Comments (7)

By Larry, January 26, 2012 2:56 pm

Magic Sam

Listen/Download -Magic Sam – I’ll Pay You Back

Greetings all.

Welcome to the end of yet another week at the Les Corners Seize Funkee.

It behooves me to remind you that were you to tune into Viva Radio Friday night at 9PM you would encounter (once again) the Funky16Corners Radio Show, where yours truly whips the funk, soul, jazz and rare groove on the masses via the airwaves of the interwebs. If this is an appointment you are unable to make at the time of broadcast, you can always come by here over the weekend and pick yourselves up an MP3 of same.

This week’s show is especially interesting if you dig the “now” sounds of soul and funk with new stuff from Japan, the good ole US of A, and Australia.

That all said, the tune I bring you today is something out of the blues guys go funky bag.

What’s particularly interesting is that the blues guy in question is the mighty Magic Sam and the funky tune in question is yet another iteration of the thousand-petaled lotus known as ‘It’s Your Thing’.

Magic Sam Maghett was a generation younger than many of the bluesmen that made the trek from Mississippi to Chicago, and his approach to the blues guitar was a new(er) one.

One need only listen to his recordings for labels like Cobra and Delmark to realize that he was on to something new.

Unfortunately, he was felled by a heart attack in 1969 (not long after he recorded this 45) and never really got to build the kind of discography that might have elevated him into a position of prominence.

The tune in question, ‘I’ll Pay You Back’ is something I knew only as an instrumental (‘Sams Funck’) for years until I scored a copy of the 45 and had the opportunity to flip it over.

When I did I was pleasantly surprised not only because of its basic coolness, but also because I finally realized that ‘I’ll Pay You Back’ was in fact a vehicle rebuilt on the Isley Brothers’ ‘It’s Your Thing’ frame.

Along with Archie Bell and the Drells ‘Tighten Up’, ‘It’s Your Thing’ was one of the most imitated and borrowed from songs of the late 60s. It was on the R&B charts for 14 weeks in the Spring of 1969 (4 weeks at Number One).

Magic Sam reprises the song’s title and rhythmic structure, but lays his own guitar style on top of things, and the lo-fi production by Bobby Rush (a master of the soulful blues himself, who is also credited with the writing the song) gives the whole affair a rougher edge, less funky than muddy.

We can only wonder how far Magic Sam might have gone had he not met such a premature end.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 24, 2012 2:04 pm

Fania All Stars

Listen/Download -Fania All Stars – Viva Tirado

Greetings all.

I hope all is well in your part of the universe, and that you all had a chance to dig the Etta James goodness from the first part of the week.

The term gets overused, but Miss Etta was a giant, and unfortunately one that never really got her due.

How much of this had to do with a comparable lack of crossover success, and how much to her drug troubles (though the halls of fame are littered with junkies, ex and otherwise) I can’t say for sure, but she certainly deserved to be up there with the best.

The tune I bring you today is something groovy I picked up a while ago, always dug, but had no idea of its, how do they say, hidden charms until recently.

You already know that I dig me some Latin soul and boogaloo, and as a result I am am incapable of passing up an interesting looking Fania or Allegre 45 when I see it in the field.

It was that very formula – with the addition of an interesting cover version – that made me grab ‘Viva Tirado’ by the Fania All Stars.

The song ‘Viva Tirado’, written in the 1960s by West Coast orchestra leader/arranger Gerald Wilson in tribute to bullfighter Jose Ramon Tirado and then taken into the Top 40 by El Chicano in 1970 (and covered many times) is an acknowledged classic of Latin jazz.

When I saw that it had been covered by the Fania All Stars I knew I had to grab it.

They recorded it for the 1974 album ‘Latin – Soul – Rock’ and their version doesn’t stray too far from the source material.

Now, I always knew that the Fania All Stars included heavies like Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow and Willie Colon.

What I didn’t know is that when they went into the studio to record this album, they brought some equally heavy friends with them, two of whom, Manu Dibango on sax and Jan Hammer on Hammond organ, take solos on this version of ‘Viva Tirado’.

