Friday 21 December 2012

Soul on-line!


Manifesto December, 2012

Ooo.. I’m all disembodied!  Perhaps not literally but I write now so far away from the last available issue of Manifesto that I feel almost unconnected.  I’ll do what I can, I’ll make a few points, but I feel as if my pen is losing all vitriol.  Is that really the case?  Let’s see….

Well, I can observe a few things in my already-dust-covered June Manifesto.  Probably the most interesting for me is Rob Moss’ item on Ed Wolfrum and his observations, as a studio engineer, on Detroit recordings of the sixties.  Don Davis used to use United Sound studios quite a lot back in those days and at Goldmine, we hit a deal with Don to release material he owned, a lot of stuff came from there – a situation Goldmine financed in terms of retrieving material from old masters.  In fact stuff keeps emerging rather mysteriously from what would appear to be that source and I’ll say no more, suffice it to say that we obviously weren’t offered all the tracks mastered at the time.  It is also rather disappointing, nay astounding to learn that Wolfrum has a ‘library’ of unreleased material which Rob claims ‘will probably never gain a release’.  Hands up those that think that to be an acceptable situation!  If this is true then Wofrum is doing no-one a favour.  And whilst legal situations may be murky who is really going to complain or be precious about it?  If anything the producers of said music probably have legal entitlement anyway.  I’ll always remember Davis stating that he did not sell Solid Hitbound productions to Ric Tic or Golden World either outright or in perpetuity, and certainly not to Berry Gordy! 

On to Soul Sam in June’s Manifesto and those rather horrible scans in brown paper – a column which brought about a rather classic circumstance via the Jesse Slaughter review (‘I Had A Dream’ on Les-Stan).  For sure a great disc and one which had a small following in the eighties, perhaps more importantly it is a Florida recording/label co-written and produced by the great Paul Kelly.  A look in our price guide sees the disc rated at £30 and at £20 in the pie region of our sceptered isle, an area that also produces a price guide to rare soul.  However, our on-line price guide now sees this as a £250 touch for the simple reason that I’ve recently sold it at such a price.  Look around the world – Ebay, Pop Sike, Gemm, whatever you like – the Jesse Slaughter disc is not available at all.  The classic circumstance referred to above is that of an age-old price remaining constant while no-one thought about it and that of a revived sixties spin (in the absence of ‘new’ sixties discoveries) revealing a total dearth of copies i.e., ‘I Had A Dream’ is really rather rare.  And, by the way, it is also really rather good. 

Talk of Florida soul leads me onto another tremendous slab of sixties finally starting to make a name for itself after being known for a couple of decades at least.  I can’t swear that I haven’t reviewed REATHA REESE’S fabulous ‘Only Lies’ (Dot) before in Manifesto but it’s too big a job to check to be honest and I can’t swear it’s from Florida either, although the latter is a good bet, if not, then Nashville, certainly not Hollywood, California (the home of Dot Records).  Of course Dot leased material in from all over the place, but the clue here is Clarence Reid and Bob Riley on songwriting credits.  Florida stalwart Reid had releases on Nashville’s Dial label and his songs for that logo went under Tree Publishing.  Ditto the Reatha Reese – so it’s either/or as far as I’m concerned. So what about the music?  Well, this is a simply superb piece of uptempo soul with an infectious rolling rhythm pounding along.  Reese can sing – witness the wailing fadeout, a ballad flipside usually confirms this aspect and ‘Things I Should Have Done’ emphasizes that this artist should have had more than the solitary release I know of (although I’ve a sneaky feeling she’s someone else if you know what I mean). 

Curtis Futch Jnr… ever heard of him?  Well actually you have in the shape of Kurt Harris of ‘Emperor Of My Baby’s Heart’ fame.  Not only was the man Kurt Harris but his later releases reveal him to be KURTIS SCOTT.  Originally from Georgia, Scott (aka Harris, Futch) moved to New York in 1952 and was to feature in elements of the black music of the Big Apple for the next four decades.  In the ‘soul’ era most of his releases seem to be in association with famed all-rounder Robert Banks (of ‘Mighty Good Ways’).  Labels include Cherokee, Apache and Marky Ho (a soul version of ‘Moon River’).  He first came to the attention of the Northern Soul Scene via a track leased out to Don Robey’s Sureshot label in Texas.  Not heard in a dancehall for many a year is ‘No, No, Baby’ a vocal to an equally forgotten instrumental by the Soft Summer Soul Strings on Columbia, ‘I’m Doing My Thing’.  Handily, my copy is date-stamped ‘July 30 1966’.  A decent disc if a bit too ‘bouncy’ for today it is however, not the focus of my current attentions and we move into the seventies, 1975 to be exact, for that particular aspect.  The waxing in question is ‘Build, Build, Build’ (Happening) and, once more, Robert Banks is at the helm.  Rather different from anything else I’ve heard from Scott, this is a strong seventies dancer with a great arrangement that really does ‘Build, Build, Build’ the combination of strings, chorus and lyrics screams ‘minor league in a good way, mail immediately to Britain’. It features parts one and two as consecutive takes of the song rather than vocal/instrumental.  It’s a rare one too! We recently obtained £1200 for a copy in our on-line auction. 

Somewhere in the dim and distant past of soul literature I bemoaned the fact that what I call ‘staxified’-styled uptempo records didn’t have much of a place on the Northern Scene.  Well, ‘don’t wish too hard for what you want or you might just get it’ is my mantra here; of course Stax records have always had a place on the scene if not a vertebral role as does Motown, but recent spins by the likes of Clarence Murray or Don Varner lead me to believe that messier-but-soulful stompers are being accepted.  Two such items are in front of me now.  Gradually creeping up in price is CARL HOLMES AND THE COMMANDERS ‘Soul Dance No 3’ (Blackjack), quite rightly so because this is firmly in Wilson Pickett territory taking absolutely no prisoners with its pounding beat and caustic vocal delivery.  In fact I would like to know just who the singer is – other Carl Holmes 45s don’t sound like this gritty unknown, the Blackjack release credits Pervis Herder, but he was principally an organist with a light voice at best.  Cliff Nobles could do the searing vocals as we know and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were him.  Blackjack (Carl Holmes later fronted the Sherlock Holmes Investigation) was a Philadelphia label but it’s ‘down home’ to Atlanta and William Bell’s Peachtree label for GORGEOUS GEORGE and ‘Get Up Off It’.  Amazingly George’s real name was Theodopholus  Odell George, a former valet for Hank Ballard, George cut quite a figure on the southern chitlin’ circuit as an M.C.  Periodically George would enter the studio, for instance he had a 1965 one-off Stax release ‘Biggest Fool In Town’, and his seventies releases for Homark Records are valued.  The feeling is that Gorgeous George should have gone in to the recording studio more than he did and ‘Get Up Off It’ proves that weighing in with several punchy bouts of uptempo southern soul and a running piano not unlike a Little Richard record, all punctuated with typically healthy southern horns.  You won’t find this one in a hurry that’s for certain.  Like one or two other Peachtree releases this one is very rare and long in-demand in Japan for the Deep Soul flipside ‘It’s Not A Hurting Thing’.  Just realised that I have a rare early dancer by this guy as well on Neptune ‘Now I Believe In Miracles’ plus he was Georgie Boy on SSS International and Birmingham George on Marsi. 

