Deja Vu

And so it is September again (OK, I know it’s nearly over).

I wrote about September last year. Reading that post again I was struck by how closely its themes match my current scenario: i.e. too busy to blog, and the September weather coming up trumps again following a non existent summer.

Unfortunately the general life stuff that has been getting in the way of regular bloggery is by no means all good this time around. Dad is in hospital again and has been for the last four weeks. The daily requirements surrounding visiting, supporting Mum, and trying to work out what is going to happen next is leaving little time for anything else. As I may have mentioned earlier this year, Dad is nearly 90, and has had a good innings as we say. But the various effects of diabetes have now well and truly taken hold and at the moment it is difficult to see that he will be able to return home.

As a nation we British love to talk about the weather and I have found myself describing the days to Dad when visiting him in hospital. In the circumstances talking about the weather seems sort of banal, and I am not sure he is taking in what I say, but in the end it is something to say and I like to think it at least gives him some sort of link to the outside world and a structure to the days (and it sure beats talking about the global financial meltdown).

Again this year, September, for the most part, has been a good month to report weather wise, conducting itself with a customary quiet elegance. I am not one to blow my own trumpet, but, reading it back, I was actually quite pleased with my reflections on September last year; to the extent that I cannot really improve on what I had to say then. So, if you feel so inclined, you can read what I had to say here (skip past the italics).

So what to play to go with this post?….. sing that summer song, soon it will be gone.



Buy “Live At The Bijou”

Tapping My Feet #7

DRC = my initials (say it quick and what do you get?)

0.17 = intro (to beat) in seconds
0.25 = intro (to vocal) in seconds

F = end fades
(not that I would have played it to the end, who did with 12" singles?)

117 = bpm
(not measured scientifically, just using a second hand if I remember!)

RM = ? (I'm b*ggered if I can remember what this means!)

General Johnson - Can't Nobody Love Me Like You Do 1979

This is why we do it

I’m sure if you ask my wife she will say that my desire to hunt for vinyl has now reached addictive proportions. She is probably right. Increasingly, for instance, I find myself sharing with my friends and work colleagues the details of my recent finds and the finer points (if there are such things) of charity shop trawling. If I took myself out of my body for an instant and eavesdropped on my conversation I wonder what I would think of myself? An anorak certainly, and then perhaps there is a fine line between that and a bore? Well, there is nothing I can do about it, the craving for vinyl has got me hooked.

One of the finer points of charity shop trawling I quickly noted was that independent shops (for example your local Cat’s Protection League shop as opposed to a CLIC or Oxfam shop) will typically ask less for records, and will also know less about what they have. So more chance of a ‘find’.

I also then learnt that second hand book shops will also sometimes have a few records tucked away. My belief is that as they are book specialists they, also, are not likely to know the vinyl gems they maybe offering for sale for less than the price of a choccie bar.

By way of proof to my second hand book shop theory I present to you Exhibit A – a single by Denise LaSalle released on the UK(!) Westbound label.


I found this in a Falmouth bookshop a few weeks ago and was happy to part with the princely sum of 50p for it. (Stupidly I only had £20 notes on me so knowing that my wife and friend were not far away, undoubtedly looking for earrings – now there’s another addiction if ever there was one!, – I phoned her on the mobile and summoned her to the shop with all speed with some small change!).

I didn’t know the Westbound imprint had ever appeared in UK form. I wouldn’t mind betting this record sold no more than a few handfuls on UK release so that makes it a relatively rare record. That is always nice to know but in the end it’s what’s in the grooves that counts and I knew that Denise LaSalle + 1973 + a title like “Your Man And Your Best Friend” meant there was a very good chance this was a slab of vintage Southern Soul. The record had no sleeve and looked a bit worse for wear but was worth a punt I thought. And wow! I was right. This must rate as one of I my best ever finds. It scrubbed up nicely after a good clean with the magic fluid and I think you will agree it is indeed vintage Southern Soul – and it’s a B side to boot! (The A side is “Do Me Right”).

Denise LaSalle, now into her 70th year, has been ever present on the soul and blues scene over the last 40 years or so. In the past soul artists recorded output was often mainly in the 45 format, with albums being thin on the ground. Not so with Denise, since her first recording back in 1967 – “A Love Reputation” – as well as numerous 45s Denise has also released no less than 32 albums (see Wikipedia). That’s pretty good going.

