|
Funky 45's
View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook All Contents Copyright 2005 Funky16corners
|
|
Bill |
 |
Funky |
|
By the mid-60’s, Philadelphia’s favorite son was one of America’s most popular stand-up comics, and was experiencing his first taste of TV stardom on ‘I Spy’. His albums, filled with hilarious stories of his childhood were big sellers. However, despite his success, Bill Cosby harbored a dark secret. He fancied himself a singer. The fact of the matter is, that Cosby was a major jazz fan (no doubt having shared the stage with countless jazz musicians in the early 60’s night club scene) and an amateur musician. Cosby took his love of music one step further, and entered the studio in 1967 to record the LP 'Bill Cosby Sings - Silver Throat ’ for Warner Brothers. The LP is far from jazz, composed mostly of soul/r&B/blue tunes (some slightly tongue in cheek as might be expected). The most surprising thing of all is that Cos’ had a hit his first time out of the gate. He took Stevie Wonder’s ‘Uptight’ reconfigured it with a new (funny) lyric and got himself a top 40 hit in September of 1967. The rest of the LP, while no work of genius, is actually pretty good. Cosby runs through no less than three Jimmy Reed covers and a version of ‘Bright Lights, Big City’. |
||
 |
Emboldened by his chart success, Cos’ found his way back into the studio for the much cooler/funkier ‘Bill Cosby Sings Hooray For The Salvation Army Band’ (WB). The coolness factor of the LP is largely due to the fact that the disc was produced by Fred Smith and the instrumental backing on the album is by none other than the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. The feel is a lot more cohesive, the music cooler and substantially funkier with the sound of the Watts band coming through loud and clear. |
|
 |
The two 45’s from the LP were both excellent. ‘Funky North Philly’ is a reworking of ‘Funky Broadway’ (with no writing credit to Dyke & The Blazers, a pattern that would continue) with Cos’ singing about the ‘funky’ flat, in the ‘funky’ apartment building on ‘funky’ Diamond Street where he grew up. There are great female backing vocals and a blaring horn section. The b-side ‘Stop, Look & Listen’ sees Cos’ in a soulful, slightly mellower mood. The title track of the LP, ‘Hooray for the Salvation Army Band’ is a hilarious (very) thinly disguised cover of Purple Haze (once again, no indication that someone else may have written the song). The lyrics tell the tale of a cat who is saved from perdition time and time again by the timely arrival of the Salvation Army Band. The b-side of that 45 is the groovy ‘Ursalena’ (later sampled by UMC’s). | |
|
|
The rest of the album is compose
almost entirely of covers, including a trippy version of ‘Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, the almost compulsory (for the
time) cover of ‘Get Out Of My Life Woman’ (later sampled by Cypress
Hill among others), a fairly straight reading of ‘Satisfaction’ and
‘Road Runner’. In April of 1968 (I’m not sure whether or not Cos’ had severed ties with Warner Brothers at this point), he started his own label |
 |
 |
Tetragrammaton Records (which
would eventually feature early LP’s by Deep Purple among others). The
first 45 on the label ‘Fat Albert (Hey Hey Hey)’ b/w ‘Cosbyianna’
was by the Fat Albert Orchestra and Chorus. Aside
from the fact that ‘Fat Albert (Hey Hey Hey)’ is not the well know
theme from the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids cartoon, it is a funky, organ
driven jam filled with repeated chants of ‘Hey Hey Hey’ (big surprise
there…) and the occasional ‘Fat Albert’. Pretty groovy stuff and an
in-demand disc on the Funk 45 scene. The flip is radically different, a
straight jazz instrumental based on a riff from Duke Jordan’s bop
classic ‘Jordu’. In 1969, Cosby launched his second TV series ‘The Bill Cosby Show, in which he portrayed good-natured (he’s always good-natured isn’t he??) high school gym teacher Chet Kincaid. The supremely funky theme from this show ‘Hikky Burr Pts 1&2’ was to be his first single for the UNI label. |
|
| Produced (and co-written) by
Quincy Jones, ‘Hikky Burr’ starts out with a super-tasty bass riff (by
session ace Carole Kaye), followed shortly by Cos’ laying down one of
the longest strings of gibberish in recorded history. There’s something
in there about ‘raggits’, ‘rolls’, and a whole bunch of ‘HooooooLawds!’
and someone I know swears he even shouts ‘scrotal sack’ at one point.
It’s an incredible single, and probably the best he ever did. Though the
single is credited to Bill Cosby with the Bunions Bradford Band (he
actually toured with a group with that name in 1970, playing the Newport
Jazz festival), the tune does not appear on the 1970 ‘Badfoot Brown and the Bunions Bradford Funeral and
Marching Band (Uni) ‘ LP. The LP was composed of only a few extended jams (with Cos’ on organ), one of which ‘Martin’s Funeral’ was later sampled by Tribe Called Quest. A different, highly sanitized version of ‘Hikky Burr’ appears on Quincy Jones’ ‘Smackwater Jack’ LP. |
 |
|
 |
Cosby
did one other 45 for UNI, a somewhat bizarre monologue (over a musical
backing) about a soldier in Vietnam called ‘Grover Henson Feels
Forgotten’. As far as I know it only saw release as a promo. All the
copies I’ve seen – including my own – have the same track on both
sides. In
1971 he recorded another ‘Badfoot Brown and the Bunions Bradford Funeral
and Marching Cosby
did a few more non-funky LP’s in the 70’s, even making an appearance
on the soundtrack of a Diana Ross TV special, duetting on Randy Newman’s
‘Love Story’ (?!?!?!). Throughout the 70’s and the 80’s he was a fixture at L.A.’s Playboy Jazz Festival (often hosting) and has released/coordinated a few instrumental albums in the ensuing years. |
|
|
(right) The 1971 and 1972 'Bill Cosby Presents Badfoot Brown and the Bunions Bradford Funeral Marching Band' LP's |
|
|
|
UPDATE: Thanks to Brian Poust for info on yet another funky Cosby 45, a JB style raver called 'I Luv Myself Better Than I Luv Myself' 
from the 1976 Capitol LP 'Bill Cosby is
Not Himself These Days' |
 |
 |
|
ANOTHER UPDATE!! Thanks to Everette Dewaine Longus who sent along what appears to be the very first Cosby musical 45, two soul-jazz sides recorded with the Eddie Cano Quartet. |
 |
 |
