Tim Brown Talks!

A break of one month in manifesto output means I’m revved up and rarin’ to go. Old Whitey will escape my ire as he was talking pure sense in the last issue – can’t say the same about Soul Sam, where’s he gone? Let me at him!…

A bit of an argument with Sam’s brief overview of his 2007 spins, the Parliaments record is a goodie but Arthur Willis and the Profs a bit of a victory for rarity over quality I would say. Average at best. Doc Peabody is outstanding, Angela Davis great, but Ice’s ‘Reality’ needs a dose of that very situation! As for Soulful House (to me a contradiction in terms) I’d sooner listen to the kop chanting anti-Man Utd songs! (to qualify that I’m a United fan). I do agree with Sam about Joss Stone and Amy Winehouse, both great talents in an era when some white girls can sound genuinely black – I don’t think even Dusty or Timi Yuro ever quite managed that despite the virtues of some of their recordings. That said, I’d sooner pick out a Big Maybelle or an Etta James from the past to dwarf anything any lady can do today.

As for my ‘supercilious hints at (my) superior knowledge’ – well, youth will have its arrogance but basically the latter part is a truism and I was well into modern and deep soul when Sam was chasing Ginger around for his copy of Rain’s ‘Out Of My Mind’! I will concede that I’ve long been overtaken on a variety of twelves and eighties soul but to be honest ‘who-knows-what’ is rather less important than getting it right in the first place. ‘Facts before ego’ is my dictum, we live in an age when attention to detail is regarded as obsessive and the acquisition of knowledge as almost unhealthy (or certainly ‘uncool’). If we are going to bandy about dates that aren’t dates then as Johnny Logan said ‘What’s Another Year’ and England won the World Cup in 1967! As for the Milton Bennett I make absolutely no reference to its rarity at any juncture, I was merely aghast that anyone could prefer his flailing vocal performance to that of Levi Stubbs. Yup, I could have looked in the Manship UK price guide to check on the British release of Inez and Charlie Foxx’s ‘You Fixed My Heartache’ (Dynamo) but as I use John’s ‘literary’ meanderings to prop up the spare bed so it was difficult. British stuff never was really my thing and I did add the caveat ‘as far as I recall’. As for Eddie Floyd’s (!) ‘Blues In The Night’ French E.P. well mea culpa, its an obvious psychological slip, nonetheless Mr Barnfather please be aware that it’s by Johnnie rather than ‘Johnny’ Taylor. Enlightened now?

Nothing enormous to add to Sam’s February record reviews – John Wesley’s ‘Love Is A Funny Thing’ on Melic has always been a toughie but it was not mentioned that it is a cover of the Larry Williams and Johnny Watson album track. JJ Barnes ‘Lonely No More’ (Mickays) is an oddity, I will agree with Sam inasmuch as it has to be at the very latest 1965 but sounds four or five years later.

I’m almost as relieved as Simon White to see his long manifesto relationship with UK-only soul releases come to end. I don’t mean that sarcastically as I’ve enjoyed his tough task and Simon does approach soul music with a lack of preconceptions.

To see him unshackled by geography should make for some interesting reading. At a philosophical level Simon was so right about double, treble, even quadruple standards regarding copies and bootlegs in their various formats, even when records are legitimately released then there are often numerous arguments and counter-arguments, turn to Rob Moss’ article to get an insight into the complications there. And as I’ve stated before this isn’t all about recent times either, Popcorn Wylie had absolutely no knowledge of Tommy Neal’s ‘Going To A Happening’ getting a release in the UK via Vocalion (for example). Without a doubt the internet is one of the most important things to happen in my lifetime, it is a total democracy – unfettered and unchecked as it is by censorship it gives a voice to almost everyone, the downside of such a free reign is fairly obvious but often the worst excesses are bolstered and given courage by anonymity. Whatever you think of my words and opinions in this very magazine it is quite clear who wrote them and where I am. My statement about discovering ‘Johnny On The Spot’ brought forth a stream of incoherent e-mail abuse from one kind person, a simple response of ‘who is it?’ predictably remained unanswered although I’m sure we would all like to know about some pre-Casino Wigan club that played the said record in 1968! If you’ve got something to say then by all means say it but be brave enough to say just who you are.