Just to confirm that all is not what it would seem with Northern Soul collecting, I got asked for ‘Sax On The Track’ by Mike and Ike (Arctic) the other day.  It is of course a rather splendid and surprisingly raunchy instrumental on the famous Philly label.  Stroking my chin over the price, my potential customer (a noted deejay) admitted that he had never seen a blue-lettered original and that all copies he had seen were the black-lettered reissue/bootleg.  Went to my own collection and sure enough my own copy was less than pristine indicating that few if any, other copies had come my way. £60 in our current paper price guide but now £100 on-line.  I hate to admit it but the internet does have its advantages. 

I will finish with a killer CD track from the recent Kent compilation ‘Hall Of Fame’.  Consisting of 24 tracks, no less than 21 are previously unissued featuring names familiar to the UK like James Barnett and June Conquest.  Ralph ‘Soul’ Jackson does a reasonable version of Jimmy Hughes’ ‘You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy’ as does the unidentified Jackie on ‘Almost Persuaded’.  Clarence Carter answers Etta James’ ‘Tell Mama’ with the great ‘Tell Daddy’ (but why, oh why, Mr Rounce do we get O.B. McClinton?).  Northern Soulers however, will swoon (or should do) over BOBBY MOORE and ‘Baby Come Back’.  Possibly a tad too sprightly for the dance floors of today, somehow, somewhere, this effervescent mover reminds me of some very rare Northern in-demander which I just can’t put my finger on.  Apparently dating from a 1971 session ‘Baby Come Back’ sounds at least four years older than that year and incorporates great saxophone work from Moore (who rarely actually sang on his recordings).  Bouncy, trouncy, fun, fun, fun. 

Our website now includes loads of lovely soundbites for the delectation, delight and desire of potential customers.  To feast on this banquet of Northern Soul go to   www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk

Tuesday 23 October 2012

R&B Time

Manifesto October, 2012

Well I’m off to Alaska, so no time to gnaw bones of contention with other Manifesto contributors merely time to select a few subjects bearing no reference to previous issues of the magazine. Let me see...

Over the last dozen years or so, some R&B styled record or other has tended to dominate the playlists, particularly good examples are ‘It’s Your Voodoo Working’ and ‘Catch That Teardrop’. These records didn’t particularly herald the Northern scene being taken over by John Lee Hooker soundalikes but did provide an added dimension that was clearly welcomed even by most ultra-conservative oldies-lovers. Some, (including one contributor to Manifesto) railed against these records, others (like myself) thought them to be a worthwhile inclusion provided that they didn’t herald the end of traditional ‘Northern’. But of course this so-called ‘R&B’ side of the scene is also well established in its own territory and across nations, even continents, as well. The accusation from the Wigan-styled Northern camp is that these records amount to Rock and Roll and on occasion this is true, some times there is a thin line between R&B and Rock and Roll due to the way that popular music evolved, but very often there is an essential blackness in the vocal delivery that a true soul lover (as opposed to someone who just wants to dance) will quickly recognise. All of which takes me to the latest Kent compilation ‘New Breed R&B Volume 2’ in which Brother Croasdell (the well-known spelling error) shows himself to be quite adept at providing a selection of early black movers. I use the word ‘quite’ advisedly because a couple of Deep Soul records appear to have crept in – I don’t know how they are dancing to things at the 100 Club these days but I’m sure a slow waltz isn’t in it! There’s lots of great stuff amongst the 24 tracks, all culled from the King/Federal/Deluxe archives (with just one from the King-distributed Hollywood) familiar names such as Little Willie John, Freddy King and the ‘5’ Royales mix with worthy lesser lights such as Dolph Prince, Mel Williams and Willie Wright. Of the few that were new to me I particularly liked the Doo-wop-influenced ‘Let’s Have A Good Time’ by the Hi Tones and I agree with Ady that Hal Hardy’s ‘Love Man’ is one brilliant record whatever the interpretation of its musical style. Just one minor point otherwise then – the cover picture is rather strange, appearing more like Canning Town than Toddling Town I would say!

The above mention of Hollywood Records, or at least the one started by Don Pierce (Disney started a label with the same name in 1989) which was distributed by Starday–King reminded me of a ‘new’ title on the label which we get asked for. The disc in question is ‘Shoe Shine’ by THE PRESIDENTS offered up in two parts or, in actual fact, a vocal/instrumental. Not the Van McCoy sweet soul group on Sussex, the Presidents in question seem to slightly pre-date the above group on Deluxe and Plum labels as does the Hollywood 45. Produced by Bob Riley out of Nashville one Phil Slaughter would appear to have been a leading light in the band, and a band they were, rather than a harmony group. There is a Phillip Slaughter in gospel music so if it’s him or not I wouldn’t know – it wouldn’t surprise me. The Presidents we are concerned with delivered a number of styles even down to the reggae-ish ‘Lovers Psalm’ (Deluxe). ‘Shoe Shine’ is absolutely manic uptempo soul with a funky, funky, twist. Pt 2 is instrumental, and possibly even more manic with a saxophone taking up where ‘The Trip’ left off. I would like to see people attempting to dance to this one, then again they manage ‘Ton of Dynamite’ and ‘So Is The Sun’ well enough! Nice to see the music moving off in yet another direction. Actually the above 45 led me into giving their Plum recording a play in many years and what a pleasant surprise ‘Love Pain’ is – probably more of a candidate for the dance floor than ‘Shoe Shine’ to be honest. A lazy melody floats over a mellow-but-happening rhythm track that could really garner quite a following. It’s not Northern as such, not Modern either, I suppose Crossover would be the nearest category. Definitions, descriptions, categories – they matter not really, it’s just a good piece of soul music.

