The Funk Brothers!

Earl Van Dyke & The Funk Brothers - The Flick (Pts. 1 & 2)

The excellent 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown finally brought the Funk Brothers, Motown's legendary but unacknowledged house band, to the consciousness of the mainstream, and the reconstituted group made lots of appearances and won some Grammys as a result of the exposure. (I will defer to the History of Rock & Roll website article on the group for pictures and more information.) The Funk Brothers' groove was as identifiable to Motown songs as the southern soul of Booker T. & The M.G.'s on Stax recordings. Although both groups have legitimate gripes about not being completely taken seriously as a recording act by their respective record companies, Stax was much fairer in terms of allowing their house band to be an act of its own (it probably didn't hurt anything that one of Stax's earliest smashes was "Green Onions"). Berry Gordy, violently protective of the Motown sound and of his musicians, kept the Funk Brothers uncredited and, save for a few great 45s, kept them out of the studio as independent recording artists. One of those 45s, "The Flick," was released on Motown's Soul imprint in 1965 and features keyboardist Earl Van Dyke working it out over a nice, typical Motown groove and it really cooks. Also to be noted is James Jamerson's bass solo later in the track.

Soul Brother Number One-and-a-Half

Bobby Byrd - Hot Pants - I'm Coming, Coming, I'm Coming



Bobby Byrd, like Scottie Pippen, was one of those right-hand men whose glory, although greater than that of many second bananas, was immensely overshadowed by the talent of the people they were associated with. It was Bobby Byrd that befriended the then-Toccoa inmate James Brown in the early-50s. It was Byrd who brought James into his group, the Avons. It was the newly-christened Famous Flames who backed up James' pleading on "Please Please Please" and provided background singing and dancing to the James Brown Revue. And it was Byrd whose call-and-response with JB was featured on hits such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" and "Get Up, Get Into It, and Get Involved." Fortunately, Byrd got to shine as an opening act in the James Brown Revue and on a lot of great recordings bearing the "James Brown Productions" imprimatur for Smash, King and Brownstone from the early sixties through to the mid-seventies. Byrd's biggest hits didn't depart much from JB's funk formula, but Bobby's husky and soulful voice brought something to the recordings that made them stand on their own, and hits such as "I Know You Got Soul," "I Need Help (I Can't Do It Alone)" and today's selection cemented Byrd as a funk force to be reckoned with. (A further note: Byrd's JB connection was further enlarged by the fact that Byrd married the James Brown Revue femme vocalist Vicki Anderson, who name-checked Byrd in "I'm Too Tough (For Mr. Big Stuff)" - "they say Bobby Byrd's got the word.")

Despite its awful title, "Hot Pants - I'm Coming, Coming, I'm Coming" is a solid slab of funky get-down, featuring a very aggressive groove, great horn charts and Byrd's relentless enthusiasm in his bellowed vocals. "I can't knock it / 'cause I need to rock it," Byrd shouts, and rock it he does!

More Funky Cosby!

Bill Cosby - Hold On I'm A-Comin'

I'll refer you to my earlier post about the funky sides of Bill Cosby for more info about the Cos' musical endeavors of the '60s and '70s. Today's selection also came from the album Hooray for the Salvation Army Band! This slightly-retitled take on the Sam & Dave hit replaces the Stax backbeat with a harder, faster beat and new comic lyrics by the Cos.

Chick-a Chick-a Chick-a Chick-a Chick-a Chick-a Chick Chick!

Rufus Thomas - Chicken Scratch

No one could do a novelty soul/funk record like Rufus Thomas. Be it popularizing some kind of dance or rapping nursery rhymes, Thomas's goofy Stax sides always brought on the fun. "Chicken Scratch," the flip to Thomas' first Stax version of "The World Is Round," finds Thomas in the barnyard doing nursery rhymes while the background singers sing the subject line of this post as a refrain. The tune is hot, though, thanks to an effective use of a "Bo Diddley" beat by Booker T. & the M.G.'s and the Mar-Keys.

Get on Down With Albert Collins!

