|
Funky 45's
View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook All Contents Copyright 2005 Funky16corners
|
|
Issue 1
Funky & Soulful 45s BW SOULS Bill Cosby Joe Thomas E. Rodney Jones & Larry & The Hippies Band Laura Lee Sound Experience Mable John Soul Searchers
Funky 45 Archive
|
|
BW Souls – Marvin’s Groove (Round) – Man oh Manischewitz! This is one of the all time classic old-school funk/instro jams. Fairly rare in that I’ve never come across a copy digging, but someone has a crate of these somewhere, because they keep showing up on E-Bay (which is where I got my own sweet, virginal minty fresh copy). ‘Marvin’s Groove’ has it all: throbbing, bass line, super-funky drums, organ and wailing sax-a-ma-phone to beat the band. And breaks?!?!? This is some broken-assed shit! Funky, funky, funky…LAWWWWWD it’s funky…AND it lies on the sweet side (i.e PRE) of 1970 so severe Disco-phobics have no worries. Extra Credit – Cool Label vibe 5.6 |
|
Bill Cosby – Funky North Philly (WB) – Say what? Cliff Huxtable gets down? Righteo my brothers. Not many folks are hip to the fact that from the mid-60’s to the mid-70’s the Cos had a shadow career making soul and funk discs (and bizarre oddities like ‘Grover Henson Feels Forgotten’) for labels like Warner Brothers and Uni. He actually hit the charts once back in his ‘I Spy’ days with a remake of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Uptight’ called ‘Little Old Man’ from the ‘Silver Throat Sings’ LP. ‘Funky North Philly’ is a quasi-remake of ‘Funky Broadway’ in which the good doctor raps about his life growing up in the area of the same name. It’s a pretty good record too. |
|
|
 |
Joe Thomas
– Chitlins & Cuchifritos (Today)
– As a major fan and connoisseur of Funky Flute discs, I’ll go out
on a limb and say that this may be one of the BEST. Joe Thomas was a
smokin’ flute (not as crazy as Jeremy Steig) and alto player who made
some outstanding records early in his career. Unfortunately when the
Disco-mobile showed up, Jo Jo called shotgun and rode away to Crapsville.
Fortunately for us he served up ‘Chitlins and Cuchifrito’s first.
Basically JT soloing like a mofo over electric piano, vibes, bass and
drums with singers repeating the title over and over again, this cut
ought to be (and probably has been) sampled by someone. Original copies
of the LP (’Joe Thomas Is The Ebony Godfather’) this comes from go
for mucho dinero (but it has been reissued). Cool label vibe 7 points for
that big yellah peace sign! |
|
|
E. Rodney Jones & Larry & The Hippies
Band
– Right On, Right On (Sex Machine) (Westbound)
– Between the
title and the band name it’s miracle that there was space left on the
record for music. E. Rodney Jones was a big-time Chi-town soul disk
jockey (I don’t know who Larry & The Hippies Band were). ‘Right
On Right On (Sex Machine)’ is a revamp of the Sly & The Family
Stone jam ‘Sex Machine’, with E. Rodney doing a smooth rap (“Love,
peace, SOOOULLLLLL..right on Y’all!!!”) over top of a tasty,
mid-tempo wah-wah guitar/organ riff. The words are kind of a positive
vibe/Black Power-lite message and E. Rodney works it with that deep,
dark, syrupy radio voice. This record was produced by my man Jerry-O.
The b-side is an instrumental called ‘Football’, in which E. Rodney
manages to glom himself a taste of the writing credit. This is puzzling
since this track is a remake of the Jerry-O written cut ‘The Pearl’
which was the B-side of his ‘Funky Boo-Ga-Loo’ 45. Shame on you E.
Rodney…shame on you…… |
 |
|
 |
Laura Lee – Dirty Man (Chess) – Miss Laura, also known for my ALL TIME fave girly funk jam, ‘Crumbs Off the Table” which she did a few years later for Hot Wax, appears here in her deep-soul mode. Her Chess sides are in a much more ‘southern soul’ vein and ‘Dirty Man’ is a powerful bit of testimony in which LL gives her old man the heave ho. This sounds like it shoulda-oughta come out on Goldwax or Stax instead-a Chess, but I won’t let that hold me back from saying that LL sings the shee-hit outta this number. It shows that only a few years earlier she was singing gospel. |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
Mable John – It’s Catching (Stax) – A fantastic southern soul tune which was the semi-funky b-side of the fantastic ballad (and hit) ‘Your Good Thing Is About to End’. Mable was the sister of Little Willie John and was one of the first women to record for Tamla. Between her time spent there, and working as a Raelette, she recorded a number of classic discs for Stax, this being the best. When I call it semi-funky, I refer to that deep, DEEP backbeat (Al Jackson in DA HIY-OUSE!!!!), churchy organ and thumping bass. Mable was an AMAZING singer and this is classic Stax all the way. |
|
|
|
|