A chance to show a nice picture sleeve should not be passed up now that Manifesto lives and breathes in glorious technicolour. And who better than PIC AND BILL when it comes to describing some sassy soul music to go with the visuals? Charles Pickens and Billy Mills were the real names of the duo hailing from North Carolina, but selected by Major Bill Smith for his Charay label in 1965, indeed 1967 saw a run of their 45s on the UK Page One logo but not the great Northern Soul mover ‘Talk About Love’ which also saw a release in Spain on the Belter label with picture sleeve (see scan). The latter seems to be a 70s release to be honest but it’s a nice item nonetheless. I first came across the track when Ginger Taylor obtained the Fiery Spartans on Charay around 1978 – and it’s the same record (actually the first release of it). This was the era for soul duos – Sam and Dave of course, but also Eddie and Ernie, James and Bobby Purify, the Soul Twins and more. The genre didn’t really last beyond the sixties as the trademark gospelesque approach was diluted by seventies sophistication. Pic and Bill hit a higher tempo on occasions other than ‘Talk About Love’ but only one of these tracks totally hits the Northern Soul nerve in the shape of the ultra-rare ‘What Does It Take’ a stomping stormer right out of the old school (and not the Jr. Walker song either) which actually has quite a thin rhythm track but is pulled along by a ferocious vocal attack from this great pairing. A release on Charay 60 that is often listed as their first (it isn’t) but is an easy mistake to make due to the fact that Charay managed to have no less than seven releases by Pic and Bill on that label and number. Through various deals the Pic and Bill Charay material has made it to album at least four times in the UK, Japan, USA and Spain even after the duo’s original album on Le Cam (another Bill Smith label) ’30 Minutes of Soul’. To the best of my knowledge none of the albums included ‘What Does It Take’, nor have I ever had a 45 copy of it in my hands (considering that I had both the Frank Wilson’s at one time that’s quite a claim). If you have a copy let me know…I would be VERY interested.

Talk of rarities takes me to another very scarce item which many of you will not ever have viewed (unless you follow our monthly auction) in the shape of the orange issue copy on RCA of JUDY FREEMAN’S ‘Hold On’. I genuinely thought this may be a one-off in my collection until we obtained a second copy fairly recently. We got £800 for it but honestly I thought it to be something of a bargain, after all the demo goes for £250–£300. Until a couple of years ago I had never even seen it although I knew one was listed in the late 70s (I thought it was the one I had). It meant that I had seen, or had in my collection more or less every RCA on a release copy, even a few years ago I would have said that one or two releases at least failed to go beyond the promo stage. And there is the definition of Northern Soul to consider also; Judy Freeman, for instance, had another RCA release (actually her first) in the shape of ‘All We Need Is A Miracle’ it’s a decent midtempo cut that might be described as Crossover and also saw a later release on RCA with a version by Detroit’s Dee Edwards in a similar style. Probable as a Jobete song it exists somewhere in the Motown catalogue too. The point is that I’ve yet to see an issue copy of that one as well. I wonder who she was? According to the internet, she is still alive (in her 70s) and living in Compton, Los Angeles, although she was born in New York. Producer of both RCA releases Ron Budrik was also a deejay who produced a whack of non-descript pop around LA in the late 60s/early 70s whilst arranger Dave Blumberg went on to much greater things (commercially at least; he arranged ‘I Will Survive’). All things considered they produced 4 good-to-great sides on Judy Freeman and Blackrock. Warren Sams wrote ‘Hold On’ and he too operated on the west coast soul scene of the 70’s through California Rock Choir, Water and Power, Christine Adams even Sylvester I believe. He produced the Jackson Sisters material that ended up on the rare Tiger Lily album (a tax loss label for Morris Levy). So many connections – in fact I do wonder if the California Rock Choir (whose Cyclone 45 is quite in-demand) are anything to do with Blackrock? Questions always questions?

We will finish with an artist who is well-known in the shape of BYRON LEE – a true originator of Jamaican Music who even appeared in the first James Bond movie ‘Dr No’. Rather less well-known is Lee’s brief flirtation with soul music which seems to coincide with Lee’s mid-sixties time as a general promoter in the USA (he brought many famous acts to Jamaica). One wonders if the peculiarity whereby certain failed soul tunes were covered by Jamaicans for Jamaican consumption – for instance ‘Wide Awake In A Dream’ by Jerry Jackson covered by the Blues Busters as Phillip James (they were in fact Lloyd Campbell and Phillip James) – is anything to do with Byron Lee. Maybe that’s too simplistic but the fact remains that a number of peculiar non-hit soul records were covered. On the Soul label Byron Lee and the Dragonaires covered Ben E. King’s ‘The Record’, Lee wasn’t ever a singer and on this one Ken Lazarus does vocal duty. There is no concession to any kind of Ska music, this is a pure note-for-note copy of Ben E. King’s version or perhaps H.B.Barnum’s weaker take on it for Capitol. Given that Lee was the Jamaican agent for Atlantic Ben E. King is more likely. ‘The Record’ also came on BRA records (had to get that one off my chest) where another Byron Lee and the Dragonaires release saw the Blues Busters release demoted as second billing to Byron Lee on ‘How Sweet It Is’ coupled with ‘I Had A Dream’ which is something of a West Indian classic soul coupling. The excellent Trojan anthology of the Blues Busters from 2005 makes no mention BRA so goodness knows what was really going on. I claim no particular knowledge of Jamaican soul, but I do know that there is probably much more of it than people generally realise.

