SPENCER WIGGINS
Although Spencer’s soul career produced
only about a dozen singles, his output on Goldwax in the 60s and Fame/Sounds of
Memphis/XL in the 70s is highly valued in deep soul circles. Born on January 8
in 1942 in Memphis, Spencer left the city for Florida in 1973 and soon after
that became devoted strictly to gospel music. In 1999 he released a song
called Jump for Jesus, followed by a similarly titled 6-track cassette,
and in 2003 they issued a full-length CD named Key to the Kingdom on
Tavette Records.
Spencer: “I live
now in Hollywood. It’s about three miles from Miami. I’m working at the
church that I belong to, New Birth Baptist Church. I’m working as a security
guard. I’m one of the founding members of our church. We’ve been together for
over seventeen years. I am also a deacon at my church.”
Spencer’s latest
CD, I’m Going On (Tavette 69626-12346), was released late
last year (www.tavette.com). Recorded in Miami, Florida, it features mostly real musicians, including a horn section and background
singers. Some of the other tools that were used include Thomas Demerritte’s
production company, D-Lite, and his publishing and management company, Lite-D
Music Publishing. Main writers on the CD were Spencer and Thomas.
Spencer: “Most
of the songs go back some years… very old songs. We kind of changed them
around.” The opener, Highway to Heaven, is an uptempo and melodic
“camp” song, credited to Spencer. “That’s a very old song. We just came back
with it, and we just sang it our way.” If You Never Needed God before…is
another rejoicing uptempo number but this time performed in a more traditional
gospel style.
What a
Friend! is a more bluesy slow number. “It’s more like B.B. King’s Sweet
Sixteen style. Everybody’s raving about that particular song.” The
mid-tempo I’m going on is performed a cappella. “We were having
problems with the musicians showing up at the studio to really get this song
down, so all those parts and stuff that you hear on that particular song I’m
doing with my mouth – bass, drums and everything. So there’s no music on
there.”
Praise Your
Name is a boisterous scorcher, featuring Queen Kathleen. “She’s a
young lady out of Chicago. She used to belong to our church. She came down
here maybe about six years ago. The last I heard of her she had moved to Key West, Florida. She has a lovely voice.” God Is so Special is a personal
favourite, a slow and deep song, on which Spencer sings also the second, soulfully
gruff voice. “It’s a beautiful song. I wrote that song way back in 1979. I
was supposed to record it back then at Al Green’s studio, but we had
other plans and he never did call me back to get me back into his studio. When
I got with Tommi, we changed the title from God Is Somebody to God Is
so Special.”
What Do You
Think about Jesus? is an uptempo “holy spirit” mover, whereas the slow and
dark Key to the Kingdom from five years back is now released as an “Acoustic
Mix.” In the Garden is a traditional. “That’s a very old song. We
decided to go with that strictly a cappella.” Finally on the two concluding
songs, More Love at Christmas and Make Sure They Know It’s Christmas,
the titles really tell it all. “I did them about two years ago. Tommi wrote
those songs.” According to Spencer the CD has had airplay – they have a radio
station at their church, too - but due to the lack of good distribution it’s
very difficult for people to buy it. “We’re trying to get overseas with it,
but we don’t have a distribution yet.”
As with Betty
Harris and Garnet Mimms in my earlier columns, also with Spencer we
went back in time and did some reminiscing. PERCY WIGGINS is Spencer’s
brother and a recording artist in his own right, too. “Percy is back home in Memphis and he’s just singing in the church, like I am. He hasn’t been recording since he
stopped.”
QUINTON
CLAUNCH was Spencer’s producer at Goldwax. “This guy is a character. He’s
the one I signed the contact with, when I went to Goldwax… screwed me out of
all my money. He was vice president of Goldwax. Doctor Rudolph Russell was
the pharmacist, and he’s the one, who really put the money up front for the
company. Quinton, who signed the people, stepped along and tried to steal
everything he could. Most of the songs have his name on it, but he didn’t
write them. He just stole them.”
GEORGE
JACKSON wrote a lot of songs for Spencer. “He is a very personal friend of
mine. He wrote most of the songs that I recorded. He’s a born writer. He
lives down in Jackson, Mississippi, now and he’s working with the Malaco
Records.”
