Melvin Bliss's "Synthetic Substitution" is my favorite break of all time.
I love drum breaks and could go on for days about the greatest ones, but "Substitution" stands out. Those drums sound so immense, hit so hard and are so funky-- there's just nothing close.
On this week's 2 Busy Saying Yeah show, I mix and talk about 47 of my favorite songs that sample "Substitution", plus play the song itself.
1. Ultramagnetic MCs: Ego Tripping 2. Xperado: Watch Your Step feat. O.C. 3. Divine Force: Holy War 4. Ghostface Killah: Mighty Healthy 5. N.W.A.: Real Zaggin Don’t Die 6. Too Poetic: God Made Me Funky 7. Onyx: Throw Ya Gunz 8. Pharcyde: Ya Mama 9. Pete Rock & CL Smooth: For Pete’s Sake 10. Public Enemy: Don’t Believe the Hype 11. Willie D: Put the Fuckin’ Gun Away 12. MC Jr. Cas: Walk On the Wild Side [Club mix] 13. Almighty RSO: One in the Chamba feat. M.O.P. 14. Group Home: So Called Friends 15. T-Wiz: Good Thing Goin’ 16. Knowledge: Put On Your X 17. Def Jef: Black to the Future RMX 18. Top Choice Clique: Peace of Mind 19. Biz Markie: Cool V’s Tribute to Scratching 20. Supreme Nyborn: Versatile Extension 21. Ultramagnetic MCs: Pluckin’ Cards 22. Freddie Foxxx: Crazy Like a Foxxx 23. Percee P & Ekim: Now They Wanna See Me 24. Robbie B & DJ Jazz: Comin’ Correct 25. AMG: Trunk of Funk 26. Zhigge: Toss It Up 27. Public Enemy: Brothers Gonna Work It Out RMX 28. Public Enemy: Brothers Gonna Work It Out 29. Von Love: This Is How It Should Be Done 30. Choice M.C.: This Is the B-Side feat. Chill Phill & MC Sergio 31. Ol Dirty Bastard: Cuttin’ Headz feat. the RZA 32. Wu-Tang Clan: Clan In Da Front 33. Naughty by Nature: Yoke the Joker 34. Ghostface Killah: The Champ 35. Funk Lab All-Stars: La Da Da 36. Digital Underground: Tie the Knot 37. Too $hort: Hoes 38. EPMD: Mr. Bozack 39. De La Soul: Stone Age 40. Coolio: I Remember feat. J-Ro & Billy Boy 41. Method Man: All I Need 42. Scarface: Murder by Reason of Insanity 43. Eazy E: Eazy Street 44. Gang Starr: Code of the Streets 45. New Style: Drop the Bomb 46. C.E.B.: Get the Point 47. Brotha Lynch Hung: 24 Deep 48. Melvin Bliss: Synthetic Substitution
I'm currently working on turning this sprawling podcast into a streamlined, hard-hitting mixtape. When I get around to that, I'll share what I know about "Synthetic Substitution" itself and about Melvin McClellan, p/k/a Melvin Bliss.
I love the feel of this song and wish I knew a lot more disco in this vein-- warm, melodic, totally spaced out. Harry Ray and Al Goodman, both of the Moments and later Ray, Goodman & Brown, are all over the credits and I'm guessing the backing track is from Wood, Brass & Steel.
Since I see Jimmy Mayes's name in the credits on the (nice) ballad on the flip side, I'm pretty sure Mill Street Depo is the same group who cut this rare slice of Chicago funk a few years earlier:
Jimmy Mayes & the Mill Street Depot" "Monkey Shine" (De Caballero, 19??)
I like just about any riff on "Monkey Time". This one is definitely the rawest I've heard. According to his not-logged-into-in-the-last-2-years Myspace page, Jimmy Mayes is performing.
The horn part from this has been stuck in my head since I heard it sampled in the trailer for Kick-Ass:
Trifle: "One Way Glass" (Dawn, 1970)
The album this is from, First Meeting, is a great record. Like their more heavily sweated label-mates Demon Fuzz, Trifle are kinda hard to pin down: sort of jazzy, sort of psych-y, sort of funky-- basically, prog but not annoying. There's a Japanese reissue of First Meeting that's pricey but worth it.
2 Busy Saying Yeah - Why you gotta keep bringing up old hits?
In this episode I play and talk about some of my favorite songs that got reissued in 2009. The bulk of it is soul and funk, although there's also disco, psych, gospel, rap and weird foreign hybrids of many of the aforementioned styles.
Most of the selections are from releases that are legitimately licensed and carefully assembled, with proper mastering, handsome packaging and thoughtful annotations. I have a lot of respect for those who take the time and effort to do it right. I hope you support them so that they can continue the work that they do.
