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Al Reed "Shake 'Em Up" Axe
A present from one of my favourite crate diggers / record dealers in Louisiana, a great double sider from Al Reed which quite literally makes mince meat of his other great 45 on this label - '99-44-100 Pure Love', unlike 'pure love' this is not a easy record to find and with a pretty healthy demand for it you could be in for a bit of a wait, but well worth it. I've been playing this in the new 'Cool Off' line up and have to say its been a bit of a winner with the RnB crowd. A record to silence those foolish enough to think RnB doesn't have a place in a funk set. Proper ass slapping action. |
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Bettye LaVette "What Condition My Condition Is In" Karen
So many different versions of this classic psych anthem, but this has to be the best - a standout track in Bettye LaVette's remarkable career that ended a period of downturn in her caree. Through the latter period of the sixties she wasn't selling anything like she had done, leaving Atlantic she moved between several labels; Calla, Big Wheel and finally Karen where she recorded 4 records, It was this 45 on Karen, recorded in 1969 that found its way into the hands of a very impressed Kenny Rogers who liked the version of his own hit so much that he talked his brother Leyland Rogers into signing her to his record label Silver Fox. It was at Silver Fox where she went on to record some great country soul hits, finding her way back into the airwaves and charts before abondoning ship to rejoin Atlantic where she started.
A remarkable country soul / sisterfunk outing from a Detroit legend, absolutely essential stuff and with a small number flying around at the moment you should be able to secure one pretty easily. |
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Little Mary Staten "Steppin' Stone" GME
Already featured elsewhere in this site under Adam Leavers Check Yo Soul, I spent a fair amount of work trying to locate one to no avail until once again Mr Cape came to the rescue, selling me a lovely mint copy for a good price. A real soul masterpiece here, the kind of record that should have been on Ian Wrights Sisterfunk LP, the vocals are loud, heartbroken and full of angst. Always a dancefloor filler, in fact it got a tipsy George Mahood running to the turntables last week with his gentleman firmly in hand! Not much is known about this Californian soul singer, some have suggested it may be Mary Love under a different name, personally i'd be surprised if it was, whatever the story behind it its a classic just waiting for recognition. |
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Vester "You Got The Power" Blake
Well, pretty tough to say how rare this record is? Manship claims its very rare, the belgiums do too, a certain top funk dj claims it's not (however he has only ever seen one copy - his own, which he bought cheaply over 10 years ago!) Peronally I think it's very tough and all the signs go towards it being au bleu to medium rare. The 45 is pretty much just one massive break throughout the entire track, it starts with a pounding funky beat and the vocals "you got the power... to do your thing" repeat over and over until they lead you into the break, which kind of last the best part of 2 minutes, not the kind of record that should be relagated to hip hop heads though cause this is a bad ass funky workout that fills the floor. Get so many enquiries whenever I play this so here it is! |
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James Knight And The Butlers "Baby Please Pretty Please" Cat
Well, well, well! Mr Czabanuik claims this is as hard to find as a hens tooth - he is almost right for it took a solid year of trawling through Miami dealers and collectors until I eventually gave up only to have an email from ebay - "Item found". The item in particular was for a even rarer venezualian issue on Velvet which was nice to have, but as Dylan C. reminded me - a US original is the one to have. Enter Liam Large to the rescue who having met Dylan a few months earlier easily picks up a copy on his recommendation only to not like it enough to keep. A deal is done and now I have them both :) Geek and proud!
The sound? Well not as James Knight fanatics would expect, it's a really cool mid tempo RnB / Soul cut with a great guitar riff that binds the whole thing together. definately something to look out for if you like the cooler sixties soul sounds. |
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Bennie Cole And His Soul Brothers "Gotta Go Back Home" Key
Well, there is another issue which apparently has the drums slightly higher in the mix so this issue gets overlooked, I am led to believe this is the first version? Never heard this Milwaulkie beauty until that lovely chap Nick Cope let me play at his Hot Funky And Sweaty club night in Angel, London. A really good mid sixties RnB record with a big bad funky attitude, kicks of with stabbing organ and groovy guitar before the gruff vocals and tittyshaker horns kick in. The song is about a young brother who's gotta get home to his fine lady, why? Cause she's got more soul than a bowl of tunip greens. Naturally! |
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Bonnie Blanchard & Andy Aaron And The Mean Machine "You're The Only One" C.R.S.