JAMES CARR was
Spencer’s singing colleague at Goldwax. “James is a personal friend of mine.
He had this big hit on Goldwax, Pouring Water on a Drowning Man. He just died a
few years ago. He was a very nice gentleman, soft-spoken, always smiling. He
was a very nice guy, a very quiet guy.”
O.V. WRIGHT is
another artist Spencer used to work with. “He’s another personal friend of
mine. We were on different shows together. This guy could really sing. I’ve
never seen anybody make another man cry. I was on a show with him back in ’71
in New Orleans along with Jackie Wilson, Bobby Bland, Denise LaSalle,
and he just turned the place up. He had me just crying. He was really a
soulful singer.”
(Acknowledgements
to Spencer Wiggins, Thomas Demerritte and Colin Dilnot).
SHIRLEY BROWN
It took almost
five years for us to hear new music from Shirley, but finally Unleashed (MCD7535;
www.malaco.com) is here. It starts with a
serene and rather mellow ballad called Upside Down, which, however,
vocally grows into a passionate eruption. The song was written and produced by
Frederick Knight, but unfortunately his second contribution, an almost
funky beater called Let Me Relax You, isn’t on a par of that opener but,
on the contrary, sounds rather dull.
Vick Allen did
a lot of producing for this set, and the first song is his and Omar
Cunningham’s I Don’t Wanna Leave, a slow swayer with powerful
singing again. The mid-tempo If You Can’t Hit It Right (co-written by Tonya
Youngblood Polk) is more mediocre and ominous. Vick also wrote and
produced together with Shirley two songs, a poppy mid-tempo stepper titled You
Should’a Know Better and a poignant and impressive deepie named Why,
which is dedicated to the ones we’ve lost.
I’m afraid that
the late Charles Richard Cason’s and Zuri’s two repetitive jams (Clean
House and I Wish You Didn’t Love Me So Good) leave me cold. They
simply are too “hip-hop” and contemporary for Shirley’s emotive and established
old-school style.
On A Sample
of my Love, a mid-tempo beater with an irresistible groove, and (You
Promised Me Heaven, But) You Gave Me Hell, a bluesy slowie, it says that
“initial tracks and lead vocals recorded at Ecko Sound Studios in Memphis, TN.” The writers of those two songs are John Ward, Raymond Moore and Larry
Chambers. Malaco’s Vice president, Wolf Stephenson: “John Ward runs the
Ecko studios in Memphis, and he has written a lot of songs for us in the past.
He used to be a signed writer to Malaco Music for years. He submitted five
songs, and Shirley chose those two. John Ward: “I sent those songs to
Shirley, because I knew she was cutting her new CD. At first they were going
to record them at Malaco and I assumed they would redo the tracks. But Shirley
liked the feel I had on the tracks and was afraid they would lose the feel, if
they recut them, so she asked if she could use my tracks. They decided to just
come here and cut the vocals, since Wolf Stephenson was coming through town
anyway on his way back from Nashville to Jackson. So that’s how we ended up
doing the vocals and basic tracks here. After the vocals were cut, we sent the
tracks with her vocals down to Malaco for more overdubs and mixing. I was glad
that Shirley did the songs and thought she did a great job on them.”
The last three
tracks, produced by Wolf Stephenson, were cut at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in
2003, and they feature real instruments. Wolf: “Those three tracks were
recorded at the same time as Shirley’s previous album (Woman Enough),
and we did not use those songs. Since then I went back and listened to them
and decided to put them on the album.”
The first of
those tracks is a hurting ballad called When I Hear Your Name. Written
by Rue Davis and Harrison Calloway, it’s another big-voiced
performance from Shirley. “When we were getting ready to do that album, I told
Rue Davis that we needed some songs for Shirley. He had a few ideas, and I
asked him to finish them with her in mind. Rue Davis is the one, who comes up
with the idea, lyrics and such, and Harrison Calloway wrote the music part of
the song.”
Shirley is
determined on Luther Lackey’s beat ballad named You Ain’t Gone Get No
More of My Love and gives advice on another Luther’s tune, the softer Watch
What You Tell Your Friends. Wolf: “Luther has written other songs for us.
