Fontella Bass - "Honey Bee"

I'm back with my first post in over two weeks. I've been busy finding records and getting my portable turntable hooked up to the computer. Never knew it'd be so easy but all I needed was one connector. Downloaded some recording software and, voila, I was making mp3's in nothing flat. Welcome to the 21st century, huh? I'm working on getting music posted to the blog, although everything is sort of in a tentative stage right now. I'm using free services for hosting my mp3's and placing players on the blog. So far, it's working okay but I'm up for any advice from the old pros out there. I'd also like to know if the players are working okay for everyone.

Today, a record I found a couple of months ago at the St. Louis record show, "Honey Bee" by Fontella Bass. Everyone is familiar with Bass via her huge 1965 hit "Rescue Me", a fine song that's been somewhat spoiled by severe over saturation on oldies radio. "Honey Bee" is from a couple of years earlier, while Bass was still in St. Louis recording for the local Bobbin label. I don't have a mountain of information on Bobbin, except that Little Milton and Oliver Sain seem to have been heavily involved. In fact, they're credited with co-writing "Honey Bee" and it's Sain's orchestra providing instrumental accompaniment on the song.

The instrumentation on "Honey Bee" is fairly standard, with some piano and light horns. The song is up-tempo and bounces along very nicely, with Bass' voice a little tougher sounding than on her big hit. The nice surprise is the guitar break that comes along in the middle of the song to make things all the more rockin'. All in all, one of the best records I've found this year.

Ike and Tina Turner: Finger Poppin' (Warner Brothers)

File this under "should've been a huge hit." I mean, it's got everything: rough rhythm guitar, a big, bold and brassy horn arrangement by Gene Page, loud, pounding drums and a vocal performance from Tina that's the proverbial icing on the cake. It begins with the brass kicking in at full volume, accentuated by raw guitar chording and loud drums and followed up with Tina's vocals telling you that she don't care no more about nothin' you do, cause she's goin' shoppin', finger finger poppin' on through. The song blasts in your ears like an explosion and if it doesn't get you groovin', then rigor mortis has definitely set in.

"Finger Poppin'" was one of three 45s Ike and Tina recorded for Warner Brothers in 1964. (At least that's what it says in my copy of Goldmine's Price Guide to 45 R.P.M. Records.) They recorded for a lot of labels up through the seventies (Sue, Tangerine, Cenco, Pompeii, Loma, Blue Thumb, Modern, Liberty, United Artists and many others). During this time, they released a lot of quality records, but were only hitting the lower ebbs of the Billboard Hot 100 Charts, until late 1970 when they hit #34 with their take on Sly and the Family Stone's I Want To Take You Higher" and 1971 when their "easy and rough" version of "Proud Mary" hit #4. This record was definitely one of them. Who knows? Maybe a few radio stations did play it, but like I said, it should've been mucho big. Ah well, that just leaves us with one more killer record to discover. (P.S. "Finger Poppin'" was recently featured on "Little Steven's Underground Garage," so maybe you could hear it there.)

Lowell Fulsom: Man of Motion (Jewel)

Most of you may know Lowell Fulsom from his 1967 hit "Tramp" (#5 R&B, #52 Pop), but his career actually spans several decades from the late 1940s to the time of his death in 1999. At one time, his band included such luminaries as Billy Brooks, Stanley Turrentine, and, most famously, Ray Charles. This particular record comes from 1971 and one of many he recorded for Jewel between 1969 and 1972. And while I can't say whether or not it's one of his very best (I've heard only a few of his records and he recorded a lot of them), I can tell you that this 45 has become one of my big faves in the past several months.

The song wastes no time getting started and floors it at full speed with a Bo Diddley-ish guitar and pounding drums. With tough vocals, Lowell tells us that he's a man of motion who takes his time before he moves. Everything he does he always does with a groove, you see. What makes the song special is the wild lead guitar soloing that punctuates the song throughout. I don't know who plays that guitar, but he sure be on fire! This 45 starts out rockin' and stays rockin' all the way up to the fade out, pausing only a couple of times for a quick breath before gettin' back to business. Did I say that this one was a winner? If I didn't, I'll say it now. This one's a winner. What else do you need to know?

Tuesday's Record Dig

Tuesday was a pretty nice day. After making my blog entry here, I drove uptown to check out the usual spots for records. Now, I live in a little burg but there are seven (count 'em, seven) antique malls on the town square. Seems that every time a space opens up, zap!, another one goes in. Not sure how long it'll be before the bubble bursts on that but it's nice while it lasts. It's not exactly like these places are brimming with great, old 45's but, with new ones opening all the time and the turnover in vendors, etc., it's always worth checking them out every couple of weeks to see if anything new turns up.

