Howdy, it has been a while since my last post, but I promise you I am back with some funky fireworks. It has been a busy month for me, but I got reminded of my blogging duties by a befriended DJ of mine. And yesterday I got a weird surprise by watching an item on eBay and seeing for what price it went for. It was last post’s Warm Excursion 45 which traded hands for 137 US dollars. Sick!

Well, today’s tune of choice is something every Cypress Hill fan would instantly recognize by the instrumental. Featuring as a skit on the Hill’s Black Sunday album called Lock Down, this garnered my attention when I was a 15 year old kid giving the Hill serious playtime on my dad’s stereo (he even bought the CD a while ago because even the old man can appreciate some blunted hiphop). The original however, is much more impressive, and makes clear why DJ Muggs used especially this piece of music (he apparently got sued by Syl Johnson in 2008 for 29 million dollars for the use of this tiny sample. Seems a bit harsh to me.)

Syl Johnson is a guitarplayer from Mississippi, and scored hits in the 60s with, among others, “Different Strokes” which is a breakbeat classic record. When I can cop that one on vinyl I will surely feature it on the blog. Syl got another hit in 1969 called “Is It Because I’m Black”. It is a socially conscious song, the message being that he feels discriminated over the colour of his skin. The intro alone gives me goosebumps, and Syl crooning his words even so. Give it a listen!

Download or listen to Warm Excursion – Hang Up pt.1!

Speaking of fatback drums, this little record deserves first price in funk drums excellency. I picked up this Pzazz single with a small batch of 6 dollar records on E-bay, being the most expensive at 12 dollars. When reading more about this 45 on Funky16Corners (be sure to check that blog, more about that later) it should have gone for $50 in 2005. Well, I think it was just my lucky day not having to beat insanely high bidders, shall I blame the economic crisis that my US counterparts are not so interested in collecting vinyl? The high value of the euro? Whatever the reason, I am glad this slab of vinyl made it to my small yet growing record collection. 

Some info from Funky16Corners (Blog of Larry Grogan, soul connaisseur extraordinaire, www.funky16corners.com):

“The Pzazz label (“Put a little Pzazz in your jazz!”) was started by New Orleans legend Paul Gayten (funny, isn’t it how things always make their way back to New Orleans?). Gayten, who wrote and recorded some seminal R&B in the Big Easy in the 1950’s, eventually winged it out to the West Coast where he ran things for Chess Records on that end of the map for some years. He started Pzazz in 1968, and over the next few years released all kinds of records; jazz, funk, soul and blues, with a catalogue including a few dozen 45s and a handful of LPs (and an especially cool label design). Pzazz had success with recordings by Lorez Alexandria, and also released sides by veterans like Louis Jordan. Also included in their discography is another funky organ classic, ‘Twitchie Feet’ by The Soul Machine. I haven’t really been able to track down much information about the group Warm Excursion (subtitled ‘Terrible Three’ on the 45 label). They recorded at least one other 45 for the Watts-USA label, ‘Funk-I-Tus’ b/w ‘Phut-ball’, and were almost definitely LA-based. There’s also a rumor that they recorded a full albums worth of material, which was destroyed at some point.”

Download Booker T & the MGs - Melting Pot

Download Bobby Williams - Funky Superfly pt. 1

Download Bobby Williams – Funky Superfly pt.1 here!

I found this song when browsing through the radio podcasts by Midnight Soulstice on W-RIR 97.3 (be sure to check out http://www.myspace.com/midnightsoulstice and tune up to their weekly radio shows). I was lucky enough to be the only bidder on an E-Bay auction, which got me a good deal for this rare gem.

Hailing from Miami, Bobby Williams gets 100 out of 100 points for pure funkiness. I can’t find much info on Bobby, but you can clearly hear the James Brown influences going on here. The tune instantly blasts off pure horns ‘n all funky style, with his typical screams and shouts Bobby gets the party started.  Watch out for that drum break! For a 1974 song, it is recorded almost at the end of the great funk era, but there is somehow a 60s rawness to this recording that makes it stand out. Enjoy!

PS: if it would make you happy, someone uploaded Bobby Williams full album “Funky Superfly” here.

Click the image above or download here!

This is something I picked up as a package filler record for an E-bay transaction. It turned out to be the best single of the bunch! I didn’t know much of Dyke and the Blazers, apart from some songs that were included on some funk compilation series. The other side of this Original Sound 45 is “Wobble”, a pretty funky tune as well. I might include that in my blog one day as well. I will feature the A-side “Stuff” in here, it has a fatback groove, stabbing horns and incredible energy. Enjoy!