For R&B movers, Northern Soul stompers, Modern groovers, Deep crooners, Motown marvels, Funk fever on 45 or CD go to www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk

Tuesday 8 May 2012

YouTube Generation

Manifesto April, 2012

Computers eh?  Wonderful and horrible at one and the same time.  As a businessman, I would be foolish to dismiss any aspect of them but at the same time I find them slightly irritating, if not invasive.  I refuse to do emails from home because I don’t want the pressure of having to switch the damned machine on …. And as for Facebook, well I just don’t have the time.  They have changed the world however, (as we all know I’m sure) and introduced some very interesting, rather mind-bending concepts.  Let us look a little further…


Around a year ago a colleague informed me that ‘virtually all soul records are on YouTube’.  Turns out that the statement is something of an exaggeration, but basically correct.  I can often view the label on a screen and do other things that seem to me to infringe copyright given that YouTube has a worldwide audience of millions.  That said, the message in the music is being spread far and wide, jetting over the heads of the likes of Cliff Richards and Feargal Sharkey who seek to imprison the music for eternity (to their gain).  After all if a plumber installs a toilet you wouldn’t expect to pay him 10 pence a flush for 75 years would you?  The music industry is one heck of a cartel, and one which very quickly holds out its hand – mechanical copyright, copyright, performers rights, etc, etc.  It isn’t fair and it isn’t right.  By all means protect new music but extending copyright back beyond say 10 years, is ridiculous as if show business is somehow sacred.  To return to my point however, the internet seems to skate over much of the above, the latest caveat being that reproduction is fair and proper for review purposes – it should be, but does that include the dealer who puts his auction up there for commercial benefit?  I know of one who does and hides behind ‘fair use for review’!

In terms of breaking new records YouTube could be invaluable of course, no more ‘one man and his dog spins’ at some small all-nighter, because some YouTube records have many thousands of views. Or would the scene turn into the ultimate armchair experience?  And it goes on.  Recently in the USA a company by the name of Hephaestus books printed no less than 160,000(!) titles culled gratis from Wikipedia – their argument being that the internet virtually makes copyright redundant because in appearing free on a screen it is available anyway (and Wikipedia has no cited authors).  Could Manifesto give away a free CD of all records reviewed in every issue claiming ‘fair use for review’?  Personally I don’t actually see why not – if the magazine were a website then no-one would argue.  Get my point?  Clearly a very big genie is out of a very big bottle and the music business had better wake up to it fast – long term royalty protection is intervention and manipulation at a now-unhealthy level.  Get over it – or should the music industry adopt the motto of  ‘this thing of ours’ which has long belonged to an even cosier setup?

In the last issue of Manifesto I made comment on Ace/Kent’s recent acquisition of Pied Piper material and was kindly sent some review material by collector Andy Killick that is/was a little older but is nonetheless new to these pages.  Of the trio of tracks sent up to me the CAVALIERS is possibly not a Pied Piper jobbie but probably the best one in the shape of ‘Without Someone To Tell Me’.  One Cavaliers disc on RCA is partly a GWP Production so possibly the above is from the same source, even so no Cavaliers tracks have so far emerged from that source.  Only Adey knows.  I can’t say that ‘Without Someone To Tell Me’ crunches past ‘Hold To My Baby’ but it has many of the same ingredients and as such would rate as exceptional in this day and age.  Next up is NANCY WILCOX and the quite well-known ‘Gamblers Blues’.  Wilcox had the one issued side on RCA and this was a joint GWP/Pied Piper production which saw action over both sides (‘Coming On Strong’ and ‘My Baby’).  Like most RCA sixties soul releases, the black stock issue is much the rarer.  ‘Gamblers Blues’ takes up a typical tambourine-driven crisp Pied Piper stance with siren wails from the girl chorus making for a perfect Northern Soul production.  I’ve taken Adey to task too many times for an inability to spread the faith; I’m not driven by petulance but it is a fact that a forty-odd year old scene really does need records of this calibre.  Finally we have WILLIE KENDRICK and his version of the Metros ‘Time Changes Things’ which takes the tempo up a notch or two and the song is better for it – certainly the dancers will think so.  Unlike much Pied Piper material tambourines are eschewed, their addition would have made this one even better.  As it is, to put one over on the Metros is quite an achievement and this track does exactly that. 

If I were to do a Northern Soul top ten then the APOLLAS ‘Mr Creator’ would certainly be in it.  I’ve raved over it for 38 years and assiduously collected all the group’s other records in the following decades.  I knew the lead singer was Leola Jiles and I picked up her two solo 45s as well (on Warners and A&M).  Obviously I thought I knew quite a lot about the Apollas. WRONG.  The recent Kent CD on the group, ‘Absolutely Right!’, brought me right down to earth with a very pleasant bang.  We know by now that no-one can touch Ace/Kent when it comes to single artist compilation projects.  Recent releases on artists as diverse as Eddie Holland, Arthur Conley, Jackie Day and O.C. Tolbert amply prove this.  The Apollas release is particularly good, brought to life by Leola Jiles’ own album of colour photographs.  Their story involves other recorded artists such as Dorothy Ramsey (Melodynamic) and Blondell Breed (Acta) who were amongst a number of changes to the group – they were the Apollos on Galaxy, the Lovejoys on Tiger and Red Bird, The group toured with the Monkees and extensively in South East Asia, Japan, even New Zealand.  The girls sang back-up vocals on a number of Frankie Laine records and lead Leola Jiles came within a hair’s-breadth of replacing Jean Terrell in the Supremes.  The Love Salvation on Bell is also The Apollas. Amazing, simply amazing; all credit to Kent for this particular story and a number of others.  As for the impassioned ending to ‘Mr Creator’ – Help me, aw Help Me’ – well turns out Leola Jiles just followed her soul when the moment came along and improvised.  If I believed in a god, I would ask him to bless her.  Oh and I nearly forgot ‘See The Silver Moon; an almost-great previously unreleased stomper also to be found on the new CD.

Another very noteworthy compilation comes from the Hip-O-Select label in the shape of THE MARVELETTES ‘Forever More’ deemed by the label itself to be the ‘complete Motown albums’.  Well it certainly lives up to the description featuring, as it does, not only all their four albums but two of them in mono as well as stereo.  Not only do we get that but 24 tracks of previously unissued material and 13 tracks of various origin not included on album (previous compilations, singles etc).  If you were under the impression that the best previously-unreleased Motown had all been uncovered then this slew of Marvelettes material proves that quite a bit of the Berry Gordy iceberg is still submerged.  For Northern feet (and ears) then ‘There Is No Tomorrow (Only Tears and Sorrow)’ is the kind of tambourine-fuelled stormer that would have torn the Torch or Wigan apart.  Missing only a caustic saxophone break this could be filed in the same part of a deejay box as ‘Baby Hit And Run’ or ‘One Way Out’.  A more midtempo ‘Breakthru (I’ve Got My Freedom)’ will also find its fair share of admirers.  I’ve got to say tho’ that I find the early material from ’63 and ’64 a little too dated for my taste these days. 

