What is Northern Soul?

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  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts


    Spoken like a student who's never discovered a record


    i don't know about that...i have plenty of secret squirrel joints but i have a hard time seeing how anybody "discovers" a record...try telling that to the people who played on the records!

    the only people who can lay claim on discoveries are producers who scour for talent and then get that talent into a studio...that's a discovery. but finding a rare record and taking some credit for that record just because you found a copy is silly.

  • Agent45Agent45 451 Posts
    OK fine. but promise me you won't track it down before i get to it.

    James & The Giant Peaches - Wormin' to the Core b/w Once a man, Forever a lady - Fuzz FR 001

    Try again. I have a 25 count box of them recovered from the studio before it was razed to make way for a new loft development. There's 24 in the box right now and I haven't bothered hyping this one yet because I'm still tracking down the other band members (the drummer put me onto this one after his aunt told me which parking lot he was living in).

  • BelsonBelson 880 Posts
    the only people who can lay claim on discoveries are producers who scour for talent and then get that talent into a studio...that's a discovery. but finding a rare record and taking some credit for that record just because you found a copy is silly.

    So a DJ finds a record that nobody else has been able to find and plays it at clubs, airs it out and gets some hype building around a record that has before now, not been heard - and who knows why that is - only one copy ever made, the artist got disgruntled with the whole money ripoff issue around the release of the record (undoubtedly) and kept a few boxes in the attic in the last 40 years etc etc.

    Breaking a record can lead to a revitalisation and maybe a little pay off for the artist. Play the record, get a live show together, get the artist to perform at all-nighters, and hey, maybe get them to record again like Timmion and Soulfire did with Herb Johnson.

    Whilst I don't think DJ's should really have a superstar status, a lot can be said from an individual finding and breaking a record....one could call it 'credit' even.

  • BreakSelfBreakSelf 2,925 Posts
    ...beaten to it.

  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts
    that's true belson, but those circumstances are quite rare wouldn't you say?

    i'm just responding to paycheck's jab at me...he knows better!

    we all have rare records, however we want to pat ourselves on the back for that is up to each of us.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts


    Spoken like a student who's never discovered a record


    i don't know about that...i have plenty of secret squirrel joints but i have a hard time seeing how anybody "discovers" a record...try telling that to the people who played on the records!

    the only people who can lay claim on discoveries are producers who scour for talent and then get that talent into a studio...that's a discovery. but finding a rare record and taking some credit for that record just because you found a copy is silly.

    So a record I find today, which is unknown to even the biggest northern collectors, DJs, dealers, etc. is not a "new discovery" then? Finding a record that even the artist themself doesn't remember/won't admit to, that's only rumoured to exist, isn't a "new discovery"? GTFOHWTB!

    We're not talking about discovering talent we're talking about discovering records. To compare the two is silly.

    But keep digging mr. billard, I will give you credit for being a bullheaded cunt, a cunt nonetheless and I suspect you're a right proper student when it comes to dealing records...


  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts
    wow...i'm a cunt now! get over yourself paycheck!

    i have a different viewpoint than a lot of you i guess...i love digging but i don't kid myself that i'm a vinyl archeologist doing the world a big favor by digging.

  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts

    But keep digging mr. billard, I will give you credit for being a bullheaded cunt, a cunt nonetheless and I suspect you're a right proper student when it comes to dealing records...


    adopting northern soul voice:

    self-righteous twat, piss off you punter!

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    I think "breaking" a record, whether it be in a club, on the radio or just to other collectors, is probably the correct term.

    Finding an "unknown" record and turning myself and others on to it is the very reason I spend so much time digging.

  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts
    i just can't believe people take themselves so seriously...and c'mon, are the northern soul artists who were "discovered" or "broken in the clubs" getting a share of the $1,000 sales of their records on ebay? if anything, maybe they get pennies on the northern cd compilation sales but i doubt it.

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    i just can't believe people take themselves so seriously...and c'mon, are the northern soul artists who were "discovered" or "broken in the clubs" getting a share of the $1,000 sales of their records on ebay? if anything, maybe they get pennies on the northern cd compilation sales but i doubt it.

    I don't understand why the argument has transformed into this...

    The only point, which you would not concede to, is this: new Northern discoveries are still made, records are still broken on that scene, the genre is not limited exclusively to what was played in the 70s.

  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts
    i'll concede that point...there are still people djing northern soul and they are breaking new records or calling them northern records on ebay and are profiting handsomely...good for them!

    doesn't change the fact that northern soul is still just a revisionist take on obscure soul music from the 60s (mainly, there are 70s tracks and maybe some 80s steppers grooves that are played at northern nights).

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    dude... jokes... don't get your knickers in a bunch..

    Seriously though, what everyone's saying is spot on, IMO there is a noble aspect to what we're all doing, and what the northern guys did years ago, this music was getting thrown in the trash! And whether you'll admit it or not, everything we do now is owed in a good part to what the soulies were doing 20, 30 years ago...

  • soulmarcosasoulmarcosa 4,296 Posts
    As I listen to the the Wigan Casino-spun 60s pop classic Samantha Jones "Surrounded by a Ray of Sunshine" 45 that I got in the mail today, I must note that Northern Soul threads on Soulstrut are usually very amusing.

    This one is no exception.

    Carry on, lads!

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I do still kinda wish those UK blokes hadn't
    shipped our soul 45's to Great Britain by
    the warehouse-full though

    Kinda threw a wrench in the works for future diggas
    like ourselves...

