Naming Names, Part 1: Females

One of the grand traditions of pop songcraft is the "direct address" lyric: songs dramatically emoted to a specific person, whose name is typically found in the title of the piece. Although the following selections are from a wide variety of genres, they share an overwhelming sense of affective urgency. Love songs on the verge of obsession, they plead with the addressee (us, by means of interpellation) to come around to the speaker's point of view. Enjoy:

"Sadie" - the Fun & Games

A surprisingly minor-keyed, slightly creepy track from the folks who brought you "Elephant Candy" and "The Grooviest Girl in the World."

"Jennifer" - Junior Soul

Jennifer, darling Jennifer/Please don't leave. Beautifully plaintive reggae from the future Junior Murvin.

"Cathy, Come Home" - the Twilights

An everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production from the year of same, 1967.

"Alison, Please" - Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band

Geno's recorded output is uneven, to say the least, but this lovely piece of bubblegum-soul deserved a greater hearing back in 1971.

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Stay tuned for our next installment.

Various Things, Vol. 2.

I have a folder on my computer entitled "For Go-Fi." This is where I stick all of the music for half-formed posts, tossed-off ideas, and various other unsuccessful ventures. So, in an attempt to clean house after 2009 and offer some excellent (if disparate) tunes, I present to you the contents of that folder.

First up is a quasi-cover of the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" from Mozambique. This track is featured on the first volume of No Smoke's Cazumbi compilation of African garage rock. Check it out:

"Suspensa A Un Filo" - Conjunto de Oliveira Muge

Believe it or not, I was a huge theatre geek in high school. I've been wanting to do a post of Jesus Christ Superstar covers for a while, but frankly - I couldn't find many of quality. So here are the best of the bunch. Sam Taylor slows down Judas' opening solo into a funky soul number, while Roy Ayers strips Mary Magdalene's trademark torch song into the sort of intimate, sensual jazz he's known for:

"Heaven On Their Minds" - Sam Taylor (from Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal)

"I Don't Know How to Love Him" - Roy Ayers (from He's Coming)

And finally, here is a nice blue-eyed soul platter from the Joe Meek-produced Honeycombs. This track is mostly notable for being remarkably un-Meeklike. It's quite straitforward, actually, with a soulful instrumental break featuring a jazzy sax solo and an echoed guitar. Enjoy:

"I Can Tell (Something's Up)" - the Honeycombs

Josie vs. Jackson

There have been quite a few twee funk compilations released lately and most of them contain a fair share of glorious Jackson 5 rip-offs. The artists included are kids, of course, so these comps tend to miss out on some of the J5 facsimiles created by adults.

One group that straddles the kiddie/adult line is Josie and the Pussycats. (No, seriously.) In 1970, "they" released a full-length album of excellent pop-soul directed at the animated series' pre-teen audience. The "group" was fronted by the very adult Patrice Holloway, sister of steamy soul chanteuse Brenda Holloway. The album contains a faithful cover of "I'll Be There," but the influence of the J5 is felt throughout. "You've Come A Long Way Baby" obviously uses "The Love You Save" as a blueprint, while "Stop, Look and Listen" is based around the the main riff of "ABC." Far from being mere copies, though, these tracks are fantastic in their own right. Indeed, the Josie and Pussycats record is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable releases of the bubblegum era. The pre-fab genre was big on singles, of course, but bubblegum albums were often cluttered with filler. In contrast, the Pussycats' album is lean--a mere 10 tracks--but all are quite good. Track it down if you can. In the meantime, enjoy these:

"You've Come A Long Way Baby" - Josie & the Pussycats

"Stop, Look and Listen" - Josie & the Pussycats

Gankin' from the Godfather.

After the success of our last covers post, I figured we'd turn it into an occasional series. (BTW - if you've got suggestions, email me or leave a comment.) This week we are sharing a number of artists covering the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown.

Just as we began with two covers of "Eleanor Rigby" last time, we're starting with two markedly different versions of JB's classic "I Don't Want Nobody." The first is by jazz guitarist Grant Green, whose laid back, muted version of the song pretty much exemplifies why he's a jazz-funk legend. In contrast, Randy California's version (from the aforementioned Kapt. Kopter & the (Fabulous) Twirlybirds) rocks hard. If Hendrix ever covered James Brown, I'm fairly certain it would come out something like this:

"I Don't Want Nobody" - Grant Green

"I Don't Want Nobody" - Randy California

Next up is the Blues Magoos' typically garage-y, blue eyed soulish take on "I'll Go Crazy." Structually, it's quite similar to JB's original. The prominence of the (Farfisa?) organ sets it apart, however, and the "you got to live" sections (with gang vocals) are particularly exuberant:

"I'll Go Crazy" - the Blues Magoos

The Kashmere Stage Band have certainly seen a revival of notoriety lately. Their material has finally been remastered and rereleased - deservedly so. Their version of "Super Bad" is brassy, fully orchestrated, but unrelentingly funky. Also, I love the organ solo near the end:

"Super Bad" - the Kashmere Stage Band

Gene Chandler's cover of "There Was a Time" is well known to Northern Soul fans and dare I say it, his amped-up version is even better than the original. Just try not to dance to this:

"There Was a Time" - Gene Chandler

And finally, we have Arthur Brown's manic version of "I've Got Money" (from 1968's brilliant--and vastly underrated--The Crazy World of Arthur Brown). Brown used to perform in a flaming helmet, but you don't need gimmicks to appreciate this:

"I've Got Money" - Arthur Brown

Enjoy and send me your suggestions for our next covers post!

