I understand Paul Anka has one Northern Soul track too?
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
dollar_bin said:
Comedy music acts enjoy a similar arc, when the joke is tired and the bands are judged on musical talent, bands like Dread Zeppelin and The Dead Milkmen began to lose their popular appeal at parties.
Comedy music acts enjoy a similar arc, when the joke is tired and the bands are judged on musical talent, bands like Dread Zeppelin and The Dead Milkmen began to lose their popular appeal at parties.
All those instrumental rock/R&B acts of the fifties and sixties - the Ventures, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Booker T. & the MG's, King Curtis, Lonnie Mack, Dick Dale, etc. - get their props, yet Bill Black's albums gather dust while new generations keep discovering The Ventures In Space.
Dude just made so many mundane and uninteresting records....lots and lots of them.
He is the Al Hirt of the Bass.
You do have to wade through some substandard shit in the Bill Black catalog. Even a band as prolific as the Ventures didn't stoop as low as Bill Black's crew did. But if all they ever did was "Smokie - Part Two" plus the Solid & Raunchy and Movin' albums, they'd probably be better remembered as genuine Memphis rock and rollers and not a middle-aged wedding band.
And their late-sixties Black With Sugar LP is recommended for Soul Strut sensibilities. This was straight soul in the Booker T. vein, bordering on funk. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Willie Mitchell's band ghosting under Bill Black's name. (Bill was dead by then, but there were several albums issued under the "Bill Black's Combo" moniker for years on end.)
I understand Paul Anka has one Northern Soul track too?
Yup. Can't Help Loving You on RCA. Quite good, too. The story of how it was discovered is one of the best record stories I've ever heard.
Please do tell.......
Did a quick search and found it as told by John Manship almost five years ago:
Circa 1973 Simon Soussan was in Providence Rhode Island and visited one of the world's leading knowledge's on music. A hermit called Al Pavlow one of the most interesting and fabulous people I've ever met whilst looking for records. He had a shop at the time and Soussan came in..he was the very first European record collector Al had evermet.
Al had the most fabulous stock of 45s you could ever dream of. Soussan went bonkers, flying through his 45s pulling records and every so often playing a few.
Al was totally fascinated by this, he'd never seen such enthusiasm and when he looked at his "keepers" he still couldn't work out what it was all about. So Al asked him what the hell he was looking for.. Soussan said I want records that sound like this! He played him 20 seconds of The Sequins on Renfro, then the Soul Twins - Quick Change Artist..
Al looked at him and said .."I've got a Paul Anka record you'd like.. Soussan just looked at him like he was a cretin and continued to rip into the masses of 45s...about 15 minutes later the shop speakers SHOOOOK!! To the opening bars of "I Can't Help Loving You".. Soussan apparently dropped all the records he was holdin all over the floor and sprinted to the counter.. "What the F**K is this !!**#!!
Al looked at him with a wry smile on his face.."It's the Paul Anka record I told I said you might like!"
How good was Al at his job? When I met him in 1977 I went to his house armed with the matrix # "stole" by an obnlookers quick glance off Richard Searling's biggest Wigan Casino cover-up of the time. "Al all I got is this # can you help" showing him K14072 it took him about a minute to come back with a copy of Wakefield Sun - Trypt on love.. the Eddie Jason cover-up was uncovered by Big Al of Rhode Island.
I wonder if big Al didn't pull Paul Anka and play it, would it be undiscovered today..just waiting for a flukey spin by a soul collector..but what soul collector would ever play a Paul Anka 45?
They were just in town, so maybe somebody still likes them.
I think they were from your area (roughly).
I don't see their records move out of the bins much.
It's not that they don't move, it's just that they're replaced with different copies of the same record.
During the 90s surf/garage revivals, seemed like every "hipster" I knew had at least one Ventures album lying around in their at-home stacks. And even now, I'll be shopping at Reckless Records and I'll see somebody taking a Ventures album to the counter.
Because kids aren't growing up on classic rock & oldies radio anymore, the lack of interest/understanding in a lot of stuff that was common knowledge to 80s/90s youngsters is occasionally shocking to me.
Maybe on Sunday Classics, but I dont hear any of their 80's hits anymore like Jump, Neutron Dance, Slow Hand, and Automatic.
I would think their "New Wavey/Synthy" R&B would have gotten re-discovered by a new gener-hattion.