1. Man: “And In the Beginning” Revelation 2. Little Francisco Greaves: “Moving-Grooving” V/A - Panamá! 3: Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz & Cúmbia Típica on the Isthmus 1960-75 3. The Blue Rhythm Combo: “Take the Funky Feeling” V/A - Tropical Funk Experience 4. Kukumbas: “Respect” V/A - Psych Funk 101 5. Chocolate Snow: “Inflation” V/A - Eccentric Soul: Smart's Palace 6. Lyman Woodard Organization: “On Your Mind” Saturday Night Special 7. Nite-Liters: “Valdez In the Country” A-Nal-Y-Sis 8. Demon Fuzz: “Disillusioned” Afreaka! 9. The Pretty Things: “You Might Even Say” Philippe Debarge 10. P.E. Hewitt Jazz Ensemble: “Bada Que Bash” V/A - Spiritual Jazz - Esoteric, Modal + Deep Jazz From the Underground 1968-77 11. Lizzy Mercier Descloux: “Hard-Boiled Babe” V/A - Ze 30 - Ze Records Story 1979-2009 12. Gichy Dan's Beachwood No. 9: “On a Day Like Today” (Todd Terje's Friendly Children Edit) V/A - ZEVolution: ZE Records Re-Edited 13. Chemise: “She Can't Love You” V/A - DJ Spinna Presents the Boogie Back: Post Disco Club Jams 14. Cubie Burke: “Down For Double” [JM After-Session M&M Mix] V/A - John Morales - The M&M Mixes 15. Herman's Rocket: “Hanged in the Universe” V/A - Jean-Pierre Massiera - Psychoses Discoïd (1976-1981) 16. Chorus Reverendus: “Dans Son Euphorie” V/A - Wizzz! Psychorama Français 1966-70 17. Apostles of Music: “Wade In the Water” V/A - Local Customs: Downriver Revival 18. The Metros: “Since I Found My Baby” Sweetest One 19. Willie Hutch: “A Love That's Worth Havin'” Soul Portrait 20. Ronnie McNeir: “In Summertime” Ronnie McNeir 21. Andrew Brown: “You Made Me Suffer” V/A - Light: On the South Side 22. Sugar Pie DeSanto: “Use What You Got” V/A - Go Go Power • The Complete Chess Singles 1961-1966 23. The Daughters of Eve: “Help Me Boy” V/A - 2131 South Michigan Avenue: 60s Garage & Psychedelia From U.S.A. & Destination Records 24. Brigitte Fontaine: “Il Pleut“ V/A - Dirty French Psychedelics 25. 24-Carat Black: “I Want to Make Up” Gone: The Promises of Yesterday 26. Sensational Saints: “How Great Thou Art” V/A - Forge Your Own Chains 27. Amazing Farmer Singers of Chicago: “I Got a Telephone In My Bosom” V/A - Fire In My Bones: Raw Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007) 28. The Relatives: “Don't Let Me Fall” Don't Let Me Fall 29. John Heartsman & Circles: “Up From Down” Music of My Heart 30. Azambuja & CIA: “Tema De Azambuja” V/A - Black Rio 2: Original Samba Soul 1968-1981 31. Tafo: “Karye Pyar” feat. Nahid Akhtar V/A - The Sound of Wonder! 32. The Animated Egg: “Sock It My Way” Guitar Freakout 33. Natural Elements: “Tri-Boro” 1999 34. Sport "G" & Mastermind: “Live” V/A - Random Rap 35. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou: “Koutoulié” The Vodoun Effect - Funk & Sato From Benin's Obscure Labels 1972-1975
The Relatives were a Dallas, TX group that recorded some of the roughest and rawest soul music you'll ever hear.
They were led by a preacher, Reverend Gean West, and while many of their songs deal with religious themes, I can see them appealing to even those who don't appreciate religious music. Partly it's the fact that the lyrics are more concerned with suffering and personal desperation than praise or the after-life, but also the music, from heavy ballads to psychedelic funk, is just so forceful. A new reissue collecting all three of their 45s and a handful of unreleased 1971-1975 songs is available on vinyl and mp3 from the Heavy Light Records website, which has soundclips. I was sold after hearing "Don't Let Me Fall" but just about all of the others are great, too.
Here's a video clip of the Relatives performing a song that might be my least favorite track from the release but which is still pretty good:
I'm really late in doing this but I've been meaning to offer big thanks to all who made my recent trip to NYC such a blast, including those who hosted me (Chairman Mao, mOma, Stimulus, Jared Boxx, Old Chris, Pablo & the rest of the Lost & Found crew, Radio Rios, Oskar Mann & the Never Not Working crew), those who passed through gigs (Amir, Jessica from Spectre, David Griffiths, Dave Tompkins, Mr. Finewine, Jonny Paychecks, Brian Coleman and everyone else) and, last and first, DJ Eleven, who is the most generous host and friend anyone could ask for.
