1. dyke & the blazers –
let a woman be a woman, let a man be a man (original sounds)
when i pulled this out of one of my secret spots upstate, this 45
provided me with the first bit of respect for regional/hometown
records that many americans have. i grew up bowling at the same
bowling alley & eating chicken wings at the same diner as songwriter/band
leader arlester mcchristian (aka dyke). also drawing much attention
& mystique to this song is the extended version featured on
one of the rare WHAT radio recordings of philadelphia’s sonny
hopson show. the tragic shooting of dyke in phoenix made me curious
to research the histories & livelihood of more musicians who
either never received the appreciation they deserved at the height
of their careers or did have a but a quick moment in the limelight
only to be now long gone & forgotten by the masses.
2. B.T. express – do it till
you’re satisfied (road show)
OK, there is no deep funk scene in america & perhaps there never
will be but one thing we did have was rollerskating jams & although
this record came out in ’74, it was still amongst the top ten
classics played at the rink straight through to the 90’s. it
was that song that everyone knew from your mom to the mailman, that
song that made everyone do the butt dance & get all freaky no
matter what. it has the trademark tom moulton production that far
surpasses the sound engineering of many records mixed to this day.
3. henry lumpkin – soul is
takin’ over (buddah)
not only did this record teach me the true power & essence that
synchronized handclaps have upon a dancefloor but it is the epitome
of the shing-a-ling sound which bridges the gap between late 60’s
stormin’ uptempo northern soul & raw funk. it is the song
that has everything from screams to a dynamic horn section &
best of all, it is a lesson in artist’s names. never underestimate
the funkiness of a dorky sounding name that might rhyme with pumpkin!
4. alvin cash – alvin’s
bag (toddlin’ town)
“it’s my bag baby, it’s a funky bag!”, oh what
a commanding & versitile phrase! certainly this isn’t his
rarest or fastest or funkiest but it’s definitely one of the
cutest looking ones, especially on that bright pink label. all of
you men will laugh, but being one of the few serious female 45 collectors
in the world, it is the little things like acquiring a whole run
of pink labels that make record collecting just as fun & exciting
for me as collecting different shades of lipstick.
5. the monks – love will tame the wild (polydor)
not funk at all, in fact, lyrically one of the saddest records ever
made, but historically one of the most sarcastic (w/ the monks being
one of my all-time favorite us-vietnam-war bred anti-everything
pre-punk bands) this was one of my first ever wins on ebay, the
first picture sleeve i actually framed, the first record i actually
starved myself for & lost sleep over before it was finally on
my turntable, also one of the first big records i eventually traded
to get more records.
6. lou donaldson – mr. shing-a-ling
(bluenote lp)
well, if any of ya’ll ever wondered where the moniker of miss
shing-a-ling came from, it all started back in ’99 on the balcony
of the lansky lounge w/ the sugarman3’s saxophonist, neal sugarman.
we were discussing the topic of making flyers to promote our night
when i realized that KYM FULLER just wasn’t going to cut it
so upon starring at the sleeve of this album, i said,”well,
if lou donaldson thinks he’s mr. shing-a-ling, then i’m
gonna be miss shing-a-ling.” now nearly 4 years later, i have
developed a sick fixation on & have amassed a vast collection
of all records making reference to the “shing-a-ling”
dance move or that have the word “shing-a-ling” in the
title.
7. main source – breaking
atoms (wild pitch lp)
quite possibly one of the greatest hiphop albums to ever be released,
as large professor not only captures the infamous lou courtney “hey
joice” drums on "he got so much soul (he don't need no
music" & loops them throughout the entire song but also
samples robert moore’s shouting from the infamous third guitar
- “baby don’t cry” on "looking at the front
door", all mixed in true paul c emmulation. one of the most
perfect examples of how hiphop production can make a bigger sound
out of a myriad of funk 45’s than if they were to stand alone.
8. the whitefield brothers – in
the raw (soulfire lp)
ah, remember the good ol’ days (which were only but a little
over a year ago) when daptone and soulfire were pumping out new
releases on a monthly basis? i was running my own record distribution
from home & secretly shipping fresh new funk 45 releases out
at the cost of otis smellevator’s corporate shipping account.
thanks to the release of this stoner swan song of a funk lp melding
the instrumentation of some germans, a certain jewish bassist and
the”shitty is pretty” soulfire production, it’s safe
to say that any of the measly profits i made all went up in smoke
because goodness knows that the blunts were rolled even fatter everytime
i cued this record.
9. despair - one thousand cries (treadwater)
my brother is 10 yrs older than me & used to be a metal head.
i have him to thank for my G major chugga-chugga chord appreciation.
well, in highschool i started going to hardcore/heavy metal shows
featuring a lot of local bands. there were these bands called slugfest,
fadeway & xenvyx whose members joined together like voltron
to form one of the most amazing hardcore metal bands to ever come
out of buffalo called despair. anyway, there is extremely rare footage
of a 16 year old shing-a-ling moshing on the inner picture sleeve
of this single. also, scott vogel, the singer hooked me up w/ my
first job as a telemarketer selling frozen food over the phone.
10. top hat & little jeff
– mississippi bump (C.J.)
i remember when eothen first played this at one of the wackest &
trendiest clubs in nyc back to back w/ harvey scales “the yolk”
and it just tore through the speakers like a shot of lightening.
i just couldn’t believe its stupidness! ol’ top hat was
yelping about “girls chewin’ chewing gum on the top of
their lip” followed by “bump bump, bump bounce, bump strut...”
WTF?! i just had to have it & i am forever in debt to glassbee23
for the hookup. thanks man.
city you live in?
the bronx.
how long you have been collecting?
well i’ve been garbage picking since i was a kid but i didn’t
start paying top dollar till a few yrs ago.
most heart stopping find on a digging
session?
brand nubian’s “punks jump up to get beat down” acetate
in sadat x’s basement.
Top spots for record hunting?
ebay obviously, record shows, canada, the midwest, the south &
even a few stores in new england & the tri-state area.
ebay. good or evil?
i like anything that makes me break out in a cold sweat.
motown or stax?
chess/checker/cadet.
sneakers or shoes?
nike airforce ones.
creole or gumbo?
boiled crawdads in the shell w/ whole garlic cloves & tobassco.
favourite tipple?
WTF is a tipple?
where can people see/hear you play?
at swimbar on sunday nights, in the rotation of SSC (subway soul
club) dj’s at rififi on the 3rd saturday of every month, in
the rotation of BCA (black crack addict) dj’s at piano’s
on fridays, at botanica on wednesdays w/ mr. finewine when i’m
feeling up to it, on the galacticfractures.com archives & when
i’m in your area, i’ll let you know.
anything to add?
i’d like to give a shout out to my momz.
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