So anyway, on Tuesday I'm making the rounds and not having any luck until I head into the seventh and final place. The proprietor sees me and proceeds to let me know there are some 45's in the back that he just got in. I proceed to the shelves and find four boxes of mostly unsleeved singles, several hundred in all. I start flipping through them, finding the usual 60's c&w on Decca, Capitol and such that dominate southern Illinois record bins. In fact, I'm convinced that the same records must routinely get shuffled from one place to the next, just so I can have the pleasure of going through them again.

Finally, after perusing a few dozen records, I find my first winner, a 45 by Curley Moore & the Kool Ones. In fact, this very disc has been written up in recent weeks by both Larry at the Funky 16 Corners blog and Dan over at Home of the Groove (see links section), each featuring a different side. Turns out this find was the beginning of something good, as I came away with about 40 records at just 50 cents per. Not all of them wound up being winners but enough did to make my week. And several of them are in near pristine condition, to boot.

Anyway, I thought that Brian did such a fine job with his rundown the other day that I'd share some of Tuesday's finds with you. These aren't necessarily the best of the lot (although they're certainly among 'em) but are all interesting in their own way and ones that I'd never heard of before.

So, without further ado...

Nai Bonet - "Jelly Belly"/"The Seventh Veil" I had no idea who Nai Bonet was, so I looked her up when I got home with my records. Turns out she was a belly dancer, who appeared in an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, the movie Devil's Angels and a handful of other cinematic delights through the 1970's.

Not surprisingly, "Jelly Belly" falls right in line with Ms. Bonet's chosen profession. First, we get a little snake charmer flute music, followed by an announcer informing us, "In New York City, where there are more belly dancers than there are in all of Egypt, more people do the Jelly Belly than any other kind. We must be doing something right". Cut to a big beat, where Nai Bonet begins telling us how to do the dance, while background singers chant "jelly belly, jelly belly, yeah yeah". "First you inhale, then you exhale", she says. "Hips go up and down, tumbling round and round" and, of course she lets us know that anybody can do it. Okay, but I'd rather just watch.

It's a great little pop, dance tune that'd have sounded nice coming out of a hand-held transistor radio. It was included on one of the Girls In The Garage comps and seems to have been released in 1966. Meanwhile, "The Seventh Veil", on the flipside is an instrumental in a similar style, with a little good guitar and is also worthwhile.

Travis Phillips & His Wonder Boys - "Do The Everything" I'd have probably chanced this one anyway but, just looking at the band name, I thought this might be c&w. The title, "Do The Everything" definitely tipped the scales in the right direction though. And I made a wise decision, as this is an r&b dance tune. We get Travis calling out the moves and the names of various dances, all while coming on to the girl, asking her to shake it for him. There's also a really good guitar break. Not sure of an exact year of release, as info. on the record is very scant. It's from well into the 1960's, though it has sort of a throwback 50's sound.

Artist Unknown - "Land of 1000 Dances" Here's an mystery record, of sorts. I'm not sure if these educational releases were used in band class or to teach sixth graders to do the frug but, whatever the purpose, here's one that holds up well to scrutiny. I've seen several of these discs over the years and even purchased one or two but this is the coolest title I've ever run across. So, it had to be worth a listen, if only as a curiosity. It's an instrumental version of "Land of 1000 Dances", save for a few na na na na na's on each chorus.

Things start innocently enough, with standard horn charts for verse number one, making it sound like all educational value and little fun. One thing that's apparent from the beginning though, is that the drumming is excellent. Then there's the rockin' guitar that comes in about midway through. Now we're havin' fun! Meanwhile, the drumming gets even better. I have no idea who was behind this but they were obviously real pros. I got my education. The flip is a version of Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime" that's less interesting except for some fuzz guitar buzzing like a bee throughout.

The Equadors - "Sputnik Dance"/"Stay A Little Longer" This four song EP might represent the entire recorded output of The Equadors. Not sure why RCA chose to release all four tunes on one disc. When I saw that it was an EP, I was thinking Perry Como or maybe Elvis and not some unknown outfit. While Perry was crooning pop tunes, The Equadors were making r&b rockers. The "Sputnik Dance" was written by band member Alan Turner and is every bit as great as the title would imply. The singer gives us more dance instructions over a big beat and explains how it started with the martians and now it's come to the planet earth. In fact, it's reaching every planet in the solar system, as Venus and Mercury are now getting it too. It's all upbeat here, with a swinging sax break.

The other fast number on the record is "Stay A Little Longer" the only song not written by the band. It sounds more like an up-tempo doo wop number, having more prominent backing vocals. It also has a sax break, with some guitar thrown in. Two goodies for the price of one, nice.

Another Record Roundup

Hello, everyone. It's been a long while since I posted anything to this blog, but now I'm ready with a few choice 45s to rap to you about. A few weeks ago, I went to the Indy record show and, while my take wasn't anything spectacular, I still managed to lasso a few interesting ones, which I will now tell you about.