Albert Collins - Do the Sissy

The late blues legend Albert Collins was known as "The Iceman," and for good reason: besides Collins' penchant for titles referring to coldness and ice ("Frosty," "Sno-Cone," etc.), his guitar work was sharp and stinging, jabbing at the listener and withdrawing into bass notes. Although Collins didn't really make his mark until hooking up with Alligator in the late '70s, Collins' '50s and '60s sides for Hall, Imperial and other labels present some awesome blues, soul and funk. I'll defer to Larry Grogan's excellent article on Collins to cover them in more detail. Today's selection is a burbling, syncopated funky 45 that is one of my favorite Collins sides from that era. "Do the Sissy" starts with a bullfighter's fanfare but immediately settles down into a very stripped-down groove over which Collins, like a prize fighter, bobs, weaves and jabs his guitar lines, punctuated by his occasional shouts of "Do the Sissy!" or just "Sissy!" Hot stuff, I tell you.

Get on Down With Gloria Spencer!

Gloria Spencer - I Got It

Gospel singer Gloria Spencer was billed (and listed in the Guinness Book of World Records) as "The World's Heaviest Gospel Singer," weighing in at 615 pounds. Although Spencer herself didn't seem to be too upset at such sideshow billing (her infamous recording of "I'll Fly Away" begins with a macabre monologue about Spencer's larger (628 lbs.) sister's funeral - how she had to be the pattern model for her sister's burial shroud and details regarding the size of the casket, the need for a truck to haul the body, etc.), seeing album covers trumpeting her size are somewhat disturbing in today's more politically-correct climate. Fortunately, Spencer's music is very good despite the carnival surroundings. The early disco groove of "I Got It" made the song popular in the early disco clubs and makes the song a cinch to appear here. Get on down with the gospel!

Both Sides of Joe Tex

Joe Tex:

You Said a Bad Word b/w It Ain't Gonna Work Baby

Soul master Joe Tex had a knack for being goofier than many of his contemporaries (many of his song titles sound like joke punchlines: "Skinny Legs and All," "Take the Fifth Amendment," "That's Your Baby," "Bad Feet," "I Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," etc.), but he also could preach some serious gospel about life and love, often featuring his little "raps" directed at both men and women about how they should treat one another. Sometimes on a Joe Tex 45 you'd get some of each approach.

Today's selection came from a Dial 45 pulled from Tex's 1972 I Gotcha album. "You Said a Bad Word" clearly is an attempt to revisit Joe's smash hit "I Gotcha." Joe's the giggling menace here, trying to blackmail his little girlie into some action after catching her speaking French. Although it's clearly derivative, the tune has a nice groove, great horn charts, and somewhat more fluid and danceable groove than "I Gotcha." The flip is a killer. "It Ain't Gonna Work Baby" finds Joe discussing the end of a marriage, agreeing to part ways despite his own misgivings. His rap takes up about 2/3 of the recording but then the one and only chorus is fantastic. It's almost a shame that he didn't break up the rap and use the chorus at least once more, because it's some of the best deep soul that 1972 had to offer.

It's a Mystery!

Mystery Tune - Does anyone have any ideas re: title and/or artist?

Jimmy Armstrong - Mystery

I started collecting tapes of old R&B airchecks (recordings of radio broadcasts with DJ patter, commercials, etc.) about six years ago and they are a lot of fun to listen to. Not only are they awesome because of the awesome DJ patter (running before, during and in between songs) and vintage commercials, but for the music. R&B was very regional in scope, and a great many songs were popular in certain cities (particularly where they were recorded) but didn't make major waves on a national level. These airchecks invariably put me on the hunt for a song that's played that I hadn't heard of before. Generally I succeed in finding the song, but there's one that has eluded me. Maybe you can help.

The "mystery tune" presented here came from an aircheck of Paul "Fat Daddy" Johnson on Baltimore's WSID. It's an up-tempo, doo wop-turning-into-soul thing with a very strong gospel sound. There are portions of the song where Fat Daddy says something but he's low in the mix and talking very quickly, so I don't know if he's naming the artist and/or the song or just reacting to the music (as most DJs of that era did). It sounds like the background singers are saying "welcome me," but at times it also sounds like they're saying "run to me" or "work for me." I've tried searching all over the place for songs called "Welcome Me" but have found nothing. I originally thought it might be Bunker Hill singing, but research on his recordings has negated that theory. I have the feeling, however, that some of you soul fans that check out this blog just might have some ideas; I invite you to give me any info or even theories you may have about this song. I will certainly give the person who cracks the code a shout-out here on the blog and will recognize him or her on the next episode of the podcast. I really really really want to find out about this record so I can try to get it! Thanks in advance for your help.

WLAC's famous disc jockey John R once said "the only thing wrong with that record is it's too short" (yes, I cribbed that line for Episode 4 of the podcast, applying it to Hoagy Lands' "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand"). Today's second selection, keeping with the "mystery tune" theme, falls within that category. "Mystery" clocks in at just under 1:50 and Armstrong's raspy vocal delivers the anguish of lost love over a hurtling Northern Soul groove.

