The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 5

 

Timeshift backwards a couple of years from 1967 and today’s somewhat “under the radar” soul singer’s recording career could be said to have mirrored exactly that of Bill Brandon who featured in yesterday’s post. Putting aside a group appearance on a 1959 doo-wop 45 Chuck Bernard put out singles on a few different labels for about eleven years between 1965 and 1975. Despite making some excellent records only one of them could be said to have been a hit - this one, Funny Changes. The R&B Beat column in the New Year’s Day 1966 edition of the US music paper Record World said it had gone Top 10 in the Chicago radio station WVON’s chart (45cat had it’s release date as Feb 1966 but based on this comment I plumped for a revision to Dec 1965). Chuck hailed from St. Louis but much, if not all, of his recording career was spent in Chicago. It was, of course, one of the key cities for soul music in the 60s and 70s.

It’s only in the last year or two I have become aware of Chuck Bernard. This is the third 45 of his I now have and there are a few more on my wants list now; I really like his voice. Once again I think Sir Shambling is the only font of knowledge on Chuck. I have searched in vain for more information on his life. Who knows? Maybe, like Bill Brandon, Chuck Bernard went on to become a truck driver after he stopped recording. There are at least a couple of Chuck Bernard’s of about the right age listed as currently, or recently, residing in the Chicago area so one of those might be him.

This single would make it into the national R&B charts in early 1966 and it’s easy to see why. It would have sounded great coming out of a radio speaker, and must have been a dancer’s delight too. It also has an excellent, slower, B side.

Chuck Bernard – Funny Changes 1965

Chuck Bernard – Every Hurt Makes You Stronger 1965

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 4

 

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.

Bill Brandon – Self Preservation 1967

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 3

 

Checking 45cat for Zeke Strong and Carl Underwood I counted no less than six distinct releases of this song - Every Woman Has The  Right... . The earliest dates to 1961. The most recent is possibly this one, which, purely by the Kujinga label design and colour, I’m guessing was released maybe in the late 60s or early 70s. (It was certainly released later than 1965 because Operation Bootstrap which is credited on the label was not started until very late in 1965. You can read more about Operation Bootstrap here. Many businesses were started under the Operation Bootstrap umbrella and it is noted that at least one fashion business had a Swahili name. The label name here - Kujinga - is very close in spelling to the Swahili word  kujenga, which means to build (the game name Jenga is derived from this word). Kujinga itself is a word in Kimbundu, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, which means to turn or spin. Either meaning - build or spin - could make sense as the label name).    

Zeke recorded this song (presumably with him providing the male vocal) with female vocals provided by, in turn, Geneva, Wanda Richardson, Dealia Copeland, Juanita Strong, and Patricia Brew. And there was also this release where Carl Underwood is credited on vocals alongside Dealia Copeland. The versions (all slightly different I believe) were released on a bunch of different labels all started by Zeke himself – Swingin’, Prowlin’, Safe!, Progress, Merging, and Kujinga.

All I can say is Zeke Strong really liked this song!

Carl Underwood and Dealia Copeland –Every Woman Has A Right (To Change Her Mind) 1971?

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 2

 

Here's a cool cat. He can do The Jerk and The Twine. Join in with Jack-A-Rue.

I knew of Jackey Beavers , but had never researched him before. In fact when I first came across his name I thought he was a female artist, and continued to think that for some years until I finally listened to some of his records. He was born in Cartersville, Georgia as Robert Lewis Beavers. His recording career started in 1959 as part of the duo Johnny & Jackey – Johnny being Johnny Bristol. With Bristol and Harvey Fuqua he co-wrote Diana Ross & The Supremes hit Someday We’ll Be Together.

Jack-A-Rue was his first solo record, released in 1965. He went on to have a considerable number of singles released over the next ten years. Two of these are particular favourites on the Northern Soul scene, including his last secular release Trying To Get Back To You, which came out on the Dade label. It was, in fact, Dade’s final release, in 1975. Dade was a Miami label. It is purely by coincidence that I have discovered this is not where the parallels with yesterday’s artist end. Jackey spent some years at John Richbourg’s Sound Stage 7 label as both a producer and recording artist, and he wrote at least one song for Ella Washington (It Must Be Love). Like Ella he left a soul music career behind in the 70s and turned to the church, and was ordained as a Minister.

I find many artists from the golden age of soul went on to lead interesting lives outside of the music industry. In Jackey’s case in later life (Wikipedia tells me) he was Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections for three years; and an aide to Tom Murphy, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, for seven years. Jackey is no longer with us, having passed in 2008 aged 71. He is buried in Cartersville, the town he was born in.   

I urge you to pay particular attention to the backing singers on this one (unfortunately I have no idea who they are). They are having a great time and I think they really make this track.

Jackey Beaver(s) – Jack-A-Rue 1965

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 1

So here we are at the start of another Feel It Advent-ure.

Where has that year gone? Well, I know where some of it has gone – in the endless search of the new (to me) vinyl fix. All the records I’m going to feature in this year’s unfolding Advent-ure were acquired this year; mostly doorstep finds (so to speak), but charity shops, car boots, and record fairs were also visited - of course! As is the norm, most of what you will hear will be soul, but I will probably deviate away from that genre and throw in the occasional curve ball now and then.

I decided to acquire a few long time wants this year, which has involved paying a bit more than I normally do for dusty old singles. In a few cases, including the record featured today, they were not dusty at all but shiny and beautifully preserved, and probably only played once before, if at all. It always amazes me how you can still find records approaching 60 years old that are still, effectively, brand new. I I bought this one from John Manship, for many years a renowned record dealer, Northern Soul aficionado, and DJ. John has over 100,000 records listed for sale on Discogs (and has apparently recently acquired another avalanche of records – about another 100,000 I believe).