Very groovy indeed!

So dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (7)

By Larry, January 22, 2012 12:58 pm

Miss Etta James

Listen/Download -Etta James – Something’s Got a Hold On Me

Listen/Download -Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto – In the Basement Pt1

Listen/Download -Etta James – I’m So Glad

Listen/Download -Etta James – Tell Mama

Listen/Download -Etta James – I Got You Babe

Listen/Download -Etta James – I’d Rather Go Blind

Listen/Download -Etta James – I Worship the Ground You Walk On

Listen/Download -Etta James – Out On the Street Again

Listen/Download -Etta James – Groove Me

Greetings all.

I think that it would not be overstating things to say that for fans of the music we call soul, this has been an absolute motherfucker of a week.

First Jimmy Castor, then Johnny Otis, and then on Friday we got the news that the mighty Etta James had gone to her great reward.

Goddamn…

I mean, as we have discussed previously, we are in the midst of an era when these sad events will be coming with increasing frequency, but the inevitability of age doesn’t make these losses any easier to take.

Etta James was as bad-ass as they came.

When you talk about serious, heavy, real performers, they seldom got any realer than Etta James.

She came out of R&B, walked straight on into soul and funk, all the while packing one of the most powerful, emotional voices ever heard.

And that voice carried with it the seasoning of a hard life.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins  in Los Angeles in 1938, she first recorded (discovered by none other than Johnny Otis) in 1954 and hit the top of the charts in 1955 with ‘The Wallflower’ (aka Dance With Me Henry) in 1955.

She remained on the charts, both R&B and Pop, through the 50s, 60s and 70s, wrestling on and off with heroin addiction, yet still making some remarkably powerful records.

James recorded for Modern through the 50s, moving to the Chess organization (recording for Chess, Argo and Cadet) where she remained from 1960 to 1976.

The records she made during this period were some of the best soul of the era.

The songs I’m posting today while not by any means comprehensive, represent what I would consider to be her finest work*.

Starting with the epic ‘Something’s Got a Hold On Me’ from 1962 (I love pulling out a record that’s as old as I am…), you get Etta reaching back to her teenage, gospel roots, gathering some R&B on the way and whipping it all up into a solid blast of soul. The record is a great sampler of her vocal range, from her rich contralto right on through to her piercing growl.

Her epic duet with Sugar Pie DeSanto, ‘In the Basement’ has appeared in this space before, but to attempt to pay appropriate tribute to Etta without including it would be the work of a fool. Not only is one of the truly great soul sides of the 60s – by anyone – but you get to hear two monumental divas trading lines.

Another cut from 1966 (coming from the period right before she headed down to Muscle Shoals) ‘I’m So Glad’ sees James working a slightly different groove. While the vocal is classic, mid-period Etta, the instrumental backing – arranged by Monk Higgins – is pure Chitown soul.

Leonard Chess’ decision to send James down to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama was without a doubt one of the smartest things he ever did.

If ever a voice existed that sounded purpose-made for the backing of the legendary Fame house band, it belonged to Etta James.

James recorded just under two dozen sides (almost all released) at Muscle Shoals, and they represent not only a high point in her discography, but also in the long stream of genius that emitted from those hallowed halls during the 60s and 70s.

The best known of her Fame-era tracks is undoubtedly 1967’s‘Tell Mama’, which hit the R&B Top 10 and grazed the Pop Top 20. The tune is hard-charging Southern soul with a supremely confident vocal by James and a horn chart that is in itself a soulful bit of genius. It puts the well-known cover by Janis Joplin to shame.

It was only last year, courtesy of my man Vincent the Soul Chef that I was exposed to James’ insanely good cover of Sonny and Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’. Never in a million years would I have imagined anyone, even a master like Etta James, taking a hippy-dippy pop confection and turning it into hard hitting proto-funk, but that’s exactly what she did.

Interestingly enough, both of the previously mentioned 45s had powerful ballads on the flip side.

‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ (the flip of ‘Tell Mama’) is widely regarded as one of James’ finest recordings, and for good reason. It’s one of those deep, bluesy soul ballads that sounds less like a performance than a late-night confession.

‘I Worship the Ground You Walk On’ (the flip of ‘I Got You Babe’) is cut from the same cloth, if a little less raw. It features a great change-up in the chorus as well.

By the 1970s, James was still with Chess/Cadet, but her sound was evolving. Her 1974 album ‘Come a Little Closer’ was reportedly recorded concurrent with a stint in rehab, and while her voice seems a touch deeper, dare I say smoother (though not to a fault), the power is still there. The track ‘Out On the Street Again’ is particularly interesting, with a a dark, smoky early-70s Motown feel (a la Norman Whitfield) feel to it.

The latest track I bring you today comes from her 1976 LP “Etta and Betta than Evah’. Produced by none other than the great Mike Terry, the album definitely has a 70s feel to it (some era-appropriate synth/clavinet action), but her cover of King Floyd’s ‘Groove Me’ is classic, funky Etta.

The album was her last for Chess, after which she moved to Warner Brothers.

What she left behind after a decade and a half is a veritable mountain of high quality soul music.

Despite her personal struggles, first with drugs and later with failing health Etta James remained an icon continuing to record and perform almost to the end, releasing her final album last year.

What you need to do next – assuming you already haven’t – is get out there and start digging for some Etta James records. There are plenty of them, and aside from a couple of heavily sweated 45s, they shouldn’t cost you all that much, and no matter what they cost, it’s worth it to add so much musical gravitas to your crates.

I hope you dig the sounds.

See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

*Though I’m not posting her 1961 hit ‘At Last’ it holds a very special place in my heart. It was the first song my wife and I danced to at our wedding.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 20, 2012 2:32 pm

A Younger Johnny Otis

Shuggie, Delmar and Johnny doing the Watts Breakaway

Johnny Otis in later years

Listen/Download -Johnny Otis Show – Country Girl

Listen/Download -Johnny Otis Show – Watts Breakaway

Listen/Download -Preston Love – Cool Ade

Listen/Download -The Mighty Flea – Ode To Billie Joe

Greetings all.

NOTE: I had planned to post this tribute to Johnny Otis on Monday. However, the word came down today that Miss Etta James had passed away, so I’m moving this post up a few days, and will pay tribute to Etta after the weekend.

A few days back I heard that the mighty Johnny Otis had passed away at the ripe old age of 90.

It had occurred to me that here in the year 2012, the name Johnny Otis would very likely be unfamiliar to many and known only peripherally (like they know they name but not the music behind it) to others.

Certainly many of you fine people that fall by here on the reg know and love not only the music he made, but much of the music that he facilitated, whether as talent scout, bandleader or even as father (on account of Shuggie is his son).

The sounds of Johnny Otis have been in my ears since I was a kid.

Though it’s fair to say that much of what I dig these days is his later funk and soul jams, I spent most of my formative years listening to oldies radio, which is why my ears (and head) are where they are now.

Any oldies station worth its salt would have been spinning his best known record, 1958’s ‘Willie and the Hand Jive’, though that was not his first or biggest hit* (he’d topped the R&B charts several times since 1950) but the first one to cross over to the pop chart (where it was Top 10).

Born John Veliotes in 1921, he got his start drumming in swing bands before starting his own outfit and hitting with ‘Harlem Nocturne’ in 1945.

Though he continued to record, he diversified, opening his own nightclub, working as a talent scout (he discovered both Little Esther Phillips and Etta James), A&R man for King Records (among other labels) and disc jockey.

Otis was particularly important because over the many decades of his career he touched on almost all aspects of black music (as it evolved) during that time, recording himself, or with others in blues, R&B, jazz, soul and funk.

It’s almost fitting to look at Johnny Otis as the center of an ever-expanding musical “galaxy” of sorts, with him as the hub around which of a wide variety of performers and supporting players expanded out into the world.

