talk About Backbeat,Okeh,DIAL 45s
kala
3,361 Posts
obviuosly....backbeat-joe hinton okeh-major lancedial-joe texokeh is such an old label i still freak out when i see that purple label on 78swhat else is good on dial and backbeat?
Comments
I still freak out that CBS/Sony briefly reactivated OKeh in 1994 and had G. Love & Special Sauce as one of the artists.
Backbeat gave us (LIttle) Carl Carlton, Roy Head, O.V. Wright, Jeanette Williams (worth finding: "I Can Feel A Heartbreak" b/w "Hound Dog"), and if you're into rockabilly, the Casuals ("well, she's so tuuuuufff...that's why I love her!") and Ronnie Dawson. They also released a compilation of Big Mama Thornton sides that were originally released on Backbeat's sister label Peacock, and while we're at it I'd just as soon celebrate the whole Duke/Peacock/Backbeat/Songbird family.
New Orleans R&B singer (and drag queen) Bobby Marchan had some excellent sides on Dial, including "Get Down With It" and "Ain't Nothing Wrong With Whitey." Look out for Annette Snell and Paul Kelly's records as well. And for the garage heads in the house...the Daybreakers (featuring future novelist Max Allen Collins) and the Allman Joys (with Gregg & Duane Allman).
...and Walter Jackson, and Billy Butler, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Big Maybelle, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson and/or Larry Williams, and the Vibrations, and the Artistics, and Dr. Feelgood & the Interns, plus much more...Major Lance wasn't their only meal ticket.
Yeah, Get Down With It was the first thing to jump to mind there. I had no idea dude was a drag queen. Not on Dial, but I Wanna Bump With the Big Fat Woman is also quite enjoyable by Marchan. Some later discofied stuff on Mercury.
And I've seen a few of those G Love Okeh 10"s around.
Major Lance and Walter Jackson both had tracks written or produced by Curtis Mayfield on Okeh. Who else? Does anyone have the comprehensive Curtisology guide to Okeh? I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE. I dream about it. And then I wake up crying because I don't have it.
Ok, Okeh.
JRoot
OKeh released some killer Northern tracks in the late 60s - like the heart-stopping "Let My Heart And Soul Be Free" by the Tan Geers; The label shouldn't be mentally restricted to a mere 50s/early 60s R&B outfit.
OKeh really had two distinct successful periods - R&B in the 50s with cats like Hawkins and Little Joe and the Thrillers and then after 1962 when Curtis Mayfield (main songwriter/associate producer for the label) and Carl Davis (A&R/main producer) really took the Chicago Sound to new heights. The label shut down in 1970, but still had some underrated, uncharting gems at that late period when Columbia allowed them to.
Robert Pruter's Chicago Soul touches on OKeh/Carl Davis, and there's also a lengthy piece about the history of the OKeh record label in Record Finder that deals strictly with the pre-Davis/Mayfield era (the author's name escapes me for the moment). The gold-on-purple label is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.
According to Dr. John, Marchan once showed up to do vocals on a Huey Smith & the Clowns session, outfitted as a "woman" from head to toe...the producer was the only person there who didn't know "she" was a he, and when he said something flirtatious to Marchan, the whole room just fell apart laughing.
I forget the title/label, but there's an entire CD compilation of Dial soul releases.
And some earlier New Orleans R&B on the Fire/Fury label, where he had his big hit "There's Something On Your Mind - Part 2." (It's Part 2 you wanna hear, since it's got this bizarre monologue running through it...he also turned up on Volt and Gamble later on.)
Yeah, when OKeh first relaunched, they issued 10" vinyl singles on Love, Keb Mo, Popa Chubby, and Little Wolf (this avant-garde blues act with former Sugarhill guitarist Doug Wimbish)...even a decade later, those things turn up in the used cheap bins so often that I've seen people wonder aloud if they found a rare OKeh 78 for a steal.
Is that good or bad? ("Watts Breakaway" later turned up on one of Otis' Epic albums.)
Supposedly in the vaults: Johnny "Guitar" Watson live with Taj Mahal at the Fillmore, meant to come out on OKeh but somehow didn't...
I have this 1982 2-record compilation on Epic called OKeh Soul, which appears to be all written and/or produced by Curtis...besides Lance and Jackson, there's also the Opals, Artistics, Vibrations, and Billy Butler.
I think another Curtis/OKeh comp has come out on CD since then.
It doesn't tell you which tracks Curtis was involved with, but I believe there are OKeh discogs on the Soulful Kinda Music (45's) and Both Sides Now (LP's) sites.
Oh, one more OKeh great that I gotta mention (although I don't think he worked with Curtis): Ted Taylor.
I dig it. Funky and upbeat. Wish the drum break was longer.
I always thought it was weird that on Carl Carlton's You Can't Stop A Man In Love LP, some of the songs are so old that his voice changed since he recorded them. Just like on Stevie Wonder's Uptight album, some song he recorded as a squeaky-voiced kid will be followed up by another track sung with a deeper timbre. I know albums were probably a low priority with Duke/Peacock/Backbeat, but even so...did the label seriously think no one would notice?
It's funny, listening to Bobby Marchan after I first
read about how he would perform in drag - it made his
songs actually make much more sense.