In terms of previously unissued sixties material on vinyl, little today will equal the UNITED FOUR ‘Honey Please Stay’ on Outta Sight.  Presented in the format of the Harthon label this is a group harmony song over the same backing track as Eddie Holman’s ‘Where I’m Not Wanted’ which originally turned up via Rob Thomas in 2003.  Using a different approach to the Goldmine years (i.e. Johnny Styles rather than Weldon MacDougall) various new masters, or indeed original master, have been utilized and have breathed new life into the famed Harthon catalogue – a situation seen to even better effect on the ‘Groovin’ At The Go-Go’ compilation also newly-released by Outta Sight.

Sadly there is much to report concerning the soul scythe of the Grim Reaper recently.  Etta James, Dobbie Gray, Jimmy Castor, Walter Gaines of the Originals, Howard Tate, Lee ‘Shot’ Williams have all passed away recently and all added much to what is termed ‘Northern Soul’, in their time (‘Seven Day Fool’, ‘Out On The Floor’, ‘Suspicion’ just for starters).  Tellingly all of them were in their seventies.  One other was JIMMY NORMAN who died of lung disease in New York on November 8th of last year, and if we have a slightly softer spot for those soul artists who never really made it big in the charts then perhaps that is a fair reflection on a nation which virtually invented the concept of rare soul.  Although James Norman Scott was born in Nashville (August 12th 1937), he cut his musical teeth in Los Angeles and made his recording debut on Mun-Rab Records.  Actually his story is a quite amazing one with rather sobering final chapters.  The early sixties saw Jimmy Norman hop around a variety of labels from whence came Stafford-era interest in records such as ‘Talkin’ Bout The Times’ and ‘You Crack Me Up’ (both on Polo).  Norman even had a minor US hit in 1962 on Little Star with ‘I Don’t Love You No More’.  But Jimmy Norman was also a songwriter and in 1964 he moved to New York to better pursue his writing career.  This brings us neatly onto a point in time where Norman was commissioned to write lyrics to a Kai Winding instrumental ‘Time Is On My Side’.  Irma Thomas was to take the song on brilliantly and famously the Rolling Stones were to plunder it to greater effect.  Although Jimmy Norman received co-writing royalties for many years in the nineties, his name was removed from the credits with the publishing company citing ‘clerical error’ in the first place.  I’m sure Mick and friends put that one right (like, yeah).  The next name to crop up in the Jimmy Norman story is Jimi Hendrix by virtue of Norman’s release on Samar records in 1966, courtesy of Johnny Brantley’s Vidalia Productions.  Both of Norman’s Samar releases saw Hendrix play on them (an oft-stated ‘recollection’ of the New York soul scene of the middle sixties).  To this writer the claim to Hendrix’s session work is rather too ubiquitous but would seem to be very correct in this situation due to a failed b-side ‘That Little Old Groovemaker’ on the first of the two releases, which Hendrix himself re-hashed as ‘Groovemaker’.  This first Samar release is much harder to find than the follow-up ‘Can You Blame Me’ (No. 35 on the Billboard R&B chart) although the flip of ‘Can You’ in the shape of ‘This I Beg Of You’ is one of Jimmy Norman’s finest – an emotional beat ballad of real quality.  Samar Records folded shortly after this leaving Norman to move on to the major Mercury label.  Two fantastic sides for the UK crowd here in the shape of the storming ‘Family Tree’, co-written with Otis Blackwell, and the less-torrid but equally excellent ‘I’m Leaving (This Old Town)’ which saw some Stafford action.

By 1968, Norman was brushing shoulders with another famous name, Bob Marley, when the Jamaican came to New York looking for fame and fortune and was signed to Johnny Nash’s Jad label resulting in Marley recording some Norman/Pyfrom songs (Al Pyfrom was Jimmy’s co-writing partner at the time).  Norman even spent six months in Kingston, Jamaica working with Marley before a move to Lloyd Price’s Turntable imprint, for whom he produced the Coasters eventually becoming a regular replacement for various group members whilst pursuing a solo career (also as Joe Norman on Rosco) through the seventies.  He was lead vocalist for Harlem River Drive and his two Buddah 45s from 74/75 are well worth picking up.  Like many artists Jimmy Norman made little provision for old age and ill health with the result that the singer faced eviction around the turn of the last century.  Ultimately this circumstance forced a performing and recording revival, not only that but one housekeeping session revealed ancient Bob Marley jam session tapes which subsequently raised over $26,000 for Norman, together with old notebooks containing lost compositions.  He was to use some of these compositions in a 2004 comeback album ‘Little Pieces’ (Wallflower).  Norman himself summed up his career thus – ‘periodically I get chump change, nothing big.  A lotta people having been making money off it.  Not me’.  Whether Jimmy Norman was the architect of his own demise or a victim of the ‘dog eat dog’ music game is for others to decide but, whatever the truth, his life was, yet again, much more convoluted and varied than those dancers to ‘Family Tree’ would ever suppose.

Finally a farewell to ‘In The Basement’ magazine in its paper format after 65 issues.  A very good innings and another nail in the coffin of properly researched, orderly, concise information – particularly in the arena of soul music which is fast becoming a very poor cousin to the blues in terms of the written word.

‘Til next time

Tim Brown

Go to www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk for the world’s finest selection of online Northern Soul, Motown, Modern, Deep and Blues on original 45 plus reissues and CDs.

Sunday 11 March 2012

All In The Run Of A Day

Manifesto February, 2012

Another year is upon us - who knows just what it will bring to rare soul? Some aspects I would put hard cash on though..... the upfront crowd will continue to gripe about the popularity of oldies events, some totally unexpected track will grab the dance floors at those same oldies nights, the same ol’, same ol’, will rule the roost, modern soul will remain a nebulous concept and legal reissues will continue to proliferate. That’s sorted that out then! Onwards with 2012, but not before a brief glimpse back at December’s Manifesto.....