Funky Foundations.

Despite three major pop hits in two years, the Foundations were floundering by late 1969. Their final Top 10 hit ("In the Bad, Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)") had fallen down the charts and two subsequent releases had fallen largely on deaf ears. Fearing that their pop-soul fusion was becoming irrelevant, the group (a septet at this point) began to incorporate funkier, more contemporary sounds into their sets. In June of 1970, they released "I'm Gonna Be A Rich Man" b/w "In The Beginning," the latter track an instrumental incorporating funk drumming as well as a middle section featuring jazz flute and a harpsichord. Unfortunately, the single went nowhere and the intriguing b-side remained mostly unheard. The group was all by defunct within a few months.

Just before their breakup, however, the Foundations recorded a track entitled "Where the Fire Burns" that remained unreleased until their material was reissued on CD in the 1990s. Like "In the Beginning," its relatively obscurity is unfortunate, given that the song's cinematic jazz-funk looks forward to the blaxploitation soundtracks then still a few years in the future. Indeed, it's hard to believe that this track was recorded by the same group who brought "Build Me Up Buttercup" to the top of the U.S. charts only a year earlier. Take a listen:

"In the Beginning" - the Foundations

"Where the Fire Burns" - the Foundations

(Much of the information from this post can be found in Roger Dopson's liner notes to the Foundations' Baby, Now That I've Found You release on Sequel Records.)

2008.

Well, it's list-making time. Here are a few of the songs that I played endlessly in 2008:

"Campbell Lock" - Don "Soul Train" Campbell

A funky dance number from the creator of "locking" (soon to be paired with "popping"). Campbell was a founding member of The Lockers, a pioneering dance troupe that also featured a young Fred "Rerun" Berry and a pre-"Mickey" Toni Basil.

"Thrills and Chills" - Helene Smith

This is one of my favorite tracks from the Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label compilation. There's something about the insistent beat and reverberative organ that makes this track instantly memorable.

"The Shadow of Your Smile" - Jack McDuff

Speaking of reverberative organ, this song oozes with sensuality thanks to Jack McDuff's fluid mastery of the Hammond organ. I first heard this on the What it is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves box set, but it's originally from McDuff's Tobacco Road album. If you love soulful jazz, pick it up.

"Ice Cube Island" - Merrell Fankhauser & H.M.S. Bounty

I read about Merrell Fankhauser in high school (Richie Unterberger's Unknown Legends of Rock and Roll, again) but his stuff is so obscure that I didn't hear much of it until recently. "Ice Cube Island" is from the 1968 Things album, which is really just a great folk-rock record with slight psychedelic tinges here and there. This song, however, embraces the album's druggy subtext with a dreamy, sighing vocal and gloriously vague lyrics. (Why, for instance, does she "hate us all?") I also love the sunshine pop-esque backing vocals.

"Yokomo" - Yamasuki

I learned about this record from Oliver Wang's Soul Sides blog. Yamasuki was, apparently, a bizarre French project aiming to fuse Japanese culture with funky soul. There's a whole album of this stuff, most of it really freaking awesome. This is my favorite track from the record.

What did you keep on repeat this year?

Looks of Love

"Look of Love" - Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66

"Look of Love" - the Meters

"Look of Love" - Isaac Hayes

Here's a metamorphosis for you. "The Look of Love" is a fairly lightweight Burt Bacharach tune that was a huge hit for Sergio Mendes in 1968. It was soon covered by everyone and their mom - but a few of these covers ended up completely transcending the original. The Meters totally deconstructed the Mendes version, resulting in a soulful, gritty recording that's quite a bit moodier than a lot of their sides. They recorded the song in 1969, but it wasn't released until Sundazed started reissuing their material in the late 90s. Otherwise, one might wonder if it was an influence on Isaac Hayes' epic arrangement from 1970.

And now that you're an expert, name that sample:

"Stand Strong" - Smif-N-Wessun

funky florida.

 

lately, i've been sifting through a number of compilations dedicated to soul and funk from the sunshine state. i wanted to share some of my favorite tracks with you:

"don't make the good girls go bad" - della humphrey

"90% of me is you" - gwen mccrae  

(from miami sound: rare funk and soul from miami, fl 1967-1974")  

"funky fast bump" - the outlaw gang  

"quit jive'in" - pearly queen  

(from florida funk: funk 45s from the alligator state)

"thrills and chills" - helene smith  

(from eccentric soul: the deep city label)

enjoy.