He’s a local guy, a writer and a singer, and he has a lot of ideas for songs.
He writes songs all the time.”
“We released the
single, the lead-off song, Upside Down, and that’s a ballad, but also
some of the uptempo songs are getting action. Several radio stations are
picking them up.”
Recently Wolf
has spent a lot of time in the studio. “We just signed a new artist that we’re
really excited about. She was, I think, a runner-up in last year’s America’s Got Talent show, Queen Emily (www.queenemily.org).
We were able to sign her, and we just finished the tracks last week. Hopefully
we have the product to come out in August.”
If you like
Shirley’s music and if you only have time, you could read my 3-part Shirley
Brown story at www.soulexpress.net/shirleybrown.htm.
If you became
interested in some of the indie Southern soul releases above, please try www.intodeepmusic.com.
THE CHICKEN SLACKS
The Chicken
Slacks (www.chickenslacks.com)
is called “Boston’s hardest-working funk and soul band”, and it was formed
seven years ago. This self-contained (rhythm section & sax and trumpet), 7-piece
band is allegedly a great act on stage, and some of that energy is conveyed on
their recorded music, too. Can You Dig It? was cut in Massachusetts, and it contains four self-written and nine outside songs.
Funk is fast on Going
to the Shack (Syl Johnson) and Tragedy, which transmits a
social message in a psychedelic setting, not unlike what Norman Whitfield used
to do with the Temptations. The seven uptempo tracks include also a
fine interpretation of Too Much Time (Captain Beefheart) in a
genuine Memphis spirit, a driving cover of one of Sam & Dave’s
better recordings, You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me, and a storming
version of She’s Looking Good (Rodger Collins), which is quite
true to Wilson Pickett’s later hit recording – even vocally!
Two mid-tempo Memphis songs – On a Saturday Night (by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper)
and Any Other Way (by William Bell) - are cut in an old-school
style and set to a good-time groove. The Chicken Slacks’ main vocalist, Durand
Wilkerson, penned and leads an emotive soul ballad called I’m in Love.
Another slowie is a sort of mating novelty titled I Wanna Take a Shower with
You, while a slowed-down interpretation of CCR’s Long as I Can
See the Light, works quite well, actually. Only a Fool Gets to Heaven, written
and sung by John Moriconi, is a bluesy ballad. If you want to party to
a good imitation of classic soul music sounds, then this CD is for you.
COMP-ART-MENT
MORE WELDON’S GEMS
I bet many of us
still remember how surprised we were at the high quality of volume one, when
thirteen tracks out of the 18 on the set, all produced by Mr. Weldon A.
McDougal III, were unearthed and released for the first time last year.
Now Philadelphia Soul Rarities, vol. 2 (Universal
Love Records, UL 003; 17 tracks, 67 min.) has hit the streets and again as many
as twelve cuts are previously unreleased. Once more, produced and most of the songs
written by Mr. McDougal, Andrew Demetriades has helped in compiling the
set and he wrote the informative, track-by-track liners, too.
Most of these
songs derive from the 70s (five from the 60s and one from the 80s), but still…
twelve good numbers unissued at the time – that’s a lot! Weldon: “The main
reason was that I was a record promotion man. I would produce a record and try
to get a deal with record companies, but they wouldn’t take me seriously. So I
just kept them trying to get things released… and still recording, and finally
I just gave up. I did have people say they liked it, like 20th
Century Records, but the deal never came about.”
The opener, Would
You Believe Me by the Three 3P’s with MFSB, is an easily
flowing, airy Philly dancer from 1976, and it says “remixed by Tom Moulton”,
too. Weldon: “Actually he copied it. I mix all my own tracks. It’s very
important that you mix your own records, because that way you ensure you get
everything straight.”
Nothing but
Heartaches is a slowed-down version of the Supremes ’66 hit. This
intense beat ballad gets an impressive treatment from an unknown songstress in
1970. “All I remember is that she’s from New York. In my mind and in my soul
I was just trying to help people. A lot of people would hang out with me for
years, and then I would never see them again.”
