that album is in the trilogy of Bizarre Memphis Rock Albums along with James Luther Dickinson's Dixie Fried
I played this album on my radio show today, and called it something like "a twisted love letter to Memphis" ... a very interesting, if not entirely consistent, album.
Which album? Prine or Dickinson?
Dickinson. He's a very interesting character.
The Moloch was played up in some book I read, I can't even remember the title/author, but it made me really want to hear it. Makes me realize how much of a vinyl nerd I am, that I won't buy the CD, I'd rather wait possibly years to find the LP instead. Gotta keep the game alive
Moloch is good and it is indeed the LP I was thinking of in lieu of the Prine(which admittedly I have never heard all of).(also SOI, I have an OG Moloch LP available, so hit me with a PM) The Moloch 45 is nice also. as far as my favorite Prine song, I gotta be obvious and say "Angel from Montgomery", I know, its like saying "Satisfaction" is your favorite Stones song...
"Like Flies on Sherbert" is indeed a strange Memphis rock record...EVERYTHING abouit it is strange...its sonics, writing, playing...not necessarily strange in a good way either, its kind of a terd.
I released the first LP that Jim ever produced. It was by a local Mississippi group called The Sugar Cube Blues Band. Got to hear some good stories about Jim and the Memphis scene he helped groom. Made me wonder what the scene would have been like if Chilton and some of his pals had their heads screwed on straight.
The Gordon book was embellished but from what I understand, mostly accurate.
Dear PickWick - I read earlier that your father was a country fan - how about your mom or another older female of influence in your life as a young PickWick? Was music important in your household? Do you attribute your passion, even in part, to some person or persons in your youth? Do you play any instruments? Do any of your family members? And finally, who was your favourite sister on Eight is Enough?
Dear PickWick - I read earlier that your father was a country fan - how about your mom or another older female of influence in your life as a young PickWick?
Well, my mom always had the soul station on, while my dad was straight-up country and blues...white rock (and I DON'T mean cocaine!) was something I discovered for myself later on. Music was no more important in my household than anything else, but I just kinda glommed onto it.
Do you attribute your passion, even in part, to some person or persons in your youth?
Yeah, partially my parents and partially the older brothers and sisters of my friends who were already dating and doing the things that teenagers do, including music. And even though I was still a kid playing with Hot Wheels and View Masters, the music thing looked good to me!
If ya wanna see more in-depth about my musical development, click on this: http://www.sofein.com/ and keep clicking back to September 2004 (it won't take long). My friend Art Fein has a blog called Another Fein Mess, and once a month he asks his friends to talk about their first record and concert. In the Sept. '04 installment, I talked about my childhood fascination with the Jackson Five and getting a record player at five years old, under my real name. Lemme know what you think!
Do you play any instruments? Do any of your family members?
I play harmonica and sing...I'm currently playing with this local psychobilly band called Tijuana Hercules, who I just joined last summer, as well as my own roots-rock band, the Dealbreakers, currently on hiatus. I write songs on bass - used to do it on guitar, but when I'd demo the songs for bassists, sometimes they'd play a whole different pattern than what I wanted, so I switched to bass and haven't had that problem since.
No one in my immediate family plays, but I did have a gospel singing aunt named Ollie Lafayette who pressed up a few singles on her own homemade Mag-Oll label ("Songs Of Redemption" was their slogan).
And finally, who was your favourite sister on Eight is Enough?
There were so many damn sisters in that TV family it was hard to keep up! Maybe Mary (R.I.P.), I guess? Not that she was a fave, but it did amaze me that she seemingly had a deeper voice than most of the males on the show...
No one in my immediate family plays, but I did have a gospel singing aunt named Ollie Lafayette who pressed up a few singles on her own homemade Mag-Oll label ("Songs Of Redemption" was their slogan).
I did not know this. I'd love to hear these sides.
Can you confirm that Duanne Allman plays guitar on Solomon Burke's Proud Mary lp? Always sounded like it to me.
