Soul Blues Saturday: Get On Down With JT!

Johnnie Taylor - You Can't Strike Gold In A Silver Mine



The late Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis reigned from the late '80s until their deaths at the pinnacle of the soul blues circuit. The parallels between the two are very interesting: both ended up on Columbia after long, successful tenures on independent labels; both had initial hits on Columbia but then found themselves alienated by the label as public tastes changed; both had a few final national hits on small labels; and both found their fortunes in the new soul blues market on the Malaco label. Davis and his music will be discussed next week.

Although Johnnie Taylor's move to Columbia in 1975 paid immediate and immense dividends with the platinum single "Disco Lady" (the first single, incidentally, to be certified as such by the RIAA, which had just created the designation), by the end of the '70s he found himself floundering. He switched to the Beverly Glen label (then hot with Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now") and had a few more minor hits before signing with Malaco. Taylor's Malaco recordings struck a major nerve with soul blues fans and Taylor toured continuously on the strength of tunes like "Last Two Dollars," "Big Head Hundreds," "Soul Heaven" (his last soul blues hit), and today's selection.

"You Can't Strike Gold" features a very punchy groove, anchored by a funky guitar lick (although many soul blues records featured synthesizers and drum machines, usually a real guitar would be there) and good background singing. Taylor is in good form, cutting loose with Sam Cooke wails and telling the cautionary tale of the lyrics. It's a shame this song didn't exist in the Stax days, becuase he would've hit with it for sure!

(EDITOR'S NOTE - The podcast will be put up next week - sorry for the delays!)

Black Moses At Wattstax! (Well, Sort Of)

Isaac Hayes - Rolling Down a Mountainside



In August 1972, The Stax Organization (as the label was known at the time) provided gratis to the Watts Summer Festival its entire roster of artists for a day-long concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum (then home of the L.A. Rams) as a goodwill (and marketing) gesture. The event, thereafter referred to often as "the black Woodstock," was filmed for posterity by director Mel Stuart and producer David Wolper, and footage from it, intercut with other performance footage, comedy bits by the then relatively-unknown Richard Pryor (much of the material would later appear on the seminal LP That Nigger's Crazy) and "man-on-the-street" interviews with assorted denizens of Watts (including a pre-"Love Boat" Ted Lange and, pre-"Sanford and Son," the guy who played Aunt Esther's husband, whose name I cannot recall), was released as the 1973 film Wattstax. This great film was for many years commercially unavailable, save for a P-Vine import, and it only made rare appearances on pay movie channels in the US (I taped it off of Cinemax back in 1998). In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the film, the legal wrangling over the rights to the film, which had prevented its prior release on video (although Columbia Pictures put out the film in 1973, it did not have full ownership to it) was finally put resolved and the film was re-released, followed by a DVD release.



The re-release of the film also brought resolution to a controversy surrounding the original film. At the time of Wattstax Isaac Hayes was a megastar, having delivered the groundbreaking Hot Buttered Soul album in 1969 and riding high with the soundtrack to Shaft, for which he had won an Oscar. Hayes closed out the concert with a set that included the famous "Theme from Shaft" and the ballad "Soulsville" from the soundtrack. All seemed to be well until Wattstax was due to be released. MGM had the rights to the film Shaft and demanded that the songs be removed. As a result, the "Theme to Shaft" portion was shown in abbreviated form (just the intro, over which Jesse Jackson introduces Hayes - "He's a bad, bad - I'm a preacher, I can't say it" - and the closing is played). To replace "Soulsville" it was decided that Isaac would perform his newest single, at the time entitled "God Is On Our Side," so the performance was shot on a soundstage and edited into footage of the audience to close out the film. (The film's re-release restored the original ending, which fortunately was found in the vaults, so the DVD includes "God Is On Our Side" as one of its bonus features.) Stax issued a 45 of the song, now retitled as "Rolling Down a Mountainside," as part of their "Wattstax" marketing strategy (more on that later). "Rolling Down a Mountainside" features the usual orchestral style for which Hayes was famous, but it's Hayes' vocal that really makes the record work. Although inspiring, the words are somewhat trite (think of the "American Idol" winners' first singles), but Hayes puts them over with soul and a warmth that tugs the heartstrings. It's one of my favorite Isaac Hayes records.