Barbara Mason’s
and Weldon’s cooperation goes back to the Yes, I’m Ready days in 1965,
but still as late as in 1978 Weldon produced a hit for her. An atmospheric
ballad called I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife peaked at # 14-soul on
Prelude Records. “Last year I was in London for the first time in my life, and
Barbara was playing at the Jazz Café, and I went to see her. It was such a
thrilling experience, because I hadn’t see her perform for awhile or perform
for an audience overseas. She was real good.”
Bright
Shining Angel (’77) is a tender but unfinished ballad by Dennis Rodgers with
Universal Love. “In fact, we talked a couple of days ago. What
happened was that the group, Universal Love, kind of broke up and they lived in
Trenton, New Jersey, which is not far from Philadelphia. When they broke up,
I just went on and did other things. Dennis is still singing and I’m planning
on recording him.”
A touch of Motown
is felt on Phyllis Smith’s uptempo cut titled Keep on Holding on
(’66). “She’s another good friend of mine. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, now. I spoke to her about a year ago.” The second song from Phyllis is a plain ballad
named I Need Somebody to Love (’69).
Weldon with his
bass voice joined forced with a high-voiced Dahlia on The Lover Man,
a jolly mover, which has Dahlia bursting into some ecstatic noises towards the
end – somewhat similarly to Donna Summer’s Love to Love You Baby;
only Donna’s record was released a bit later in 1975. Weldon C. McDougal was
the co-writer. “Whenever you produce a record, you got to have the charts
written down. That’s what my cousin did for me at all times, on most of my
records. One day he said ‘hey man, I got a song’ and I said ‘okay, let’s cut
it’. That was really an instrumental, so I put some lyrics to it, and that’s
how it came about.”
Rhonda Burg cut
a disco dancer titled Come Share My Umbrella in 1978. “This is a
strange story. I worked for Motown. Phil Jones was the president of
Fantasy Records. He called me one day and said ‘hey man, guess who I heard
from’. I said ‘who’. He said ‘Rhonda Burg’. ‘No kidding’. She told him that
the stuff that she recorded with me is the best stuff she ever recorded in her
life. Actually, one of the reasons why I’m so excited about this CD is that I
really want to hear from the people that I recorded, so that they could hear it
and we could get in touch.” Rhonda’s second song on the CD is Sweeter
(’78), a big beat ballad with Rhonda doing some impressive vocal gymnastics. Willing
to Bet Cha (’78) is a mid-tempo beater.
Without You
Baby by Irma Jackson and the Larks is the oldest track on
this compilation (’63), and this dancer has since evolved into a northern
favourite. “Let me tell you the reason I put it on there. Roland Chambers,
Karl Chambers, Winnie Wilford and Tommy Bell – they were the rhythm
section and they were the guys I used to use those days. They then became the
Romeos with Kenny Gamble.”
Eddie Holman with
the Larks covers two 50s songs - Been So Long (’67), originally cut by the
Pastels (although this scribe prefers Sonny Warner’s magnificent
version), and Johnny Ace’s Never Let Me Go (’66). “I made a deal
with Cameo-Parkway with Eddie Holman, and they wanted to put out an album and
they needed two songs real quick. Those songs, Been So Long and Never
Let Me Go, were songs that the Larks used to sing in our show, so it was
easy for him to learn the lead part and all we did was the background. He had
to do it in the same key we did our background in.”
Gerri
Grainger does both a disco dancer, Would You Believe (’75), and an
intense, big-voiced ballad, Why Can’t You Be Nice to Me? (’72). “I
met her, when I used to work with Sammy Davis, Jr. She used to open the
show for Sammy. She lives in New Jersey, which is not far from Philly. She
asked me would I record her, and I said yes. I thought I would definitely get
a deal, because she was a well-known singer and can really sing, but nothing
ever happened. The last time I talked to her, she was at the Philadelphia
airport and she told me she was retiring, because her mother was sick and she
didn’t think she’ll be going out on the road anymore. That was about twenty
years ago.”
The running time
of Barbara Cole’s melodic disco number, No Other Love (’79),
exceeds six minutes. “She manages Zeola Gaye, which is Marvin Gaye’s
sister. They’re doing a movie on Marvin Gaye. A lady by the name of Mamie wanted
me to produce Mel & Tim, but then Gene Chandler produced
them. She said ‘I got another artist for you’, and that is Barbara Cole. She
sent Barbara here to Philadelphia and I recorded several songs on her. One of
them was Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean on volume one. I recorded No
Other Love with Barbara Mason first, and Barbara Cole heard it, and I did
it over.”