Gus (The Groove) Lewis was the man behind Inell Young's funk classic - the suicidal "What Do You See In Her" on Libra, while that is well known and at the moment trebling in price this other crossover soul masterpiece of his doing is not quite so famous yet. Getting big spins in the world of the rare soul club and heavily sought after by those in the know - who like to claim its not at all rare or that much in-demand while desperately trying to prise the copy from your collection :)
"You're the only one" is the soul side with Bonnie wailing her heart out over a sublime drum heavy funk backing. Another 45 that should have been on Sisterfunk. The flipside is a weak funk instrumental called "Right On Time" which must have the fastest drum break ever recorded? |
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Sextette Unlimited "Boot That Thing" Gerri
Seriously rare Chicago funk here, two blistering sides of wailing and screaming over pounding funk rhythms, think Bobby Williams group 'Boogaloo Mardi Gras" and then add a whole new dimension of funk madness. This is the kind of sound you hear once and think you like it then you hear it again and again and fall madly in love. The kind of 45 you have to keep in a plastic sleeve to protect from those sticky body fluids. No idea if I prefer pt 1 or pt 2 better, both sides do it equally for me. |
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Chalklit Milk Revue "Forever Bliss" Mr G
Unknown and relatively unplayed out, a tip off from New Yorks finest - Mr Finewine. An insane organ funk workout of the highest calibre, from start to finish a wild frenzied sound that relentlessy builds and builds. Surprisingly very few of the Hammond Beat collectors seem to know this yet so perhaps a fairly new discovery? A very small number of copies have surface lately, if no more do then you could be looking at one of the big sounds of the future? |
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The Hot Tomales "Chicken Backs" Supreme
Had this for a few years now and never really considered it as something i'd share, wanting to keep it secret until a series of recent spins have sent people crazy over it and a few people have implied its a very rare record, quite unlike anything this bands done before - for one thing it's not merely good - its amazing. Honking wild farmyard funk backing with gasping for air JB style raw vocals, it has all the right ingredients in the right places but just doesn't seem to be well known - perhaps that explains why it doesn't get banded about as a funk classic? |
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Saxie Russell "El Monkey" Ran-Dee
Another mention for Mr Finewine, for here we have the king of tittyshakers and one of Matt W's all time top five records - Saxie Russell's best record - the mighty "El Monkey". I suspect this was more Andre Williams doing than Saxie Russell, essentially a beyond-wild bugalu sound with more than a conservative amount of monkey madness, Saxie or Andre provide vocals in the form of the chanting "it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good" with tittyshaker horns interjecting left right and bleeding centre. Possibly the wildest recording ever made, and sooooooooooo rare! Found for the affordable price of £40 on a top soul dealers list, and here was me offering the few people lucky enough to have a copy big trades / cash with no joy :) |
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Rastafari "Funk City" Satril
No idea if you can call this northern soul, it is probably too funky for that, and you couldn't call it funk cause its just too soulful? So what do you call it? ...who gives a damn! This is a great soul 45, tight, funky and gritty and most surprisingly of all - British! Only ever released on the UK Satril label, absolutely zero is known about who the band were, logic points to a possible Cyaminde involvement but that is just guesswork really. None of the long standing British beat collectors seem to know of it and it appears to be super rare with only a handful of copies being turned up. Mine came from that nice gentleman at Resolution who was none the wiser to any info on it. What a band called Rastafari were doing recording this is quite intriguing as there is absolutely no trace of Reggea or Dub within it - as I said it's an out and out soul stormer. Anyone know anything about it? |
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Lewis Clark "Green Power" Fuller
There are numerous 45's called 'Green Power' by several different artists, some are covers of the same song but most are unique compostions, generally speaking they are all crap. This is the one exception, the rawest of the raw JB sound-a-like vocals over a barriage of wild sixties funk. An extremely rare 45 from Tampa, Florida that's still on so many top cllectors wants lists, this is a tale of how you need to have green power to get along with the people, cause it's the only power to keep the world going along. Lewis doesn't care about the Kllu Klux Klan all he cares about is that green power! It's a sad shame but he's still right to this very day. |
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Explosions "Jockey Ride" Gold Cup
There are two records released on Gold Cup, both were recorded by Eddie Bo's girl group he put together - the incredible 'Explosions' - those records are "The Garden of Four Trees" and "Hip Drop". That's how history has things and history of this kind is put together by people who really know their stuff. Hmmm... so what''s this then?
