and expectation. But, because I knew the guys selling these records undoubtedly knew what they had, the thrill of the chase was sort of missing.

I was just starting to think about retiring for an early lunch and calling Mrs Darce when I pulled out a Jackie Wilson single – a late 60s UK MCA re-issue of the The Who Who Song in company sleeve and in nice condition. Nothing to shout about but a nice record for a £1 nevertheless. That spurred me on, so I climbed the stairs and decided on a quick spin around all the stalls to see what else there was. Plenty of albums, plenty of rock, a fair smattering of jazz...... and a stall dedicated to 45s including boxes marked “Soul”, "Northern", “Motown/Gordy”, “James Brown/Marva etc”, “R&B”, and “Swamp”, and a portable Numark turntable there to play whatever took your fancy. Now I was excited. And that is where I happily spent the next couple of hours.

There were no dollar bin records on offer - £5 and up predominantly – so I didn’t come away with many records, but the few I bought I am mighty pleased with and intend to feature them all on Feel It in the next few weeks. Had a good chat with the dealer too (but didn’t get his name). He hasn’t got a shop and can’t be doing with the internet or ebay. It seems he only does record fairs and does as many in the US as the UK – he said he would be in Texas in the next couple of weeks, so that is presumably for the Austin Record Convention.

The record I’m featuring today I nearly didn’t buy. The White Cliffs label had immediately caught my interest as I was vaguely aware it was a NOLA label, but I didn’t know that Huey ‘Piano’ Smith had released anything on that label. I played it and it sounded OK but I think the fact that the lyrics were not much more than a shopping list of dances and it was a part 1/part 2 made it not so much of a must have in comparison to the other records I had already pulled out, and there was the small dent in the wallet to think of too. So, whilst deep down my instinct told me I should buy it, I initially decided not to. The dealer then said of the handful of records I was considering buying this was the one I really should buy – and with a slight reduction in price that was enough for me to change my mind.

I think I made the right choice, and I thank the dealer for making my mind up. Now I’ve played it a few times I really love it, it has an irresistible lope, and Part 1, which features Brenda Brandon’s vocals – she really testifies at the end - is different enough to Part 2 where James Rivers gets to blow.

I can find virtually no references to this 45 on internet searches. The track is featured on an old Charly released Huey Smith compilation CD, but the 45 itself doesn’t seem to appear on any sales lists and I think it really is quite rare.

The White Cliffs label was part of Cosimo Matassa’s Dover group of labels, which also included Frisco, Deesu, Nola, Eight-Ball, and Tailgate. Coming from the UK it’s strange to see the names Dover and White Cliffs emanating from New Orleans.

Around the time this 45 was released (1967!) Huey Smith was trying to restart his recording career and had also been performing as The Pitter Pats and also released records as The Hueys and Shindig Smith & The Soulshakers.

I’m betting ana-b will like this one.

Huey (Piano) Smith And The Clowns – Blues ’67 – Part 1 (mp3) 1967

and.... Part 2

Now forever linked

My perception is that there aren’t so many new music blogs appearing, especially those featuring vinyl. Maybe everybody is decamping to YouTube where vinyl seems to be flourishing. I’m always finding something fresh and old (that makes sense because it’s new to me).

A case in point is Direct Current’s “When It’s Love”. At least that was what the 45 was billed as. I liked it so much I went out and bought my own copy. But when I put it on the turntable I realised that the audio on YouTube was a completely different record – a new twist on a blind buy! But the Direct Current song is great anyway, so result!

Of course then the hunt was on to find out what the audio on that particular YouTube post actually was. All I had to go on were the lyrics which, as far as I could make them out, I googled. To no avail. Then last week, months after this episode, I was randomly reading a thread on Soul-Source and equally randomly hit the play button on a posted track – and there it was the mystery audio identified!

So it is that these two tracks, for me, will be forever linked by more than just their year of release.

Direct Current – When It’s Love  1979

Hiroshima – Never, Ever  1979

Buy Direct Current- Everybody Here Must Party

Buy Hiroshima  (worth the click just to read the customer reviews!)