Early Soul/Funk Song Memories
Big_Stacks
"I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
Hey Strutters,
I was thinking about soul/funk records that were my joints as a little kid that still love today. I used to hear this first joint as a little tyke back in Aberdeen, MD. It would be always blaring through the window of a neighbor's house while I played outside:
Once we returned home, I had pop take me to the record store to buy the 45. I still have both records to this very day. So, what are your early soul/funk song memories from childhood? Please add on.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
I was thinking about soul/funk records that were my joints as a little kid that still love today. I used to hear this first joint as a little tyke back in Aberdeen, MD. It would be always blaring through the window of a neighbor's house while I played outside:
Once we returned home, I had pop take me to the record store to buy the 45. I still have both records to this very day. So, what are your early soul/funk song memories from childhood? Please add on.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Comments
Had some classics:
Marvin Gaye (1968): "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (extended version) (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong) ??? 5:03
The Temptations (1965): "My Girl" (Smokey Robinson, Ronald White) ??? 2:55
The Miracles (1965): "The Tracks of My Tears" (Robinson, Warren Moore, Marvin Tarplin) ??? 2:53
Aretha Franklin (1968): "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Jerry Wexler) ??? 2:41
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles (1967): "I Second That Emotion" (Robinson, Al Clevland) ??? 2:46
As a kid I'd demand this tape be played on road trips over and over. My folks had a Zep/hendrix/Joplin/Dylan/Doors/Band/Young type of collection, soul and funk did not feature.
she was also very fond of billie holiday, but i wouldn't class that as soul...
after that, i remember hearing Alton Ellis' version of My Girl and loving it. then i discovered the original and the Temps became my favorite male group. then, when i started to get into 60s soul (and other sounds from the era) i used to listen the 60s programming in the oldies station every weekday at 9PM. eventually, My Girl and other Motown and soul hits would get played...
That said, here are a few memories that stand out:
1) "Mr. Big Stuff," Jean Knight/"Want Ads," Honey Cone, 1971
2) "Walking In The Rain With The One I Love," Love Unlimited/"Day Dreaming," Aretha Franklin, 1972
3) "Stormy Monday," Latimore/"Cheaper To Keep Her," Johnnie Taylor, 1973
The significance is that both songs in each grouping were out around the same time and reminded me of each other. Still associate these songs together to this day. (3) are both "old man" blues songs that sounded really distinct from everything else on the soul charts at that time. (2) both deal with women fantasizing about their boyfriends in the middle of the day. (1) is a little trickier...neither "Mr. Big Stuff" nor "Want Ads" appear to have much in common, besides complaining about no-good men, but the combination of female sass and the fact that they were hits around the same time always linked them together to me.
It was all about Mardi Gras music where I come from. And Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and the Meters were definitely the Big 3. As far back as I could remember, we'd hear these artists everywhere, like elevator music to some.
Then there were the songs from other places that managed to fit right in with the NOLA parade music, like:
Grew up on this stuff the same way I grew up on gumbo and red beans and rice.
I'd have had to rebel against the norm and now be into doom metal or some such.
As it was, familial taste ran to Mud, Showaddywaddy, the Shadows.
Discovering soul and jazz and funk was of my own doing, and all the sweeter for it.
If the shit is good, you don't have to "rebel against the norm" in the first place!
(sez the man who actually likes the Shadows in addition to funk and soul, but that's another story)
...
Children that listened to top-40 songs or even classical and jazz music often reported little or no criminal behavior at 16. But this was different with kids that preferred non-mainstream music, like heavy-metal, punk, hiphop, gothic, techno or hard-house. They reported significantly more minor offenses at a later age, even when taken into account personality and social-economic differences.
...
http://www.united-academics.org/magazine/31884/alternative-music-taste-in-teens-predicts-criminal-behavior/
b/w how's jazz not alternative when you're 12?
b/b/w we're all a bunch of criminals