"...Toe Hold..."
I love a compilation like
this - clever choices - great sound - discoveries. I'll even forgive the rather
uninspiring artwork because those sexy bearded men with non-arthritic knees and
disturbingly alluring butt wiggles over at Ace Records (using their Beat Goes
Public label imprint) have only gone and done my nut it again.
This is a wickedly good
single CD vaults-trawl that even sports an unissued nugget from Texan Donnie
Brooks very much in the early Blood, Sweat & Tears vs. Chicago vein and a
no-one knows-nothing-about recording from Frank Slay’s Claridge Records that
deserves its day in the sun. There's a lot of Soulful Rock and horny horns to
wade through here, so let's get at it my Funkalicious admirers...
UK released 26 July 2019 -
"Horn Rock & Funky Grooves 1968-1974" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace
Records/BGP CDBGPD 311 (Barcode 029667094825) is a 17-Track CD Compilation of
Remasters that plays out as follows (66:01 minutes):
1. Buddy's Advice - PAUL
BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND (fifth studio album "Keep On Moving" from
October 1969 (USA) on Elektra EKS 74053 - Buzzy Feiten song)
2. Toe Hold - AL KOOPER
(from his debut solo album "I Stand Alone" from February 1969 on
Columbia CS 9718)
3. It's Been A Long Time
Coming - DELANEY & BONNIE (May 1968 US 7" single on Stax STA-0003,
later issued on their debut album "Home" released August 1969 on Stax
STS-2026 (USA) and March 1970 (UK) on Stax SXATS 1029)
4. Understanding - COLD
BLOOD [featuring Lydia Pense] (from their December 1970 second album
"Sisyphus" on Atlantic/San Francisco SD 205)
5. One Fine Morning (LP
Version) - LIGHTHOUSE (fourth studio album "One Fine Morning" released
July 1971 (USA) on Evolution Records 3007 and October 1971 (UK) on Vertigo 6342
010)
6. Roller Coaster - BLOOD,
SWEAT & TEARS (September 1973 US 7" single on Columbia 4-45937, A-side
- also on the August 1973 sixth US LP "No Sweat" on Columbia KC 32180
and CBS Records 65275 (UK))
7. Clever Girl - TOWER OF
POWER (from their May 1973 US Debut LP "Tower Of Power" on Warner
Brothers BS 2681)
8. Blow Your Mind - DONNIE
BROOKS (Previously Unissued 1970 Recording, 2019)
9. Run Back To Mama - CHASE
[Bill Chase] (from their April 1974 third album "Pure Music" on Epic
KE 32572)
10. Tuane - HAMMER (from
their November 1970 debut album "Hammer" on Atlantic/San Francisco SD
203)
11. Somebody Oughta' Turn
Your Head Around - CRYSTAL MANSION (from their August 1972 US LP "Crystal
Mansion" on Rare Earth R 540L)
12. Clown (Part 1) - THE
FLOCK (September 1969 edited into two parts FRENCH 7” single on CBS 6965
(A-side is 3:15 minutes) – also part of the full “Clown” track on their debut
album "The Flock" issued September 1969 in the USA on Columbia
Records CS 9911 (Stereo) and April 1970 in the UK on CBS Records S 63733)
13. Gypsy Boy II - TOBIAS
WOOD HENDERSON (from the 1971 album "Blue Stone" on Pulsar Records
10605)
14. Shoes - BLACK MAGIC
(Previously Unissued Claridge Records recording, 2019)
15. Make Your Move - THE
ELECTRIC FLAG (from the 1974 LP "The Band Kept Playing" on Atlantic
SD 18112)
16. Boomp, Boomp, Chomp -
THE SONS (from their November 1969 second album on Capitol Records SKAO-332
called "The Sons" – The Sons Of Champlin (featuring Bill Champlin)
now credited as The Sons)
17. Aunt Marie - AMERICAN
SOUND LTD (1968 US 7” single on Pearce 5841, A-side)
The 20-page booklet features
track-by-track info on the 17 cuts by noted writer and Soul/Funk expert DEAN
RUDLAND. As ever his knowledge comes shining through and does his level-headed
appraisal - the text peppered with shots of album sleeves you rarely ever lay
eyes on (Butterfield, Tower Of Power and Lighthouse getting a colour page each)
and a couple of tasty US 45s on Stax and Columbia (Delaney & Bonnie and Al
Kooper). Audio is care of Ace's long-standing sound-man NICK ROBBINS and given
that 95% of it comes from major labels - each track is ballsy and full - proper
power when the brass comes brandy-glass rattling into your living room.