It should be noted that there was actually lots of strange stuff that happened during the making of Wattstax and in Stax Records' attempts to use the film for marketing of its records. The concert itself ran too long and several acts, including Johnnie Taylor and The Emotions, had to cancel their sets. Some artists, like Little Milton, had other engagements that day. To compensate for this, the film's producers arranged for Taylor, Milton and the Emotions to appear at a Los Angeles nightclub in order to shoot some footage for the film. Of the three performances, however, only Taylor's was suitable for use in the film (lighting issues marred the other two). Little Milton was subsequently filmed lip-syncing "Walking the Back Streets and Crying," and the resulting "music video" footage is actually a strong point in the film. The Emotions also managed to have a strong showing in the movie, as a later performance of the group, singing "Peace Be Still" at a church, was added.

Editing tricks aside, the film was very well-received when released and Stax attempted to capture the momentum to boost its own record business, an effort that yielded mixed results. "Rolling Down a Mountainside" failed to chart. A double-LP soundtrack, Wattstax - The Living Word, came out and did well, but a second double-LP volume (featuring Stax's second-tier acts and lots of the Richard Pryor material) fared poorly. "Peace Be Still" was issued as the Emotions' next 45, but it was doomed to fail, as gospel DJs wouldn't play it because the Emotions were a popular secular group and R&B DJs were disinclined to play gospel records at all. The Staple Singers fared well when "Oh La De Da," a song used as background music in an early scene of the film, was released with overdubbed applause (they did not perform the song at the Watts Summer Festival at all) as a "Wattstax" 45. Stax tried the same trick with Eddie Floyd's next 45, "Lay Your Loving on Me" (which did not appear in the film at all - it should be noted that Floyd himself only appears in the film for about one minute, as part of a group gospel sing along with William Bell, Frederick Knight and other second-tier acts), but the ploy didn't work. Although Rufus and Carla Thomas both did good sets at the festival and were the only "old guard" Stax acts featured in the film (Rufus' performance of "The Breakdown" and "Do the Funky Chicken" incited the crowd to come out of the stands to dance on the football field, after which Thomas masterfully talked the crowd back into their seats; this whole scene is captured in the film and is considered by some to be a show-stealer), no "Wattstax" marketing was employed for their records, which was unfortunate, especially for Carla, whose career at the label was rapidly winding down (her last 45 came out in 1973).



If you don't have it already, I strongly recommend that you get both the Wattstax DVD and the 3-CD set Music From The Wattstax Festival and Film. The DVD features the original full version of the film (with Isaac's original performances), the full footage of Albert King's performance of "I'll Play the Blues for You" (which appeared in shorter form in the film), and commentary tracks by many parties involved with the film (including Al Bell and Isaac Hayes) and by Stax historian Rob Bowman, who is joined by Chuck D. The CD set, released by Fantasy Records in connection with the film's re-release, features great liner notes by Rob Bowman and includes lots of performances that did not appear in either the film or the two soundtrack LP sets, including lots of the Johnnie Taylor/Emotions/Little Milton club date and performances by second-tier Stax artists who did not appear in the film. These are a must for any soul fan!

More Spencer Wiggins!

Spencer Wiggins - Feed The Flame

I think that last week's post about Spencer Wiggins deserves a follow-up, as Spencer Wiggins' awesome material is not given the praise it deserves. Today's selection was released as a single on the small Memphis label XL in 1973. "Feed The Flame" is a nice churchy ballad with relatively spare accompaniment, and Spencer's earnest vocals really brings the message home. It's great stuff.