Can't find any info on it right away, but that would seem to be the right time (1969) and place (Muscle Shoals, AL) for Duane Allman to be playing guitar on a soul session...
The reason I was asking is that I thought it was recorded at American Studios in Memphis. So I get my copy of the Reel to Reel and sure enough, Muscle Shoals.
But get this Tamiko Jones produced it! What's the deal with Tamiko Jones?
No one in my immediate family plays, but I did have a gospel singing aunt named Ollie Lafayette who pressed up a few singles on her own homemade Mag-Oll label ("Songs Of Redemption" was their slogan).
I did not know this. I'd love to hear these sides.
"Teach Me The Way" is the one I recommend the most, if you see it out there in the field.
Can you confirm that Duanne Allman plays guitar on Solomon Burke's Proud Mary lp? Always sounded like it to me.
Can't find any info on it right away, but that would seem to be the right time (1969) and place (Muscle Shoals, AL) for Duane Allman to be playing guitar on a soul session...
The reason I was asking is that I thought it was recorded at American Studios in Memphis. So I get my copy of the Reel to Reel and sure enough, Muscle Shoals.
But get this Tamiko Jones produced it! What's the deal with Tamiko Jones?
According to Solomon, when I interviewed him five years ago for Roctober, she was his producer and business partner. She also snapped the photo that appeared on the back. Evidently this was after she made that LP with Herbie Mann, but a few years before she became one of the first artists on Arista with that Love Trip album.
I too was subconsciously thinking that his Bell recordings were done at American, since that label released several records from that studio, like the Box Tops and the Masqueraders.
No one in my immediate family plays, but I did have a gospel singing aunt named Ollie Lafayette who pressed up a few singles on her own homemade Mag-Oll label ("Songs Of Redemption" was their slogan).
I did not know this. I'd love to hear these sides.
"Teach Me The Way" is the one I recommend the most, if you see it out there in the field.
How many sides did she release? Is there a compilation, or were they all singles? I'm having trouble finding info on her.
No one in my immediate family plays, but I did have a gospel singing aunt named Ollie Lafayette who pressed up a few singles on her own homemade Mag-Oll label ("Songs Of Redemption" was their slogan).
I did not know this. I'd love to hear these sides.
"Teach Me The Way" is the one I recommend the most, if you see it out there in the field.
How many sides did she release? Is there a compilation, or were they all singles? I'm having trouble finding info on her.
These were all singles - I don't recall her putting out any albums, and she didn't keep close track of how many records she put out (I asked).
when it was in its heyday in the late 70s - around the time steve dahl burning all those disco records in the ballpark. i turned 12 that summer, and disco was so omnipresent that dahl was almost doing what i was thinking.
i actually did like disco before that. like a lot of kids of my generation, i had the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and maybe a few other records in that style. but it was getting to the point where disco was ALL I WAS HEARING and that kinda changed my tune. i was already listening to rock and disco simultaneously, but when "my sharona" became a big hit, it was like a breath of fresh air. no mo' donna summer for me. you can imagine how this played in the hood, a black kid rejecting disco for rock. but coming up in the 70s and 80s, there always seemed to be the occasional black person around who listened to rock back then, so i wasnt alone. hell, i remember distinctly going into a Local Black Exp record store as a kid and witnessing a black dude buying a Jethro Tull album!! and truthfully, in retrospect i, as an adult, am more shocked that the store would HAVE IT IN STOCK IN THE FIRST PLACE. (or maybe there were more whites in the neighborhood back then - the same store also had a poster for a Mike Oldfield album on the wall)
as for disco, i noticed that i still liked the earliest disco hits from '74-'75. they were funkier and werent quite as plastic as what came next. to this day, there isnt much R&B i like from '76 to now, with occasional exceptions like lucy pearl, zapp, rick james, kc & the sunshine band (yeah, i said it), isleys (those guys are just TIMELESS), p-funk (just acquired a couple of brides of funkenstein singles - not bad).
as for Disco, i noticed that i still liked the earliest disco hits from '74-'75. they were funkier and werent quite as plastic as what came next. to this day, there isnt much R&B i like from '76 to now, with occasional exceptions like lucy pearl, zapp, rick james, kc & the sunshine band (yeah, i said it), isleys (those guys are just TIMELESS), p-funk (just acquired a couple of brides of funkenstein singles - not bad).