Hmm, Steve Bennett’s ‘I Don’t Queue And I Don’t Pay’ … well it seems he doesn’t think either. All that jingoistic nonsense about Germany was more than a little embarrassing and all because he was brave enough to step on a plane to fly to a Soul ‘do’ in Frankfurt. Steve admitted that he doesn’t know too much about Northern Soul – well he ain’t too hot on history either, after all, it was hardly Adolf Hitler who claimed ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. When dear old Basil Fawlty made his hilarious ‘don’t mention the war’ quips it was in the spirit of total parody of the character, needless to say it gave a generation the chance to flaunt its own jealousies and insecurities about Germany, after all they weren’t the ones who went through the suffering and tragedy of two world wars. To be brutally honest all this ‘joking’ isn’t actually that… it’s a claim to somehow be superior – witness the remark of one record dealer on Soul Source recently to ‘be at war with Germany’, all over the disputed identity of an un-named acetate! I’ve been to Germany many times and have a number of German friends, personally I find all this predictable talk about men with moustaches, bombing and swastikas to be wearing a little thin. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m up for a laugh at most subjects but this particular one is becoming distinctly predictable and tedious. Give it a rest folks.

The February manifesto made brief mention of a couple of recently departed soul names and by sad coincidence I had dealings with both of them. I remain the licensee for Shrine Recordings so the death of Eddie Singleton, in his adopted base of South Africa, came as a shock and I was more distressed to hear that it was so long ago (eight months), mind you it had to have been two years at least since I last spoke to him and he wasn’t a healthy man then. His UK legacy is of course a label which stands alongside the Ric-Tics and Okehs of this world as an iconic Northern Soul label lent even more pathos by its utter commercial failure at the time. Bob Relf died, aged 70, in November last year and has his place in music history as one half of Bob and Earl who recorded ‘Harlem Shuffle’ (frequently covered and sampled) is assured. He was probably best known in the UK today for ‘Blowing My Mind To Pieces’ on Aki Aleong’s Trans-American label. From Mirwood his ‘My Little Girl’ can still set dancefloors on fire and his other Mirwood solo release even saw mass UK television exposure when ‘I Can’t Get Away’ was used as the backing to one of the KFC ads. I can claim a vested interest in that one because it was Kev Roberts and myself who suggested it to the advertising agency. In the early seventies Relf recorded as White Heat on RCA as part of a major collaboration with Barry White and his associated acts and productions (in the late fifties Relf and White were in a local group the Upfronts).

Not mentioned in the last manifesto were the deaths of two Detroit producers and label owners better known to my associate Martin Koppel over in Toronto. Firstly Ernest Kelley who was born in 1930 and entered the music business as long ago as 1948, by 1960 he co-owned Lake Records and from that date onwards soul music found a home via him on labels such as Soul ‘O’ Sonic, Terry, Geneva, Saxy and Intersoul. Artists involved included Mike Jemison, Dee Edwards, The Dynamics, Carol Anderson and Sandra Feva (Sandra Richardson). A Grapevine CD release from last year outlines the fine body of work Ernest Kelley was responsible for (Kelley’s Soul Heroes). Known well to Ernest Kelley, Ron Murphy also died in January. He was owner of the Ron’s label as well as Gold Soul, Soul King and Sound Impression. Murphy entered the Detroit Soul music industry at the tail end of the halcyon sixties era, unlike most of his contemporaries he regarded the local music highly enough to actually collect it, including the misses as well as the hits, and it was from his collection that the second copy of Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You’ emerged (how sadly ironic given the debate about the 45 on these pages recently). Ron Murphy was responsible for licensing to Goldmine two long-deleted compilations in the shape of ‘Detroit Soul From The Vaults Volumes 1 and 2’ as well as a wide range of other miscellaneous tracks.