More Soul Souvenirs

Bettye LaVette - Fortune Teller



For today's selection I will return to the excellent CD Souvenirs, the 2000 release of Bettye LaVette's shelved 1972 Atlantic LP Child of the Seventies. (Read my prior post for more info about this album and about LaVette's fabulous comeback story.) "Fortune Teller" further illustrates that some bigwig at Atlantic had rocks in his head to pull the plug on the release of this album, as LaVette takes lyrics that would sound pretty trite in the hands of a lesser singer and spins them into an atmospheric song full of both hope and despair. Brad Shapiro's production further enhances the ambiance of the recording.

Tuesday Is Blues Day!

Slim Harpo - The Music's Hot

From the end of the '50s through the late '60s Slim Harpo was one of Excello Records' top hitmakers, with straight blues like "I'm a King Bee" and "Raining in My Heart" and dancefloor-oriented stuff like "Baby Scratch My Back" (featured in a December post). Most of these classics were recorded at Jay Miller's Crowley, Louisiana studio, but by the late '60s Harpo started recording in Nashville with Music City R&B guru producer Robert Holmes at the helm. Harpo's latter dance records, like "Tip On In" and "Te Ni Ne Ni Nu," came from these sessions, as did a lot of interesting country and country-flavored recordings, including great covers of country tunes like "Mohair Sam" and "Folsom Prison Blues," as well as today's selection. "The Music's Hot," a humorous tale about Harpo trying to evade death in order to keep playing the blues ("St. Peter, I can't go tonight - I got a brand-new, rock-em-sock-em record out"), features a hot-foot rhythm and some nice guitar and harmonica solos. Unfortunately, St. Peter caught up with Harpo in 1970, but fortunately for us blues and soul fans, Harpo's impressive Excello recordings remain. The music's hot, indeed!

Papa Chew!

Tom & Jerrio - Boo-Ga-Loo

James Brown had the Popcorn, Rufus Thomas had the Dog, and Jerry Murray (aka "Jerrio" or "Jerry-O") had the Boogaloo. I will defer to this excellent article to cover the biography and discography of Jerry-O and his productions. Jerry-O's records were almost literally a party spread over both sides of his funky 45s, with Murray playing the part of the emcee/DJ, encouraging listeners to do the boogaloo (or the Twine or the Pearl or whatever dance was featured on the record) and just getting into the groove with interjections of "heeeeeeeey-eyyyyy" and "papa chew!"

Today's selection was the first of the "boogaloo" records Jerry-O would commit to wax throughout the '60s. Joined by Tommy Dark, "Boo-Ga-Loo" was released on the Jerry-O label and was picked up nationally by ABC-Paramount, where it was billed as by "Tom and Jerrio" and it became a big hit in 1965. The duo's "lyrics," if you can call them that, barely refer to that dance at all, as they also encourage people to do the Twine, the Barracuda, and other dances. Fortuantely the awesome instrumental track saves the record from total tomfoolery. (Les McCann would resurrect the tune, absent the vocals, as a soul jazz masterpiece.) The flip of the record, "Boomerang," is the same track, featuring different chants and calls. You can really get down to both sides of this 45!

More "boogaloo" 45s would follow after "Great Googa Mooga," the follow-up to "Boo-Ga-Loo" (on which Jerry-O exhorts, "don't pour no water on me; just let me BURN!"), was released, most notably the Jerry-O solo efforts "Funky Boo-Ga-Loo" and "Karate Boo-Ga-Loo." All of them are good records worth seeking out also.

(EDITOR'S NOTE - I plan to get the new episode of the podcast online sometime this week.)

More Gos-Pop!

Ernest Franklin - Since Jesus Came Into My Heart

The Checker Records "gos-pop" sound (as Chess A&R man and producer Ralph Bass called it) is in full effect on this great Checker 45 from gospel singer Ernest Franklin, whom I really don't know anything about. Franklin takes the traditional hymn and gives it the gospel treatment with able support from the swinging Chess house band and great background singers (in places the song is redolent of Marvin Gaye's "Pride and Joy").