Soul Sam’s selection of 45’s to review sent me scuttling for the shelves once more in order to listen with ‘fresh’ ears to some records I’ve had knocking around for a long time. Such discs as the Banks Bro’s on Consolidated and One Hundred Years on VIP are certainly many, many, miles away from ‘Stick By Me Baby’ and will largely serve to alienate followers of the Salvadors and other tried and tested oldies whilst causing adrenaline to course through the veins of a chosen few. There is of course almost a complete absence of genuinely new sixties discoveries. Certainly on vinyl! Andy Dyson brought me one recently, covered up of course with one of the back issues from his ‘Woman’s Own’ collection. My reaction was to pull out a copy of ‘Blowing My Mind To Pieces’ to remind him how far the search for new discoveries had meandered away from the golden path it was supposed to be. It was bound to happen of course -1966 can only be plundered so much and as long ago as 1976 the Mecca famously pronounced, rather prematurely I might add, that the best sixties records had all been found. Fortunately for the ‘traditional’ sound of Northern Soul tracks do keep on coming from those old, dusty, master tapes. Ace/Kent are foremost in this field and, after my pronouncement that ‘Rare, Collectable and Soulful Volume 3’ wouldn’t ever happen via Sony, Kent found a way around it all by doing a deal directly with Pied Piper Productions. I’ve heard brief snippets of some of the latest batch of tunes from this source and they are pretty impressive without offering the sense that ‘Since I Found My Baby’ (for instance) was any kind of mistake as a single at the time. One track had the same backing track as Mikki Farrow’s ‘Set My Heart At Ease’ (Karate) I do seem to remember. As I’m not on Adey’s Christmas card list I can’t add any more details I’m afraid, but doubtless the Kent man will get these known to over fifty people in the course of his machinations, so perhaps all will be revealed in time.

I must pay tribute to John Smith’s article on James Thompson of the Voicemasters/Hypnotics in December’s Manifesto. This was the kind of detailed insight into an obscure situation that soul music doesn’t have enough of. By comparison with the blues for instance, soul music is somewhat under-valued and unresearched. One school of thought could, with reasonable argument, state that the scene revolves around records people can dance to all night and that it is basically as simple as that, but there is certainly room for those who want to know about our music as a subject. And as with most subjects there is a real satisfaction in validating this field of endeavour with knowledge. It isn’t an either/or situation, the exploration of soul runs parallel to a good night out, nonetheless many might be surprised at how little some of the ‘top’ deejays know about the records they spin. Okay, let’s move out of the pulpit onto some records.

The name of BARRY WHITE is not one normally associated with the more obscure corners of soul music. I suppose that he was one of the seventies’ biggest stars, although his rumbling vocals were rarely taken too seriously by connoisseurs. Like many superstars he had a career before he was famous and it is fairly well known that he styled himself as Lee Barry, also Gene West, on a couple of sixties 45’s. He can be found producing quite a few releases from the decade as well, for instance ‘This Thing Called Love’ by Johnny Wyatt (he co-wrote it as well). As Barry White he recorded for Bob Keene’s Bronco label too with ‘All In The Run Of A Day’ being just four releases after Wyatt’s classic. This song has minor Northern interest but another, much earlier, Barry White release has recently found itself placed under the demand microscope in the shape and form of ‘Tracy (All I Have Is You)’ on Faro 613. It is almost a cliché now amongst lesser-known sixties sounds to say they were played at Stafford (albeit briefly in many instances) but yes, it happened with ‘Tracy’ too. To be honest I didn’t think that we would hear much from this particular release again but the still-very-active R&B faction has embraced the Ray Charles-styled groove of this track. White finds himself backed by the Atlantics who were a Chicano band out of El Monte, California; indeed they recorded for Rampart, a sister label to Faro located in Los Angeles. As stated above we can make references to ‘What’d I Say’ and ‘Hit The Road Jack’ on this one but just as Charles himself was moving towards ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ so was ‘Tracy’. Fortunately White hardly utilises the rather uncool (with apologies to the many Tracys out there) song title at all and I think the record dates from ’63 or ’64. The song was written by the Chick Carlton who has one or two in-demanders of his own.

Another major artist with only tenuous connections to the rare soul scene, or indeed any soul scene, is the famed bluesman B.B.KING and what would arrear to be a UK-only 45 release ‘Found What I Need’. From his album ‘Guess Who’ this single finds King keeping his guitar work to a minimum which might please some (count me in) over a 1972 pounder which sounds rather earlier with an intro not unlike Jesse Johnson’s ‘Left Out’. That isn’t to say that ‘Lucille’ (King’s famed guitar) doesn’t make her presence known throughout the track but mostly in a supplemental form rather than as a musical diatribe - no, it’s the powerhouse rhythm that is most apparent here and which leans the release towards Northern Soul. Every now and then a left-field track hits the scene with great success (labelmate ‘If I Could Only Be Sure’ was one such) and this could happen with ‘Found What I Need’ due to the essential marriage of blues tension and soul vibrancy within its grooves. 

Two big names kick us off then, but what about PANDELLA KELLY?  Currently a very hot crossover tune is her version of ‘Stand In For Love’ on Horoscope. The song of course was originally performed on Imperial by the O’Jays back in 1965 and whereas their version is a killer ballad, Pandella ups the tempo just a little to take the song into mid tempo territory. The connection with the O’Jays is rather obvious due to the fact that group members Bobby Massey and Walter Williams produce the Kelly 45. This would be around 1970 when Massey was about to leave the group to produce records (a bit of a mistake methinks) but they did a fine job with Kelly adding a rather strained extra dimension to the song. At the time the Horoscope label would have been connected to Saru Records out of Cleveland and ‘Stand In For Love’ was the first release gathering little or no commercial success. Things were about to change on the next Horoscope release (102) when the Ponderosa Twins Plus One hit with a version of ‘You Send Me’, which was picked up for national distribution by New Jersey’s All Platinum Records. The label was deftly converted to Astroscope Records and carried on from there. In a completion of the circle (of sorts) the O’Jays had a release on Astroscope at a later point. Pandella Kelly was left behind however, and to my knowledge wasn’t to reappear on vinyl. Whilst hit status eluded many a black artist the output of one solitary single seems like a meagre return on the evidence of ‘Stand In For Love’.

