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Funky 45's
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Issue 2
Funky 45 Archive |
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| Bar-kays - Knucklehead (Volt) – Proof positive that you should always flip a record and check out the B-side. While the famed ‘Soul Finger’ inhabits the a-side, the greasy, nasty little number is heating things up on the B. Featuring some hard, loud drums and wailing harmonica, ‘Knucklehead’ (penned by Booker T and Steve Cropper) suggests that had not most of the Bar-Kays gone for an icy swim with Otis Redding, they may have gone on to crank out some of that choice, late-60’s funk (instead of the wack stuff they ended up doing in the late-70’s). | ||
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Benny Gordon - Gonna Give Her All The Love I Got (Wand) – Great Southern soul that start’s out quietly and kicks in hard with a strong beat. This Norman Whitfield/ Barrett Strong tune is on the B-side of a storming take of ‘Turn On Your Lovelight’. Not sure if Benny’s Soul Brothers are backing him on this one, but it has a great horn section. | |
| Bob & Earl - Dancin' Everywhere (Mirwood) – Came across this one digging a little while ago and now it’s one of my faves (certainly my fave Bob & Earl disc anyway). Great energy and production, and another winning string of shout outs to the great dances of the day. This makes me want to create a database of dances mentioned in pop and soul tunes of the 60’s to see which one pops up the most. The Boston Monkey, the Boogaloo, Philly Dog, Watusi, Pony????????? |
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Bobby Byrd - Keep On Doin' What You’re Doin' (Brownstone) – One of Bobby’s best on the JB subsidiary label Brownstone. ‘Keep On Doin’ What You’re Doin’ has all the trademark JB sounds, including super-tight horns, groovy interweaving guitar lines and a pumping bass. Byrd’s voice was a little gruffer and not quite as powerful as the Godfather’s, but he was a soulful singer nonetheless. The fact that I grabbed this for a single dollar makes it all the more funky! | |
| Eddy Senay - Ain't No Sunshine (Sussex) – Nice instro cover of the Bill Withers hit. The funk here is kind of a slow, thoughtful one, but you can still hear the fatback in Eddy’s guitar. |  |
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Betty Everett - Getting Mighty Crowded (VJ) – Sadly Miss Betty left us a short while ago. While I’d rather drive nails into my ears than hear the dreaded ‘Shoop Shoop Song” again, you can play this one all you like. Penned by Van McCoy (many years pre-Hustle) and covered by Alan Price and (much later) Elvis Costello, ‘Getting Mighty Crowded’ is a great mid-tempo dance floor crowd-pleaser. | |
| Toussaint McCall - I'm Gonna Make Me A Woman (Ronn) - Toussaint McCall had as schizophrenic a sound as any performer in the 1960’s. While he gained fame for rich, Southern-style ballads like ‘Nothing Takes the Place of You’, he produced some of the funkiest, greasiest organ sides of his day (cuts like the legendary ‘Shimmy’ and ‘The Title Escapes Me’, usually hiding on the b-side). He also had cuts like ‘I’m Gonna Make Me a Woman’ - hard rocking soul tunes filled with searing guitars and a pounding rhythm section. It makes me wonder what he might have accomplished if he’d had the chance to do more than one album. |  |
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Soulful Strings - Listen Here b/w I Wish It Would Rain (Cadet) Richard Evans may be the great unsung genius of 60’s soul. His work as staff arranger/producer at Cadet saw him working with everyone from Woody Herman (with whom he made some tasty, and occasionally funky, LP’s) to Ramsey Lewis and Marlena Shaw. He was also an outstanding composer. The Soulful Strings were his pet project, and despite the ‘easy/cheezy’ name, they did some incredibly cool records in the late 60’s (even scoring a hit with ‘Burning Spear’). The a-side cover of the Eddie Harris classic is one of my favorite versions of the tune, managing to be subdued, yet funky. The B-side is the killer here, though. If you really want to hear someone breathe new life into a song you’ve heard too many times, the Soulful Strings version of ‘I Wish It Would Rain’ is the place to start. There are moments here that verge on the sublime, while, like all of their recordings, remaining soulful. Now if someone would release these LP’s on CD (please…). | |