I get the impression that their 80s-era hits would be too "poppy" or yacht-rockish to be played on a black dusties show. Would "He's So Shy" or even "Slow Hand" sound good coming out of a Shalamar record, or segwayed with Midnight Star? I'll bet Billy Ocean has that same bias working against him.
Pointers were as much of a rock/pop group than a soul group.
YWCC was #12 r&b and 11 pop
How Long Bethca Got A Chick On The Side #1 r&b 20 pop
He's so Shy 10r&b 3 pop (I don't even remember that one.)
Slow Hand 7 r&b 2 pop
Automatic 2 r&b 5 pop
Jump 3 r&b 3 pop (Van Halen had a song called jump on the charts at the same time, and Aretha had Jump To It a few years earlier.)
Mostly they were a quirky hard to categorize group that struggled to find a place on radio and in the record stores.
Comments
I never play it, but one of my dj partners gave it a spin & it worked like wildfire
Also, RG, I fox w/ Oh What a Nite plus the Diamond Shell version.
One of my favorite covers of anything ever...
Yup. Can't Help Loving You on RCA. Quite good, too. The story of how it was discovered is one of the best record stories I've ever heard.
Thanks for this.
I'm whatever about Boston, but I know some folks who ride REAL hard.
Well, the kids love classic rock, but not all of it.
They'll buy Led Zeppelin records all day, but would only buy a Boston T-shirt.
All those instrumental rock/R&B acts of the fifties and sixties - the Ventures, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Booker T. & the MG's, King Curtis, Lonnie Mack, Dick Dale, etc. - get their props, yet Bill Black's albums gather dust while new generations keep discovering The Ventures In Space.
Dude just made so many mundane and uninteresting records....lots and lots of them.
He is the Al Hirt of the Bass.
Maybe on Sunday Classics, but I dont hear any of their 80's hits anymore like Jump, Neutron Dance, Slow Hand, and Automatic.
I would think their "New Wavey/Synthy" R&B would have gotten re-discovered by a new gener-hattion.
You do have to wade through some substandard shit in the Bill Black catalog. Even a band as prolific as the Ventures didn't stoop as low as Bill Black's crew did. But if all they ever did was "Smokie - Part Two" plus the Solid & Raunchy and Movin' albums, they'd probably be better remembered as genuine Memphis rock and rollers and not a middle-aged wedding band.
And their late-sixties Black With Sugar LP is recommended for Soul Strut sensibilities. This was straight soul in the Booker T. vein, bordering on funk. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Willie Mitchell's band ghosting under Bill Black's name. (Bill was dead by then, but there were several albums issued under the "Bill Black's Combo" moniker for years on end.)
They were just in town, so maybe somebody still likes them. I don't see their records move out of the bins much.
Please do tell.......
Did a quick search and found it as told by John Manship almost five years ago:
I think they were from your area (roughly).
It's not that they don't move, it's just that they're replaced with different copies of the same record.
During the 90s surf/garage revivals, seemed like every "hipster" I knew had at least one Ventures album lying around in their at-home stacks. And even now, I'll be shopping at Reckless Records and I'll see somebody taking a Ventures album to the counter.
I think they are on their 3rd lead guitarist.
Holy crap, I just listened to Neutron Dance again. It's so awful. I can re-ride for the others though, particularly Automatic.
Ironically, of course.
I get the impression that their 80s-era hits would be too "poppy" or yacht-rockish to be played on a black dusties show. Would "He's So Shy" or even "Slow Hand" sound good coming out of a Shalamar record, or segwayed with Midnight Star? I'll bet Billy Ocean has that same bias working against him.
YWCC was #12 r&b and 11 pop
How Long Bethca Got A Chick On The Side #1 r&b 20 pop
He's so Shy 10r&b 3 pop (I don't even remember that one.)
Slow Hand 7 r&b 2 pop
Automatic 2 r&b 5 pop
Jump 3 r&b 3 pop (Van Halen had a song called jump on the charts at the same time, and Aretha had Jump To It a few years earlier.)
Mostly they were a quirky hard to categorize group that struggled to find a place on radio and in the record stores.
At least people (not me) still talk about Jane's Addiction in fairly reverent tones. Jesus Jones is more like "hey kids, remember those wacky 90s?"
I guess you can say the same about Del Amitri.
I think he was recently working on a comeback. Hows that working out?
They have probably haven't aged that well, but I still know plenty of people in their 30s who still like them.