From his earliest days on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue scene, through his work with the revolving cast of the Johnny Otis Show (musicians and vocalists, performing and recording), on through his radio work Otis was constantly making or breaking music in some capacity. That he was able to do this in a professional capacity for almost 70 years is truly amazing.

The four tracks I bring you today have all appeared here at the blog over the years, and represent an interesting cross-section of Otis’ late 60s/early 70s funk and soul recordings.

The first two are the best known funk tracks recorded by the Johnny Otis Show, ‘Watts Breakaway’ and ‘Country Girl’, both featuring Johnny, his son Shuggie (you all know Shuggie, yes?) and vocalist Delmar Evans. Both tracks are prime, dance floor funk with the addition of sharp, often funny lyrics (especially ‘Country Girl’ which hit the R&B Top 40 in 1969).

The second pair of tracks are by Johnny Otis satellites/sidemen saxophonist Preston Love and trombonist Gene ‘The Mighty Flea’ Connors.

Preston Love’s ‘Cool Ade’ has the same humorous vibe (as well as Shuggie’s guitar) but moves at a slightly slower pace.

The Mighty Flea’s version of ‘Ode To Billie Joe’ is one of the funkier outings on that tune, with organ, drum breaks and Connors working the trombone in a Fred Wesley style. Otis and his pals also made some other excellent, in-demand funky 45s (with the same party vibe) for the Eldo label like ‘Keep the Faith’ and ‘Banana Peels’.

It also bears mentioning (once again) that the Vibrettes funk classic ‘Humpty Dump’ emerged from the Johnny Otis laboratory, not – as is often reported – that of Mr Eddie Bo.

That said, there is a lot more music out there to add to the Johnny Otis story.

I for one am going to settle in with a copy of ‘Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story’ and get my learn on.

I hope you dig the tunes, and raise a glass (or perhaps a little hell) in memory of one of the true greats, Mr Johnny Otis.

Peace

Larry

*If mid-60s boogaloo is your bag, make sure you check out Castor’s Smash records material, which is excellent.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 19, 2012 2:42 pm

The Jimmy Castor Bunch
Mr Castor in the fly suit and the sax-o-mo-phone

Listen/Download -Jimmy Castor Bunch – Prelude/It’s Just Begun

Listen/Download -Jimmy Castor Bunch – LTD (Life Truth & Death)

Greetings all.

I hope that you’re all still with us following the black-out yesterday, and that you took the time to educate yourselves on the importance of a SOPA/PIPA blackout.

If something like that gets written into law, the days of music blogs (as you know them) let alone the vast majority of what you read/enjoy on the internet will be over.

Also, a while back someone in Canada sent a request for a Funky16Corners sticker, and the envelope got lost in the maelstrom of our house. Please resend the request and I’ll send the sticker along with something extra.

________________________________________________________________________________

This has been an especially tiring and emotionally draining week.

Things on the health front are status quo, and remain optimistic.

It’s just that the cumulative effects of what has been a radical change/redirection in our lives is always daunting and sometimes, especially when physical and emotional fatigue start to catch up with you, difficult to deal with, at least as the future is concerned.

We are extraordinarily lucky that we have family and friends that we can depend on in times of crisis.

If we did not, an already difficult time would be a logistical nightmare.

If you know someone that is dealing with cancer, or any other major health crisis, take the time to extend your hand, whether it involves offering a ride somewhere, or watching the kids for a day, or even cooking a meal.

Every act of kindness makes a difference.

As I said, we are very, very lucky. Not everyone is as fortunate.

________________________________________________________________________________

That said, speaking strictly in the realm of soul and funk, this has been another really bad week, with the passing of not only Jimmy Castor (to whom we pay tribute today) but also the legendary Johnny Otis (on whom I have a post planned for Monday).

I know that I just put up the Benny Gordon post this morning, but I didn’t want to wait to put up some Jimmy Castor, so here you go.

Jimmy Castor had one of the most interesting careers in soul and funk, having started in doo-wop (he went to school with Frankie Lymon and later replaced him in the teenagers), moved on to Latin soul and boogaloo and then on to funk and disco in the 70s.

