Dr. Feelgood - Going Back Home (The Audio Version - EMI)

I'm looking forward to see Julian Temple's "Oil City Confidential" documentary. To tell you the truth i can't wait! I think of the Feelgoods as the best band came out of the UK in the 70s and yes I'm aware of how many good and legendary (now) bands came out of the island on that decade. I think were by far the best live act! Dr. Feelgood were the first who looked back at the roots of rock & roll and R&B, they stripped it down to the basics, speed-ed it to the max and worked for it from their start to the last days this hero called Lee Brilleaux, 365 days a year!
Sure I adore most of the bands of that first wave of punk rock in England but hey, if there's one truth here is that without the Feelgoods or any other "pub rock" band like the Count Bishops (place here the name of your fave pub band), Johnny Rotten would probably still be a hippie fanatic ("Never trust a Hippie"? Gimme a break Johnny, Hawkwind were punks right?). There's no time to explain myself why Dr. Feelgood were such a great band and influence. If you want to know more, google a little and you'll find plenty of information! From my side, help comes with this live and sweaty document! Hearing it it's believing it! That's the audio disc part of an unbelievable show ( well, actually two) by the gang, recorded of course LIVE (no overdubbed shits here, OK?) on  Kursaal Southend and Sheffield City Hall back at 1975!
Pay some (more) respect to the last of the R&B Mohawks.
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Going Back Home

Little Richard - Get Rich Quick! The Birth Of A Legend 1951-1954 (Rev-Ola 2005)

I was checking a few days ago at some net-mailorders and found a recently released long play with material that King Little Richard cut before the Specialty wisecats found him and got him on a studio (the record just came out by Jerome Records under the title 'The Implosive Little Richard - The Pre-Specialty Sessions 1951-1953'). So yes, the wop-bop-a-lou-bop master and if you don't know it already, began and recorded a bunch of tunes before his Specialty peak.
RCA & Peacock labels were the first pit stops for the real king of Rock N Roll. Officialy were recorded 16 tunes. The first thing one can see clearly here, is that Little Richard before Esquerita was a good R&B artist although just another one. What this blogger heard in this terrific compilation by Rev-Ola (a very hard to find CD with all known to this day recorded material from that era), it's the sonic evidence that Norton's mascot had a HUGE influence on him. The vibrato almost operatic voice and falsetto, the pounding, frantic and outta control 88s were all Esquerita's patent! He acknowledged this on some interviews even if he told the half truth (namely only the piano style was SQ's)...Also huge influence on Richard at this period of time was Billy Wright! A great flamboyant artist whose unique performances and "glam" dressing stylings made big interest on both Richard and Esquerita.
Anyway, the bands on these sides were Johnny Otis' and the Deuces of Rhythm along with the Tempo Toppers. Of course none of the two can match the Upsetters (the best rock n roll outfit EVER - better known to most of the world as the backing band of King Richard), but were arguably excellent rhythm & blues cats (especially Johnny Otis band...). What documented on this rare as heck CD are obviously the Peacock/RCA years plus some never released before alternate takes (six) plus three tunes by Christine Kittrell with Richard accompanied her on piano. To my opinion all these recordings are historically "must hears" for every LR fanatic, but if you're a beginner you must buy in every cost the Specialty material  which is what wrote history and created rock n roll!
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Get Rich Quick!

Various Artists - The Devil's Music Keith Richard's Personal Compilation of Blues,Soul And R&B Classics (Uncut 2002 12)

The title says it all: Keith Richard's Personal Compilation of Blues,Soul And R&B Classics! This CD came out with Uncut magazine on November 2002 (December's Issue). Uncut's still a good mag. For a period of 3-4 years, i was buying it every month but i lost interest since I don't dig that much Dylan and they cover every side of his life every two months...Anyway, that's a VERY GOOD compilation indeed! One of the best you were able to catch along with a mag. How many times you bought a magazine and the included CD isn't just to put up your bottles of beer? It supposed to be compiled by Keef himself (on the issue says clearly it was Keef's selections) but on the inside liners i read "compiled by Roy Carr and Allan Jones"...And it has no Chuck Berry for Christ's sake! But it could have been easily Keef's selections. Twenty six classics in every meaning of the word and not only "Blues,Soul & R&B" but as well country and reggae.
I decide to go on this this time for two reasons:
1st) As i said earlier it's a very good comp, contains undisputed classics and it's a good way for a young lad to start searching for Amos Milburn, Ike Turner, Jimmy Rogers or Howlin' Wolf.
2nd) A friend of this blog mailed me and asked me if i got it. He told me that many assholes tryin' sell it now in very HIGH prices not only on eBay but on many other sites (Amazon included) and i wonder why the wiseacres of the major labels still go hunting for bloggers and not on these blood suckers. I mean, it supposed to not be sold this thing OK? I noticed that even the guys at IORR fan club wants it. So here it is. Ripped at 320 Kbps as usual.