As I indicated above, the realism surrounding observations made by Detroit soul artists to Rob Moss are usually sobering and occasionally amusing. I had to smile at Don Mancha’s recollections of difficulties in recording BUDDY LAMP particularly the part when Mancha claims ‘he used to kind of improvise and wail too much’. Now I know why he’s long been a favourite singer of mine! Let’s go over to the shelves and see what gems we can find from this forgotten artist. Early sixties efforts on labels like Peanut and Top Hat don’t do much for me and it seems that Lamp had a tie-in with Lloyd Price and Harold Logan at this time with the product coming out on New York labels. Even so, and apart from the smooth sophistication of ‘Promised Land’ on ABC there was often a Detroitish feel to the music particularly on ‘My Tears’ which appeared on Lloyd and Logan’s own Double L logo – this one is hard-edged early Detroit soul with Lamp roaring away at his best, a bit of an in-demander in the Stafford days it is now all-but-forgotten which is a pity. By the mid sixties Buddy Lamp was with Mike Hanks’ Wheelsville/D-Town set-up and if anyone thought that the slick Motor City sound of the time was always less soulful than Stax or Atlantic then here is the answer as the singer takes no prisoners over four different 45s. Probably the best known is ‘Save Your Love’ (Wheelsville) and here Lamp turns in a killer version of a Don Bryant song also done by Solomon Burke as ‘Save It’ (Atlantic), in addition the backing track was used on Lee Rogers’ ‘Sock Some Love Power To Me’ (Premium Stuff). Powerhouse soul for sure but rivalled by both ‘You’ve Got The Loving Touch’ (Wheelsville) and ‘Next Best Thing’ (D-Town), this is my kind of soul music and we were proud to reissue it on Goldmine CD’s. As indicated above much of Buddy Lamp’s lived-in vocal style came from the blues and the southern style of soul in general lives much closer to that derivation, it was therefore no surprise to see the artist move to Don Robey’s Texas label Duke in the late sixties, not only that but his daughter’s act The Lamp Sisters moved with him. Both acts released three 45s on the label. None of Buddy Lamp’s Duke singles are Northern Soul by strict definition of the word but I rather like ‘If You See Kate’ and by coincidence this is the only Don Mancha production on Lamp’s releases for the label. Still Lamp wasn’t finished with the music and as late as 1980 had a rather dispiriting release ‘Pump Me Up’ on MSK, despite the directionless song Lamp’s vocals are still strong as had been proved a few years earlier with a commendable Bobby Bland impersonation on Big Hit ‘This World Without You’ – all of which isn’t too bad a body of work for someone who ‘wailed too much’!

Staying with vinyl 45s and a constantly surprising field of interest, many of you will be familiar with Sonny Childe’s ‘Love Is In The Air’ a song written by the team of Chester and Gary Pipkin with Brice Coefield. They were in the Untouchables (‘Raisin’ Sugar Cane) and later became Africa. I have a strong feeling that Childe’s version is not the original somehow and, in any case, it is a little blue eyed for me. Much better as far as I’m concerned is the version by the LIBERATION STREET SINGERS on Pentagram which I’ve only recently come across. The official A-side ‘Sunshine Of The Morning’ is truly awful, a cheesy gospel number which raises the spectre that this may just be a white group. Whatever the truth, soulful female vocals are much more in evidence on ‘Love Is In The Air’ which also delivers a punchy arrangement rather like a much speeded-up ‘Lord What Is Happening To Your People’ by Kenny Smith. Currently rated at an ‘affordable’ four or five hundred pounds and therefore getting one or two plays at the moment. Will it break out of the pack? Well it should, but I’ve given over trying to make a forecast on such matters after ‘Standing On Solid Ground’.

I’ve been fully professional as a record dealer for twenty years now, most of that time in an atmosphere whereby people have turned to the past to revive a huge variety of under-appreciated records ending up in 60 pence records in 1975 like ‘Jeanette’ going for £300 today (an extreme example perhaps). I’m not knocking it, a huge legacy of such sounds gives hope for the scene’s longevity but it is surprising how you can have records knocking around forever and then everybody and his dog wants a copy. A current example is NORTH BY NORTHEAST ‘Pain Of City Living’ on Probe (a local Detroit label not the ABC subsidiary), it isn’t that long since I was putting this title in Northern Soul packs now all of a sudden I could flog a pile of ‘em at £25 each. I’ve always thought it to be an excellent male group dancer, issued in 1975 in Detroit, this was a more variable year for soul music in that city than, say, New York or Philadelphia where hi-hats and lush string sections had become almost ubiquitous. Over in the Motor City it wasn’t just about the emergent disco rhythm and ‘Pain Of City Living’ has a little bit a throwback feel to it – not so much to the sixties but the very early seventies at least. I could certainly see the Temptations or the Detroit Emeralds having a go at this one although North by Northeast would appear to be a male vocalist fronting a female chorus. I. Hunter, even I.G. Hunter is all over the credits and upon listening to the singer it certainly sounds like Ivy Jo Hunter upon reflection. I may be wrong but my money is on the ex-Motowner.