Soul Blues Saturday: Dr. C.C.'s Love Building!

Clarence Carter - Love Building

I quoted Red Kelly in the first post of this series to the effect that what I call "soul blues" was, in many cases, nothing but new recordings of Southern soul music. There's lots of truth to that statement, as the latter half of the '70s was not very good to many Southern soul artists. The rise of disco and the increasing corporate takeover of the great soul labels found artists like Johnnie Taylor, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett and Clarence Carter being pushed by label executives to do disco-oriented material. Although Johnnie Taylor, Joe Tex and Tyrone Davis had some initial success on the dancefloor side of things, all in all their careers as leaders on the R&B charts rapidly was rushing to a close. It's a pity that Joe Tex passed away in 1981, because the emerging soul blues movement would've been perfect for him.

By the beginning of the '80s mainstream R&B was moving away from the MFSB-styled orchestrations and M.G.'s/Mar-Keys rhythm sections to embrace synthesizers and drum machines. In addition to these changes being aesthetically acceptable to R&B radio audiences, they also made recording sessions cheaper, which worked to the advantage of the smaller labels like Malaco, Ichiban, Wilbe, and others that stayed the course with the older sound. Many soul fans on the Internet cast a dismissive eye at these recordings, which I think is truly unfair. To be sure, the sound of real instruments interacting with the singer's voice is a better thing than the sound of an programmed track over which a vocal is layered, but a lot of great music still came out of those projects, and some artists maximized the new technology to their advantage.



Clarence Carter began the '70s at the top of his hitmaking game, scoring a major hit with "Patches" in 1970 on Atlantic. In 1972 Carter, like many of his fellow Atlantic hitmakers, had left the label, whose R&B focus was rapidly shifting to the Spinners and similar acts. His continued affiliation with Rick Hall found his next recordings coming out on FAME, where he would hit with "I'm the Midnight Special" and "Sixty Minute Man." A switch to ABC gave him another hit with "I Got Caught Making Love," but Clarence's bluesy style was quickly fading out of fashion, and Carter began a long nomadic period, where he cut records for Ronn, his own Future Stars and Big C labels, Venture and others before hitting big on Ichiban with the bawdy "Strokin'," which became an instant classic almost wholly by word of mouth (it's subject matter and language kept it off of the radio). During his wanderings, the Venture era found Carter coming closest to a hit. After cutting regrettable singles like "Jimmy's Disco" he delivered the Let's Burn LP, the title track of which made some noise, along with today's selection. Carter became a master of the new electronic sound, and most of his latter recordings find Carter programming all of the music on his records.

Gerri Hershey's interview with Carter in her book Nowhere to Run was conducted during the time this album came out, and she makes note of "Love Building" as being his new record. "Love Building" is a prototype of "Strokin," as Carter mixes boasts about his romantic prowess with lyrics covering his other main subject area, "slippin' around." Although it sounds as if Carter is performing for a live audience, the drum machine and synth grooves are all over the record. Live or no, "Love Building" is a nice piece of get-down and Carter is at his testifyin' best.

Just Do the Frankenstein, Baby!

Gene "Bowlegs" Miller - Frankenstein Walk



The late trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller fits square in the middle of the Southern Soul "who's who" list, as he worked with all of the big labels (including Stax, Hi, Goldwax, FAME) as a sideman, writer, producer, and occasional recording artist. Outside the studio he was a popular Memphis bandleader and, in such capacity, he discovered Ann Peebles, who would go on to be a major force for Hi Records in the '70s. As a singer, Miller was an adherent to the Rufus Thomas/King Coleman style of performance, in which obvious technical limitations were masked by hard-hitting, good-timing performances, and the world is a better place for having records like "Toddlin'," "What Do You Mean" and today's selection.

