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tell us all about SKULL SNAPS

youngEINSTEINyoungEINSTEIN 2,443 Posts
edited June 2005 in Music Talk
we all know "it's a new day" but who was the skull snaps??? are they a white group trying to cash in on blood, sweat and tears fame??are they a black group with a political message?fill me in. .stein. . .
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  • mcdeemcdee 871 Posts
    personal its a new day favourites:

    gangstarr - take it personal
    diamond d - sally got a one track mind
    pharcyde - passin me by

    how many potentially good tracks have the break ruined in recent time? i always want to throw up whenever i hear it used. i guess its mainly because all these newjacks who sample it cant chop proper... or better yet, did anyone use it recently with good results?

    sorry i dont know anything about the band!
  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    pharcyde - passin me by

    I have a stupid-ass question! i am not one that follows breaks and samples and what not, but...was the intro of that song sampled from a Jimi Hendrix record?? just wondering.
  • youngEINSTEINyoungEINSTEIN 2,443 Posts
    yes.
  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    we all know "it's a new day" but who was the skull snaps???

    are they a white group trying to cash in on blood, sweat and tears fame??

    are they a black group with a political message?

    fill me in. .stein. . .



    Wow stein thats a really good question and I can't beleive that in my 3 years on this site and the countless mentions of this group no one has really looked into them.



    I wish I knew something about them but I don't have a copy of their album to even take a look at (I'm guessing theres no picture of the group on the back though)



    I'm curious to see how this comes out
  • mcdeemcdee 871 Posts
    yeah im curious aswell, that record is so much more than just a break! i know theres a swedish funk band playing skull snaps covers a plenty. wish i could remember their name.
  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    yes.

    cool. i thought it sounded familiar.
  • youngEINSTEINyoungEINSTEIN 2,443 Posts
    yeah. happy bday guzzo. um. they have no pics on the record cover. so that makes it alot more mysterious cause' it looks like a heavy metal cover. but to me the singer sounds like a white dude. stein. . .
  • youngEINSTEINyoungEINSTEIN 2,443 Posts
    the breaks is fantastic. but. .the record on a whole is 100% imo. stein.
  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    i'd agree. i have a 90s Japanese repress. but any how, i always thought that was a black dude singing.
  • TabaskoTabasko 1,357 Posts
    pharcyde - passin me by

    I have a stupid-ass question! i am not one that follows breaks and samples and what not, but...was the intro of that song sampled from a Jimi Hendrix record?? just wondering.

    you mean that organ-intro? Thats not jimi, thats Quincy Jones.
  • dayday 9,612 Posts
    He means the backwards guitar that is most definitley Hendrix.

    That group is not white, without a doubt.


    Alcohol is a hell of a drug
  • TabaskoTabasko 1,357 Posts
    aaah, I see.
    sorry about that.
  • Mr_Lee_PHDMr_Lee_PHD 2,042 Posts
    He means the backwards guitar that is most definitley Hendrix.

    Its the intro to Are You Experienced.

    I know thats an easy one for most, but I thought I'd go for it since nobody else has.
  • lambertlambert 1,166 Posts
    Swiped this slice of knowledge from bluebeat.com
    Did anyone know GSF was owned by Lloyd Price?!

    The Diplomats were a trio from Washington, D.C., whose early origins goes back to 1958 and a quintet named Tiny Tim & the Hits. Formed by William Collier, Thomas Price, Lionel Brown, Orlester Smith, and Howard "Timothy" Wilson, the group had a pair of singles on Roulette: "Wedding Bells" and "Golden Moments."

    Nearly five years passed before Collier resurfaced with Samuel Culley and Ervan Waters as the Diplomats on Arock Records. The tight-harmony trio remake of "Unchained Melody" was the first single, and they got their foot halfway through the door with their second single, "Here's a Heart" (October 1963). A fourth Arock single, however, took them back to square one. On to Wand Records in 1965 for two singles that also failed to go, before a one-off on Minit Records in 1966, "Honest to Goodness." Whether for contractual reasons or simply change, the trio's next single, "Right or Wrong," (on Fat Back), was credited to the Four Puzzles (Thomas Price from the Tiny Tim & the Hitmaker's days had come onboard). A second Fat Back recording, "My Sweet Baby," was released in February 1968 and credited simply to Puzzles after Collier left.