I meant to key this post to Thanksgiving but got caught up actually celebrating Thanksgiving and then got sidetracked trying to find a copy of a record I was pretty sure I had stashed somewhere but evidently don't, Big Boe Melvin's version of "Thank You (Falletin' Me Be Mice Elf Agin)".
Anyhow, here's another version that's not really well-known. Aside from Sly's own remake, which on some days is my favorite song ever, this is about as close to good as covers of "Thank You" get:
When I was in NYC I picked this 12" up at Big City Records because the b-side is hilarious, but this is kind of a grower. The beat and Kangol-inspired flow are kind of whatever but it got me thinking about rarely rap songs offer any kind of realistic perspective on romance and wondering if the genre is somehow just fundamentally not engineered to do that.
2 Busy Saying Yeah 10 - Matthew Africa & DJ Fuze Are So International!
This week I'm joined by one of my favorite DJs, DJ Fuze.
Fuze is a Bay Area rap legend best known as the DJ for Digital Underground and the Luniz and for being one half of the group Raw Fusion. He has toured everywhere and has produced Digital Underground, 2Pac, Dru Down & the Luniz. He is also a phenomenally hard party rocker with great skills and deep knowledge of many styles of black music, from rap to funk to the music of Africa and the Caribbean. In the second half of the show, he joins me and drops a great mix of dancehall that's too new for the club plus some classic soca and African hits. I had no idea how big a Vybz Kartel fan Fuze is, but there it is.
In the first half of the show, I play a mix of some of my favorite African funk records. Since comps long ago outpaced my African digging, almost all are from those. Nearly a third were taken from Soundway's phenomenal Ghana Soundz 2, which is a great place to start if you want more in this style.
1. Ebo Taylor Jnr. & Wuta Wazuri: Mondo Soul Funky
2. Honny & the Bees Band: Psychedelic Woman [Bonobo remix]
3. Orchestra Baobab: Kelen Ati Len
4. Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo De Cotonou: Dis Mois La Verité
5. Marijata: No Condition Is Permanent
6. Matata: I Want You
7. Orlando Julius Ekemode: Alo Mi Alo
8. Ebo Taylor: Atwer Abroba
9. William Onyeabor: Body & Soul
10. Sir Shina Peters & His International Stars: Yabis
11. The Sahara All Stars of Jos: Take Your Soul
12. Oscar Sulley & the Uhuru Dance Band: Olufeme
13. Asiko Rock Group: Lagos City
14. C.K. Mann: Funky Hi-Life
15. The Ogyataanaa Show Band: Disco Africa
16. Shina Williams & His African Percussionists: Agboju Logun
DJ Fuze!
17. Demarco: Roof Over My Head
18. Vybz Kartel: Life Sweet
19. Vybz Kartel: Versatility feat. Indu
20. Konshens: No Money to Give You
21. Erup: Pop Dat
22. Laden: Time to Shine
23. Mavado: Mockingbird
24. Beenie Man: Stack & Pile
25. Beenie Man: Pop Off
26. Elephant Man: Horny Wine
27. Vybz Kartel: Mentally Insane (DJ Fuze’s Town RMX)
28. Vybz Kartel: Gaza Commandments
29. Demarco: Some A Seh
30. Mr. Vegas: I Am Blessed
31. Vybz Kartel: Dollar Sign
32. Serani: Badmind
33. Keak Da Sneak: Super Hyphy (DJ Fuze’s Anger Management RMX)
34. Mistah F.A.B.: New O.A.K. (DJ Fuze’s Anger Management RMX)
35. Vybz Kartel: Go-Go Club
36. Konshens & Dario: Do D Ting
37. Mr. Vegas: Gallis
38. Mavado: Never Believe You
39. Isaac Blackman: To the Ceiling
40. Machel Montano: Fly Away feat. Collie Buddz
41. Soca: Hot & Groovy
42. Traffik: Sweetness feat. Shayne Bailey
43. Busy Signal: Up In Her Belly (Magalenha)
44. Fay Ann Lyons: Wine Fast feat. Beenie Man
45. Benjai: Tanty Say feat. Scarface
46. Magic System: Premier Gaou
47. Awilo Longomba: Karolina
48. Les Championnes: La Ronde Des Fillettes
49. Ellon DJ & Mix DJ 1er: Bobaraba
50. Romain Virgo: Mi Caan Sleep
51. Marcia Griffiths: Keeping It Real feat. Busy Signal
Today's one of those perfect Bay Area fall days, so bright, warm and clear it almost makes up for the fact that we don't get real summers. This sounds right:
A few months ago I saw this amazing trailer over at Soulsides:
I pre-ordered with the quickness and today the mailman brought me this:
Numero Group is easily one of the best labels reissuing music-- their care in every element of their releases, from research, to licensing, to packaging is astounding-- but Light: On the South Side is a first for them, a book of photographs with a companion album. The book contains a series of black and white pictures taken by Michael L. Abramson in the nightclubs on the South side of Chicago between 1975 and 1977. The photos are amazing and evocative, capturing all the beauty and ugliness, excitement and boredom, exultation and desperation of too many nights out.
