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The Soul Suspects (from the poor part of town)

pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
edited November 2005 in Strut Central
God damn, I've been sitting up here on the last work day before Thanksgiving, listening to my iTunes with the Soul Suspects'"Handle It" on permanent repeat. I must have been playing this five or six times in a row, this track is so tight. This is one of those classic "talking" instrumentals like Alvin Cash & the Crawlers'"Twine Time," or King Curtis & the Kingpins'"Memphis Soul Stew" - while the musicians are doing their thing, the bass player is NARRATING the damn thing. And it's got the hippest spoken intro this side of Archie Bell & the Drells'"Tighten Up": "What hap'nin, everybody? We from the poor part of town...and our group, (he stammers a little on the band name) S-Soul Suspects, we got a new and mellow sound..." The drummer takes a solo, then the two guitarists have their say - one through a wah-wah, the other through what sounds like a Leslie speaker. Then the bassist gives himself a taste, and then the song just reaches a straight-up fever pitch. This band sounds like the black funk equivalent of all those white garage-rock bands of the sixties - the guy doing the voiceovers sounds really young (as in high-school age), and I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of their equipment was made by Vox. Two minutes and thirty-five seconds of stone soul goodness.

Anybody have any info on these guys - where they were from, what years were they together, how was the flipside, and if they had any other singles? (They COULDN'T have made an album, or did they?) I have this song on a bootleg funk CD called The Get It!.

***not interested in any breakbeat info, thanx!!! THERE YOU GO - ALRIGHT, GOOD GOD![/b]***

  Comments

  • jinx74jinx74 2,287 Posts
    shouldnt be too hard for you to find... its on Black Prince and our own PRo (josh b) wrote this:

    Black Prince BP 319. Produced by Andre Williams and Karl Tarleton, a Jo Jo Prod. Inc. Production. Written by the Corporation. After a minute or so into the tune there is a fast and tough syncopated drum break, and then the band comes back in one by one, every 4 bars. Great dancefloor buildup! June Sixteen and Shelby Singleton BMI. Backed with a song called "Funky Drop"...kinda has a "Tighten Up" sounding riff in it... Another great funk tune distributed out of Nashville! June Sixteen/Shelby Singleton BMI.

  • JazzsuckaJazzsucka 720 Posts
    A very cheap and under-rated funk record. The mix could be a tiny bit better, it has that grimy sound that doesn't work on every dance floor, but it's still a top 45. When buying this, don't get the promo but the official pressing that has "Funky Drop" on the b-side, both should be fairly easy to find.

  • DCarfagnaDCarfagna 983 Posts

    JP, you'll be happy to know that the Soul Suspects were from Chicago.
    Anytime you see JoJo Productions, it's usually Chicago.
    The group has one other record:

    The Suspects "Here I Am/ That???s How I Feel" (Windy City 45126) 1975
  • jinx74jinx74 2,287 Posts
    i think you know too much now dante. all this music info is taking over your mental.

    i think that doctors with scalpels will one day take apart your brain and use it as a music guide for online researchers
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts


    JP, you'll be happy to know that the Soul Suspects were from Chicago.

    Anytime you see JoJo Productions, it's usually Chicago.

    The group has one other record:



    The Suspects "Here I Am/ That???s How I Feel" (Windy City 45126) 1975




    Wow. The information you miss when the songs appear on an unannotated bootleg. An Andre Williams production? On a Shelby Singleton label? Hell, that's two great hucksters together! Seriously, I gotta ask Andre about that next time I see him. Thanks, y'all.
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