Some information from Allmusic: “Arlester “Dyke” Christian was born in Buffalo, NY, in 1943, and by the mid-’60s was singing and playing bass with the O’Jays backing band, the Blazers. Dyke and some of the other Blazers were stranded in Phoenix when the O’Jays‘ couldn’t afford to bring them back to Buffalo, and the Blazers based themselves in Phoenix, having no means to travel elsewhere. Their “Funky Broadway” was released on the Phoenix indie Artco in late 1966, and picked up for distribution by the L.A.-based Original Sound label. It became a sizable R&B hit (and a small pop one), and may have been the first record to use the word “funky” in the title.

As with James Brown, Dyke & the Blazers’ records sold far better, and charted much better, with the R&B audience than the pop one, which was for the most part unaware of the band. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Dyke and the band issued a series of gut-bucket funk singles with scratchy guitar riffs, greasy organ, hoarse vocals, and jazzy horns; all traits that James Brown and his band had developed, admittedly. But Dyke did the style well (right down to issuing several two-part singles), although not with a great deal of variety. For some of his sessions, Dyke recorded in Los Angeles with musicians who would later play in the Watts 103rd Street Band (guitarist Al McKay would later be in Earth, Wind & Fire). According to Original Sound producer Art Laboe, most of the singles came from 15-to-20-minute jams that were edited down to a length that could fit on the 45 RPM format.

Dyke & the Blazers had Top Ten R&B singles with “We Got More Soul” and “Let a Woman Be a Woman — Let a Man Be a Man” in 1969, and smaller sellers with “Uhh, ” “You Are My Sunshine,” and “Runaway People.” Dyke Christian, sadly, was fatally shot on the street in Phoenix on March 13, 1971.”

Every Billy Garner song has a great beat. It’s that beat and Billy’s screams and shouts that I fell in love with when I first heard his song “I Got Some” on the Brainfreeze Breaks compilation 2LP. You might know this tune as it was sampled by DJ Premier for GangStarr’s “B.Y.S.” . His other two landmark breaks are “Brand New Girl” and “You’re Wasting My Time” which were featured on SuperFunk vol. 2 by BGP/Ace Records (www.acerecords.com).

For now, take a listen to his most recognizable song “Super Duper Love” as this was revived by Joss Stone a few years back. Luckily, Joss does not deteriorate the original, as happens to a lot of covers. They either get ‘dancified’ with a stupid techno beat, or the singing really sucks compared to the original. Joss has a great soul voice, and her backing band is top notch. It gets close to the intensity of the original. Listen…

Click image above or download it here!

I am greatly fond of Dennis Coffey, not only because he is an incredible guitarplayer, but his songwriting and jamming style of recording made me fall in love with everything he ever put on record. I first got acquanted with his name when Mike D of the Beastie Boys was rapping: “Like Dennis Coffey I’m a Scorpio” on “Skills to Pay the Bills”. Not knowing that “Scorpio” is an awesome breakdance classic, I never gave it much thought. When hearing Coffey’s “Black Belt Jones” soundtrack on a compilation record (Schoolyard Breaks vol. 2 – GET THIS RECORD), I was sold.

I will definitely include “Scorpio” (got that 45 in the mail just a few weeks ago) and “Black Belt Jones” (when I find it on a 45 at a reasonable price; last week a copy went away on Ebay for $100) on this blog soon. For now listen to his 1969 cover of The Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing” he did with some band called the Lyman Woodard Trio. Pay attention to that fatback drum in the intro, with Coffey’s wah-wah guitar riff. Heavenly!

Click the image above or download it here!

Part of Dennis Coffey’s biography from Allmusic.com:

From the mid-to-late ’60s, Coffey was a Detroit session fixture, appearing on such mainstream hits and cult classics as Darrell Banks‘ monumental “Open the Door to Your Heart,” Carl Carlton‘s “Competition Ain’t Nothing,” and Tobi Lark‘s “Happiness Is Here.” His inventive playing is the tissue that connects an untold number of crowd favorites within Britain’s Northern soul club culture. Around 1968 Coffey also began working steadily at Motown, beginning with the Temptations‘ gritty “I Wish It Would Rain.” He went on to appear on the group’s landmark efforts “Cloud Nine” and “Ball of Confusion,” pushing the Motown sound into increasingly funky territory with his ingenious use of a wah-wah pedal, one of several technological innovations he introduced to tweak The Sound of Young America. Beginning with Jack Montgomery‘s Scepter release “Dearly Beloved,” Coffey concurrently added arranging and producing to his slate, teaming with local session drummer Mike Theodore to found their own production firm, Theo-Coff. The duo quickly hit paydirt helming a demo tape for the blue-eyed psych-soul combo the Sunliners, landing a production deal with MGM’s Maverick subsidiary. Six months later, Maverick also signed Coffey to a solo contract, releasing his psych-funk classic Hair & Thangs and scoring a Midwestern smash in 1969 with his fuzz-laden instrumental reading of the Isley Brothers‘ “It’s Your Thing.”