Tracklist:

01. Amos Milburn - Down The Road Apiece
02. Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88
03. Robert Johnson - Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
04. Muddy Waters - Rollin' Stone
05. Jimmy Rogers - Goin' Away Baby
06. Leadbelly - The Midnight Special
07. Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Okie Dokie Stomp
08. Clifton Chenier - Ay-Te Te Fee
09. Professor Longhair & His Shuffling Hungarians - Mardi Gras In New Orleans
10. Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly
11. Billie Holiday - He's Funny That Way
12. John Lee Hooker - I'm In The Mood
13. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Jah Is Mighty
14. Hank Williams - You Win Again
15. Ike & Tina Turner - I Can't Believe What You Say
16. B.B. King - Everyday I Have The Blues
17. T-Bone Walker - (They Call It) Stormy Monday
18. Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' At Midnight
19. Blind Willie McTell - Talkin' To Your Mama
20. Clarence 'Bon Ton' Garlow - Bon Ton Roulet
21. Aaron Neville - Tell It Like It Is
22. Albert King - That's What The Blues Is All About
23. Irma Thomas - Ruler Of My Heart
24. Otis Redding - Pain In My Heart (alt. take)
25. Booker T. & The MG's - Baby, Scratch My Back
26. Al Green - Take Me To The River

 

The Devil's Music

Okeh Records Northern Soul 45s

If you are a true R&B and Soul fanatic, there's no way to not know about Okeh Records. Based on Chicago, Okeh Records was founded probably at 1918 by Otto Heinemann who was German and migrated to the States just after the end of the first World War. For many years labeled as a "race" music company (I wanna know who was the originator of this tag to go and piss on his grave..). Of course at first was a jazz label. From early on, Okeh marketed as "black music specialists" and because of this it was a natural thing to expand on other genres like rhythm & blues at first and later on soul. From the label's roster passed many monsters like Louis Armstrong, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Little Richard, Larry Williams, Johnny Watson, Johnny Otis, Jerry McCain, Major Lance, Esquerita, Dave "Baby" Cortez, Billy Butler, the Vibrations, Big Maybelle, Ida Cox, Lavern Baker, Chuck Willis among many equals even Link Wray! Not bad huh?

By the sixties the label created many groove classics and I never really understood why never had the success of the Motown or Stax. A very good sum of the later Rhythm & Soul years written on bbc.co.uk by Bill Brewster :

"In 1958 a record called ‘For Your Precious Love’ was released on Vee-Jay Records that changed the sound in Chicago. Influenced by doo-wop and gospel groups like the Inkspots and the Soul Stirrers, Jerry Butler & The Impressions had a sweet, lilting sound that was in stark contrast to the angular and gritty local blues singers. Jerry Butler and fellow band member Curtis Mayfield had been in bands together for while, beginning with the Quails, followed by the Roosters, then, when they’d finally run out of birds’ names, the Impressions. Vee-Jay, the only black-owned label in Chicago, passed up on the chance of signing the Impressions preferring instead to hold on to Butler, thus allowing Mayfield to go elsewhere (Vee-Jay also released the Beatles’ US debut, ‘She Loves You’ before EMI affiliate Capitol got smart and picked them up for the States). Although the Impressions eventually signed to ABC-Paramount, Mayfield played a key role in the resurgence of OKeh (as a producer and writer) and his unique guitar style was aped by virtually every other Chicago guitarist.

 
In 1962, a Chicago producer, Carl Davis, hot from success with Gene Chandler’s ‘Duke Of Earl’, was brought into Columbia in the A&R department. The effects were immediate and, within a year, he was working full-time for its offshoot OKeh. He gathered around him songwriters like Mayfield, a group of musicians that included Jerry Butler’s younger brother Billy on guitar, Floyd Morris on keyboards, Bernard Reed on bass and Maurice White (who later went on to form Earth, Wind & Fire) on drums, alongside arrangers Johnny Pate and Riley Hampton.

 
The first hit was Major Lance’s ‘Monkey Time’, written by Mayfield and produced by Davis, which showcased a distinct sweet, rhythmic sound with weight lent by percussive brass stabs and the bass accentuated by trombones. It reached number eight in the US and was a club smash in UK clubs like the Twisted Wheel and The Scene. Lance followed this with a string of hits with the same writer and producer, including the onomatopoeic ‘Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um’, ‘Rhythm’ and ‘The Matador’.
 

Many of the artists signed to OKeh, including Lance, Mayfield and Billy Butler were not only local but came from the same housing project, the notorious Cabrini-Green (immortalised in the 1975 comedy movie Cooley High which, significantly, didn’t include any Chicago music on its soundtrack). Other Chicagoans included girl group, the Opals, who began life as backing singers for another Cabrini-Green resident Otis Leavill and the Artistics, who recorded the sublimely daft ‘Patty Cake’. Added to that were Detroit’s answer to Ian Dury, Walter Jackson (well, he had polio as a child) and the Vibrations from LA, who seemed to get through more labels than an early eighties casual.
 
