RATING: ****
"…Mo Jo Hannah…"
Never did get an album out, but cult Sixties Soul artist Calvin Arnold managed four corking US 45s on the Venture Records label between 1967 and 1969. Ace of the UK have decided to honour his small but tasty output on this rather lovely Kent-Soul CD compilation that bolsters up those eight Mono sides with Five More from the same period - all previously unreleased and available here for the first time. It may only run to thirty-nine minutes (exactly), but the quality is right up there – not all genius – but a solid four-stars.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1941 - the Southern Soul sound of Calvin Arnold had a driving edge – a sort of gritty Wilson Pickett Atlantic Records groove – with just as much dancefloor no-mercy. His most sought-after double-dose of downhome boogie comes in the shape of his "Funky Way" 45 presented here in all its Mono tight as a gnat's ptoof glory - and alongside its equally good flipside too - "Snatchin' Back". And on re-hearing these two floor-fillers, it is hardly surprising that Venture 605 fetches such mullah these days (it was even given a UK release in limited numbers on MGM Records). Apparently it is Clarence Paul on Saxophone on "Funky Way" while Willie Hutchinson wrote and produced the A-side of the second CA single "Scoobie Doo".
Details dancefloor Maestro please, time for the Mini Skirts in the Old Folks Home (how very appropriate)…
UK released Friday, 26 January 2024 - "Funky Way: Venture Recordings 1967-1969" by CALVIN ARNOLD on Ace/Kent Soul CDKENM 528 (Barcode 029667109628) is a CD Compilation of Remasters that plays out as follows (39:00 minutes):
1. Funky Way
2. Snatchin' Back
3. Lovely Way To Go
4. Scoobie Doo
5. Mama-In-Law
6. Mini Skirt
7. You Got To Live For Yourself
8. Just A Matter Of Time
9. Tryin' To Fly My Kite (In Rainy Weather)
10. Your Love Is Too Much
11. Fool Me Baby
12. Messin' With The Old Folks Home
13. Mo Jo Hannah
NOTES:
Tracks 1 and 2 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of a January 1968 US 45-single on Venture V 605. It was also issued in the UK 28 January 1968 on MGM Records MGM 1378 with the same tracks.
Tracks 4 and 3 (note running order) are the Non-LP A&B-sides of his second single issued March 1968 in the USA on Venture VE 610 (no UK release)
Tracks 5 and 6 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of his third single issued September 1968 on Venture VE-626. It was his second and last UK 45-single issued 1 November 1968 in the UK (with the same sides) on MGM Records MGM 1449
Tracks 8 and 7 (note running order) are the Non-LP A&B-sides of his fourth single issued March 1969 in the USA on Venture VE-634
Tracks 9 to 13 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED period recordings (no details provided)
The 20-page booklet and superb BRIAN POUST May 2023 liner notes pieces together the Calvin Arnold story from 2013 telephone calls, previous articles in US magazines (Blues & Soul) alongside the latest Discography research. It's a masterful piece of investigation – the text peppered with repro labels of those desirable US Venture Records singles and the two rare British MGM releases. Inbetween are publicity photos of our hero suited and booted by the Motown publicity machine to launch him as a new force – trade adverts that assure us 'this one is going all the way' and so on. There is even a gig advert for a Butler Street YMCA Benefit with Hank Ballard and The Midnighters sharing the bill with Ted Taylor, The Fiestas, Arthur Alexander and The Tams - and there in small print – The Gardenias – of which Calvin Arnold was a member – a band who had recorded with the fireball that was Esquerita.
The transfers and audio has been done by ALEC PALAO and all is clean and punchy – not audiophile by any stretch of the imagination – but all tracks allowed to breathe in all their hip-swaying Ike & Tina Turner-ish funky way. To the chunes…
His mama told him that women are going to kill poor Calvin, but he thinks this is a "Lovely Way To Go" (better than dying in someone else’s war) – while Calvin wonders what he would have in life if not his "Scoobie Doo". Both sides are funky little neck jerkers, prominent backbeat, brass jabs – just the ticket for scuffing up a talcum powdered dancefloor. His voice is great too – a sort of cross between Bobby Womack and Shuggie Otis. The opening of "Mama In Law" features a duet female vocal (not told who) after which Calvin outlines the many ways his interferring and overbearing in-law is going to the great beyond – a fun R&B chugger as a review box tells us on Page 12 of the booklet.
Of more interest to dancers will be the frantic and frankly fantastic "Mini Skirt" – a great Do The Boogaloo raver that is just the right side of hard funk to keep it fun. Calvin gets into message-territory with his advice to the young - "You Got To Live For Yourself" – the band tight and locked into the dancer pocket as it gives it some excellent neck-jerk. The end of the eight single sides comes with another brass, piano and drums bopper called "Just A Matter Of Time" – a great what-goes-around comes-around Funky mover (you are reminded of Allen Toussaint with The Meters on Reprise Records circa 1970 getting all Ka Pa).
The five unreleased (getting an airing here in 2024 for the first time ever) start strongly with "Tryin' To Fly My Kite (In Rainy Weather)" – a song the Rock Band Southwind took to heart on their Ventures Records self-titled LP in 1968. The CA version is fully formed (as all five are) and features a fab Organ Solo and a relentless yes-it-is Steppenwolf beat – not surprising they went for it. "Your Love Is Too Much" is a frantic dancer – brass in the background – drums and guitar to the fore. It’s good and would have been perfect fodder for Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding. Six feet underground is where poor Calvin is going if his lady ever puts him down again for someone else (the boy is in pain, although you would not get that from the hardhitting boogie beat). The others are essentially more of the same but feel strangely unremarkable.
The booklet tells us that Arnold was a prolific writer with a least five other credits of his songs done by other artists – Rock band Southwind recorded "Tryin' To Fly My Kite (In Rainy Weather)" on their self-titled 1968 US debut album "Southwind" on Venture VTS-4002 - December 1967 saw "Sugar Pie" by The Major IV on Venture VE-606, a Calvin Arnold co-written flipside to the US 45 for "Down In The Ghetto (There's Love)" - and 1969 saw "Repossess My Heart" by Neal Kimble make it to 45-single Promo-stage on Venture VE 629 (another Calvin Arnold solo write). His Arnold surname might have been switched out (for whatever reasons) with Mickey Sevenson on "(I Need) Someone Like You" – a co-write with Leon Ware used by The Righteous Brothers as a Side 2 song on their 1967 album "Souled Out" on Verve V6-5031 – but it was Arnold who wrote it with Ware. Calvin would also have further 45s on IX Chains Records and Sound Stage 7 Records in the Seventies. The point is - it might have been nice for collectors to get those Sixties tunes on this CD as Bonuses to give a more thorough picture of his legacy – especially with a playing time of 39:00 minutes.
Having said all of that, "Funky Way..." is a nice Kent-Soul release to open 2024 and one that dancers and gritty Southern Soul fans will appreciate...