I first heard Jimmy Castor when I was but a wee lad of 10, when my next-door neighbor (oddly, also named Larry) and I thought that ‘Troglodyte’ was the funniest thing we’d ever heard. There was something about the name “Bertha Butt” that had us rolling on the floor.

It was years later when I got into soul that I heard ‘Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Callin’ You’ and ‘Ham Hocks Espanol’*, but I had no idea how deep a cat Jimmy Castor was until a few years ago.

The fam and I were down in DC doing our tourist thang and I managed to snap off a few minutes of time to dig for vinyl.

I stopped into my favorite DC wax repository, Som Records, and while I was browsing the stock, my man Neal (the proprietor) whipped a record on the in-store turntable and in the course of a few short minutes I was all “What’s that?” and discovered that the sounds that were blowing my mind were none other than those you see before you today.

I knew of ‘It’s Just Begun’ as a heavily sampled classic, but never actually got around to picking myself up a copy of the record. In that I was undoubtedly remiss, and the situation was remedied forthwith.

If all you ever heard before was ‘Troglodyte’ or even ‘Hey Leroy’, which in its own way was a solid dose of comedy, the sophisticated orchestral opening to the LP version of ‘It’s Just Begun’, or the stylistic mix of ‘LTD’ could come as quite a surprise.

The LP “It’s Just Begun’ shows that Castor was much deeper than any novelty might indicate.

Where he started with a base of solid, early-70s funk, your also getting bits of Hendrixian psychedelia, and a rocked up take on his earlier Latin sounds.

Castor went on to place a number of records into the R&B (and occasionally pop) charts well into the 80s.
He will be missed.

I hope you dig the tunes, and make sure you check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or pick up the MP3 here at the blog over the weekend.

Peace

Larry

*If mid-60s boogaloo is your bag, make sure you check out Castor’s Smash records material, which is excellent.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 19, 2012 6:25 am

Benny Gordon
(pic borrowed from Red Kelly at the B-Side)

Listen/Download -Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers – I Can’t Turn You Loose

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is the result of a longtime obsession.

I have been picking up 45s by Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers for well over a decade, when, and wherever I find them.

For years they remained an almost complete mystery, aside from one 45 that suggested to me (correctly as it turns out) that they hailed from South Carolina.

Then, a few years back, my man Red Kelly, captain of the mighty B-Side blog (and many others) put up a couple of different posts that blew the whole thing wide open, revealing that Benny Gordon and Sammy Gordon (of the Hip Huggers) were first cousins and bandmates, but also that although they started out in the Carolinas, they did most of their heavy lifting in New York City.

The Benny Gordon discography stretches from about 1962 to 1973, with the Soul Brothers label being employed from 1964 to 1967.

The first Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers 45 I ever found was their cover of JD Bryant’s ‘Get It (Come and Get It)’ and since then have come to consider them among the finest of what I have often referred to as ‘journeyman’ soul groups, i.e. artists that seemed to have worked long and hard, for a variety of labels, without ever really breaking through to a higher level of success.

The group was the house band at Trude Heller’s discotheque in New York City and even played at Truman Capote’s famous Black and White Ball in 1966.

Their extremely energetic cover of Otis Redding’s ‘I Can’t Turn You Loose’ sounds every bit the work of a seasoned soul band.

Moving at double (and a half?) speed Benny and the band really work it out.

I would relish the opportunity to whip this one on a crowd of well-oiled dancers.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 15, 2012 5:19 pm

Charly and the Bourbon Family

Listen/Download -Charly and the Bourbon Family – Boogachi

Greetings all.

Welcome to yet another week of funky and soulful goodness under the auspices of the Sixteen Funky Corners.

As has been demonstrated here many a time, sometimes you can find very funky things that have been produced by artists for whom funk was not a first (or functional) language.

Today’s selection is yet another of those examples.

I first heard ‘Boogachi’ by Charly and the Bourbon Family sometime last year and was shocked that I hadn’t heard it before.

