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THE SPINNERS (Youtube/Holy Shit Related)

pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
edited April 2008 in Strut Central


This is from an appearance on the old PBS-TV show, Soul!, back in 1973...those Philly Soul records usually had all sorts of additional horns, strings, background singers, and general studio slickness, but here we have the Spinners working with a basic five-piece band, and the difference is phenomenal. Sure, you don't have Linda Creed chiming in on the background vocals, but the Spinners knew how to harmonize, so they make up for it! Props to an incredible organ player, an audience who came to party, and dig Phillipe Wynne's adlibs at the end - he's even does one of those Billy Stewart "brrrrrr" numbers.I haven't spun their live double album in a minute, but I don't remember it being this raw. The Spinners weren't producer's toys, they could take care of themselves in a live situation...

  Comments

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    ...also a reminder that somebody needs to release the Soul! show on DVD like yesterday.
  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    thought it was pretty interestig to see that Anna (Marie) Horsford was an associate producer on this. She was only 25 years old and had just began her career a couple years earlier both in front of and behind the camera

    of course I'll always remember her as this

  • edpowersedpowers 4,437 Posts
    THIS MADE MY DAY..

    The Organ player is on fire

    Somebody call Stan Lathan and tell him to release the SOUL

    reeeeewwwiind
  • troublemantroubleman 1,928 Posts
    ...also a reminder that somebody needs to release the Soul! show on DVD like yesterday.

    seriously! Thanks for posting Pickwick. Really amazing stuff.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Pickwick,

    Funny you should bring up Soul! I recruited Gayle Wald (she of the Big Mama Thorton book) to be on my panel at EMP over the weekend specifically because she's been doing research on Soul! through practically every resource available out there. She brought in a few clips - including one with Ashford and Simpson, another one with Max Roach and the JC White Singers plus one where Ellis Haizlip is interviewing Farrakhan (FACEMELT ON SO MANY LEVELS [1]).

    The problem, according to Gayle, is that legally, there's no way Soul! will ever become available. The way the contracts were signed back then, in order to authorize a DVD release, they would need to get permission from EVERYONE involved with a particular taping. The former head of BMI was in the audience and basically acknowledged: logistically, it's never going to happen. It's a Frickin' shame - from what little I know about Soul! (thanks to Wald), the show is one of the most incredible moments in television as it relates to the Black Power era of American popular culture.

    Personally, I'm glad fools are leaking this stuff to Youtube. It's probably going to be the only way any of this will make it to public circulation.

    [1] Haizlip, the founder/host of Soul!, was, among other things, an openly gay Black man and he asked Farrakhan this question (paraphrased): "a lot of the Nation of Islam's members come out of prison and, as you know, there's homosexual relations that happens in prison. Where do those people belong within the NOI?"

    Farrakhan gives a rambling, 7 minute answer that never addresses the question directly but ends with Haizlip giving him a soul pound which is a strange, ambiguous moment given Haizlip's own identity as both a proud Black man but also openly queer.
  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    Thanks for the post and the information man
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Yeah, when the topic of Soul! is brought up, the infamous Farrakhan appearance is usually mentioned as one of the show's Big Moments.

    Clips from the show have been turning up here and there...when Sony/Legacy reissued Bill Withers' Just As I Am a while back, it came with a DVD that included, among other things, Withers' appearance on the show. It's too bad they couldn't foresee the videotape/DVD explosion - I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure they would have revised the contracts if they could see that coming.

    Now, somebody needs to ask James Earl Jones about Black Omnibus, a syndicated show he hosted from 1973 that was like Soul! without the politics, but with the same Afrocentric vibe. If you've ever seen one of those late-night infomercials for old soul hits, the clip of the Friends of Distinction comes from that show, so it must still be in somebody's archive. Other acts I remember seeing on the show (as a kid): Lou Rawls, Little Dion (kiddie soul act), Luther Ingram, Crusaders, Melvin Van Peebles, Richard & Willie (black ventriloquist act), Odetta. The theme song was the Main Ingredient's "Black Seeds Keep On Growing."

    Ashford & Simpson were on the show, huh? They had to have been on one of the very last episodes, because their first LP came out the same year Soul! was cancelled (even though Valerie Simpson already had a couple of solo LP's).
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    If you notice, the pictures from the cover of the Spinners' self-titled Atlantic LP are from their appearance on this show. This is probably why that album had so many hits on it, because the singles dropped well before the album (probably the last time in the history of history that that happened).

    thought it was pretty interesting to see that Anna (Marie) Horsford was an associate producer on this. She was only 25 years old and had just began her career a couple years earlier both in front of and behind the camera

    Yeah, I caught that too. Of course I remembered her from Amen!, but I didn't know her roots ran that deep. Impressive.
  • Birdman9Birdman9 5,417 Posts


    Here they are with a little more back up
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Yeah, when the topic of Soul! is brought up, the infamous Farrakhan appearance is usually mentioned as one of the show's Big Moments.

    Clips from the show have been turning up here and there...when Sony/Legacy reissued Bill Withers' Just As I Am a while back, it came with a DVD that included, among other things, Withers' appearance on the show. It's too bad they couldn't foresee the videotape/DVD explosion - I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure they would have revised the contracts if they could see that coming.