Do you see a correlation between Disco/Later R&B's Plasticity and Assimilation?
Dear Pickwick, Disco was indeed the Devil......my question is was it Satan himself playing that hot guitar break in Taste Of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie"?? or was it Ernest Isley??
Dear Pickwick, Disco was indeed the Devil......my question is was it Satan himself playing that hot guitar break in Taste Of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie"?? or was it Ernest Isley??
Hey Rock,
Tell me about seeing Disco overtake Local Brooklyn Est. back in the days.
Long time listener, first time caller here and first off I'd like to say thanks for your insight on Eddie Rabbit. But, the question I have for you today is who are the Pousette Dart Band? I see their LPs everywhere and I often wonder "who the f[/b]uck are these goddamned losers?" Surely they had to have a big ass hit, perhaps even one that I would know, because I see these fricken clowns (no pun intended) in dollar bins nationwide. Can you clear this up for me? Thanks, and I'll take my answer off the air.
Dear Pickwick, Disco was indeed the Devil......my question is was it Satan himself playing that hot guitar break in Taste Of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie"?? or was it Ernest Isley??
I think that was Janice Marie Johnson herself (lead singer and guitarist with A Taste Of Honey, who had the hit).
IIRC, this was back when women who played instruments was still a relative rarity, and the media made a big thing out of the fact that A Taste Of Honey actually played on their own record (and probably produced and wrote their own material, too). The other member was Hazel Payne, who played bass. Evidently they weren't just producer's toys.
"Boogie Oogie Oogie" is, to me, in the Hall Of Fame of lame songs with badass guitar lines. Right up there with the Four Seasons' "Let's Hang On" and the Carpenters'"Goodbye To Love."
as for Disco, i noticed that i still liked the earliest disco hits from '74-'75. they were funkier and werent quite as plastic as what came next. to this day, there isnt much R&B i like from '76 to now, with occasional exceptions like lucy pearl, zapp, rick james, kc & the sunshine band (yeah, i said it), isleys (those guys are just TIMELESS), p-funk (just acquired a couple of brides of funkenstein singles - not bad).
Do you see a correlation between Disco/Later R&B's Plasticity and Assimilation?
Sorta/kinda. After '76, the blues influence was toned down and the jazz connection was played up (the gospel thing was always there). As late as early '76, you could still get a freak hit with a deep southern ballad (Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," which crossed over pop). But by early '77, the deep soul/blues thing was fading fast.
as for Disco, i noticed that i still liked the earliest disco hits from '74-'75. they were funkier and werent quite as plastic as what came next. to this day, there isnt much R&B i like from '76 to now, with occasional exceptions like lucy pearl, zapp, rick james, kc & the sunshine band (yeah, i said it), isleys (those guys are just TIMELESS), p-funk (just acquired a couple of brides of funkenstein singles - not bad).
Do you see a correlation between Disco/Later R&B's Plasticity and Assimilation?
Sorta/kinda. After '76, the blues influence was toned down and the jazz connection was played up (the gospel thing was always there). As late as early '76, you could still get a freak hit with a deep southern ballad (Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," which crossed over pop). But by early '77, the deep soul/blues thing was fading fast.
I always thought that the Blues/Deep Soul traditions were maintained within the Ballads of the late 70's and beyond. ala Teddy Pendergrass/Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes/O'Jays/Spinners,etc.
Long time listener, first time caller here and first off I'd like to say thanks for your insight on Eddie Rabbit. But, the question I have for you today is who are the Pousette Dart Band? I see their LPs everywhere and I often wonder "who the f[/b]uck are these goddamned losers?" Surely they had to have a big ass hit, perhaps even one that I would know, because I see these fricken clowns (no pun intended) in dollar bins nationwide. Can you clear this up for me? Thanks, and I'll take my answer off the air.