I have almost none of her records. It’s something I feel almost embarrassed about, and something I need to put right soon. (Scholar over at Souled On has turned me on to some more of her early 70s output in recent months).

What I do have I present to you now. As well as the aforementioned “diamond in the rough” here is her big hit from ’71 “Trapped By A Thing Called Love” on the US Westbound label – sporting a design that yet again proves that UK labels can’t hold a candle to US ones.


As I am bowled over by Denise LaSalle at the moment you also get two tracks from her 1980 album “I’m So Hot”. Both were also singles. I loved the title track back in the day and used to play it a lot in my DJing days. Playing the album again I was also struck by “Try My Love” a glorious disco burner with a whirl of strings and horns driven along by an irresistible beat with strong Moroderesque undertones. The sound would have been out of fashion by 1980 but now it sounds great again. Southern Soul they’re not, and they prove that soul music had changed beyond all recognition (disappeared really) by 1980, but they’re excellent tracks in their own way.


Denise LaSalle – Your Man And Your Best Friend 1973
Denise LaSalle – Trapped By A Thing Called Love 1971
Denise LaSalle – I’m So Hot 1980)
Denise LaSalle – Try My Love 1980

Tapping My Feet #6 - Turned On

I’m in equal parts chilled (holiday mode), otherwise engaged (domestic admin), and lazy (the bloggers summer disease it seems) so I’m slipping in another 12” (so to speak).

This one is prompted by one of my latest charity shop (US English: thrift shop) purchases.

“I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” was written by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and the Cherrelle version was produced by them – let’s face it they were omnipotent for a period in the 80s. I’m not sure which came first here, Cherrelle’s or Mr Palmer’s, both have a 1985 copyright. I’m guessing Cherrelles’s was first as the lyrics seem to be more suited to a female singer. With Robert singing it seems a bit tongue in cheek whereas with Cherrelle singing it is potentially an altogether different song.

For some reason the video of Robert Palmer’s version of this song is forever etched on my mind (can’t think why!). Watching it again though it’s interesting that I only remembered the girls dressed in black, but there is no denying those girls (the same girls?) in white have some great…er… moves.

Cherrelle’s version can be found on the B side (7”) of her excellent “Saturday Love”, her duet with Alexander O’Neal, a single I picked up a couple of days ago in the Animal Welfare Trust shop in Camborne - what else do you do in Cornwall when the sun refuses to shine?. As a rule Camborne would be one of the last places you would think of visiting on a holiday in Cornwall, but then as I said it was another dull day. The real reason of course is that digging is always top of my list of things to do. I was attracted to Camborne by a guy I had been inadvertently following around the charity shops in Redruth (I only went there to buy a paper, honest). We got talking and he recommended Camborne as being full of charity shops, including one that “had several hundred singles, and only 10p each. I’m off there now”. Well, I never found that particular shop, or if I did he must have bought up the entire stock the day before my visit, but it proved to be a worthwhile diversion anyway and I picked up a few bits and pieces at a refeshingly low price.

Incidentally Camborne also has its own record shop. I walked in and through to the back room and my heart immediately started to beat faster – there was vinyl everywhere, filed alphabetically on shelves around the walls and in random boxes strewn across the floor (some with cobwebs over them!). I didn’t have time to give it a good going over and there maybe some gold in there but in the end I was disappointed – not much soul (what’s new in the UK?) and the records were generally in pretty poor shape. Still, it’s all about the chase isn’t it?

Robert Palmer – I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On 1985
Cherrelle – I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On 1985

Smitten

I can’t concentrate. It must be love. You can love a vinyl record, can’t you?

Strictly speaking it’s just the song that's giving me this sweet torture because I don’t own the record – yet. But I will one day. I know it will cost me more money than I have ever spent on one record before but I MUST have it.

I stumbled across this on YouTube a couple of days ago and it’s been spinning around in my head ever since. When it seems it maybe fading into the background I go to the computer and play it again. Yes, I’m smitten. The sound of Detroit circa 1970 (or maybe ’71 or’72)....



Over at In Dangerous Rhythm you can see a picture of Dee Edwards on a pic sleeve of, incredibly, a German issue of the 45, and a label scan of the original Bump Shop (great name) 45.