  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts
    i know it's all jokes, same here.

    i agree that it's noble to dig and find obscure music that slipped through the cracks of time. i've spent the past ten years of my life or more dedicated to doing just that. and whenever i make a mix i try to make it a point to use records that i feel are lost classics in some way or another. why put a known track on a mix?

    the northern soul scene is no doubt very influential on any kind of dj scene that followed...isolated towns where somebody starts a night devoted to a certain kind of music they like and then it turns into something bigger...pretty cool, talcum powder or not.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    I do still kinda wish those UK blokes hadn't
    shipped our soul 45's to Great Britain by
    the warehouse-full though

    Kinda threw a wrench in the works for future diggas
    like ourselves...

    The way I look at it, future diggers at worst would have not existed, at best would've found much more of these records had been tossed into landfills.

  • BelsonBelson 880 Posts
    dude... jokes... don't get your knickers in a bunch..

    Seriously though, what everyone's saying is spot on, IMO there is a noble aspect to what we're all doing, and what the northern guys did years ago, this music was getting thrown in the trash! And whether you'll admit it or not, everything we do now is owed in a good part to what the soulies were doing 20, 30 years ago...

    ....and I played at the 45 club in Hollywood on Saturday just gone, where one of the DJ's played a record, a new discovery if you will. In the crowd and introduced to everybody who had just gone bonkers dancing to it, was the artist with her husband/producer.....invited along by the DJ.

    A great moment for her and the crowd to actually thank her for her music. It still happens.

  • dude... jokes... don't get your knickers in a bunch..

    Seriously though, what everyone's saying is spot on, IMO there is a noble aspect to what we're all doing, and what the northern guys did years ago, this music was getting thrown in the trash! And whether you'll admit it or not, everything we do now is owed in a good part to what the soulies were doing 20, 30 years ago...

    My lady's friend came over a couple weeks back...I had the Cosmo Baker .45 caliber Funk 2 mix playing, and she was asking, "what is this? This is great!" She went on to tell me that it was important to find old, forgotten music and bring it back, then explained her recent Patsy Cline fixation...

    Suffice to say she would not have heard Ruby Andrews had she not come over that day. Now, she loves her. And, there is something noble in that. I mean, that nobility and a buck won't get you a Starbucks, but there is an archeological aspect to all of this that you shouldn't overlook.

    There is also wang measuring, so don't think I'm unaware of that side of it...

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I do still kinda wish those UK blokes hadn't
    shipped our soul 45's to Great Britain by
    the warehouse-full though

    Kinda threw a wrench in the works for future diggas
    like ourselves...

    The way I look at it, future diggers at worst would have not existed, at best would've found much more of these records had been tossed into landfills.

    I know what you're saying, and there is truth to it, but I can't tell
    you how many record store owners also tell stories of how in the mid-70's
    through the 80's guys came over from England and bought out their
    entire soul 45 stock. Of course, that's their right and it's not
    my fault they were "digging" while I was still in grade school, but
    it is a bit if a bummer to think about sometimes.

    As far as the warehouses, yes, you're probably right - if they hadn't
    taken them they may have well been destroyed by now and NOBODY would
    have them.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    I've talked to some dealers who have a huge chip on their shoulder from those days... and while I understand that it can be a pretty bitter pill to swallow there was nothing preventing these guys from going over to the UK and seeing the scene themselves...

    If you were a record seller and UK guys were buying up your entire soul section wouldn't you start to wonder?


  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,905 Posts
    Makes me think some times, why is it that Brits in general, appreciate music so much more than anywhere else in the world.

    Mind you, with that you get brit pop and all that rubbish. But, I'm not even joking. The average music buyer/enthusiast has 10 times the amount of knowledge/soul than here in North America.

    It's really a beautiful thing to experience.

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    I've talked to some dealers who have a huge chip on their shoulder from those days... and while I understand that it can be a pretty bitter pill to swallow there was nothing preventing these guys from going over to the UK and seeing the scene themselves...

    If you were a record seller and UK guys were buying up your entire soul section wouldn't you start to wonder?


    Conversely, I encountered a longtime Japanese dealer recently who couldn't believe that American shopowners didn't want to sell him their old soul/funk records for cheap anymore. I told him Americans are collecting them now, and that sellers are more aware of their worth. He still didn't understand

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    Can't hate the collectros for buying it up for cheap, can't hate the dealers for knowing what it's worth...


    You can hate the dealers that think highest popsike price = worth, however...




  • crazypoprockcrazypoprock 1,037 Posts
    i guess sometimes you need distance to really appreciate something, that distance being the atlantic ocean in this case...it's just an extension of the same fetish for american rhythm and blues that inspired the stones and the beatles.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    My lady's friend came over a couple weeks back...I had the Cosmo Baker .45 caliber Funk 2 mix playing, and she was asking, "what is this? This is great!" She went on to tell me that it was important to find old, forgotten music and bring it back, then explained her recent Patsy Cline fixation...

    Patsy Cline was never forgotten or neglected, and her albums have always been in the catalog (she was a superstar in her day)...but I still understand her point.

  • My lady's friend came over a couple weeks back...I had the Cosmo Baker .45 caliber Funk 2 mix playing, and she was asking, "what is this? This is great!" She went on to tell me that it was important to find old, forgotten music and bring it back, then explained her recent Patsy Cline fixation...

    Patsy Cline was never forgotten or neglected, and her albums have always been in the catalog (she was a superstar in her day)...but I still understand her point.

    Keep in mind that the perception of "forgotten or neglected" varies wildly between folks like us, and "civilians". Most of the stuff that would elicit jaded yawns around here would make some folks hair stand on end...
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