Chad Dallas, Texas
Heh - the Pousette-Dart Band! Used to see ads for their albums all the time in rock magazines, but never heard a note of their music! Apparently they were a country-folk band from Cambridge, MA - they charted two albums in the Billboard Hot 200 LP charts back in 1977-78. Neither one got any higher than #143, but they charted, so SOMEBODY was buying those records. Even more so than now, seems like in the seventies it was possible to sell albums without some kind of Big Ass Hit. Just ask the Stanky Brown Group. Or the Tarney-Spencer Band. Or (until 1979) Poco. Or Angel.
as for Disco, i noticed that i still liked the earliest disco hits from '74-'75. they were funkier and werent quite as plastic as what came next. to this day, there isnt much R&B i like from '76 to now, with occasional exceptions like lucy pearl, zapp, rick james, kc & the sunshine band (yeah, i said it), isleys (those guys are just TIMELESS), p-funk (just acquired a couple of brides of funkenstein singles - not bad).
Do you see a correlation between Disco/Later R&B's Plasticity and Assimilation?
Sorta/kinda. After '76, the blues influence was toned down and the jazz connection was played up (the gospel thing was always there). As late as early '76, you could still get a freak hit with a deep southern ballad (Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," which crossed over pop). But by early '77, the deep soul/blues thing was fading fast.
I always thought that the Blues/Deep Soul traditions were maintained within the Ballads of the late 70's and beyond. ala Teddy Pendergrass/Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes/O'Jays/Spinners,etc.
Well, it was fading - it wasn't gone. Shoot, if Champaign's "How 'Bout Us" (from '81) ain't a southern soul ballad in disguise, then Heidi Klum has hair on her teeth.
Dear Pickwick, Disco was indeed the Devil......my question is was it Satan himself playing that hot guitar break in Taste Of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie"?? or was it Ernest Isley??
Hey Rock,
Tell me about seeing Disco overtake Local Brooklyn Est. back in the days.
I'm sure this won't interest most folks but here goes..........
My perspective is probably very narrow in scope but I???ll be happy to share. The Disco scene I experienced was very white and very Italian. These were the kids of folks who had grown up in the Doo-Wop/Four Seasons era and quite frankly the NY Italian never really had any music they could relate to again until Disco came along. Brooklyn had a great funk scene with bands like Mandrill but they did not attract the same crowd that Disco eventually did. Even though the early Disco music was dominated by black artists, these black shirt/white tie Italians were some of the more racist folks I have ever been around. It was amazing hearing these guys talking about ???friggin??? Moolies??? right after they danced to the latest Donna Summer hit.
The first club I worked at was called Rum Runners in Oyster Bay. It was owned by two connected dudes and it catered to the middle to upper middle class Italian. There was always the adventurous group of Jewish girls and the occasional black dude, but the crowd was 99% white. The scene was all about dancing, cocaine, clothes and sex. This was of course pre-AIDS and the women that frequented the club were quite ???loose???. As an 18 year old ???Hippie??? it was quite an experience, especially since you had to be 23 to get into the club.. Unlike most Disco???s this club had live music every weekend with a couple of well known Tri-State area bands rotating in on a monthly basis. The most popular was a band called The Supersuds Of Rhythm and they would play all the hits of the day???.Brick House, Last Dance, Boogie Oogie, Oogie, etc. Nothing obscure, just Top 40 crapola. During the week the club simply had a Juke Box until around mid-???78 when we hired a house DJ???..and every Wednesday we had a comedy duo called Off Hour Rockers that featured Jackie Martling who found fame later on with Howard Stern as ???Jackie The Jokeman???.