The companion album (plus bonus 45 with the first 1000 orders) is a perfect complement, collecting 18 slices of funky blues. As much great soul, funk and jazz as Chicago produced in the 60s and 70s, it was at heart a blues town and had you been hanging out at Perv's House, Pepper's Hideout, The High Chaparral, The Patio Lounge, or The Showcase Lounge while Abramson was snapping photos, odds are this is the sound you would have heard. The Numero Group's selections are predictably great. Sound clips and ordering details are here.
Here's a track that wouldn't have been out of place:
Singing Sam & the Sparks: "Daybreak" (Honey, 197?)
I don't have much info on this one aside from the fact that Singing Sam was Sam Chatman, who according to Robert Pruter and them, was a veteran of the Chicago scene.
Oh, and, this has nothing to do with the Numero Group comp but to this day I can't see the words "south side" without hearing this in my head.
I'd been on a little bit of a Tommy Stewart jag lately-- I put two of his productions on my recent Soulful Disco mix-- so when I saw that there was a new compilation of his productions, I had to cop it:
Tommy Stewart is an Atlanta musician, producer and arranger. He cut one album under his own name, 1976's Bump and Hustle Music, as well as a couple LPs that were largely his work, like the Spirit of Atlanta's 1973 The Burning of Atlanta and 1979's Musica Negra. He also cut an album by The Counts' frontman Mose Davis and one-off singles by a range of relatively anonymous acts: Cream de Coco, Mad Dog Fire Department, 3rd World Band, the Final Approach, etc.
I love Stewart's productions for the way they meld soul and jazz harmonies with the light rhythmic pulse of disco, yet remain funky. Make Happy Music collects three songs from Bump and Hustle Music, one from The Burning of Atlanta and one from Musica Negra, plus nine other Stewart-produced tracks. The sound quality is good and it looks as though the compilers properly licensed the music. At the very least, they went to the trouble of tracking down Stewart and business partner Marlin McNichols to interview them for some fairly informative liner notes.
Here are a couple of Stewart tracks that aren't featured on Make Happy Music:
My man DJ Anonymous from Helsinki passed through town last week and I persuaded him to drop a live set for 2 Busy Saying Yeah. I hadn't planned on making another soul mix so soon after the Soulful Disco one, but his set inspired me to dig out some more mellow soul gems.
Several of Anonymous's selections have previously been featured on his excellent blog, DJ's Delight, which features a ton of great dance music of every stripe and is among the blogs that inspired me to do it. If it's not in your bookmarks already, jump on it.
New Yorkers can catch Anonymous tonight with the #1 homie DJ Eleven at Fam at Von Kellar or on Saturday with Chairman Mao at Grand Groove at APT. I had the pleasure of rocking with him, B.Cause and Vinnie Esparza last Friday and can tell you he really puts it down.
1. The Commodores: Oh Yeah 2. Brenda Lee Eager: When I'm With You 3. Pure Gold: I Miss You 4. The Bar-Kays: Feels Like I'm Falling in Love 5. Sylvia: Sweet Stuff 6. Harry Ray: The Next Time I See Your Face 7. Wyndchymes: Unconditional Love 8. Arawak: Acaddi A Bali 9. Isaac Hayes: Vykki 10. Dave Grusin: Either Or 11. James Ingram: Ooo 12. Ronnie McNeir: Sexy Mama 13. Tony Silvester: Verry White 14. Benny Golson: I'm Always Dancing to the Music 15. Quincy Jones: 100 Ways 16. Heatwave: Mind Blowing Decisions 17. Jimmy Sabater: Mind Blowing Decisions 18. The Gimmicks: You Can't Hide Love 19. Leroy Hutson: Never Know What You Can Do (Give It a Try) 20. Eddie Fisher: It's That Music 21. The Inner Drive: Party Man 22. Wee: Find Me, Love Me 23. Deliverance: Loving You 24. Jorge Dalto: I've Got You On My Mind 25. Vytas Brenner: Avila 26. Twilight: You Know It's Me 27. Leo's Sunshipp: Madame Butterfly INST 28. West Wing: I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby 29. Mighty Ryeders: Lovely 30. Willie Tee: Get Up 31. The 3 Pieces: Backed Up Against the Wall 32. Sunni Nash: The 3rd Movement 33. Trilogy: (K.C.) In the Ghetto 34. Side Effect: Private World 35. Willie Hutch: Love Me Back 36. Brenton Wood: All That Jazz 37. The McCrarys: On the Other Side 38. Barry White: You're the One I Need 39. Joe Thomas: Mr. Mumbles 40. Frank Walton: Safari 41. Sylvia Striplin: You Can't Turn Me Away 42. Funk Factory: Rien Ne Va Plus 43. The Nights: Hangin' Tough
As always, you can subscribe to 2 Busy Saying Yeah via iTunes or readers like Google and Yahoo.