A
Philadelphia Groove, a funky instrumental by George Howard, Weldon
C. McDougal, Gerald Veasely and Kae Williams is the only track
from the 80s (’81). “In the 80s and 90s I didn’t do much recording. Now I’ve
been real busy doing volume one and two that I haven’t had time to concentrate
on recording.”
“I was working
with Shirley Slaughter (her interview at www.soulexpress.net/deep107.htm#shirley),
but she left me. She left with one of the guys I was working with in England. He convinced her that he can do better for her. I hope that she does well, but
this is what happens in business, when a lot of artists think that the grass is
greener somewhere else. Sometimes they move too fast.”
“I don’t think
I’ll be doing volume three soon, because it takes a little money and I had some
extra money at the time I did volume two. But it’s doing well. I’m so surprised
that it’s doing so well. Volume 1 is number one in Japan, so that’s very
encouraging. I can’t say, if there’s going to be volume three or not, but at
this time I’m kind of going with the flow.”
THE FACTS OF LIFE
What a terrific
compilation! It covers the recording history (1975 – ’78) of an act, which was
formed as a 6-piece Gospel Truth in 1974 but which a while later and now
as a trio changed its name to the Facts of Life. All the tracks on Just
the Facts (Southbound, CDSEW2 147; www.acerecords.com; 2-cd - 23 tracks, 88
min; notes by Tony Rounce) were produced by Millie Jackson (Brad
Shapiro was the executive producer) and they come from the two albums by
the group, Sometimes (Kayvette 802 in ’77) and A Matter of
Fact (Kayvette 803 in ’78). Additionally there are still three single
sides (the fast If You Can Give, You Can Get and L-O-V-E, plus
the single version of Did He Make Love to You?). Rhythm tracks were
recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, Millie and Brad were the arrangers with
the exception of strings and horns, which were arranged by Mike Lewis.
Jean Davis,
Keith Williams and Chuck Carter excel on slow material, and
sometimes they even remind me of the magnificent Soul Children. A
soulful cover of a country song called Sometimes remained their only pop
hit, whereas on the soul side also a Banks & Hampton cheating ballad
titled Caught in the Act (of Getting’ it on) charted. Barbra
Streisand’s Lost Inside of You turned into lush soul, while Barry
Manilow’s recent gold hit, Looks like We Made It, was dramatized
into a powerful opus. Both That Kind of Fire and Love Is the Final
Truth are gospel-infused ballads.
Their second and
the last album was even better; actually deep soul fiesta. Among the nine
tracks there are only two mid-tempo ones (I’m Way ahead of you and This
Ain’t No Time to Sleep Apart), while the rest are gorgeous deepies. Did
He Make Love to You? was cut by Johnnie Taylor earlier and Larry
Santos had charted with We Can’t Hide it Anymore two years before. He
Ain’t You and You Always Get Your Way are both melodic downtempo
songs, but Do You Wanna Make Love increases the drama again, and both Joe
Shamwell’s It’s Only a Matter of Time and Dr. Feelgood keep
it up there.
This compilation
is for fans of big, dramatic, deep soul ballads and for those, who think that
they didn’t create great music in the late 70s during the disco era. Soon
after the second album the trio disbanded. Millie Jackson (in 1993): “T.K. was
the major company that Kayvette was on, and they ran into financial problems.
Keith Williams went to California. I think he’s into computers. Chuck Carter
became a barber in Brooklyn, New York. Jean Davis, Tyrone’s sister, is my best
girlfriend. I’m the godmother for her daughter and I was the maid of honour at
her wedding. She’s married very happily to an ex-police chief in Chicago.
They have a security company, and she runs a catering service.” Let me say it
once more: what a terrific compilation!
LITTLE WILLIE JOHN
Ace Records has
done a praiseworthy job in releasing Little Willie John’s King material, and
now the fourth, concluding CD in this series has come out, Heaven all
around me/The Later King Sessions 1961-63 (CDCHD 1221; 24 tracks, 62
min.). My one criticism is that I would have preferred to have these tracks in
chronological order, because that also helps to follow the liner notes, written
by a big fan of William Edward John, Tony Rounce.