The Deep Soul of Jean Knight

Jean Knight - A Little Bit of Something (Is Better Than All of Nothing)

The jaunty, reggae-tinged funk and sassy lyrics of Jean Knight's 1971 smash hit "Mr. Big Stuff" is one of the most-recognized tracks of '70s soul, being interpolated into commercials (I remember the "Oreo Big Stuff" cookies ads from the '80s) and being sampled in Everlast's rock ode to the '70s, "AM Radio" (which is being used in commercials now). Although Knight would never even come close to hitting at that level again, her recorded output of the '60s and '70s contained lots of good soul and funk tracks. Today's selection came from the Mr. Big Stuff LP. "A Little Bit of Something" shows Knight's deep soul side to marvelous effect.

Simon Power!

Joe Simon - Step By Step



By 1971 Joe Simon had established himself as the country soul artist with no peer (well, Joe Tex or Solomon Burke may have disagreed) with his great baritone and great songs such as "The Chokin' Kind," "Nine Pound Steel" and "Further on Down the Road" (his funky 45 masterpiece, "Moon Walk," will have to be covered in a different post). These hits and others had been produced by John Richbourg (WLAC's "John R") and released on Monument's Sound Stage Seven label. At the beginning of the decade, however, the SS7 label had a brief interruption in operations and John R signed Simon to Spring Records and started Joe on a new hitmaking path. The Power of Joe Simon was a smash LP, featuring production work from Gamble & Huff which added a new dimension to Simon's style (to be fair, Richbourg produced some great cuts on the LP as well; Simon's version of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" is my favorite). "Step By Step" was the leadoff track on the LP and it's a hot one. The string and horn intro captures your attention right away, and Simon acquits himself nicely over a mid-tempo groove. Although "Power of Love" and "Drowning in the Sea of Love" would be bigger hits, "Step by Step" has always been a personal favorite.

The Southern Soul of Jimmy Lewis

Jimmy Lewis - The Girls From Texas

Soul singer/songwriter Jimmy Lewis' most prolific period as a recording artist came in the last decade or so of his life, with several soul-blues albums on his own Miss Butch label. Although several soul-blues hits came out of those recordings, most notably the double-entendre "No Chicken Wings" ("I'm a breast man, I'm a thigh man," Lewis sings) and the "mama's baby, papa's maybe" tale "That Baby Ain't Black Enough," Lewis' legacy lay in the writer's credits for hits by artists such as Ray Charles (who recorded a whole album of Lewis originals, Doing His Thing, which gave Ray and Jimmy a duet hit with "If It Wasn't For Bad Luck"). As a solo artist, however, his wry, observational lyrics and Sam Cooke-meets-Ray Charles vocals graced some great recordings on Four-J, Tangerine, Minit (for whom he recorded today's selection), Buddah, Volt and Hotlanta (for whom he cut his only album of the classic soul era, 1974's Totally Involved), and two great Kent CDs, Still Wanna Be Black and Give the Poor Man a Break, feature scads of awesome but erstwhile unreleased material.

"The Girls From Texas" was written by Lewis, Jimmy Holiday (who also wrote for Ray Charles and others) and Cliff Chambers, and finds Lewis telling a humorous tale of an inescapable love affair. It's pure country soul, an approach Lewis would later apply to the classic "String Bean" on Buddah.

Hard Times!

Gene Chandler - In My Body's House

When Constellation Records folded in 1966 or so the company sold Gene Chandler's contract to Chess Records. Gene Chandler, however, had individually signed to Brunswick. What could have ended up in litigation and acrimony was avoided, however, when the two companies agreed to both record Chandler with Carl Davis producing and alternate single releases. Both Chess (via its Checker label) and Brunswick did well with the arrangement, scoring hits with Chandler solo and, in Brunswick's case, with duets between Chandler and Barbara Acklin.

Today's selection was one of Chandler's last Checker releases before he left both labels to sign with Mercury as an artist and producer. "In My Body's House," a Curtis Mayfield composition, is better known under the title "Hard Times," where it was recorded by Baby Huey & The Babysitters and by Mayfield himself. Although Baby Huey's version, with its heavy beat and intense arrangement, is probably the most popular, Chandler's Chicago soul treatment of the song is also very good. Chandler's high tenor effectively delivers the paranoia of the lyrics and the band turns in a top-notch performance.