After years and years of doing a relatively freeform college radio show, I've been wrestling with how to adapt it to internet radio with my new show, 2 Busy Saying Yeah.
My sense is that you can't really grow an internet audience through serendipity like you can with broadcast radio-- people who happen to be switching the dial, get seduced by a song and stick around to see what else you have. Instead, I think you have to offer something really identifiable and desirable to get them to go out of their way to check you out in the first place and then, if the quality's good, maybe they'll be impressed enough to keep coming back, subscribe, etc.
Last Friday's show is a step in that direction. I wanted to create a mixtape-quality set that would merit repeated listens and hopefully some word-of-mouth. It's a live, two-hour mix of late 70s/early 80s soul music with no back-announcing and minimal talking. The selections are drawn from a bunch of sub-genres-- boogie, modern soul, disco, jazz-funk, etc. Some are obvious, some rare, others just neglected, but it's all great music.
Listen and if you enjoy it, please spread the word.
1. Brief Encounter: Human 2. The Jones Girls: When I'm Gone 3. Jean Terrell: Rising Cost of Love 4. Cream De Coco: Disco Strut 5. Donna McGhee: It Ain't No Big Thing 6. Quietfire: Makes Me Wanna Shout 7. Bill Cosby: You're Driving Me Crazy 8. Breakwater: Work It Out 9. The Sugarhill Gang: Passion Play 10. Carly Simon: Why 11. Sister Sledge: Reach Your Peak 12. Rick James: Moonchild 13. Flowers: For Real 14. Rance Allen Group: Reason to Survive 15. Raw Soul Express: The Way We Live 16. Chocolate Clay: Free (I'll Always Be) 17. Heaven & Earth: Let's Get It Together 18. James Bradley: I Can't Get Enough of Your Love 19. Hunt's Determination Band: No. 1 Lady 20. Stevo: Pay the Price 21. Leon Ware: Can I Touch You There 22. Roy Ayers: Love Will Bring Us Back Together 23. Don Blackman: Heart's Desire 24. Azymuth: Dear Limmertz 25. Junior: I Can't Help It 26. Karin Jones: Here I Go Again 27. Linda Clifford: Runaway Love 28. One Way: Hold It 29. Hipnotic: Are You Lonely? 30. The Strikers: Hold On to This Feeling
I'm super-psyched to announce my brand new weekly radio show, 2 Busy Saying Yeah!
A few months ago, my old KALX homie Mike Biggz p/k/a Big Mike approached me about doing a show for All Day Play, a new internet radio spin-off of Oakland's Youth Radio program. I got interested when he told me that the station had already signed on some local heavyweights to do shows-- Sake One, D-Sharp, the Oakland Faders, Zumbi from Zion I, etc.-- and once I saw the facilities I was sold.
For me it's a chance to do a real mix show without the technological or legal constraints of my college radio show-- I can blend and cut live, I no longer have to spend hours each week editing curses and I'm not required to break the flow of the show all the time with announcements.
I'm still figuring out the musical scope of the show. I think it'll be a little more narrowly focused (e.g., less psych and jazz) but I'll have some exciting guests and overall the quality will be better. I'm trying to make each and every episode a great listen-- something that will introduce you to some new music, but also be worth listening to next year.
There's some psychedelic funk, some slept-on rap, both new and classic, some disco, some commercial R&B I can't front on and a questionable house remix. I think it's the shit.