    Now, somebody needs to ask James Earl Jones about Black Omnibus, a syndicated show he hosted from 1973 that was like Soul! without the politics, but with the same Afrocentric vibe. If you've ever seen one of those late-night infomercials for old soul hits, the clip of the Friends of Distinction comes from that show, so it must still be in somebody's archive. Other acts I remember seeing on the show (as a kid): Lou Rawls, Little Dion (kiddie soul act), Luther Ingram, Crusaders, Melvin Van Peebles, Richard & Willie (black ventriloquist act), Odetta. The theme song was the Main Ingredient's "Black Seeds Keep On Growing."

    Ashford & Simpson were on the show, huh? They had to have been on one of the very last episodes, because their first LP came out the same year Soul! was cancelled (even though Valerie Simpson already had a couple of solo LP's).

    I think the A&S appearance might have been from the final show, in fact. And yeah, I think if an awareness of DVD resales had been around back in the early '70s, the copyright contracts would have been very different but alas...

    More bootlegs!
  • djdazedjdaze 3,099 Posts
    this is why I love the internet. no way in hell many of us would see any of this amazing stuff today without it.

    thanks for that pickwick
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Yeah, when the topic of Soul! is brought up, the infamous Farrakhan appearance is usually mentioned as one of the show's Big Moments.

    Clips from the show have been turning up here and there...when Sony/Legacy reissued Bill Withers' Just As I Am a while back, it came with a DVD that included, among other things, Withers' appearance on the show. It's too bad they couldn't foresee the videotape/DVD explosion - I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure they would have revised the contracts if they could see that coming.

    Now, somebody needs to ask James Earl Jones about Black Omnibus, a syndicated show he hosted from 1973 that was like Soul! without the politics, but with the same Afrocentric vibe. If you've ever seen one of those late-night infomercials for old soul hits, the clip of the Friends of Distinction comes from that show, so it must still be in somebody's archive. Other acts I remember seeing on the show (as a kid): Lou Rawls, Little Dion (kiddie soul act), Luther Ingram, Crusaders, Melvin Van Peebles, Richard & Willie (black ventriloquist act), Odetta. The theme song was the Main Ingredient's "Black Seeds Keep On Growing."

    Ashford & Simpson were on the show, huh? They had to have been on one of the very last episodes, because their first LP came out the same year Soul! was cancelled (even though Valerie Simpson already had a couple of solo LP's).

    I think the A&S appearance might have been from the final show, in fact. And yeah, I think if an awareness of DVD resales had been around back in the early '70s, the copyright contracts would have been very different but alas...

    More bootlegs!

    And if VCR's had been common back then, we might be trading whole episodes by now. Ah, if wishes were jet planes, the world would be an airport...
  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    all sorts of additional horns, strings, background singers, and general studio slickness

    This is a reason why I could never get into the Spinners much, but this live show is something! Modern day acts can take notes on how quality songwriting can take over a crowd.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    all sorts of additional horns, strings, background singers, and general studio slickness

    This is a reason why I could never get into the Spinners much, but this live show is something! Modern day acts can take notes on how quality songwriting can take over a crowd.

    This is also a reason why I had to pick up a copy of the O'Jays' Live In London LP. Knowing now that the backgrounds on their records were sweetened by Gamble, Huff, Thom Bell and Bunny Sigler, I had to hear how they pulled it off live. The harmonies always sounded a little too full for just three men (while two of them are trading off leads), so I had to hear what this live album sounded like (it is still in my to-be-listened-to pile, BTW). Unless Gamble & Huff & them overdubbed backgrounds on this album too??
  • tuneuptuneup 586 Posts
    it is a shame that SOUL will never see the light of day on DVD, so as mentioned before, thank the net for the bootleg footage.

    I would like to take this opportunity, for what it's worth, to just say an out loud thanks to the folks who created, organized, hosted and starred on SOUL, as every little bit I have ever seen has been truly inspirational.

    Thanks guys......
  • Young_PhonicsYoung_Phonics 8,039 Posts
    That was awesome. Is there a version of that track available (or rawer vesion)? and this is another reason why PICKWICK33 is that dude.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Pickwick: you sure about the Bill Withers clip? If it's the one I'm thinking of, I think that was on a BBC show, not Soul! (The set doesn't look right either). Or is this some other clip of his?
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Pickwick: you sure about the Bill Withers clip? If it's the one I'm thinking of, I think that was on a BBC show, not Soul! (The set doesn't look right either). Or is this some other clip of his?

    I believe there was more than one Withers clip on that DVD. One of them was definitely from Soul! because they also show the interview with Ellis Haizlip. The BBC Old Grey Whistle Test thing is on the disc as well.

    While we're talking about Soul!, be advised that there is a Curtis Mayfield documentary about to be released on DVD by Reelin' In The Years. Not only did they dig up hours of priceless footage, but they show them in their entirety, and one of them is the Impressions on Soul! ca. 1969, singing "This Is My Country" while a mustachioed Clifton Davis recites a poem ABOUT the group. While they're singing. Batmon, you paying attention?[/b]
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Awesome.
  • edgertoredgertor 3 Posts
    some eps of soul! are online! issues get dicey if someone is making bank, which is not happening now. That's why you might not see dvds for a long time--no one has the time or $ to clear everything for commercial use.

    they're at thirteen.org/soul.
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