The songs that
charted for Willie in the early 60s were the poppy (I’ve Got) Spring Fever,
# 25-r&b; the Hank Ballard like Take My Love (I Want to Give It
All to you), # 5-r&b; a plain ballad titled Now You Know, #
93-pop; and the more rocking Don’t You Know I’m in Love, # 116-pop).
The big-voiced
Willie could handle any type of material. With a tear in his voice he pours
emotion on such standards and big ballads as The Masquerade is Over, Every
Beat of My Heart, My Love Will Never Change and Heaven All Around Me.
He could get bluesy (Inside Information) or rip into rocking r&b (Doll
Face, Don’t Play with Love, Bill Bailey, Come on Sugar and the only
previously unreleased track, Like Boy, Like Girl).
Sometimes he
came close to pop (Until Again My Love, Half a Love, Rock Love and a
Coasters-influenced novelty, Mister Glenn), sometimes he tackled
country (Big Blue Diamonds, She Thinks I Still Care). The career came
to an abrupt, untimely end, when he was convicted of manslaughter and he passed
away in prison in ’68, officially of a heart attack.
MAXINE BROWN
As Ady
Croasdell writes in his notes, many of the tracks on this new CD, Best
of the Wand Years (CDKEND 312; 28 tracks, 72 min.), have been available
on earlier compilations. This time we have 9 originally unissued and 4
previously unissued tracks. The ones that charted for Maxine on Wand were Coming
Back to You (# 99-Hot, not included here), Oh No, Not My Baby (#
24-Hot), another slowie called It’s Gonna Be Alright (# 26-r&b) and
finally I Don’t Need Anything (# 129-Hot in ’66, not included here).
Add to those still four duets with Chuck Jackson, but they are out of
scope of this CD.
There’s a number
of uptown goodies on display, such as Yesterday’s Kisses (by Nickolas
Ashford, Valerie Simpson and Josephine Armstead), Gotta Find a
Way (by Van McCoy and Ed Townsend), She’s Got Everything (co-written
by Jimmy Radcliffe), Since I Found You and the spectoresque Whatever
Happened to Our Love.
Slow songs are
mostly placed at the end of the CD, and there are such beauties as Put
Yourself in My Place, Anything for a Laugh, Losing My Touch and You’re
in Love. Especially interesting are the three tracks Otis Redding wrote,
produced and cut on Maxine in Muscle Shoals – the funky Baby Cakes, a
swaying slowie named That’s All I Want from You and a tear-jerker titled
If I Had Known. As for the rest, there are too many indifferent dancers
and stompers for me to consider this a “best of” compilation (www.maxinebrown.com).
LUTHER INGRAM
Earlier Kent had released two valuable and complete compilations of Luther’s KoKo singles and now
they put together his four KoKo albums for two CDs (www.soulexpress.net/lutheringram_discography.htm).
I’ve Been Here All the Time & If Loving You Is Wrong I Don’t Want To
Be Right (CDKEND 315; 21 tracks, 77 min., liners by Tony Rounce) pairs
Luther’s first two albums, and especially the latter one I rate as one of the
best albums in the history of soul music.
The first album
had many highlights, too. It kicks off with Ain’t That Loving You (for More
Reasons than One). Luther: “It was recorded by Johnnie Taylor, and
then I recorded it, because they had messed up the bass line in the track. Johnny
Baylor brought it to me and asked me could I do anything with it. So I
heard it, I liked the lyrics to it, recorded the song and it turned into a hit”
(# 6-soul / # 45-pop).
Sam Cooke recorded
originally You Were Made for Me for Keen Records in 1958, but Luther’s
version is a half-heavy, rolling mid-pacer. Luther: “I chose it, because it
was such an intimate song.” It was one of Luther’s favourites out of his own recordings,
alongside If Loving You Is Wrong and To the Other Man.
Be Good to Me
Baby, a heavy and hypnotic mid-pacer, was produced by Johnny Baylor and Willie
Hall. Luther: “Willie was a good drummer. The way Willie was hired was
that the original drummer had a little too much to drink and fell off the
stage, so Willie Hall got up and took his place, and he just kept on playing.”