But, like Motown, OKeh was a producer-led label and the artists were, in many ways, interchangeable. Curtis Mayfield went on to produce or write for many of the OKeh stable, Billy Butler & The Enchanters’ ‘Gotta Get Away’ and Walter Jackson’s ‘It’s All Over’, a superb beaty ballad in the Bobby Bland mould.
 
The demise of OKeh shows a conflict that’s been going on with major labels and black music for more than five decades now. For the most part, they still struggle to come to terms with its constantly shifting culture and when Columbia split the company into two, leaving OKeh under the aegis of newly independent Epic, Carl Davis, who had brought them so much success and prestige, was effectively forced out by head Len Levy and left acrimoniously in 1966. OKeh struggled on for the next four years, with Walter Jackson, Larry Williams and others enjoying minor hits, before finally being closed down in 1970. It was sad demise for a label that, thanks to its close affiliation with Curtis Mayfield and, indeed, Davis, had helped define not just the soul sound of Chicago, but had a profound effect on soul generally."

What i got for you guys this time is an EXCELLENT compilation from the cream of the label's Soul 45s! And when I'm saying "cream"  I MEAN IT! I found on my HDD Backups a file of 32 (yes, thirty two!) floor-fillers of the highest quality! I didn't rip them myself. Don't know where i got 'em, maybe by some old torrent download, but i did some work myself here except for re-upload them since they didn't have tags in all songs and on some other i had to make some re-search and put the right artist and title on 'em cause i never heard them before. Listening to these gems you're sure going to understand why Northern Soul-diers around the world still place Okeh beside Motown and Stax giants! Okeh?
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The Gems:

01. Come Back - Ken Williams

02. Gonna Get Along Without You Now - The Vibrations

03. I'm Coming To Your Rescue - The Triumphs

04. I Still Love You - The Seven Souls

05. Gone But Not Forgotten - Johnny Robinson

06. This Heart Of Mine - The Artistics

07. Your Gonna Make Me Love You - Sandi Sheldon

08. A Quitter Never Wins - Larry Wiliams and Johnny Watson

09. A Little Bit Of Something - Little Richard

10. Let My Heart And Soul Be Free - The Tan-Geers

11. You Don't Want Me No More - Major Lance

12. What's The Use Of Me Trying -  The Tan-Geers

13. I'm So Afraid - The Opals

14. My heart Is Hurtin' - Billy Butler

15. I Dont Want To Discuss It - Little Richard

16. I Can Do It The Autographs

17. So Glad Your Love Don't Change The Little Foxes

18. I'll Leave It Up To You - The Artistics

19. Don't Fight It -  Major Lance

20. The Right Track - Billy Butler

21. It's An Uphill Climb To The Bottom - Walter Jackson

22. Investigate - Major Lance

23. This Old Heart Of Mine - Johnny Watson

24. Finding Out The Hard Way - The Vibrations

25. Taking On Pain - Tommy Tate

26. Nothing Can Stop Me - Major Lance

27. Too Late - Larry Williams and Johnny Watson

28.Everybody Loves A Good Time - Major Lance

29. Call Me Tommorow - Major Harris

30. Ain't No Soul - Major Lance

31. You Can't Take It Away - Azie Mortimer

32. After You - Walter Jackson

Okeh?

Various Artists - "For Dancers Only" (Orig. Kent 1982 - 6T's Rhythm & Soul Special Part 2)

It was 1982 at the beginning of the Ace Records empire. Chiswick Records, the label from which Ace involved had started looking on the reissue market. It was already behind some (classic now) Rockabilly & 50s Rock N Roll compilations and master Ted Carroll thought that it was many soul sides on the vaults from classic 60s labels that waited for so long someone to re-discover them. And that's when enters the picture Croasdell. A huge soul music fanatic and dj that looked at every place to discover or maybe better, unearth forgotten soul classics. Carroll invited him to compile an LP's worth of material from the archives of the Kent/Modern labels. What came out some months later was this. For all Northern Soul fans, this is the first thing you should own. First thing of course after your graduating from the big Motown, Stax and Atlantic schools! And that's what you get here, several non-hit classics of the era by monsters like Ike & Tina, Z.Z. Hill, the Ikettes or Mary Love. There's all over the place a danceable atmosphere infiltration-ed thorough the prism and sound of Motown. "For Dancers Only" LP made it through today and still remains a classic! Something like a "Nuggets" or "Pebbles" comp. for Soul music.  It has till now two at least re-issues on CD with the last one as a replica of the original LP, only smaller to fit this digital thing. From start to finish a rhythm generator and as the front sleeve writes, it's "Where soul begins..."
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 For Dancers ONLY!