Not that it is so wildly spectacular a 45 that it should have appeared on my radar screen (though it is quite groovy), but rather because it that rarest of funky nuggets, a Meters cover.

But how can this be Professor Grogan? I do not recall a Meters tune by the title of ‘Boogachi’.

That’s because there’s not one, says I.

However, once you pull down the ones and zeros and give the tune a spin you will realize in short order that what you are hearing is in fact a version of the Meters ‘Look Ka Py Py’.

A stolen version (i.e. with no credit whatsoever given to the writers, Messrs Nocentelli, Neville, Modeliste and Porter), to which lyrics have been appended.

Now, I’m not going to slip you the old rubber peach and try to tell you that they beat the Meters at their game, because they don’t.

‘Boogachi’ (the title derived from the chant at the beginning of the OG) lacks much of the subtle funkiness of ‘Look Ka Py Py’, but I will tell you that it makes up for it with a surprising amount of whatever the German word is for balls.

Charly and co bring a certain aggressive Euro vibe to the proceeding (the singer’s thick, occasionally impenetrable accent being a big part of that) and there’s also the novelty of hearing ‘Look Ka Py Py’ delivered with lyrics (even if it is hard to understand them all).

Charly and the Bourbon Family were a German show band that recorded some 45s and one album under a couple of different names (the Untouchables, Charly and the Diamonds) and in a few disparate styles.

One need only look at the song list from their album (which includes the tunes ‘Bobby the Flobby’ and ‘Who Stole the Keeshka’) to realize that they could charitably be described as ‘all over the place’.

There’s a video of the group on Youtube doing a cover of Buck Owens ‘Tiger By the Tail’ that has all the charm of one of the musical numbers from the old Benny Hill Show.

That said, ‘Boogachi’ is very cool indeed and would fit well in a set of funky 45s.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

However…before I take my leave I should let you know that there is a very groovy show happening in NYC on Thursday night February 2nd at Southpaw in Brooklyn, with the mighty Impressions being back by Binky Griptite and the Dee-Kays (featuring members of the Dap Kings, natch). You also get to enjoy the DJ prowess of DJ Pari, Mr Robinson, Eli Paperboy Reed and DJ Honky, so you are assured a night of fine, soulful goodness.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 12, 2012 12:59 pm

Odetta

Listen/Download – Odetta – Hit or Miss

Greetings all.

I hope everyone is well, and that you’re all ready to end the week with something groovy.

If I might make a related detour, I will remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. This week is another very greasy Hammond 45 special, with all manner of burners stacked up and set alight by yours truly. If you can’t be there when it airs, you can pick up the show on Saturday as an MP3, right here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is another bit of that rare but delicious subgenre known as folk-funk (funky folk, folky funk, what have you).

If you are my age or older, the name Odetta should be a familiar one.

Odetta (known almost exclusively by her first name for the duration of her career) was one of the queens of the American folk revival.

Though her earliest work was on the musical theater stage (she was involved briefly with the very interesting Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles), she was working as a folk singer by the mid-50s and by the end of that decade was known as much for her powerful voice as she was for her work in support of the civil rights movement.

She is best remembered as part of the folk movement, but Odetta’s work was also influenced by jazz and the blues.

By the time the end of the 60s rolled around, there were very few standard bearers of the folk movement who hadn’t already branched out into the world of rock and pop to some degree, and Odetta was no exception.

The 1970 LP. ‘Odetta Sings’ was recorded in both Muscle Shoals (with support from the house band as well as cats like Eddie Hinton) and in Los Angeles with a group of studio heavies as well as Carole King on piano.

The album was composed almost exclusively of cover material, by folks like James Taylor, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Randy Newman. There were only two originals on the album, and today’s selection was one of them.

‘Hit or Miss’ is heavily sweated by crate diggers because of the extra-sweet break that opens the tune (that would be Russ Kunkel on the drums) but I invite you to stick around for the rest of the song, which is excellent.