"Frankenstein Walk," a 1969 Hi release, starts off with some fun dialogue between Miller (portraying Frankenstein - "I don't know what I'm trying to do! I'm a monster!") and an uncredited female and then Miller settles into the basic dance record lyrics, which he sings with gusto. The Hi band is in top form, and their punchy groove is as much a treat as Miller's fun singing. This tune has been comped on two good CDs, The Legacy of Gene "Bowlegs" Miller (which I think is long out of print) and on the 2006 CD Barnyard Soul. I'm going to buy a copy of this on 45 soon, though - it's a must-have for me!

The Chicago Steelers!

The Steelers - I'm Sorry

A few years back I read a column in the Chicago Sun-Times profiling Wes Wells & The Steelers, a Chicago soul group whose recorded output was fairly small and generated only one hit, the Date 45 "Get It From The Bottom" from 1969. The members of the group still reside in Chicago's West Side and at the time of the article had actually recorded a new tune (if I recall, it was encouraging people to go vote in the upcoming Presidential election). Although they never reached the level of fame their talent warranted (probably because they sounded too similar to the Impressions), the Steelers' records are very good and worth checking out. Although "Get It From The Bottom" is still popular among the Northern Soul crowd, the flip, "I'm Sorry," is a favorite of mine also. There's a soft funk groove underneath this sweet ballad, and Wes and the group almost perfectly mirror Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, even down to the switching off of lead vocals in the bridge. As derivative as it sounds on paper, it's heaven to the ears.

Further Kudos to Kent!

Spencer Wiggins - I'm a Poor Man's Son



The '60s recordings of Spencer Wiggins and his brother Percy are outstanding pieces of Southern soul from differing sides of the soul spectrum. Percy, whose "Book of Memories" appears on the "Country Soul Special" episode of the podcast, has a cooler, lighter voice that worked well on ballads and Northern Soul-oriented stuff (like "That's Lovin' You"). Spencer, whose "Love Attack" appeared on Episode #6 of the podcast, has gospel fire through and through, and on ballads like "The Power of a Woman" (a personal fave, along with the FAME 45 "Double Lovin'") such power is breathtaking. Fortunately, his Goldwax sides have been recently reissued by Kent on the great CD The Goldwax Years. Colin Dilnot has the liner notes on his blog, and I refer you to them for information about Spencer and his recordings for the legendary Memphis label.

"I'm a Poor Man's Son" caught my attention right away, with its herky-jerky rhythm (to which I can imagine doing a soulful version of the conga or some type of New Orleans second line stepping), nice horn charts and perky vibraphone accents. Spencer gives the optimistic lyrics the appropriate amount of enthusiasm, and all in all it's a fun song.

Message Music!

Raw Spitt - Who Do They Think They Are



I first heard of Charlie Whitehead a/k/a Raw Spitt via the inclusion of "Songs to Sing" on the first volume of the excellent Kent CD series Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures. I would later learn that Whitehead was a compadre of Jerry Williams, Jr., a/k/a Swamp Dogg, who has appeared on this blog a few times prior. The Williams-Whitehead collaboration resulted in a good decade's worth of fine recordings for Dynamo, Canyon (where the "Raw Spitt" name made its premiere on an eponymous LP), United Artists, Stone Dogg, Island and others. Lots of the material featured Swamp Dogg's usual strong political leanings ("Songs to Sing," today's selection, "Predicament #3," "Call Me Nigger"), but other tunes were fun pieces of '70s funk and soul ("Shaft's Mama" and my favorite, "Between the Lines"). By the end of the '70s Whitehead would fade into obscurity. Fortunately, for those of us who were immediately captivated by his voice on the first Dave Godin CD and had learned about his other work in fits and starts, Kent has released Songs to Sing: The Charlie Whitehead Anthology, which is a total treasure.

Today's selection came from the Canyon LP. Over a nice mid-tempo groove, Whitehead effectively converses about the new racism that followed the Civil Rights Era, with Swamp Dogg lending support in the choruses. There's a strong message here, and Whitehead truly delivers.