    Constantly changing names, the trio's first (of six) Dynamo singles, "Hard to Get," was credited to Sam, Erv & Tom. For the next five singles, including Herb Rooney's (L.A. Reid's father) "I Can Give You Love," they were the Diplomats again. It made no difference what they called themselves, as nothing was clicking on a national level. During their Dynamo stay, they accompanied (uncredited) Tony Drake on their singers Musicor and 3rd World Records' recordings.

    In 1973, with George Kerr handling the productions, the Diplomats became the Skull Snaps who many think were a funk band. Newcomer George Bragg joined Culley and Waters for their recordings on Lloyd Price's GSF label. GSF issued four singles and a much sought-after album. Another Skull Snaps' recording on Grill Records, "Ain't That Lovin' You," is scarcer than the GSF tracks. After one last 45 ("Come Back") appeared on two labels, New Moon and Right On, they disappeared. (Or they recorded under another name and nobody has caught on yet.) ~ Andrew Hamilton, All Music Guide
  • threetwosixthreetwosix 270 Posts
    What was the first nonfriend-related session you worked on at Venture Sound Studios?

    (Producer) Ed Stasium: "I guess it was a band from Newark, N.J., called the Skull Snaps. The recording of that band came out years later, and when I was meeting with Vernon Reid about producing the first Living Colour record, the mention of the Skull Snaps and that I recorded the first album clinched the deal for me. It was really bizarre. He learned how to play guitar by listening to that record."
  • PEKPEK 735 Posts

    (Producer) Ed Stasium:

    Who was behind the boards for a lot of the Smithereens output as well...
  • pknypkny 549 Posts


    (Producer) Ed Stasium:



    Who was behind the boards for a lot of the Smithereens output as well...



    As well as a gang of Ramones records, check his credits:



    I only have the Skull Snaps on CD reissue, are there any production credits listed on the OG?
  • peacefulrotationpeacefulrotation 3,481 Posts
    Yeah, before younger cats discovered the break the Skull Snaps was mainly sought after for the sweet soul songs/ballads...as usual Japan seemed to be way ahead of the game on that record.

    I want some George KErr solo records dammit!
  • Mongo_SladeMongo_Slade 999 Posts
    I think the first scene to catch on to the Skullsnaps record was actually Northern soul guys who were playing it when it came out. In fact, I recall reading somewhere that there was a contemporaneous bootleg on 45 of one of the LP cuts ("I'm Your Pimp"?)-- according to legend, the Northern guys couldn't bring themselves to spin an LP.

    As for rap dudes being up on it, people jock Stezo/Dooley O for being the first to sample the Skullsnaps, but I think it was known by b-boys long before that-- if memory serves, it was mentioned along with other breaks in Steven Hager's hip hop book, which came out in like 1983/1984.

    With Kerr, I really like his production for others but the artist LPs I've heard have never grabbed me. I can't front on the instrumental flip to his "3 Minutes 2" single, though.
  • PEKPEK 735 Posts
    if memory serves, it was mentioned along with other breaks in Steven Hager's hip hop book, which came out in like 1983/1984.

    For what it's worth, Steven (former High Times editor-in-chief) Hager's book on St. Martin's Press from '84 commands around $ 500.00 for a copy - long out-of-print - and certifiable classic read - 1 of the 3 tomes that Jeff (Zen) Chang and I agreed upon - the others bein' Ahearn's 'Yes, Yes, Y'all' and David Toop's 'The Rap Attack'...