Tracklist:
Pete Rock: Truth Is feat. Black Ice
Cane & Abel: Girl, You Move Me
Minnie Riperton: Every Time He Comes Around
Leon Haywood: As Long As There's You (I Got Love)
Jo Ann Garrett: Walk On By
Carl Bradney: Slipping Into Darkness
Chico & Buddy: Cracklin' Bread
Lyn Collins: Do Your Thing
D-Rock & Swift C: Let It Rip
Ray Cash: Dope Game
Juicy J: Purple Kush feat. Project Pat & Gorilla Zoe
Marc DeCoca: J's At the Door RMX feat. Backbone, Big Floaty, Don P, Rasheeda, Mac Boney & Big Kuntry
Red: I Should Tell Ya Momma On You [Dam-Funk RMX]
Young Squad: Fire Start
Loleatta Holloway: We're Getting Stronger
Whitney Houston: Million Dollar Bill
Busta Rhymes: Don't Touch Me [U-Tern's Disco RMX]
Four Below Zero: My Baby's Got ESP
Crown Heights Affair: I See the Light
Ron Hall & the Mutha Funkaz: The Way You Love Me feat. Marc Evans [Dimitri from Paris RMX]
Outkast: The Way You Move feat. Sleepy Brown [Johnny Toobad RMX]
Kurupt & Terrace Martin: You Know
Rafael Casal: Bay Area Slang Top 100
Askari X: Ward of the State
WC & the Madd Circle: Ghetto Serenade
King Tee: Ya Better Bring a Gun feat. Mixmaster Spade
DJ Quik & Kurupt: Do You Know
The Coup: Tiffany Hall
Usher: Certified feat. Pharrell
Erk tha Jerk: Right Here
R. Kelly: Take It to the Hotel feat. Clyde Carson
Redman & Method Man: Mrs. International
Hunt's Determination Band was a Detroit-area band that cut two late-70s LPs plus a couple of non-LP 45s. Both LPs contain versions of "No. 1 Lady"; the version I've posted is from Get Your Act Together!, which I believe was the later of the two. This version tones down the bass, adding clavinet, strings and a great breakdown.
A couple of months ago I posted a single by the Inner Drive entitled “Party Man”. The 45 had long been a favorite but given the scant credits I had never been able to figure out much about its origin except its city of release.
Last week I was contacted by one of the musicians who made the record, “Chicago” Carl Snyder. Carl’s son had discovered my post and Carl seemed really happy to learn that people were enjoying his music decades later. We exchanged several emails and he told me about the Inner Drive’s personnel and shared great stories about his experiences recording “Party Man” with R&B legend Andre Williams, leading a racially mixed band, and his decades-long friendship with the Inner Drive’s co-leader, the singer, songwriter and bassist Dan Noland.
At the time I met Dan I had worked with a couple of bands in Providence, R.I., and with a group in Chicago, the Chicago TNT’s. It was l969, and I had just done my first recording session, with the TNT’s, playing guitar on a couple of tunes by a singing group called The Turks, “You Turn Me On” and “Generation Gap”. This was for Daran Records, a small label on the Southside.
I’m on both sides, but just playing rhythm, and there’s only a few spots where you can actually hear what I’m doing. The lead (tremolo) guitar is by Willie Weems, who wrote the songs and produced the session.
I had a friend at the time, Phil Bolton, who was doing some graduate work at the University of Chicago and also pitching for an otherwise all-black semipro baseball team. Phil told me that his catcher wrote songs. So that was how I met Dan Noland. The two of us went into the studio right away and cut a couple of Danny’s songs; I played piano, bass and guitar, and another friend of mine played drums.
The first record by Danny and myself was “We Can Regain our Love” b/w “Consider My Love”. We put it out ourselves on the “Land” label (I figured if Danny’s name was No-land, we would give him a “land”). That record went nowhere.
Then we formed a little singing group, with Danny, his sister and two other guys; I was playing guitar, trying to sound like [Miracles guitarist] Marv Tarplin.
We took part in a few Southside revues. Then I moved out to San Francisco for a year and a half. I moved back to Chicago in 1972 and immediately got together with Danny. Pretty soon we had a four-piece group; we did a few private parties, a few “society dances” downtown (at the Drake Hotel and the Conrad Hilton), and for several months we were playing four or five nights a week at a pizza joint on Rush Street, sometimes backing up a fire dancer (“Lady Kita”) [Ed: wowzers!].
Around then we went in the studio and cut four more of Dan’s songs for a demo. I was going to take it to the bigger record companies, but I got a call from the engineer at the recording studio saying that a local producer had heard the stuff and could get airplay. That’s how [Zodiac Records owner] Ric Williams got into the picture.
We re-recorded two of the songs from the demo—”Party Man” and “Smell the Funk”. Dan (erroneously credited as “Dan Roland” on the labels) wrote both songs; he is doing all the vocals and is playing the bass. Dave Wollert is on keyboards and Tom Gierman is playing the drums. The trumpet solo is by Art Hoyle, best known for his work with the Sun Ra Arkestra. There was a second trumpeter whose name I can’t remember, and two tenor saxophonists: Vins Johnson, who went on to work with us for a while, and Bobby Lewis. I am playing the guitars.
Andre Williams
Ric felt the songs needed to be jazzed up a little more, so he brought in [R&B legend] Andre Williams to help with the production. Andre was responsible for the horn parts and the use of the synthesizer. Working with him was an incredible experience—he was funny, and outrageous. He didn’t know music in a technical sense, but he always seemed to hear what wasn’t there (the missing part of the rhythm), and he would find a way to get it into the arrangement.