Written & Arranged by
Buzzy Feiten and Produced by songsmith and all-round catalyst Jerry Ragovoy -
the track selection opens strongly with "Buddy's Advice" - Paul
Butterfield smart enough to know that the Blues-Rock medium was already too
limiting by 1969 - so for album number five, he Funks it up and Soul
sympathiser Ragovoy delivers the audio wallop. You're then nailed with a
Stateside threesome - ex Blood, Sweat & Tears Al Kooper, Eric Clapton,
George Harrison and Leon Russell pals Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett and the
truly fantastic Cold Blood sporting the gutteral layrinx of Lydia Pense - a
woman who might worry Janis Joplin, Maggie Bell and Elkie Brooks (in that order).
Kooper's cover of the Isaac Hayes and David Porter penned "Toe Hold"
(previously done by Sam & Dave, Johnnie Taylor and Sharon Tandy) is a smart
choice. The backing band that can swing is Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde"
troupe, the arrangements are by Jazz Trumpeter Don Ellis (cutting a rug over on
Charles Taylor's CTI Records at the same time) and backing vocalists The
Blossoms giving it the girl power the Soulful cut needs. Cold Blood have always
been a lust of mine - their cover of Donny Hathaway's "Valdez In The
Country" surely a contender for Volume 2.
Lighthouse even got their
fourth album "One Fine Morning" a Blighty release on Vertigo Records
in October 1971 hoping to mimic their home country Canadian success of No. 2
(on GRT Records) and a more modest No. 80 on the US LP charts (Evolution
Records). But probably because the black-and-white swirl record company was
perceived as a 'difficult' Prog Rock label - nobody fell for their Fusion Rock
(time to change that).
The compilation then
cleverly goes past the usual choices for Blood, Sweat & Tears (their first
three albums, the second and third of which peaked at No. 1 in America) and
instead opts for a tune when the public had effectively stopped liking them -
the cool "Roller Coaster". Coupled with the fab Tower Of Power and a
Keith Olsen produced session in 1970 for Donnie Brooks - things continue well
with Bill Chase's "Run Back To Mama" - the ex Maynard Ferguson
trumpeter and his band sounding like they’ve been gargling old-school B, S &
T. platters for breakfast.
Neither of the Hammer or
Crystal Mansion cuts actually feature funky horns, but are guitar-driven
monsters that 'feel' like they do. The first I heard of the brilliant scatted
"Tuane" track was on Disc 2 of Rhino's fabulous 4CD Box Set
"What It Is!" - a 2006 deep dive into Atlantic's vaults and associated
labels looking for Rare Grooves. The song was supposed to have lyrics but band
member Johnny De just scatted along with the backing track and they realised it
was a winner sans words. The Crystal Mansion cut has the feel of a Rock Band
that deep down wants to be the Average White Band or Mother's Finest when they
grow up and their chandeliers drop. And
on it goes to a French single edit by The Flock and a Funk 45 most people will
never see on Pearce Records 5841 (out on Kansas) by the cool sounding American
Sound Ltd telling you about a hip relative to the sound of manic brass
punctuations.
American Rock gets back to
its soulful roots...the blurb on the rear inlay to CDBGPD 311 states. And I’d
like to thank Ace for reminding us of that and being a credit to the reissuing
community. Recommended...