    Copped my OG copy back in '84... And it's essential for the examination of the Puerto Rican contingent in keepin' the flavor alive when a lot of the black crowd had gravitated towards disco in the mid to late '70s...
  • peacefulrotationpeacefulrotation 3,481 Posts
    I think the first scene to catch on to the Skullsnaps record was actually Northern soul guys who were playing it when it came out. In fact, I recall reading somewhere that there was a contemporaneous bootleg on 45 of one of the LP cuts ("I'm Your Pimp"?)-- according to legend, the Northern guys couldn't bring themselves to spin an LP.



    As for rap dudes being up on it, people jock Stezo/Dooley O for being the first to sample the Skullsnaps, but I think it was known by b-boys long before that-- if memory serves, it was mentioned along with other breaks in Steven Hager's hip hop book, which came out in like 1983/1984.



    With Kerr, I really like his production for others but the artist LPs I've heard have never grabbed me. I can't front on the instrumental flip to his "3 Minutes 2" single, though.



    Ahh, that might explain why John Anderson was grabbing those back then, I wonder if they sold for cheap. A friend told me that lp was going for 30-40 bucks in Japan in the late 70's, just for the sweet stuff...I don't really dig the ballads on there myself.



    I haven't had the luck of grabbing any Kerr lp's...but his vocal tune on the "New Jersey Hits" lp(All Platinum) kills me. Might have been a single too.

  • SexyBNyceSexyBNyce 371 Posts
    In the early/mid 60s the trio that became skull snaps was known as the Diplomats who recorded on Arock and Dynamo. Really excellent soul harmony stuff.
  • Mongo_SladeMongo_Slade 999 Posts

    I haven't had the luck of grabbing any Kerr lp's...but his vocal tune on the "New Jersey Hits" lp(All Platinum) kills me. Might have been a single too.

    Don't know that one. I'll have to check for it.

    As the Diplomats, they had one really rare funk single, "She's the One" on 3rd World. According to the Soulfulkindamusic site (http://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/diplomats.htm), they also recorded as the Puzzles and as All Dyrections. The Four Puzzles-- probably the same personnel-- had a really great soul single on Bill Curtis' Fatback label called "Especially for You Baby."
  • edubedub 715 Posts
    May I say that this thread has been one of the most interesting (read: informative) I have read on the Strut in a while...

    carry on.

  • DJPrestigeDJPrestige 1,710 Posts
    i'll agree.
  • Mongo_SladeMongo_Slade 999 Posts
    May I say that this thread has been one of the most interesting (read: informative) I have read on the Strut in a while...

    carry on.


    Okay, one more weird factoid. In the early 90s, Luv 'n' Haight put out a couple bootleg breakbeat records called "Bulldog Breaks," one of which featured an "It's a New Day" loop. Dan Prothero, the guy who made the breakbeats and has more recently run a label called Fog City Records (putting out shit by Galactic and the like), told me he later met the Skullsnaps engineer and tried to get him to explain how he got the "It's a New Day" drum sound. The engineer responded that he had no idea because it was the first session he'd ever done and he'd gotten the sound totally by accident.
  • peacefulrotationpeacefulrotation 3,481 Posts

    Although the webpage design is a bit grating...this site's well researched list of discographies is excellent!
    Thanks for the link.
  • Mongo_SladeMongo_Slade 999 Posts

    Although the webpage design is a bit grating...this site's well researched list of discographies is excellent!
    Thanks for the link.

    No doubt. They seem to be kind of spotty where funk stuff is concerned-- for example, they have the name of the All Dyrections b-side wrong, they omit the "It's a New Day" 45, etc., but they do have a lot of useful information.
  • ovulationistovulationist 290 Posts
    May I say that this thread has been one of the most interesting (read: informative) I have read on the Strut in a while...

    carry on.


    Undoubtebly.....BTW, this John Anderson you speak of, he is English?? Maybe, operates a radio station or radio show dedicated to Northern and the like??
  • anthonypearsonanthonypearson 2,442 Posts
    he is english and was exporting hundreds of copies of is it because i'm black and kashmere stage band and selling them for eight pounds when you were 5 years old and playing with yer leggo logs. rock on.
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