My all-time drama series on television, by some distance, is ‘The Sopranos’ soul music occasionally rears its head in the series and the character Hesh is obviously modelled on Morris Levy who came to buy out George Goldner’s 50% share of Roulette Records in 1957. One episode throws out the nugget that the Chi-lites were originally on the same label as Tommy James (i.e. Roulette) however Tony Soprano (the lead character) corrects the purveyor of this ‘knowledge’ by saying that it isn’t true, the Chi-lites were on Brunswick. Perfectly accurate of course! What Tony wouldn’t know is that in the sixties, prior to ‘Oh Girl’, ‘Have You Seen Her’ etc, the Chi-lites were just another quality soul outfit trying hard to make it with a handful of releases on a small number of labels (Blue Rock, O’Retta, Revue). Most valued of these is ‘She’s Mine’ on Blue Rock with its crunching, tambourine-strewn, rhythm but I always go for an even earlier incarnation in the shape of MARSHALL AND THE CHI-LITE’S ‘Love Bandit’ on Daran. Not to be confused with the Keanya Collins/Patti Hamilton song this is a let-it-all-hang-out 1964 stormer that in actual fact sounds a year or two later than it is. Perhaps it was that fact that prompted UK Beacon to pick the track up in 1969, the group had just started to hit with Brunswick so perhaps Beacon were just cashing in.... or was it the embryonic Northern Soul scene that persuaded Beacon that an archetypal sixties dancer would be good catalogue? Whatever the truth, a Beacon copy would probably retail at a ton today. The true original is on Daran out of Chicago and the label was owned by Marshall Thompson’s cousin, James Shelton. Marshall Thompson was the group’s baritone and de facto leader who survives to this day (the only Chi-lite to do so) and who eventually went into business with Michael Jackson’s father and Mar-rance Records. The Daran 45 is still a comparatively cheap purchase and you will do well for your money because not only do you get the swinging, stomping ‘Love Bandit’ but also ‘Pretty Girl’ on the flip which takes a more mellow harmony approach to great effect. Back in ’77 when Ginger revived the Burnley Cat’s Whiskers all-dayers he thought it a good idea to book the Chi-lites for the first one. By this time the group were well-known seventies hitsters but not thought of as in any way Northern Soul and the crowds stayed away in their droves. If only we had known ‘She’s Mine’,’I’m So Jealous’, ‘Love Bandit’ etc back then!   

I’ve gone on record before as highly rating the output of Clarence Murray. His two cheapies on SSS International ‘Don’t Talk Like That’ and ‘Baby You Got It’ are amongst my favourite Northern Soul records whilst his Deep Soul output is equally as strong. So it is with a happy heart that I can report that his third solo 45 for SSS International is also now finding a little favour. The song is ‘Let’s Get On With It’ and it hits much more of a typical Stax/Atlantic groove than his two recognised Northern oldies. I won’t make excuses for turning slightly away from a Motownesque rhythm because ‘Let’s Get On With It’ has got soul to spare. I’ve long hoped that the southern approach to uptempo soul could find a bit more room on the scene; often they are tunes that once were considered “messy” but almost always they have soul in profound abundance. Perhaps a little change is actually in the air with people pointing to the flipside of Don Varner’s ‘Tearstained Face’ in the form of ‘Mojo Mama’ and James Carr’s ‘Losing Game’ now a recognised floor filler. Murray’s “latest” offering deserves to be right up there – the way he pushes the record on with a plethora of screams and encouragement stand just outside the church, not knocking on the door of the penthouse or staring up at a disco glitterball. Very highly recommended.

Go to www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk for the world’s finest selection of online Northern Soul, Motown, Modern, Deep and Blues on original 45 plus reissues and CD.

‘Til next time

Tim Brown

Go to www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk for the world’s finest selection of online Northern Soul, Motown, Modern, Deep and Blues on original 45 plus reissues and CDs.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Right On!

Manifesto December, 2011

As we enter the final month of a year which on a global scale has seen financial turmoil, I’m bound to report that record sales seem busier than for some time, perhaps it’s like the world of football where money bears little relation to the world outside and what stays within goes around and around.  Whatever the truth your money seems safe in vinyl…

A couple of minor points from previous ‘Tim Brown Talks’ cleared up by friends.  Neil Rushton informs me that Canada’s stranger-than-strange Right On! Label was a Bill Downs project (ex–manager of the Ad Libs and Jellybeans amongst others) with the approval of Dave Godin (who denied all knowledge of it to me).  It still seems a strange set of releases – rich in irony, tainted with plagiarism, almost mocking the Soul Beatnik in fact.  In October’s Manifesto I mentioned the demise of the Coaster’s Carl Gardner and speculated that he might be the ‘Crazy Baby’ singer.  I should have taken a look at the single which is in fact almost totally a Billy Guy effort.  He wrote and produced the record as well as singing it – without the other Coasters!  Thanks to Beatin Rhythm’s Derek Howe for pointing that one out.

Staying with Octobers’s Manifesto and Simon White speculates on that odd Chris Jackson Soul City release of ‘I’ll Never Forget You’ with its different flipside to the US Jamie release.  Godin told me that Chris and Marke Jackson were different artists, a circumstance supported by ‘Forever I’ll Stay With You’ on the UK issue, but of course ‘I’ll Never Forget You’ is identical.  Clearly Godin got around any licensing difficulty by claiming ‘Forget’ to be a re-recording, not wishing to over-egg the situation a different flipside lent a little credibility and they used a different vocalist for it.  I think we can safely say that Marke Jackson and Chris Jackson (possibly Chris Bartley too) were the same person (excepting that Soul City flipside).  Keep the faith, right on now.

George Best in a soul magazine eh?  Well I never!  It has long been urban myth that the United star attended the Twisted Wheel, possibly in its two locations he did do this, but I don’t think the emergent, secret, ‘new’ Northern Soul allnighter scene was ever for him.  I’ve got a few Bestie stories of my own but I’m reminded here of an early attempt by my father to convert me from the Reds to Burnley back in season ’66/’67 by taking me to Man United’s visit to Turf Moor.  It could hardly have back-fired more, for when the Manchester men ran out – George, Bobby Charlton, Law, Stiles, they seemed like gods – Andy Lockhead or whoever else was in the Burnley team that day (even Willie Morgan) were rather faceless mortals.  I was smitten.  Shame the dream was later purloined by a few inbred Americans with dodgy facial hair.  Burnley meanwhile, remains a ‘proper’ football club.  As Eammon Dunphy once indicated in his book about United, it’s ‘A Strange Kind of Glory’.  Strange indeed!

