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Funky 45's
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| Merry
Clayton – Gimme Shelter (Ode 70) – The voice behind the Stones ‘Gimme Shelter’ grabs the tune, drags it out into the street and funks it up by her own bad self. Great arrangement, slightly more intelligible lyrics and Clayton’s powerful
voice (she sang backup on tons of classic sessions for Leon Russell, Joe Cocker etc.) make for a wicked combination. There’s some nice funky guitar too. | |
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| Jesse
Gresham Plus 3 – Shootin’ The Grease (Head) – There’s gotta be a story to go with this record. As far as I can tell it only saw the light of day on the other side of an issue of Robert Parker’s ‘Barefootin’ on Head records, a Jewel
-Paula subsidiary. Waaaaay funky organ, wah-wah guitar, and tasty breaks make it hard to believe that this is from 1966. |
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| Volcanoes
– Storm Warning (Arctic) Speaking of Philly….this Northern fave is one of the best discs to fall out of the land of cheese-steaks in the 60’s. Arctic was a great local label (distributed, like Phil-LA of Soul by Jamie/Guyden) that featured
among others Barbara Mason and the Temptones featuring a young Daryl Hall. ‘Storm Warning’ (one of their 6 45's for Arctic) is deserving of it’s reputation. It’s a great upbeat soul disc with fantastic production, great vocals and the xylophone pushing it all
over the top. Also done by the Ambassadors and covered by the Electric Indian (also featuring Daryl Hall on keyboards). Believe it or not, these guys evolved into the ‘Disco Inferno’ Trammps, while the rhythm section became MFSB. | |
 | Jamo Thomas – I Spy For The FBI (Thomas) Yo Yo Yo…Straight outta the Bahamas! Jamo is rapidly becoming one of my faves. He leaves the land of clean white sand and bananas and trucks on up to Chicago (?!?) to record for Eddie Thomas’ Thomas records. ‘I Spy For The FBI’ may be the best of the discs to tap into the mid-60’s spy craze (though ‘Sock It To’em JB’ by Rex Garvin is up there too), with a great falsetto vocal by Jamo and groovin’ horns. Covered in the 80’s by soul-ska revivalists the Untouchables. |
| Mighty Hannibal – Fishin’ Pole (Josie) Crazed soul stomper by the be-turbaned Mighty Hannibal. Lyrically just another dance-craze entry,
but the wild guitar and wailing vocals kill (you gotta love it when MH goes ‘Beeeeeee-um, Beeee-ohhhh! Now everybody’s doin’ the Fishin’ Pole!’ in the middle). I’m sure this got’em out on the floor. Just reissued with a bunch of other MH tracks on a Norton
records comp. |  |
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| Soul Set – Mickey’s Funky Monkey b/w Flunky Flunky (BB) This sounds like it might be a white band, but the heavy drums and groovy organ make it a winner. A-side is a heavy take on the Smokey tune, and the B-side (my pick to hit) is a heavy organ instro of same. I suspect this may be the same band that recorded some Northern Soul faves as Norman Seldin and the Soul Set (outta NJ) on Johnson. |
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