Other gems on
the album include the mid-tempo Oh Baby, You Can Depend on Me, a slowly
swaying ballad called Since You Don’t Want Me and the haunting Missing
You. Isaac Hayes wanted to cut I’ll Love You until the End
first, but he was persuaded to give Luther the first shot. Pity for the
Lonely is a Drifters type of a melodic and poppy ditty, which Little
Dooley had cut originally (KoKo 102), whereas To the Other Man is a
melodramatic, slow song.
(If Loving
You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right is an all-time soul classic and
Luther’s signature song (# 1-soul, # 3-pop). Luther: “I was in the room with
Isaac and David Porter and I heard this demo, and it was about a woman.
I decided to change it and put it on a man, and they liked it. I had my family
– my sister and brothers – do the musical arrangements. Then I went to Muscle
Shoals, they gave me the perfect arrangement and I recorded it. It took less
than half an hour.” Homer Banks, Raymond Jackson and Carl
Hampton wrote the song, Homer did the demo and the Emotions cut it
first, but they thought it was too risqué for their image. Veda Brown tried
it next, but the result was not satisfactory. Interestingly, both Don Davis
and Isaac Hayes turned the song down. Randy Stewart: “Luther really
produced the song on himself in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but because of Johnny
Baylor owning the company his name went down there as a producer. But Luther
and Pete Carr, the guitar player in Muscle Shoals, did all the work.”
The hit is followed
by two superb singles, an enchanting mid-tempo song called I’ll be Your
Shelter (in Time of Storm) and a melancholy and beautiful ballad named Always.
Tommy Tate had cut both the pleading Dying and Crying and the
mid-tempo Help Me Love first. I’m Trying to Sing a Message to You is
another great ballad from the trio of Banks-Hampton-Jackson. Luther: “Al
Bell and Homer Banks put the track down originally, but we changed the
lyrics around a little.” The driving I Remember was again cut by Tommy
Tate first, and finally a slowie called Love Ain’t Gonna Run Me Away was
picked up for the last single release off the album. The rest two albums (Let’s
Steal Away to the Hideaway and Do You Love somebody) are still in
the pipeline.
THREE MALACO BROTHERS
Soulscape keeps
on delving into Malaco’s vaults and finding solid material. Malaco Soul
Brothers, vol. 1 (SSCD 7017; 25 tracks, 76 min.; liners by John Ridley)
introduces us to Chuck Brooks, Joe Wilson and George Soule, and
there are as many as ten previously unreleased tracks.
Chuck Brooks (9
tracks) cut a lot of funk and pop for Mercury, Chimneyville, GSF and Malaco
between 1972 and 1977, but he recorded some convincing slow material, too. Loneliness
(Is a Friend of Mine) is a pleading soul ballad, but the pretty A Little
Bit More leans heavily on country and pop. I Believe in Love is a
lush big ballad, whereas What Would We Do without Music is a perky pop
mover. In the 80s and 90s Chuck became known mainly as a writer and producer
and a partner of Carl Hampton.
Joe Wilson’s (13
tracks) ’71 – ’73 releases on Malaco, Dynamo and Avco were produced by Wardell
Quezergue, and again among them there were some fast poppy songs, such as (Don’t
Let Them) Blow Your Mind, Let a Broken Heart Come in and Sweetness.
At time Joe’s voice distantly reminds you of Clyde McPhatter. When a
Man Cries is an impressive Southern soul ballad, which has appeared on a
few other compilations earlier. Other richly orchestrated and touching slowies
include Our Love Is Strong, Sour Love, Bitter Sweet and You Need Me.
George Soule (3
tracks) is a blue-eyed musician, writer and producer, who’s still active
today. Talkin’ about Love and The Easiest Thing I’ve Ever Done are
both pop, but That’s Why I’m a Man (demo) is a slow and convincing testimony
with a soul feel to it. Since this CD was volume one, it means that there’s
still more to come.
MOVING MUSIC
A PBS show, which was recorded live on June
7th in 2008 at the Borgata Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ, is now
released on a DVD under the title of Love Train, the Sound of Philadelphia
(Sony BMG/PIR 88697-35587-9; www.phillysoulclassics.com).