Keith Rylatt’s October article about looking for records in Pennsylvania also tweaked the nostalgia button.  Pittsburgh in particular, one of the USA’s most characterful cities in many ways and one with a strong musical tradition not often recognised outside of the States.  Records were frequently local hits there that didn’t make it anywhere else and someone like blue-eyed soulster Chuck Corby is a hero in the city whilst remaining almost unknown elsewhere (a common occurrence in the US in truth).  I’ve travelled extensively around the US and it often strikes me now that many cities look very much the same as each other – one or two places buck the trend, San Francisco for instance, Pittsburgh is another.  Hardly glamorous, it has a depth and texture that comes from industrial roots and suburbs such as Millvale and Carnegie are a real throwback to small town America of the 50s and 60s (or at least they were when I was last there 8 years ago).  Keith left a few places unmentioned and as a professional dealer I aren’t about to make it easy but you can buy a huge load of 45s and albums in Pittsburgh for $3 million if you have the money – beware tho’, Martin Koppel and myself have been all the way through them.

I have to take issue with Soul Sam’s assertion in October’s Manifesto that Keb Darge ‘discovered’ all (surely I misunderstand this) the funky tracks played at the moment.  I don’t want to be picky but when these things appear in print they are in danger of becoming the truth – I owned Joseph Webster for 15 years before it started getting Butch spins for instance and I’m sure the likes of John Anderson would take exception to Keb Darge being touted in such a way as well.  I will say that around 8 or 9 years ago Keb started offering large sums for certain uptempo disco-ey 45s in my collection that had been failed mini-spins in the 80s, but that does not amount to ‘discovering’ them.  True, he took on this type of record, as did Butch, but I’m bound to say that James ‘pain in the butt’ Trouble also managed to shift the axis a little as well.  I know exactly what Sam meant in the tone and tenor of his article but Keb Darge was an innovator rather than a discoverer and it is incorrect to think of him as the latter.

Onto compact discs and an American label called Light In The Attic have put out a Mowest compilation entitled ‘Motown’s Mowest Story 1971-1973’.  The release fails to capture the heartbeat of the label as far as UK soul fans are concerned and what could have been a really neat item falls between a number of stools.  Mowest ran from August 1971 to March 1973.  It was a time when Motown became rather experimental with its artists; for instance Motown itself had Bobby Darin and Irene ‘Granny’ Ryan releases in the same period.  Perhaps Mowest did not go as broad-spectrum as the M.O.R. crooner and the Beverley Hillbillies star but artists such as Lesley Gore, Mike Campbell and the Repairs do not constitute any kind of soul music either.  Light In The Attic’s release almost falls into the label trap by including the likes of Lodi and Suzee Ikeda.  Of course 16 tracks can hardly be representative of almost 50 singles and a number of albums – so, given that situation, why not go for the best of the soul?

There is a nod to the UK market and it’s a nod which also embraces a certain peculiarity whereby one or two key tracks (to us) came out in Britain only.  Not only these key tracks but many others saw a release on UK Mowest which continued for over two years beyond the American imprint and with a large number of artists not known to the label over the Atlantic.  The eventual UK success of FRANKIE VALLI’S ‘The Night’ is recognised on the CD but not the fact that it was a reissued Mowest release (3024) spun initially by the scene as a not-available rarity on Mowest 3002.  The sleevenotes also hint at a US promo release for ‘The Night’ on Mowest 5025, a situation quite well known but never in actual fact any kind of reality.  Over in Holland the track was actually released on Rare Earth.  Russ Winstanley also championed another Valli Mowest UK-only release in the shape of ‘Thank You’ (3034).  I’m in a bit of a dilemma with Frankie Valli in that he definitely does not sound black, yet on a number of records (‘You’re Ready Now’, ‘I’m Gonna Change’ etc etc) he has touched the very zeitgeist of the Northern Soul scene, whilst pointing heavily towards soul music.  I was always mystified by ‘The Night’ as it never sounded much like soul at all to these ears but I can recognise that its dark, broody, overtones and humming bassline make it one hell of a record whatever the genre.

THE SISTERS LOVE also endured the UK-only Mowest syndrome with ‘I’m Learning To Trust My Man’ (3009) which is not on the Light In The Attic release (although two worthy tracks by the group are included).  For sure this is one of the label’s greatest moments, if not the best, and it is a sad reflection on the scene that the track is rarely played now (aw c’mon, ‘When We Get There’?).  If  the Sisters Love ever stood for let-it-all-hang-out, testifying, gospel-soul then this is the epitome of the syndrome as exemplified by Vermetta Royster’s searing single-note wail near the very end.  What a track; and if I may be permitted, yet another moment of unadulterated nostalgia. I need only close my eyes when listening to ‘Learning To Trust My Man’ to be transported back to March 1975 and a cavernous hall in Wigan, I’m breathing fetid Casino air, sweating for England and loving every second of it.

THELMA HOUSTON’S original version of ‘I Ain’t Going Nowhere’ is on the ‘Mowest Story’ and, once more, is a UK-only oddity.  What is more the track is album only – and although Houston’s eponymous Mowest album garnered a US release ‘I Ain’t Going Nowhere’ was for British consumption only (as was the excellent crossover number ‘Nothing Left To Give’).  Overall this is a superb album and I’m bound to say that although Thelma Houston has had a decent career, she has not been the soul superstar she should have been, i.e. up there with Aretha, Gladys, et al. Her Mowest album amply provides evidence of this.  Regarding ‘I Ain’t Going Nowhere’ the track was first played, by Thelma Houston, at the Highland Room to be soon overtaken by Jr. Walker’s version which was also played as a brand new release.  It has been nice in recent years to see a little renewed attention focused on Thelma’s version although her album is now hard-to-find.

Another track which finds this compilation looking to the UK is ODYSSEY’S ‘Battened Ships’ from their self-titled Mowest album.  For some time now this cut has been popular with the seventies faction of the modern scene.  The group are nothing to do with the late 70s hitmakers but were a light rock, four-man outfit.  I’m forced to say that I don’t love this track, I hate it!  It may have the right rhythm and some correct production values but the group sound like they look on the can – very white.  Together with tripe like that John Valenti thing there is a certain amount of evidence that the modern scene too can be immune to the essential blackness of soul if other circumstances fall together.  The Commodores, The Nu Page, G.C. Cameron and Syreeta (I’m no fan of her vocal style) are worthy acts included on ‘Motown’s Mowest Story’ but often on multiple occasions, while Devastating Affair, Blinky and Bobby Taylor are left out altogether.  Art and Honey’s great ‘Let’s Make Love Now’ was pulled from Mowest 5048 to appear on Motown but has never been on CD to my knowledge so that one might have been nice too.  We await the real soul of Mowest Records therefore.

'Til Next Time

Tim Brown

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