Although the “Party Man” single reached #14 on the charts at Chicago’s WVON, Zodiac’s Williams said the record wasn’t selling and Zodiac failed to make a deal with a bigger company. The Inner Drive and Zodiac parted ways.
At around this time, the Inner Drive were hired to provide the rhythm for a minor Andre Williams-produced hit by a vocal group called the Velvet Hammer—1974’s “I’m the Rock”. Mysteriously, some additional material that the Inner Drive recorded with Andre Williams was later released on an album credited to the Velvet Hammer, 1977’s Call Me on Soozi Records. According to Carl, the album was only available through the mail and Danny actually spent a few bucks and sent away for a copy. The album was released with at least two different covers on Soozi and in 2001 was reissued in slightly different form on Soul-Tay-Shus as Andre Williams’s Whip Your Booty. Many of the tracks the Inner Drive had recorded appeared with new vocals and, in some case, new lyrics. Carl is philosophical about the experience.
Unfortunately, it was all pretty normal for the music biz at that time. It was like the Wild West; you had to watch your butt. People just got so used to it, they never thought about what they were doing. And I was going to go on in the music biz no matter what. Danny was more hurt than I was by what happened; music is music, but song lyrics are something else, especially when they come from the heart or relate to one’s personal experience. I’m talking mostly about the song “Happy,” a very beautiful piece that Dan wrote about his wife, but which ended up on the Velvet Hammer album.
After the recordings, the Inner Drive continued to perform in the Chicago area for a year or two with shifting personnel.
When we started doing gigs, we were two white guys and two blacks; at the time we cut “Party Man” we were one black guy and three whites; eventually we were five black guys and two whites, Dave Wollert and myself. But seven pieces was kind of unwieldy, and we were all feeling a little trapped in the band; so around September of 1975 we broke up. I made a permanent switch to keyboards and went on to play the blues—four years with Junior Wells, three with Son Seals, almost five with Jimmy Johnson (plus gigs with Bo Diddley, Little Milton, Otis Rush and many others).
In 1989 my youngest child came along, and I was going to have to take care of her. No more traveling. So I started booking my own band—and I reached back and got Dan Noland to help with the singing. As “Carl Snyder and the Boogie Woogie Flu, featuring Dan Noland” we became regulars at Buddy Guy’s Legends, and did a lot of gigs around Chicago as well as in the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin area. As before, we were a mixed band, with varying personnel; I had to be careful not to put either my black or my white musicians in jeopardy. And of course some or the suburban club owners would be reluctant to hire black musicians, while some of the blues clubs in the city wouldn’t want to hire white guys (it was mostly the white club owners who had these attitudes).
In 1996 I moved to Pennsylvania; for a while I kept booking the guys back in Chicago, traveling back and forth. I started my own label, Lost World Music. Our first release was a CD by Dan Noland, “Birdnest on the Ground,” which contains another version of “Party Man.” Both of Dan’s Lost World CDs got nice reviews in Living Blues Magazine. As for me, I currently live in Allentown, Pa. I work with a blues band in Philadelphia, and another in the New York/Jersey shore area. I do jazz gigs with a very fine guitarist, Frank DiBussolo; I also do a couple of radio shows, one on a college station, the other on a public station; and I write a column for a local blues publication. I still have an insatiable appetite for jazz, blues and R&B, and at 65, I feel truly blessed to have been able to live the life that I have.
Now we find “Party Man” on the Internet! Dan, who is 61, works as a copy editor for an ad agency in Chicago; I called him just a little while ago to tell him about this, and it totally made his day! We are both amazed that some of these things we did 40 years ago are connecting with people today and getting a little attention; truly, His eye is on the sparrow!
My thanks to Carl for being so generous in sharing his recollections. Interacting with him and learning the Inner Drive's story has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had since starting this blog!
I just got back from a week in the woods and turned on the computer to see lots of internettery about the Jay-Z buzz single, "D.O.A.". I'm a huge fan of Jay-Z, No I.D. (I like his Black Album a lot better than Jay-Z's) and shitting on tired trends, but think the song kind of sucks. Even so, I'm glad to see a lot of the gushing directed at No I.D. and the song he sampled, Janko Nilovic's "In the Space".
Janko Nilovic is a Montenegro-born and France-based pianist and composer who has cut dozens of LPs for sound library labels like MP 2000, Telemusic and others. As a genre, sound library music can get pretty dull, particularly when consumed in album form. This isn't surprising-- sound library music is basically designed to fade into background and usually packaged more for TV/ad producers than listeners, e.g., songs get broken up into 30-second cues.