Dee Edwards (born Doris Harrell) was active on the music scene from the early 60s right through to the 80s, although her only really consistent run of issued singles was on the D-Town label in three years up to 1966. Sadly she is no longer with us, having died in January 2006. Another of her 70s singles “I Can Deal With That” has been a favourite on the scene in recent years and turns up on compilations fairly regularly, and a man of excellent taste - Gilles Peterson – has included “Why Can’t There Be Love” in his latest compilation Digs America Vol 2.

You can find a good article on her early career here. The Bump Shop 45 barely gets a mention. Ah, that Bump Shop 45 by Dee Edwards, excuse me but I must go and play it again.

Dee Edwards – Why Can’t There Be Love (mp3) 197?

"the birds do it, the bees do it"... there is love I know it and I’m in love with this record.

An unscheduled outage

Well what do you know? Feel It sort of went to sleep there for a bit. I hadn’t consciously taken a break, and I’ve been around most of the time, but in a blink of an eye it’s two weeks since my last post.

I’d like to say I was having a great time but it’s been mostly the same old routine. I have been enjoying the Olympics and I’d just like to salute all our great British sports men and women for lifting the mood here amongst all the gloom of rising prices and a truly awful (in fact, non existent) summer.

I’m still not back into the writing groove so I need to give you a potent musical groove to make up for it (I know, it’s the music you drop by for anyway).

In January 1974 The New Birth hit the US R&B charts with “It’s Been A Long Time”. It would stay in the charts for 17 weeks. Leslie Wilson delivers a great vocal on this track (and you can hear the wonderfully named Londie Wiggins on background vocals). This is Quiet Storm before the phrase was invented, a stunning arrangement, and one I keep coming back to.

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


You can get the unedited version on their 1973 album of the same name.

Say it loud

My home town puts on a Harbour Festival every year. Increasingly it seems to be turning into a music festival, which is no bad thing – especially as it’s all free. On the bill last Friday were Still Black, Still Proud. Described as an African tribute to James Brown, the band leader is none other than Alfred “Pee Wee “ Ellis and he is more than ably assisted by Fred Wesley amongst others. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw them billed – and it was only 24 hours before they were due to play. I phoned a friend, alerted him, and told him to make sure he wore his Parliament Mothership Connection t-shirt!

We tried, but failed, to drag our ladies along – they preferred the sofa and a bottle of wine – but it was their loss. We caught the bus, fuelled up in the beer tent, and listened to Bristol legend DJ Derek build up the atmosphere with a selection of reggae, soul, and funk classics. Then two presenters from the local commercial radio station appeared and in the space of a couple of minutes managed, in the worst possible Smashy & Nicey way, to destroy that atmosphere AND make the heavens open.

No matter. The rain stopped and Still Black, Still Proud took the stage and treated us to nearly two hours of glorious funk, jazz and African grooves. Pee Wee and Fred were joined centre stage with local alto sax player James Morton. Their set built beautifully and included a mix of instrumentals and vocal numbers, most of which were James Brown classics. Fred Ross had the impossible task of ‘being’ James Brown but, probably helped by the fact that he looks nothing like James and didn’t try any of the moves, did a fine job. He has a great voice, as does Martha High who also pitched in with a few songs, including a great “Try Me”. We both really liked Martha. Fred and her evidently went back a long way but we had never heard of her. A subsequent bit of internet trawling revealed that she was also a long term member of James Brown’s backing bands, and was even for a time James’ hairdresser!

Still Black, Still Proud, with African guests Cheikh Lo and Vieux Farka Toure, are hitting a few cities in the States later this month – they’re well worth a trip.


In the 70s the JBs released records under their own name… and many others. With Fred Wesley in the band, that included The Last Word, The Devils, The First Family, and Fred & The New JBs (and possibly also the 1975 incarnations AABB (Above Average Black Band) and The Hustlers, although I’m not sure as Fred left the JBs for the P-Funk Mothership in 1975). Martha High will I’m sure have been on background vocals on some of these records too.

Here’s both sides of The Last Word single from 1974. The A side's title is topical all over again at the moment. On the B side Fred’s slidy thing is particularly evident!


The Last Word – Keep On Bumpin’ Before You Give Out Of Gas (mp3) 1974
The Last Word – Funky & Some (mp3) 1974

Both these tracks are on a CD compilation “Funky & Some” which was released in 1996. Good luck on tracking it down at a reasonable price!