Toussaint McCall: I'm Gonna Make Me A Woman (Ronn 90)

You probably know Mr. McCall for his tender ballad "Nothing Takes The Place Of You" and his organ instrumentals, but here's one that's a full soul stomper! McCall's vocals are as smooth as velvet, but he rocks to the fast beat quite nicely, as the band rocks out. There's some wicked guitar work here, as well as loud, piercing brass, heavy bass and out-of-control drumming. It all blends together to make a really rocking package, one that I highly recommend you find.

Jerry Washington: Baby Don't Leave Me (Excello EX 2336)

I've been listening to a lot of funky stuff from my collection lately, so it's no surprise that this one is as funky as they come. This 1973 piece comes equipped with Mr. Washington's shrieking vocals and screams, plus some crazy wah-wah guitar work, tasty horns and a rollicking beat that ought to make you get up and groove. I don't know much about Mr. Washington other than this is one funky as all hell piece and that matters, y'know?

The Rondels: Satan's Theme (Amy 830)

You would think with a title like "Satan's Theme" that this would be more rocking, but it's only pretty good. It's got a twangy guitar melody line and blastin' sax riffs that do satisfy, but it's not as wild as I expected it to be. This comes from 1961 and was one of five singles The Rondels released on the Amy label between '61 and '62, of which I highly recommend you find "Back Beat #1" and "110 Pounds of Drums." This one's okay, too, but not really one of my favorites. Guess the ol' devil was asleep for this one.

The Damien St. Thomas Show: Roll Over Beethoven (Harbour HB 307)

I couldn't find any information on this act at all, only listings on people's "sale" lists and even a couple of radio show playlists. I'm assuming this is from the early 70's, but I'm not 100% on that. I do know that it's a slow, funky take on the Chuck Berry classic with plenty of funky guitar, rockin' horns, shrieking girlie chorus and Wilson Pickett-style shoutin' and screamin'. Wish I knew more, but I'm still very much enjoying this one. By the way, Harbour was a subsidiary of Buddah.

Rasputin's Stash: Mr. Cool (Cotillion 44137)

From 1971, this single was taken from the first of two albums by a group formed out of Chicago session musicians. It's slow funk time again, but this time, we get some real cool vocals about a pimp. They call him Mr. Cool and he once made love to the "presidential lady," whom he used to call Sister Sadie." Don't call him no agitator because when he gets down to it, he's a smooth operator. This one's characterized by smooth vocals, electric piano and organ blending together, wicked fuzz guitar and soulful horns. One of the coolest records I found on this trip.

Boyd Bennett and His Rockets: Move (King 5115)

We take you now to 1958 and one of many 45s Mr. Bennett recorded between 1955 and 1959 for the King label. Bennett also had Top 40 hits with "Seventeen" and "My Boy Flat Top during this time. The dealer I got this from also had several other Bennett 45s, but he pointed my direction to this being the best one and I'm mighty glad he did. It's a wild piece of rockabilly with a stompin' beat, great guitar work, crazy sax and a solid vocal performance from Mr. Bennett. Probably not the craziest rockabilly out there, but a damn good one nonetheless.

Tamiko Jones: Ya Ya (A&M 956)

This one comes from 1968 and features a funky take on the Lee Dorsey classic. Ms. Jones' vocals are smooth and silky, and she's accenuated by lots of funky guitar, pumpin' piano and big, bold, jazzy brass. The jazzy brass is because this record was produced by Creed Taylor of CTI Records, who would later produce Deodato's 1973 hit version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra."

That's all for now. Hopefully, that'll hold you until I can get back to a computer that works.

Little Marie Allen - "Humdinger"

Ah well, nothing quite like taking a one month break again, already. But, for better or worse, here I am with another blog entry. This time, I'm writing about a record that I found at a recent flea market, "Humdinger" by Little Marie Allen.

I wish that I could whip up some kind of mini-bio on Marie Allen for you but I really can't find any information about her at all. "Humdinger" has been comped a time or two but other internet listings are pretty much nil. What I do know is that the record is from 1959 and the band backing Marie Allen was led by Chuck Booker. It also looks as though Allen gets partial songwriting credit. I thought that B. Holloway might be Brenda Holloway. She would have been very young at the time though, in her early teens. Pretty much all bets are off.

Anyway, "Humdinger" is an excellent, upbeat r&b number, with Allen's very gritty vocal. Her voice is nearly at a growl as she sings about getting her wig flipped by her guy, among other things. The tune has plenty of good sax, including a break. The drums really bang and help propel the song, which ends all too soon, in a little over two minutes. Stylistically, it reminds me of Shirley & Lee's "Let The Good Times Roll" a bit, especially the chorus.

I have no idea whether Little Marie Allen made more records or not but I can't find listings for any others. I'd love to know anything more about her or this record that anyone can relate.