One of his best-known (and better) songs, "Get Down With It,"
has a spoken/shouted intro where he says something about
"Let your hair down ... and if you can't let it down then,
take it off!" this last part sung in a high falsetto, an obvious
reference to a wig once you know the deal, he also says later to
"get your boots on" which may be more of a stretch, but boots
are a big part of crossdressing fashion as well. I find it
funny and somewhat fitting that a cover of this song was the
breakthrough hit for SLADE, seeing how gender bending was such
a trademark of the glam scene.
Looks like his stage persona was based on Etta James
Okeh: Ted Taylor "(Love is like a)Rambilin' Rose"
Ted Taylor "you give me nothing to go on"
Triumphs "Comin' to your rescue"
Big Maybelle "Ive Got a Feeling"
Little Richard "I Dont Want to Discuss it"
Johnny Watson/Larry Williams "Too late"
Dial: Bobby Marchan "I Just Want What Belongs to Me"(his best IMO, just raw-ass screamin' soul, trumps his funk and disco sides and even his Stax sides)
Clarence Reid "Give Me a Try" (gives "Masterpiece" a run for its money)
Joe Tex "papa was too"
Bacbeat: OV Wright "Working your game"
That Little Carl Carlton thats a killer that I cant remember the name of
Oh, I'm sorry - not being a crossdresser myself,
I'll admit my knowledge is a little thin ... if
a real man in women's clothing such as yourself
could set the record straight, I'd be ever grateful.
Yes! That's a great one, quite possibly his best.
I have one garage 45 on Dial that's pretty solid,
"I Ain't Dead Yet" by the What-Nots - the same song
as "Don't Send Me No Flowers" by fellow Memphis garage
act the Breakers, who released their (more punk) version
on one of the Amy/Mala/Bell labels - I want to say Amy but
I can't be sure without digging it out. The What-Nots' version
is a bit more frat rock, with saxophone and a rave-up sound,
compared to the raw garage of the Breakers, but still a great 45.
Fave Okeh side...Roy Thompson 'Sookie Sookie'
Also, this may be splitting hairs but I believe that Bobby Marchan's career as a female impersonator was separate from his career as a singer, i.e. he didn't perform exclusively in drag.
Well, as singer of Huey Smith's Clowns, he did not
perform in drag, and he may have done some performing
under his own name without the dress, but I get the impression
the drag routine was a big part of his act and was used throughout
the 60's - sort of what I was getting at with the lyrics to
"Get Down With It" - some of his singles seem like they could be
cleaned-up versions of raunchier songs he would perform in his act.
you're probably thinking of this:
it doesn't have everything, in fact it's missing one of my favorites, Major Lance- Rhythm, but it is highly recommended.
That album is shockingly good all the way through. I used to see this in cutout bins and used stores all over the place. It's too bad ABC didn't do any more full-scale reissues of the Duke catalog like this one (even though the liner notes are damn near illiterate!).
I was.[/b]
it doesn't have everything, in fact it's missing one of my favorites, Major Lance- Rhythm,
Shoot, you can just get a Major Lance best-of for that.[/b]
but it is highly recommended.
Personally I find Richard's OKeh recordings a bit boring, but there's no arguing with this one - he NAILED it that time.
I hear that. After I read that, I broke out the 45, and yeah - I definitely heard some things differently than I had before. Still, the power of suggestion is mighty.
So, having just returned home from work and now sipping on a tasty beverage, I submit for your consideration my transcription of said tune:
I want everybody to let their hair down
If you don???t feel like letting it down, take it off!
Everything???s alright
Get down a-with it
Gonna do the jerk
I say come on baby
Let me see you really go to work
We got a brand new dance
But it ain???t hard to do
Hump your back like the monkey
Do a little bit of the fruit
Get yourself together
Work your arms up and down
Get down with it
Now let me see you really go to town
I see a little girl in the corner
She ain???t doing it right
Hold it!
And when I say hold it I mean hold it
Snap your fingers
Snap your fingers
Stomp your feet
Get that beat
Everybody clap your hands
Clap your hands
Shake all over now
Clap your hands
Now add a little bit of the twist
And a little bit of the slide
Come on now swim a little bit baby
Feel it real down deep inside
Now hold it!
And when I say hold it I mean hold it
Ow!
Get down with it
Get down with it
Baby don???t you try and quit it
Get yourself together
Get down baby
Let me see you shake a tailfeather
Say baby come on[/b]
The boots thing must be another song, I guess?
I didn't have my 45 at hand, so I got some lyrics off
the web - I think they were from the Slade version, which
makes sense in a way also - still, your transcibed lyrics
still go along with the point I was trying to make. Nothing
overt, but like I said, you can picture the same song being
raunched-up for a stage routine involving drag.
Oh, hell yeah. To be honest, when I listened to it again, the first thing that sprang to mind was that he was talking about a simulated handjob. And then some.
Plus, the line about humping your back like a monkey and doing the fruit isn't exactly subtle.
I don't think he's saying "do the FRUIT," I believe it's "do the FRUG" (popular 60's dance).
And I had a debate about Slade's "Get Down & Get With It" vs. Bobby Marchan's "Get Down With It" on a garage-rock e-group recently. I don't feel like going back through the collection to compare the writer's credits, but both records sound like entirely different songs to me. And that bit about the "boots" was a spoken aside in the Slade record, I don't recall that being a part of either Slade or Marchan's songs.
Well, the Slade song is definitely a cover of the Marchan
song - but the funny thing is, they give writing credit to
themselves, split with Little Richard, who had a cover of the
Marchan track, too!
... and the line about "boots" is absolutely in the middle of
the Slade song.