Covered up (while I tried to get info from Eddie about it) as 'Jan & Eddie' this is without doubt the best Eddie Bo production I have ever heard, an alternate take on 'The Garden Of Four Trees" which is much harder, funkier and need I say rarer! The most expensive 45 I have ever bought and perhaps the best in my collection. I've enjoyed getting a shocked expression out of people who have been granted a sneak peek at this and despaired at others who didn't understand the importance of what they were looking at.
Well there is no funk scene to premier this at so here it is, take a good luck - it's real! |
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Jo-Jo Hammett And The Hurricanes "Ain't That Heavy" Georgia
Not surprisingly this record comes from Georgia - no mistery there! Largely unknown and deceptively rare, only a few copies are known, this one has yet to be broken. A downbeat honking funk 45 with male and female call and response whereby they discuss how heavy it is. The general trend of the conversation is - female "Ain't that heavy", male "sure is", female "aint that heavy", male "sure is nice", female "ain't it good for you", male "right on!"... So not the must impressive lyrics, i'd be tempted to classify it as an instrumental really. But nitpicking aside, a significant recent discovery in my books that should get a little more attention. |
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Lela Martin And The Soul Providers "You can't have your cake (and eat it too)" Melatone
My favourite northern soul sound at the moment and featured heavily on the Soul Function DVD, this is pretty rare really, I don't know if it's not really known on the soul scene or just not cared about but I could find no info on it what so ever? I know she released one other record on this label which is supposed to be equally as great (anyone have one for me?) aswell as a few 45's on other labels. Superb soul that would be a welcome sound for anyone who's had enough of the same old northern records. |
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Leo Price "Hard Times" GMC
One release on from the mighty Priscilla Price and Leo Price Orchestra's "Rockefeller Jones", this time Leo chose a ghetto blues tale of the hard times suffered in 1960's racist America doubled up with a quirky wild funk take on his brothers classic recording "Stagger Lee" re-named as "Stag - o - lee". Picked up for the bargain price *no pun intended* of $4! Nice ghetto blues for home listening. |
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Little Willie Jones "You're welcome to try" VRC
Great sixties soul stomper from Newark, N.J. with such a rough edge and a killer breakdown that it fortunately relegates it to a raw funk 45. Killer drums and Otis Redding sounding vocals, at 1.56 minutes it must be one of the shortest funk records getting spinned. Listening to it I get the impression Willie wanted to record a record just like Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" just a little too much, the first half starts off pretty original sounding but after the break it sounds like he's really about to go into that Otis classic. Not a bad thing in fact these sound-a-likes are just what you need in your box for when you get a bunch of drunken mums invade your night. Marvelous record - one of my current faves. |
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Peggy Larey "Welcome Home" Sidewalk
Oooooooooh what was my mate Dylan doing letting this go? Ok so a few were on the bay and he can probably get it again if he likes but still! Well I thank him for letting me have it. One of my all time favourite soul records, it has that kind of uplifting soul sounds that just carries you off into a much much better place. The opening notes of this make me sticky in the groin everytime I hear it. Perfection - jjust don't flip it over - the worst version of 'Let The Sun Shine In" you'll ever hear. |
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Donnie Jacobs "Proud man" Maison de Soul
Another present from my favourite Louisiana dealer, since getting this and doing a bit of buying / research I have found that there is a simple rule to this record label - anything with a label that looks like this = BUY, and anything with a label that looks more comical and simpliefied = DONT BUY! Maison de Soul released some incredible funk and swamp pop records in the early 70's but then dissapeared until the eighties where they came back with really bad eighties blues and RnB. 'Proud Man' is a super heavy black pride record with tight funky backing - the kind of record that will go huge as long as there aren't too many of them. |
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Robert Moore "Everything's gonna' be all right" Saadia
