Records That Sound Nothing Like They Look

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  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I bought an album called "Country Funk" that was neither.



    Oh, that private press shit-fest? The one with the whiteys in the tree on the cover? Not even worth the dollar I spent on it.

    I think he's talking about the later-Byrds-ish LP on Polydor.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    WOOF TICKETS


    (finallly found an image)

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,418 Posts
    WOOF TICKETS


    (finallly found an image)

    funny thing is i can still see myself buying this record for some reason...

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    WOOF TICKETS


    (finallly found an image)

    funny thing is i can still see myself buying this record for some reason...

    Don't do it. It's really not "groovy," nor "soulful" and most definitely not "funky."

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,418 Posts
    WOOF TICKETS


    (finallly found an image)

    funny thing is i can still see myself buying this record for some reason...

    Don't do it. It's really not "groovy," nor "soulful" and most definitely not "funky."

    man, and thats funny too because they really put it out there!

    how old is this record? ive seen the silver-on-black atlantic label but never black on light green. is it a canadian pressing or something, or do i just never run into releases from this time period?

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,418 Posts

  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,418 Posts

    what DOES it sound like? ive never even heard of this...

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,418 Posts
    I think it's kind of up to the buyer to be able to make the
    distinction between what "funky" means pre-and-post "Cold Sweat"
    ... I mean, there are a ton of jazz records from the late 50's
    and early-mid 60's that have song titles like "Gettin' Funky" -
    if you buy a Milt Jackson LP from 1961 looking for breakbeat raer,
    you really have nobody to blame but yo' own damn self.

    ive seen 50's ragtime albums with "FUNKY" prominent on the cover.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts

    No lie. There should be repercussions for an album that falls so short of its cover potential.

  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts

    what DOES it sound like? ive never even heard of this...

    Sarasota Lounge


  • No lie. There should be repercussions for an album that falls so short of its cover potential.

    I've run up on this LP here and there and figured it was some kind of loungey, poor-man's-O.C. Smith kinda deal, just based on the way it looked. Like one of those LP's you'd expect to have "Little Green Apples," "Wichita Lineman," and/or "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" on it.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    But you know when dudes see it's on Capitol,
    they're all reading the producer's name like,
    "Artie Schrock? That's gotta be a pseudonym for
    David Axlerod, right??"

  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    But you know when dudes see it's on Capitol,
    they're all reading the producer's name like,
    "Artie Schrock? That's gotta be a pseudonym for
    David Axlerod, right??"

    I feel dumb cause I picked up a copy of this like 5-6 yuears ago sealed and flashed it to local dealer Mike Vague like I had come up on some craziness. I saw the capitol label and the early 70's date and told him, "I bet you Axe worked on this"

  • The Stroziers' Red Light on Mainstream!!!

    I can't find an online image, but I can give you a vivid description...it's from '74 or '75, it's on a label that was releasing a lot of instrumental jazz/funk at the time, the cover is a picture of a young black couple feeling each other up in the dark...you can just hear the sleazy sax and the funky clavinet in your mind as you see the cover and think "BRAEKS FOR DAYS."

    And it turns out to be this crude down-home blues record!!!

    Now, don't get me wrong, anybody who knows me knows that crude down-home blues is always welcome on my turntable. This is an EXCELLENT album for what it is, and I played it constantly around the time I bought it. But I guess Mainstream Records knew that since a family band covering Jimmy Reed songs wasn't gonna fly in the 1975 market, they HAD to sell it with a more, ah, "contemporary"-looking cover. It's not even funky blues like Johnny "Guitar" Watson, this is real-deal dark-muddy-bottom shit (and thank God for that!). The only reason I knew what I was getting was because I saw a review in an old issue of Living Blues!!

    Now these days, imagine the look on Charley Cratedigger's face when he gets it home and expects something that sounds like Charles Kynard or something but it winds up being THIS!!! Although I guess titles like "Swamp Walkin' Charlie" would be a tipoff...