Odetta was possessed of a powerful, unique voice, perfectly suited for delivering heavy, “message” material, so it’s interesting to hear her put that same instrument to work in a more relaxed, soulful setting. There’s more than a touch of 1970-specific, laid back, quasi-hippie groove at work, which is not a bad thing at all.

The 45 of this cut can be kind of pricey, so do yourself a favor and grab the whole album, which ought to be much cheaper, and of course has eight more songs for your money.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Thank you Leah…

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 10, 2012 1:50 pm

Listen/Download – Sam Wright Group – Green Onions

Greetings all.

I’m going to have to make this quick today since I am currently bedeviled (like the egg, see?) with an infection of some kind that is making feel like old, wet garbage.

The tune I bring you today will certainly be a familiar one, if the version in question is not.

You know that I am an inveterate Hammond 45 junky, and will always pick up any and all interesting looking organ instro 45s, which is why I grabbed the one you see before you.

I’d certainly never heard of the Sam Wright Group, but since ‘Green Onions’ is one of my all time fave instrumentals, I figured it was worth picking up.

Which it was.

What is especially interesting is the fact that as it turns out, there probably was no Sam Wright.

The smoky, late-night take on the Booker T classic is in actuality just another product of the Synthetic Plastics Company.

Formed in Newark, NJ after World War Two, SPC had a variety of plastics-related endeavors, but the most important of them – at least as far as we’re concerned – is the one that made records.

Over the next five decades SPC (doing business under a variety of label names, such as Curio, Peak, Power, Diplomat, Guest Star , Spin-O-Rama, and most famously Peter Pan) released all kinds of stuff, from kids music and stories (mostly the Peter Pan label) to a panoply of knock-offs of the hits of the particular day, in a wide variety of genres, on the others.

I have absolutely no idea who played on these records, but from hearing more than one of them, my guess would be a range of talent from experienced club/studio musicians to utterly disinterested hacks.

Fortunately, whoever was wearing the Sam Wright Group mask was better suited to the material they were covering than some of their fellow exploiters.

Since the aim of the label seems to have been taking advantage of the current popularity of songs, I’d date this 45 somewhere in the vicinity of late 1962, early 1963.

Interestingly, I’ve also seen a listing for the Sam Wright Group doing a cover of the Tornados ‘Telstar’. Whether or not it was the same group of musicians I cannot say.

I hope you dig the record, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

PS Thank you Leah…

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, January 8, 2012 3:07 pm

Listen/Download – Lloyd W. Williams – Be Mine Tonight

Listen/Download – Lloyd W. Williams – I Need You Now

Greetings all.

I hope everyone had themselves a nice weekend.

The fam and I managed to get out of the house to commune with my sister and her kids, up from the distant South for a late bit of Christmas, which was very groovy indeed.

Last week’s Northern Soul fest was also quite interesting, with an extremely lengthy comments thread at the end of last Monday’s post. I really dig when something I post here generates interesting conversation and this really fit the bill.

The tune I bring you today is yet another testament to the coolness of my man Tony C over in the UK.

I have gone on at length in this space about the many times Tony has turned me on to something cool, and this record is another one of those.

Mr C and I were chatting and he mentioned that he had doubled up on a record and would be sending one of the copies my way.

I dipped into my trade box and sent him some goodness as well.

I’d never heard of Lloyd W. Williams before, so when the package fell through the mail slot and I got a chance to play the record, I was blown away.

‘Be Mine Tonight’ is proof that there is always something cool out there that I haven’t heard yet, which makes the searching all the more fun.

I haven’t been able to turn much up on Williams, other than the fact that the record was recorded in 1969, is of Detroit origin, and was originally released on the Soul Beat label before being picked up for national distribution by ABC.

‘Be Mine Tonight’ is high octane funk with a wailing vocal by Williams and red hot instrumental backing. Whoever was working it out on the organ did a superb job.

It should be mentioned that this record also has an outstanding flipside, the mid-tempo ‘I Need You Now’ which sounds like it was recorded a few years earlier.

I can’t find any indication that the talented Mr Williams ever made another record.

I hope you dig both sides of this one, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.