The typical Friday/Saturday night was right out of Saturday Night Fever???..Dance contests, a parking lot filled with steamed up windows and blow jobs and a bathroom filled with cocaine. The music wasn???t really the focal point and no one really cared what was new and breaking. From my perspective it was great as these Italian dudes didn???t tip, they OVER tipped, like it was a friggin??? contest. And they all had great nicknames like Tommy Tomato, Joe Baccala, Big Tony??????.no doubt some of them were in the ???family???. And there were lots of fights???..coked up macho hot heads who were always in groups of 4-5 and always ready to throw down. Amazingly I only saw a gun be pulled once, and that was quickly defused.
Just before I left NY for Texas Kurtis Blow broke out in NY and I remember ???The Breaks??? hitting the Juke Box to the chagrin of most of the patrons. Cocaine and excess killed the Disco scene and Punk had started to take off in NYC around the same time. Within the next year Disco had pretty much died and the club scene died with it. I was splitting time between Rum Runners and a club in Jamaica, Queens called Beggars Opera for that last year and ???Disco Sucks??? was the most often heard battle cry amongst suburban teens.
Keep in mind that the Manhattan Disco scene was way different than what I experienced. Studio 54 and some of the downtown clubs catered to a more hip/hipster crowd and most of the best DJ???s were spinning at these hoi polloi and/or Gay clubs. This scene scoffed at the Brooklyn/Long Island scene and felt it was crass and uncouth ??????they were right.
Not sure what else I can share other than anecdotal stories about specific incidents. Some somewhat famous athletes and celebrities visited the club from time to time but I wouldn???t call it their ???hang-out???. My nickname at the time was ???Disco Rich??? as my co-workers at the club knew I hated the music. Years later I cherish the experience???..I partied more in 2 ?? years than some folks get to in a lifetime??????I met and went home with women that I otherwise would have never had the chance to even meet. Lots of good memories.
My nickname at the time was ???Disco Rich??? as my co-workers at the club knew I hated the music.
Do you remember if the DJs were blending songs or was it straight up Radio hit after Radio hit?
Thank God Its Friday style?
Rum Runners was very much like TGIF ....the DJ was non-descript and generic....The few times we hit clubs in the city it was apparent that the DJ was the star, and yes, blending songs was what it was all about. The clubs down in the Village played more Euro sounds than in Midtown or in the suburbs and putting together a "set" was a big deal. Not sure what went on uptown but I bet it was very different.
My nickname at the time was ???Disco Rich??? as my co-workers at the club knew I hated the music.
Do you remember if the DJs were blending songs or was it straight up Radio hit after Radio hit?
Thank God Its Friday style?
Thank God, It's Friday! I ain't seen that in a minute! Is that out on video or DVD? That would be good for a laugh. Soundtrack with nothing but Motown and Casablanca artists, and includes at least one scene where a coke-addled disco DJ (played by Ray Vitte) puts a Motown record in a Casablanca sleeve (it was one of those Meco "disco Star Wars albums," I think).
My nickname at the time was ???Disco Rich??? as my co-workers at the club knew I hated the music.
Do you remember if the DJs were blending songs or was it straight up Radio hit after Radio hit?
Thank God Its Friday style?
Rum Runners was very much like TGIF ....the DJ was non-descript and generic....The few times we hit clubs in the city it was apparent that the DJ was the star and yes blending songs was what it was all about. The clubs down in the Village played more Euro sounds than in Midtown or in the suburbs and putting together a "set" was a big deal. Not sure what went on uptown but I bet it was very different.
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you're talking about a little ditty entitled "Ni**er Fu**er." Jesus Christ! How does this dude from "Dakota The Dancing Bear" to that?
"She ran off with a n****r" - TX BS Band? I always thought that was a D.A.C. alias.
Comments
Moloch is good and it is indeed the LP I was thinking of in lieu of the Prine(which admittedly I have never heard all of).(also SOI, I have an OG Moloch LP available, so hit me with a PM) The Moloch 45 is nice also.
as far as my favorite Prine song, I gotta be obvious and say "Angel from Montgomery", I know, its like saying "Satisfaction" is your favorite Stones song...