Produced by Emily Cohen, the total running time of the thirteen songs
from the show (the Intruders are not included) is 55 minutes, but the
bonuses give you one hour more. Within that hour you can listen to Kenny
Gamble, Leon Huff, Joe Tarsia and many others tell about the history of
Philly music, sessions and making records, the importance of radio stations,
the making of this particular DVD and you can visit the PIR offices and
studios, too. There’s also bonus music by the T.S.O.P. Orchestra with the
Three Degrees (T.S.O.P.), the Delfonics (Didn’t I Blow
Your Mind This Time), Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes featuring Sharon
Paige (Hope That We Can Be Together Soon) and the instrumental jam
of I Love Music.
Backed by a big
orchestra under the direction of Bill Jolly, Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes
work up a rousing performance on The Love I Lost and Wake up
Everybody, but Russell Thomkins Jr. & the New Stylistics gives
us a breather with the sweet and sophisticated I’m Stone in Love with You.
In between the two, Soul Survivors (Charlie and Richie Ingui) storm
through Expressway to Your Heart. G.C. Cameron’s singing is as
impressive as ever, but I only wish he’d chosen some other song than The
Rubberband Man. Jerry Butler’s Never Gonna Give You up is
cool and sympathetic, while the Delfonics provide another sweet soul moment
with La-La – Means I Love You.
Bunny Sigler’s
interpretation of Me & Mrs. Jones is simply devastating, and later
on with Jean Carne and the Three Degrees he sets the stage on fire with Ain’t
No Stoppin’ Us Now. I gather the O’Jays were the headliners, as
they are represented here with three songs. I Love Music radiates
energy, Use Ta Be My Girl is cute and perky and finally People Get
Ready/Love Train is a show-stopper if any. As a fan of the Philly sound, I
enjoyed every minute of it.
SOUL-SHELF
Based on several interviews and comments
from Blues & Soul and a number of other sources, Lionel Richie -
Hello (Equinox Publishing Ltd., www.equinoxpub.com,
ISBN-13 978 184553 1850; 191 pages) is allegedly “the first book written
about Lionel Richie and the Commodores” and it’s published “to coincide
with Lionel Richie’s UK and European tour Spring 2009.” Also Lionel’s new
studio album has been released recently. Hello is the
latest book written by Sharon Davis, a prolific writer, who seemingly
gets along fine with Mr. Richie. The book, which was actually finished already
three years ago, includes all-important indexes and British hits discographies.
I’m always
interested in artists’ formative years. How they got into music? Were any of
their family members or relatives involved in music business? Their first
musical influences and first idols? Their first public performances etc. My
only complaint in this case is that Lionel’s early days are dealt with only on
two pages. If approached once again before publishing, I think Lionel would
have been only pleased to discuss his childhood and early teenage years more in
detail. But, I guess, that’s a minor matter after all.
The 6-piece
Commodores were formed in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1967 out of two local bands, the
Mystics and the Jays. Swamp Dogg produced their first single
(Keep on Dancing/Rise Up on Atlantic 2633 in ’69) as well as one shelved
album. Soon Benny Ashburn became their manager and Suzanne de Passe was
instrumental in arranging the group to become an opening act for the Jackson 5 in their tour. In 1971 the Commodores signed with Motown, and their first
single for the company (The Zoo) was released in early ’72. An
instrumental called Machine Gun became their first hit two years later.
James Anthony
Carmichael became their exclusive producer, and soon funk turned more and
more into softer music, even country & western. There were such huge hits
as Easy, Three Times a Lady, Still by The Commodores and Lady by Kenny Rogers
and the platinum Endless Love with Diana Ross. Lionel’s first solo
records were released in 1982, and the latter half of the book is dedicated to
his solo efforts. It tells about such gold records as Truly, All Night Long
(All Night), Hello, Say You, Say Me and the platinum We Are the World by
USA for Africa in 1985.
The book
proceeds chronologically, record-by-record, tour-by-tour… and there’s a lot of
information about Motown, too. It also touches personal matters and such sore
points as Lionel’s burn-out in the late 80s/early 90s and his two divorces. Hello
is a well-balanced and well-written book.
Heikki Suosalo