His prices for rare soul are typically eye watering – if you sort discogs inventory of a record by price if JM has a copy you will almost always find it at the bottom of the list i.e. the most expensive. Mitigating that somewhat is the fact that if the record is described as “Mint-” it is usually exactly that, a pristine copy that has quite possibly only never seen the light of day once i.e. when it was first imported into the UK by John himself from some dead stock warehouse or other in the USA decades ago, or twice i.e. it travelled from dead stock into a collection and then from there into JM’s warehouse. Anyway, JM has had two “half price” sales this year, which has enabled me to pick up a few records from him at acceptable prices (even at 50% off only just acceptable to me though, in most cases). Today’s record is one of those purchases.

Behind Door 1 of this year’s adventure is a gloriously dramatic slab of soul from Ella Washington. This is a Florida record. Ella was born in Miami, Clarence Reid (credited “Reed”) penned the song, Little Beaver arranged it, and it was initially released on the newly created local label Octavia, started by Fort Lauderdale DJ Larry Hargrove and named after, and with a little help from, his mother Octavia Roberts; both hailed form Tallahassee. (There was longevity in the family, I have read both of their obituaries and they were both in their nineties when they passed – Larry in 2022 and Octavia in 2000). I am guessing the record was cut at Criteria studios in Miami, it is certainly not a lo-fi recording.

An instrumental with the same (very similar) title appeared on the B side of Ella’s debut 45 – Nightmare. It was then released – with words – in late 1966 as the B side of her second single on Octavia. It made plenty of noise locally and Larry, thinking he had a potential big hit on his hands, settled on Atlantic, on the advice of Stax’s Jim Stewart, for a national release (with a very small rewording of the title). Atlantic didn’t get behind it though and it the single went nowhere. This was the last release Ella was to have on Octavia. She clearly had a quality voice and Jerry Wexler alerted WLAC DJ John Richbourg to her talents. He took her onboard, recorded her in Muscle Shoals and Nashville, and she would have a string of top quality singles, and one album, released between late ‘67 and early ‘72 on JR’s Sound Stage 7 label. Only one was a sizeable hit though – He Called Me Baby.

Ella left the music industry in 1973, becoming a “born again” Christian and, eventually, a pastor. She has released a few gospel records since her Sound Stage 7 days. As far as I know she still resides in the Miami area.

Ella Washington – The Grass Is Always Greener (On The Opposite Side Of The Fence)  1966/67

I have gleaned some of the information imparted here from Sir Shambling’s site (of course!).

Larry Hargrove’s obit.

Octavia Roberts obit.

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

Mañana

So this blog has been sort of active again this year, now and then, after a fashion. Sporadically, shall we say. I’m still digging through my boxes and still buying records, which in turn are throwing up plenty of tracks which are worth sharing. Quite often, mostly in the middle of the night or in the morning before I get up, I can formulate a post in my head. I think to myself – yes that sounds good – although sometimes, like a slippery eel, the words subsequently escape me (rather like the memory of dreams do). Usually, though, it is simply that somehow the actual physical act of writing a few words and formulating a post is a step too far.

I’ve been asking myself why this feeling of mañana surrounding this blog pervades nowadays.

I’m not sure I have an answer. I guess I started to miss a beat here about six years ago, which coincided with me retiring from work. In theory then I now have more time on my hands now so that shouldn’t be the issue. But maybe it is. I think the act of publishing this blog was a way of switching off from work, marry that to the fact I have always worked better to a deadline (working meant less free time which effectively limited the time I could dedicate to the blogging lark). Now I’m retired there are holidays, days out, afternoon visits to the pub, gardening, chasing butterflies around a field, fishing, DIY (lots of that when our daughter bought a flat a few years ago, and possibly more on the horizon soon as our son has bought a small house); and this year a rekindled and growing obsession with catching and recording moths (the collector instinct again, I let them go of course). In between all that I could easily choose to dedicate some time to writing a blog post but, crucially perhaps, I can’t invent deadlines because all the time now is my own and all those activities are enjoyable so I find there is nothing to switch off from and writing this blog, certainly when I was working, was I think a sort of escape mechanism.

The other thing I have noticed in retirement, and as I get older, is my increasing desire to be outdoors, amongst nature. If the weather’s good, which it certainly has been this year, that could mean I’m simply lounging in the garden reading or listening to music. (It’s a hard life! Whilst I’m sitting there sunning myself I could write a blog, I hear you say? But actually for me that would be impossible. I need to type on a laptop, or at a pinch on a tablet, and reading the screen on such devices - at least the ones I own - is impossible).

Perhaps all my musings on the subject is just a lot of hot air though and it is simply that retirement is just one endless mañana moment! (Apologies, and sympathy, to all those that are slaving at the coal face).

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I have just read that Leslie Wilson passed away a few days ago. He was a lead member, and singer, with The New Birth in the seventies. I had a real soft spot for them back in the day. Their single It’s Been A Long Time was one of the first few soul singles I owned, and I have a couple of their albums. I saw someone describe them as Rotary Connection meets Earth Wind & Fire which sums up their sound pretty well I think. Their output has been plundered many times by the hip-hop world and the samplers.

It’s Been A Long Time has featured here before – back in 2008! – and I notice then I was bleating on about not having posted for a while so perhaps it has been forever thus here! The “while” was measured as only a couple of weeks back then though.

The New Birth – It’s Been A Long Time 1973

RIP Leslie Wilson (born June 17th 1953, died October 27th 2025).