"Like Flies on Sherbert" is indeed a strange Memphis rock record...EVERYTHING abouit it is strange...its sonics, writing, playing...not necessarily strange in a good way either, its kind of a terd.
I released the first LP that Jim ever produced. It was by a local Mississippi group called The Sugar Cube Blues Band. Got to hear some good stories about Jim and the Memphis scene he helped groom. Made me wonder what the scene would have been like if Chilton and some of his pals had their heads screwed on straight.
The Gordon book was embellished but from what I understand, mostly accurate.
Thank You,
Bassie
True.
http://forbiddeneye.com/labels/springboard.html
http://forbiddeneye.com/labels/pickwick.html
Well, my mom always had the soul station on, while my dad was straight-up country and blues...white rock (and I DON'T mean cocaine!) was something I discovered for myself later on. Music was no more important in my household than anything else, but I just kinda glommed onto it.
Yeah, partially my parents and partially the older brothers and sisters of my friends who were already dating and doing the things that teenagers do, including music. And even though I was still a kid playing with Hot Wheels and View Masters, the music thing looked good to me!
If ya wanna see more in-depth about my musical development, click on this: http://www.sofein.com/ and keep clicking back to September 2004 (it won't take long). My friend Art Fein has a blog called Another Fein Mess, and once a month he asks his friends to talk about their first record and concert. In the Sept. '04 installment, I talked about my childhood fascination with the Jackson Five and getting a record player at five years old, under my real name. Lemme know what you think!
I play harmonica and sing...I'm currently playing with this local psychobilly band called Tijuana Hercules, who I just joined last summer, as well as my own roots-rock band, the Dealbreakers, currently on hiatus. I write songs on bass - used to do it on guitar, but when I'd demo the songs for bassists, sometimes they'd play a whole different pattern than what I wanted, so I switched to bass and haven't had that problem since.
No one in my immediate family plays, but I did have a gospel singing aunt named Ollie Lafayette who pressed up a few singles on her own homemade Mag-Oll label ("Songs Of Redemption" was their slogan).
There were so many damn sisters in that TV family it was hard to keep up! Maybe Mary (R.I.P.), I guess? Not that she was a fave, but it did amaze me that she seemingly had a deeper voice than most of the males on the show...
I did not know this. I'd love to hear these sides.
The reason I was asking is that I thought it was recorded at American Studios in Memphis. So I get my copy of the Reel to Reel and sure enough, Muscle Shoals.
But get this Tamiko Jones produced it! What's the deal with Tamiko Jones?
"Teach Me The Way" is the one I recommend the most, if you see it out there in the field.
According to Solomon, when I interviewed him five years ago for Roctober, she was his producer and business partner. She also snapped the photo that appeared on the back. Evidently this was after she made that LP with Herbie Mann, but a few years before she became one of the first artists on Arista with that Love Trip album.
I too was subconsciously thinking that his Bell recordings were done at American, since that label released several records from that studio, like the Box Tops and the Masqueraders.
How many sides did she release? Is there a compilation, or were they all singles? I'm having trouble finding info on her.
These were all singles - I don't recall her putting out any albums, and she didn't keep close track of how many records she put out (I asked).
when it was in its heyday in the late 70s - around the time steve dahl burning all those disco records in the ballpark. i turned 12 that summer, and disco was so omnipresent that dahl was almost doing what i was thinking.