    (yeah, I know I used three different variations of the name "Charles" in the last paragraph, so what!)

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    The Stroziers' Red Light on Mainstream!!!

    I can't find an online image, but I can give you a vivid description...it's from '74 or '75, it's on a label that was releasing a lot of instrumental jazz/funk at the time, the cover is a picture of a young black couple feeling each other up in the dark...you can just hear the sleazy sax and the funky clavinet in your mind as you see the cover and think "BRAEKS FOR DAYS."

    And it turns out to be this crude down-home blues record!!!

    Now, don't get me wrong, anybody who knows me knows that crude down-home blues is always welcome on my turntable. This is an EXCELLENT album for what it is, and I played it constantly around the time I bought it. But I guess Mainstream Records knew that since a family band covering Jimmy Reed songs wasn't gonna fly in the 1975 market, they HAD to sell it with a more, ah, "contemporary"-looking cover. It's not even funky blues like Johnny "Guitar" Watson, this is real-deal dark-muddy-bottom shit (and thank God for that!). The only reason I knew what I was getting was because I saw a review in an old issue of Living Blues!!

    Now these days, imagine the look on Charley Cratedigger's face when he gets it home and expects something that sounds like Charles Kynard or something but it winds up being THIS!!! Although I guess titles like "Swamp Walkin' Charlie" would be a tipoff...

    (yeah, I know I used three different variations of the name "Charles" in the last paragraph, so what!)

    LOL. It's this one isn't it


  • The Stroziers' Red Light on Mainstream!!!

    I can't find an online image, but I can give you a vivid description...it's from '74 or '75, it's on a label that was releasing a lot of instrumental jazz/funk at the time, the cover is a picture of a young black couple feeling each other up in the dark...you can just hear the sleazy sax and the funky clavinet in your mind as you see the cover and think "BRAEKS FOR DAYS."

    And it turns out to be this crude down-home blues record!!!

    Now, don't get me wrong, anybody who knows me knows that crude down-home blues is always welcome on my turntable. This is an EXCELLENT album for what it is, and I played it constantly around the time I bought it. But I guess Mainstream Records knew that since a family band covering Jimmy Reed songs wasn't gonna fly in the 1975 market, they HAD to sell it with a more, ah, "contemporary"-looking cover. It's not even funky blues like Johnny "Guitar" Watson, this is real-deal dark-muddy-bottom shit (and thank God for that!). The only reason I knew what I was getting was because I saw a review in an old issue of Living Blues!!

    Now these days, imagine the look on Charley Cratedigger's face when he gets it home and expects something that sounds like Charles Kynard or something but it winds up being THIS!!! Although I guess titles like "Swamp Walkin' Charlie" would be a tipoff...

    (yeah, I know I used three different variations of the name "Charles" in the last paragraph, so what!)

    LOL. It's this one isn't it


    Right, that's the one!

    A gutbucket blues rekkid that looks like Cecil Holmes' Soulful Sounds!!

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Soul On Ice, ca. 4/3/05:

    I would love to start a thread about 45's people bought where the title was like, "Funky Funking MotherFunker," on a usually good label, say, Sussex, and the artist's name was like, "Willie McSoul," and you get it home, hands shaking as you put it on the turntable, and it turns out to be bluegrass with kazoos!!



    "Funky Funking MotherFunker" by Willie McSoul & his Bluegrass Kazoos!!!

  • Soul On Ice, ca. 4/3/05:

    I would love to start a thread about 45's people bought where the title was like, "Funky Funking MotherFunker," on a usually good label, say, Sussex, and the artist's name was like, "Willie McSoul," and you get it home, hands shaking as you put it on the turntable, and it turns out to be bluegrass with kazoos!!

    Well, this is the thread!

    - I had mighty high hopes for "Mr. Penguin" by Lunar Funk on Bell...funk, it is...good, it is not. (Although I understand the followup, "Slip The Drummer One," is really good, judging by the needle swipe I heard at a friend's house.)