It always was a huge irony that CLIFF NOBLES hit paydirt with an instrumental (‘The Horse’) mostly because he went to Norristown, Philadelphia from Mobile, Alabama as a vocalist with a grounding in gospel music but also because he wasn’t even at the session that came up with ‘The Horse’ which was initially a throwaway backing track to ‘Love Is Alright’. Here in the UK we all know that one via writer Jesse James’ original unissued version. Nobles himself was always close to James and not one of his 45’s omits the name of the producer, as far as I can see. ‘My Love Is Getting Stronger’ looks likes Nobles’ first association with him on James’ J-V logo, eventually this was picked up by Atlantic and went massive at all-nighters some time ago as a revived oldie or, more accurately, a record which hadn’t succeeded in the early days of our scene. Currently his other Atlantic single is getting renewed attention in the shape of ‘Your Love Is All I Need’, a pretty basic record upon examination with a simple melody, frantic drummer and rather more muted brass than ‘My Love Is Getting Stronger’. It’s okay but as far as I’m concerned there is better out there from this guy yet. After his brief Atlantic sojourn Nobles had his fluke success with ‘The Horse’ on Phil L.A. of Soul and all his records on the label (including an album) are worth investigating as well as comparatively easy-to-find. Perhaps some would dismiss his product from this period as mere dancefloor ephemera but the fact remains that Nobles could really sing. The vocal to ‘Horse Fever’ in the shape of ‘Judge Baby, I’m Back’ (Phil L.A. of Soul) is particularly infectious and could become a real monster in an out-of-left-field way, certainly not one of the wine bar crowd this is frantic up-tempo soul made for a King’s Hall or Blackpool Tower. After Moonshot Records Cliff Nobles was back on James’ label J-V by 1971 and the marvellously energetic ‘Is It The Way’ which owes everything to the previous decade and gives room for Nobles’ finest Wilson Pickett impersonation. My favourite from him methinks. Still the game wasn’t up for the man and in 1973 another Jesse James production was leased out to Roulette Records in the shape of ‘This Feeling Of Loneliness’, for the first time Nobles appears to be mellowing out as the disc takes a distinctly mid-tempo early Philly sound direction and was a minor R&B hit although I do feel that the singer’s Pickettesque vocal approach to the record is slightly at odds with the whole thing if not a little strained. The record had brief popularity here in the UK in the early days of Thorne.

The heyday of R&B-styled Northern has been the last ten years or so even if it does seem to be slightly tailing-off at the moment. An odd record of this ilk has always crept through, even at Wigan (take Mickie Champion for instance), but I suppose the current wave actually started with all that 6Ts stuff in the southeast. Stafford played a few and it was here that I first came across LOUIE PALMER on Bootheel with ‘Don’t Leave Me’, I’m quite in favour of beaty walking blues like this 45 being dropped into playlists provided they don’t take over and we all forget what the words ‘Northern Soul’ should really stand for. The label in question has the appearance of a New Orleans record but, as I found out quite recently, Palmer is actually the Southern soul legend George Jackson who was based in Memphis, although I don’t suppose that a trip down to the Crescent City would have been precluded. ‘Don’t Leave Me’ won’t take the place of Charles Sheffield or the 5 Royales in the big rooms but the more open-minded should enjoy it.

Moving forward around ten years to the middle seventies we had the appearance of Casablanca Records with its blue livery and Humphrey Bogart cartoon character, I’m sure many readers first encountered the label through the popularity of Gwen Owens ‘You Better Watch Out’. Lately Gloria Scott has been the one to get on the logo but only on Australian if you want an original 7”. By 1977 the label had acquired a new design with an appropriate sandy colour and a definite nod towards the disco market in which it was a major player. A trawl through the label can result in an odd release of interest to UK rare soul folks tho’. I’ve come up with a couple from ‘77, both have L.A. production master Arthur Wright at the helm and neither made it into the soul charts even at the lower end of the 100. Firstly we have ‘Love Won’t Set Me Free’ from RARE GEMS ODYSSEY who lasted barely a year with the label. Frequently the group employed a female lead (Debra Givings) but here we have the writer of the song, Jerry Ross, doing a great expressive Jeffrey Osborne-ish vocal job on a track that is mostly just above mid-tempo and swirls with the sophistication of the era. The group later cropped upon the tiny California Gold logo. Much better established as a name were THE PIPS – yes the Gladys Knight backing group minus the great lady. Actually not the first time they left her as they recorded on their own prior to the Motown contract in 1965. By the late seventies they gave it another try on their own (the group contained Gladys’ brother Merald ‘Bubba’ Knight) with two albums for Casablanca both of which were fairly poorly received. ‘If I Could Bring Back Yesterday’ defies that criticism as a 45 and would delight lovers of any Tyrone Davis record of the era with those superb harmonies backing a truly fantastic lead vocal performance. For sure I was into this kind of record at the time and can’t believe I missed it, maybe it was the label because ‘Too Late’, ‘I’m So Happy’, ‘Kiss My Love Goodbye’ and many more were duly pocketed as new releases – whatever the case it sounds the part now and is something of a current fave whilst some rare modern stuff on tiny labels are boring the pants off me.

Anyway with Prestatyn and also Spring just around the corner, til next time.

Til Next Time
Tim Brown