i actually did like disco before that. like a lot of kids of my generation, i had the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and maybe a few other records in that style. but it was getting to the point where disco was ALL I WAS HEARING and that kinda changed my tune. i was already listening to rock and disco simultaneously, but when "my sharona" became a big hit, it was like a breath of fresh air. no mo' donna summer for me. you can imagine how this played in the hood, a black kid rejecting disco for rock. but coming up in the 70s and 80s, there always seemed to be the occasional black person around who listened to rock back then, so i wasnt alone. hell, i remember distinctly going into a Local Black Exp record store as a kid and witnessing a black dude buying a Jethro Tull album!! and truthfully, in retrospect i, as an adult, am more shocked that the store would HAVE IT IN STOCK IN THE FIRST PLACE. (or maybe there were more whites in the neighborhood back then - the same store also had a poster for a Mike Oldfield album on the wall)
as for disco, i noticed that i still liked the earliest disco hits from '74-'75. they were funkier and werent quite as plastic as what came next. to this day, there isnt much R&B i like from '76 to now, with occasional exceptions like lucy pearl, zapp, rick james, kc & the sunshine band (yeah, i said it), isleys (those guys are just TIMELESS), p-funk (just acquired a couple of brides of funkenstein singles - not bad).
Do you see a correlation between Disco/Later R&B's Plasticity and Assimilation?
Disco was indeed the Devil......my question is was it Satan himself playing that hot guitar break in Taste Of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie"?? or was it Ernest Isley??
Hey Rock,
Tell me about seeing Disco overtake Local Brooklyn Est. back in the days.
Long time listener, first time caller here and first off I'd like to say thanks for your insight on Eddie Rabbit. But, the question I have for you today is who are the Pousette Dart Band? I see their LPs everywhere and I often wonder "who the f[/b]uck are these goddamned losers?" Surely they had to have a big ass hit, perhaps even one that I would know, because I see these fricken clowns (no pun intended) in dollar bins nationwide. Can you clear this up for me? Thanks, and I'll take my answer off the air.
Chad
Dallas, Texas
I think that was Janice Marie Johnson herself (lead singer and guitarist with A Taste Of Honey, who had the hit).
IIRC, this was back when women who played instruments was still a relative rarity, and the media made a big thing out of the fact that A Taste Of Honey actually played on their own record (and probably produced and wrote their own material, too). The other member was Hazel Payne, who played bass. Evidently they weren't just producer's toys.
"Boogie Oogie Oogie" is, to me, in the Hall Of Fame of lame songs with badass guitar lines. Right up there with the Four Seasons' "Let's Hang On" and the Carpenters'"Goodbye To Love."
Sorta/kinda. After '76, the blues influence was toned down and the jazz connection was played up (the gospel thing was always there). As late as early '76, you could still get a freak hit with a deep southern ballad (Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," which crossed over pop). But by early '77, the deep soul/blues thing was fading fast.
I always thought that the Blues/Deep Soul traditions were maintained within the Ballads of the late 70's and beyond. ala Teddy Pendergrass/Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes/O'Jays/Spinners,etc.
Heh - the Pousette-Dart Band! Used to see ads for their albums all the time in rock magazines, but never heard a note of their music! Apparently they were a country-folk band from Cambridge, MA - they charted two albums in the Billboard Hot 200 LP charts back in 1977-78. Neither one got any higher than #143, but they charted, so SOMEBODY was buying those records. Even more so than now, seems like in the seventies it was possible to sell albums without some kind of Big Ass Hit. Just ask the Stanky Brown Group. Or the Tarney-Spencer Band. Or (until 1979) Poco. Or Angel.
According to Wikipedia, the Pousette-Dart band had a song used in a second-season ep of Lost...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pousette-Dart_Band
Well, it was fading - it wasn't gone. Shoot, if Champaign's "How 'Bout Us" (from '81) ain't a southern soul ballad in disguise, then Heidi Klum has hair on her teeth.
Your depth of knowledge astounds, amazes and intimidates me.
Thats all.
I'm sure this won't interest most folks but here goes..........
My perspective is probably very narrow in scope but I???ll be happy to share. The Disco scene I experienced was very white and very Italian. These were the kids of folks who had grown up in the Doo-Wop/Four Seasons era and quite frankly the NY Italian never really had any music they could relate to again until Disco came along. Brooklyn had a great funk scene with bands like Mandrill but they did not attract the same crowd that Disco eventually did. Even though the early Disco music was dominated by black artists, these black shirt/white tie Italians were some of the more racist folks I have ever been around. It was amazing hearing these guys talking about ???friggin??? Moolies??? right after they danced to the latest Donna Summer hit.