One of the absolute ultimates and perhaps the best funk record ever cut? Certainly in the top 5. Surprisingly both sides are almost equally as good, but 'Everything's.." got that joyous dancefloor appeal that really lifts the mood of an evening, played this recently in a warehous party to 400 people, looking up from the decks to see everyone go wild was such as good buzz. Written, arranged and produced by Frank Williams who is kind of like the Eddie Bo of Miami funk and soul. A very welcome addition to my collection. |
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Tabby Thomas "One Day" Soul International
The last couple of years i've been able to make friends with a few good Louisiana dealers, ex -dj's and musicians so have been fortunate in being turned onto some of their top sounds before anyone else, this funk ultimate was one of the spawny catches i've had. Tabby Thomas is a well known blues pianist and guitar player who is still performing today, usually at his own blues joint in Baton Rouge - Tabby's Blues Box. Around New Orleans he can be found sharing the same bill with Nola legends like eddie Bo, Oliver Morgan, Lynne August and pals on a regular basis. His usual sound is that of a typical blues standard but for some reason back in the day he cut this almighty raw funk
behemoth - a one-off funk outing from what I can gather - and probably one of the best funk recordings ever made - quite a shame no other attempts were made at this sound. So rare it's just silly. |
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Eddie Bo And The Soul Finders "We're Doing It (Thang)" Bo Sound
Well, probably one of the most highly desired Edwin Bocage 45's and truthfully my least favourite of his records. This 45 has definately seen better days so I only had to pay about $30 for it in the end which sounds a real steal but when you flip it over and see the state of pt 2 you'll realise why. A great funk classic but hardly the masters best outing, never understood the high price for this 45? recently bootlegged so you should be able to turn a copy up on ebay your local vinyl emporium easily enough. |
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Ann Robinson "You did it" All Brothers
A total trophy record here really, my only excuse for buying it is that the re-issue is so quietly pressed that you can't really play it in a club without turning all the controls to max and even then it just doesn't have that ooomph the real thing has. A seriously rare Philly funk 45 with backing by the Freedom Now Brothers who's instrumental version of this - "Sissy Walk" was sampled by that butcher of Brighton - Fatboy Slim for one of his dodgy pop songs - I hear he took his sample from a bootleg too! For me one of the alltime classic sisterfunk anthems. |
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Curtis Davis "Your love and my money" Bev-Mar
Don't really know anything about this obscure Pittsburgh artist other than he released this (only?) record. Kicking off with a big fat drum and bass intro and cool sixties choppy guitar leading into Curtis' gruff male vocals and punchy blaring horns - do I hear a tuba in there? The theme of the song is something along the lines of - Curtis is not like the other guys in town, she's been out with other guys before but they were all lame in comparison, so with her love and his money they are gonna make it for sure. Aahhh aint that sweet! It woulld be if the tittyshaker factor wasn't in overdrive making this sweet talle truly a dirty 2.38 minutes of black plastic. |
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Priscilla Price "Mama" / "You Did Me Wrong (You Used Me For A good Thing" GeNEVA
Wow two great sides on this cheap and easy to pick up 45, "Mama" is not altogether dissimilar to Esther Marrows classic track of the same name and almost equally as good - nah maybe it's even better! While my favourite of the two sides - "You Did Me Wrong" is kind of an Aretha-esque crossover soul balad, Priscillla's voice is incredible here picking up where she left of on her devastating "Do I Stand A Chance With You" (the best soul balad ever recorded) but adding a little more balls and making a dance out of it. |
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Lela Martin with Joe Raglands Band "My Man - He's A Lovin' Man" Stigers
Lovely cheap find on ebay, amazingly no one else bidded on this leaving it free for my grubby paws, bit of a double sider but really the only one to worry about too much here is the side shown, a gritty soullfull RnB stomper / dancer wherein Lela squeels quirky little noises between verses almost as if Charlie Feathers was conducting her. Definately a club sound that should be massive? Is it known? |