Nilovic is one of the few sound library composers I've heard who usually stays interesting for the length of a song and the only one who's led me to sit still for a whole album, his 1974 masterpiece Rhythmes Contemporains. Rhythmes Contemporains is a big band jazz album that's funky, brassy, groovy and spooky all at once-- it reminds me a lot of both David Axelrod and Mike Westbrook. There are only 6 songs and these stretch way past the time and genre conventions of typical library tracks. It was reissued in 2000 on the Cosmic Sounds label and I recommend it highly.
At about the same time there were also a bunch of other reissues that contained many of the funk and rock-oriented songs he cut in his series of "Impressions" LPs for MP 2000 (Pop Impressions, Supra Pop Impressions, Psyc Impressions, Soul Impressions, Jazz Impressions, etc.). I don't think any of the reissues featured "In the Space", which No I.D. sampled from Psyc Impressions, or this track from Supra Pop Impressions, which is one of my favorites:
Mickey Murray released two pretty solid LPs, 1967's Shout Bamalama and 1970's People Are Together, which this is drawn from. The former has been reissued twice; the latter has not but oughtta be.
"Ace of Spades" is one of hundreds of songs credited to but not written by Deadric Malone a/k/a Don Robey, who was sort of the J. Prince of his day. Through Duke, Peacock, Backbeat and other labels Robey released mountains of great black music by the likes of Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, O.V. Wright, the Dixie Humminbirds and so on.
When I was relatively new to buying funk, the Nite-Liters' five records were among my favorites. Their brand of instrumental funk was mostly of the same ilk as the J.B.'s and early Kool & the Gang but a little more streamlined and, on tracks like "Damn", "Do the Granny" and especially "Afro-Strut", heavy. Along with a group of vocalists the Nite-Liters also made up the New Birth, which was sort of a soul version of Voltron.
Both groups were overseen by producer Harvey Fuqua, who began his career as a singer and songwriter with the Moonglows, the quartet that cut doo-wop classics like "10 Commandments of Love", "Sincerely", "Most of All", etc. When the Moonglows fell apart, Fuqua replaced the other members with a new line-up that featured Marvin Gaye, then brought Gaye to Detroit where Fuqua formed the Harvey and Tri-Phi labels, married Berry Gordy's sister and brought Gaye, Jr. Walker & the Spinners to Motown. Fuqua spent the remainder of the 1960s as a writer and producer at Motown before landing a production deal with RCA and putting together the Nite-Liters and the New Birth.
Fuqua had conceived of the New Birth as a revue composed of four separate acts recruited from his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The New Birth's first album describes the group's composition like so:
After the New Birth's second album, Fuqua jettisoned the Mint Juleps and the Now Sound, replacing them with three vocalists who had been recording for him at RCA as Love, Peace & Happiness: Ann Bogan and brothers Melvin & Leslie Wilson. That lineup cut a number of hits including "I Can Understand It", "It's Been a Long Time" and "Wild Flower" before breaking with Fuqua and hopping labels.
The soul revue is really an artifact of a different era, so it's cool to see it captured in the Soul episode-- vocalists come and go, so you see the Nite-Liters alone, then backing the New Birth, then the Moonglows, followed by a New Birth reprise. The highlights are great-- there's a blazing version of Bobby Womack's "I Can Understand it" (good lord can Leslie Wilson sing), a very clever "Do the Granny"/"Grandma's Hands" mash-up, and a rip-off of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You" that segues into this Harry Nilsson rip-off:
Although I'd enjoyed hearing it sampled in Rhymefest's "Tell a Story" and more recently in Lil Wayne's "La La La", I'm not sure I'd ever listened to it all the way through before today.
Oh, um, BTW, does anyone have a decent-res, unmarked version of "La La La"? All that I've heard sound terrible and have annoying drops to boot.
This is such a perfect end-of-the-week song. I love the its lazy feel, its lyric, its warbly synth and especially its bassline. It's a Chicago record but in my mind I always group it with Miami stuff that Clarence Reid & Willie Clarke were producing at the time, particularly Little Beaver's sublime Party Down album.
Ric Williams's Zodiac Records is mostly associated with Ruby Andrews, who cut two really strong LPs and about a dozen singles for the label. As far as I can tell this was the last release Zodiac put out.
New Orleans soul and funk legend Eddie Bo passed away Wednesday. If you're not familiar with songs like "Hook & Sling" and "Check Your Bucket" or the many great songs he wrote for other artists, grab this and this. Neither comp is the overview Bo deserves--his discography as an artist and producer is both broad and deep--but they're both decent starting points.
Here are two of my favorite songs he wrote for other artists:
As a bonus, here's Qbert murdering Bo's biggest hit, "Hook & Sling". The tape this is drawn from, Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik, is one of my favorite mixes.