    - The Candymen's two albums on ABC...five mod-dressing guys on the cover, you expect it to be a lost Southern garage-rock classic...turns out its' limp pop-psych, and it's not even good for what it is!

    Add on...
    What about Jack McDuff's Sophisticated Funk, haha...Back when the Beastie Boys had Grand Royal magazine, they commented on this same album.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts

    What about Jack McDuff's Sophisticated Funk, haha...Back when the Beastie Boys had Grand Royal magazine, they commented on this same album.

    I like the version of "Electric Surboard" on there...

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    The Magnificent Men's three albums on Capitol are examples of records that don't sound like they look but are actually good! Of the three, I feel their self-titled debut and Live! are the best. If you're into slow-drag harmony-based soul from the sixties, do not sleep on these guys! However, if you didn't know, you might initially pass them up because they looked like this:

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I like the album that comes after that, on Mercury,
    Better Than a Ten-Cent Movie. There's a few great
    tracks on it, a couple of funkier/rockier tunes and a goofy
    version of "Lay Lady Lay" that I can't help but groove to.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I like the album that comes after that, on Mercury,
    Better Than a Ten-Cent Movie. There's a few great
    tracks on it, a couple of funkier/rockier tunes and a goofy
    version of "Lay Lady Lay" that I can't help but groove to.

    Yeah, that's their "psychedelic" album. All of a sudden they ditched the tuxedos, let their hair grow, and started coming on like Blood, Sweat & Tears. That LP has its' moments - I'm partial to "It's Still Good" and "Holly Go Softly," myself - but the first two Capitol elpees are the true essentials. There was a third Capitol LP that was kinda patchy - World Of Soul.

  • CosmophonicCosmophonic 1,172 Posts
    That "Psychedelic Soul-Jazz Guitar of (can't remember the name)", with the pink and yellow cover and bubble-letters. Good album, but quite standard compared to the rather full-on title.

    Sorry, couldn't find a pic, but I saw it in a finds thread not too long ago...

    - J

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    That "Psychedelic Soul-Jazz Guitar of (can't remember the name)", with the pink and yellow cover and bubble-letters. Good album, but quite standard compared to the rather full-on title.

    Sorry, couldn't find a pic, but I saw it in a finds thread not too long ago...

    - J

    It was by (Boogaloo) Joe Jones.

  • high_chigh_c 1,384 Posts
    Who's been deceived by this guy:



  • PonyPony 2,283 Posts
    Image Hosted by ImageShack.us


    Disco Heat.

  • DJ_NevilleCDJ_NevilleC 1,922 Posts
    Who's been deceived by this guy:



    I got a woody the first time I found it.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Who's been deceived by this guy:



    I see it's written by Vance & Pockriss, the same pop writers responsible for "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," so that tells me right there that it might have a cheese factor. But hey, hot pants were the style back in '71, and everybody had something to say about it - not just James Brown and Bobby Byrd.

    On a related note - "Rated X" by Zodiac on the Uni label. When I found this single, I had no idea what I was getting, but the title/group name/label looked promising. Could be a lost psych classic or a blazing funk banger or some weird cross between the two, right? I give it a spin and sure enough, it's some whitebread pop chorus harmonizing on some ragtimey tune about how they're too young to go to any current movies because of the new "X" rating. Sounded like Capitol Steps or something equally lame - I probably frisbeed my copy.

  • DJ_NevilleCDJ_NevilleC 1,922 Posts
    This was the first Clara Nunes record I ever grabbed (thrift store in DC, mid 90's). Only reason I grabbed it was because it was slow day and the record was from Brazil. Was expecting a bunch of ballads but instead its a very solid samba LP. I've since found better, harder samba LP's but this one got me started.





    Latin (and not necessarily Brazilian) LP's in general are very hard to gauge from covers as cheesiness reigns.







    Thank god alot of them have the rhythm listed next to the song titles so if you see too many "baladas" and "vals" you can bail.
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