45's from the RT collection (Mar):
Brenton Wood - A Change is Gonna Come / Where Were You. 1969 Double Shot (SP). A couple of years ago I picked an earlier Brenton Wood 45 out of a large sale. I kept that one. This one is too commercially oriented for my tastes. A) side is pure soul while the b) side is towards r'n'b.
Mother Earth - Mother Earth / I Did My Part. 1968 Mercury promo (SP). Another band that I'm entirely unfamiliar with, but probably have run across their albums at some point. This is from their debut album. The b) side is my idea of what commercial soul funk sounds like, though still pretty far from my personal interest area. The namesake track is hardcore blues, too much so for my liking.
Lenny Welch - You Can't Run Away / Halfway To Your Arms. 1968 Mercury promo (SP). Kind of a lounge pop thing similar to Tom Jones and Paul Anka. I wonder if Welch had a hairy chest too? He's African-American, so he naturally gets lumped in with the soul crowd, but that's not really what this is. I actually kind of like music such as this, brings back memories of my early childhood. But not enough to keep mind you.
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The Fatback Band - Night Fever. 1976 Spring/Polydor (LP). Same sale as below (Mar). Some of you may recall my post last year on Raising Hell, an album I picked up from a Catholic charity (lol). From that I wrote: "I've said it before, and will continue to say it, I don't intrinsically have an issue with disco music... Most disco tends to be soul music with a steady 4/4 beat and soaring strings. Not for me. But some disco comes out of funk, specifically hard rocking funk, with excellent tight horn charts and electric guitars. Now we're talking." I then proceeded to discuss why I enjoyed that particular album. You can read more about it there. Night Fever more or less abandoned all other styles to focus strictly on the dance floor. They still bring a large talented band, but much of it is lost in repetitiveness and 4/4 beats. The song titles give the game away. Along with the title track you have 'A Little Funky Dance', 'Disco Crazy', 'The Booty', and 'No More Room for Dancing'. It gets old after awhile. The one exception would be 'The Joint' which recalls Raising Hell's hard funk. Worth a couple of bucks to hear anyway, and it's not bad all things considered. And how about that white panties cover? The late 70s....
The Brothers Johnson - Look Out For #1. 1976 A&M (LP). From an estate sale (Mar). When I first started listening to FM radio in earnest in 1977, their version of 'Strawberry Letter 23' was a secret favorite. Even today when I hear it at a store or in a restaurant, it puts a smile on my face. Look Out For #1 is the album prior and is the brother's debut, which I figured would be even better. As they might say in the Minnesota Nice vernacular "Yea No". This is way too commercially oriented for my tastes, and belongs more to soul than hard or jazz funk. There are two instrumentals on Side 1 that are pretty good, but nothing really stood out even there. One of those albums where I find myself saying it's good for what it is. I say that a lot about Country albums too. I still want to find the album with 'Strawberry Letter 23' though. I'm sure I will (and I did later that year - Shuggie Otis).
*Grant Smith and The Power - Thinkin' About You / You Got What I Want. 1968 MGM promo (SP). From the RT collection (Feb). Soul music of course, of which I do enjoy some. I like the horns, organ, and funky rhythms. But this is mostly vocal gospel inspired pop on top of that. Might have been something I would have held onto - but not at its going rate (well after trying to sell it to no buyers, I decided to keep - but I'll eventually part with it).
*Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby (short and long versions). 1975 Oasis (SP). Interesting on how I acquired this one. I found a pretty rare 45 in a buy 1-for-a-dollar-and-get-9 free bin at Independent (Feb). So I just grabbed nine 45s that had good looking plain white sleeves to cover some of the RT 45s that didn't have any cover for. You can't even buy plain sleeves for 10 cents each, so what a deal. And this was one of them. Oh cool - I remember this of course from my youth. For a good church girl, this track sure does ooze sex - more so than just about anything as mainstream as this. Honestly this song has only gotten better with age. What a performance!
Earth, Wind & Fire - That's the Way of the World. 1975 Columbia (LP). Thrift shop find (Jan). The big hits here are 'Shining Star' and the title track, but I found all the tracks satisfying on some level. They're great songwriters and the instrumentation is full bodied. I did want a bit more from this one, as it's fairly superficial on the whole.
The Bros Johnson album you seek is 1977's RIGHT ON TIME. If you found LOOK OUT FOR #1 to be too commercial, don't expect any revelations with the followup. It's pretty much the same album, funky r&b with a large dollop of disco.
ReplyDeleteI figured as much. Ah well, I'll probably get it anyway (if I see it) just for the song :-)
DeleteThanks for the comment!
Y'know, you could seek out the original version; it's on Shuggie Otis' FREEDOM FLIGHT, from 1971. Some people prefer the remake, but Shuggie's album is so chock-full of Weird & Wonderful it's the hands-down pick (for me).
DeleteThe reissue of his next (last?) album, INSPIRATION INFORMATION, has a few choice FREEDOM FLIGHT tracks appended to it, and Strawberry Letter is one of them. If you're unfamiliar with Shuggie, well....based on your other reviews, I'd guess that you'd like him.
PS (sorry for all the correspondence!) Based on your FATBACK BAND comments, you'd probably really like two of NIGHT FEVER's antecedents: 1973's PEOPLE MUSIC, and the following year's KEEP ON STEPPIN' (which features a great sleeve that was the reason I bought it in the first place). As both just preceded the rise of disco, they're jampacked with the kind of heavy funk you favor. No idea how easy or hard vinyl originals are to come by, though.
DeleteThanks for the comments - they're always welcome here! I have seen that cover of Keep on Steppin' (RYM uses it for their band page) and have to agree entirely - that album has to be good! I had wondered about the original of Strawberry Letter. Thanks for confirming. Weird and Wonderful is music to my ears lol.
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