The first club I worked at was called Rum Runners in Oyster Bay. It was owned by two connected dudes and it catered to the middle to upper middle class Italian. There was always the adventurous group of Jewish girls and the occasional black dude, but the crowd was 99% white. The scene was all about dancing, cocaine, clothes and sex. This was of course pre-AIDS and the women that frequented the club were quite ???loose???. As an 18 year old ???Hippie??? it was quite an experience, especially since you had to be 23 to get into the club.. Unlike most Disco???s this club had live music every weekend with a couple of well known Tri-State area bands rotating in on a monthly basis. The most popular was a band called The Supersuds Of Rhythm and they would play all the hits of the day???.Brick House, Last Dance, Boogie Oogie, Oogie, etc. Nothing obscure, just Top 40 crapola. During the week the club simply had a Juke Box until around mid-???78 when we hired a house DJ???..and every Wednesday we had a comedy duo called Off Hour Rockers that featured Jackie Martling who found fame later on with Howard Stern as ???Jackie The Jokeman???.
The typical Friday/Saturday night was right out of Saturday Night Fever???..Dance contests, a parking lot filled with steamed up windows and blow jobs and a bathroom filled with cocaine. The music wasn???t really the focal point and no one really cared what was new and breaking. From my perspective it was great as these Italian dudes didn???t tip, they OVER tipped, like it was a friggin??? contest. And they all had great nicknames like Tommy Tomato, Joe Baccala, Big Tony??????.no doubt some of them were in the ???family???. And there were lots of fights???..coked up macho hot heads who were always in groups of 4-5 and always ready to throw down. Amazingly I only saw a gun be pulled once, and that was quickly defused.
Just before I left NY for Texas Kurtis Blow broke out in NY and I remember ???The Breaks??? hitting the Juke Box to the chagrin of most of the patrons. Cocaine and excess killed the Disco scene and Punk had started to take off in NYC around the same time. Within the next year Disco had pretty much died and the club scene died with it. I was splitting time between Rum Runners and a club in Jamaica, Queens called Beggars Opera for that last year and ???Disco Sucks??? was the most often heard battle cry amongst suburban teens.
Keep in mind that the Manhattan Disco scene was way different than what I experienced. Studio 54 and some of the downtown clubs catered to a more hip/hipster crowd and most of the best DJ???s were spinning at these hoi polloi and/or Gay clubs. This scene scoffed at the Brooklyn/Long Island scene and felt it was crass and uncouth ??????they were right.
Not sure what else I can share other than anecdotal stories about specific incidents. Some somewhat famous athletes and celebrities visited the club from time to time but I wouldn???t call it their ???hang-out???. My nickname at the time was ???Disco Rich??? as my co-workers at the club knew I hated the music. Years later I cherish the experience???..I partied more in 2 ?? years than some folks get to in a lifetime??????I met and went home with women that I otherwise would have never had the chance to even meet. Lots of good memories.
Do you remember if the DJs were blending songs or was it straight up Radio hit after Radio hit?
Thank God Its Friday style?
Rum Runners was very much like TGIF ....the DJ was non-descript and generic....The few times we hit clubs in the city it was apparent that the DJ was the star, and yes, blending songs was what it was all about. The clubs down in the Village played more Euro sounds than in Midtown or in the suburbs and putting together a "set" was a big deal. Not sure what went on uptown but I bet it was very different.
Thank God, It's Friday! I ain't seen that in a minute! Is that out on video or DVD? That would be good for a laugh. Soundtrack with nothing but Motown and Casablanca artists, and includes at least one scene where a coke-addled disco DJ (played by Ray Vitte) puts a Motown record in a Casablanca sleeve (it was one of those Meco "disco Star Wars albums," I think).
Uptown,dudes would talk to the peoples..........
"She ran off with a n****r" - TX BS Band? I always thought that was a D.A.C. alias.