Welcome back to Musictown, all you wonderful music fans! Please join Dave and Mary in the Listening Party rumpus room where you can always find a comfortable chair and a soft, warm blanket.
David and Mary boogie down to side one of listener Rachel Gamboa’s second disc of soul, funk and R&B. There’s something funky for everyone this week!
- Arthur Conley – “Sweet Soul Music” – Sweet Soul Music, 1967
- The Soul Clan – “That’s How It Feels” – single B-side b/w “Soul Meeting”, 1969
- James Brown – “I’m a Greedy Man Pts. 1 & 2” – There It Is, 1972
- The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Bag of Bones” – Meat + Bone, 2012
- Jimmy Norman – “Gangster of Love Pts. 1 & 2” – single, 1968
- The Friends of Distinction – “Love Can Make It Easier” = Love Can Make It Easier, 1973
Marsha Gee– “Peanut Duck” – One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found, 2005- Leon Haywood, “It’s Got to Be Mellow” – It’s Got to Be Easier, 1967
- The Joe Jeffrey Group – “My Pledge of Love” – single A-side b/w “Margie”, 1969
- Freda Payne – “Band of Gold” – Band of Gold, 1970
- Eddie Holman – “Hey There Lonely Girl” – I Love You, 1970
- The Persuaders – “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” – Thin Line Between Love and Hate, 1972
And we played a lot of additional songs this week – including:
- Sam Cooke – “Yeah Man”
- Barbara Lewis – “Hello Stranger”
- Johnny “Guitar” Watson – “Gangster of Love”
- Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers – “Does Your Mother Know About Me?”
- Ruby and the Romantics – “Hey There Lonely Boy”
Thanks for listening.
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Just three songs in, and loving this episode so far. Wanted to let you know there’s a really good documentary on Netflix – UK version anyway – The Two Killings of Sam Cooke. Well worth a watch.
Hello Dave and Mary.
This will be a weird comment.
I have listened to and enjoyed all of the Listening Parties up until the last couple shows about soul music. I really dislike soul music – so I have avoided listening. However, in reading the song lists- ( I couldn’t help myself) I found that I know many more of the soul tunes that you played – way more than any of the previous mixtapes you have featured.
Apparently your soul mixtape is much more mainstream group of songs than any mixtape you have done before. Anyway, good on you as Ian would say-and thank you.
You Dedrix are very cool, and I am a little drunk.
Best,
Danny
Is it just me or does “Peanut Duck” sound like a fake dance craze song from a mockumentary? Perhaps it would’ve been better if it had stayed Lost!
Thank you for another great show, Dave and Mary. I loved the variety of the songs, and your conversation was full of the history, insights, and humour we’ve come to expect from the listening party. I had no idea Sweet Soul Music drew so heavily on Yeah Man. I can see why Arthur Conley had the hit, but the improv style and looser feel of the Sam Cooke song were cool and endearing. The story of the Soul Clan was really interesting. Shame they didn’t get to do more together.
James Brown – as Krusty might have said, that just kept on going, didn’t it? Jon Spencer Blues explosion may have been out of place, but was really great. Kind of a mash up of The Fall, Sex Pistols and Beastie Boys. Barbara Lewis was sublime – loved that one. Jimmy Norman was pretty good. Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, on the other hand, shows there’s a big difference between sexy talk and plain old misogyny.
Friends of Distinction were too smooth for my taste. On first listen, I found Peanut Duck really annoying, but second time it was great fun. Really glad you included that one. Leon Heywood was another miss for me – forgettable tune and barely-there lyrics. Joe Jeffrey Group really swung and was good fun. Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers was great, a nice surprise.
Freda Payne I’ve always loved – such a catchy tune and arrangement, and an amazingly adult lyric and subject matter for a pop hit of its time. Eddie Holman – oh, dear. The lead vocal sounded like Kermit on helium and the arrangement was horribly sugary. ‘Sedate’ was a good description of the Ruby and the Romantics version, but I felt it showed better that there’s a good song in there. That was me shouting ‘Frankie Valli!!’ by the way. (Fun fact about the Children’s Hour – Lillian Hellman was very open in acknowledging Dashiell Hammett’s influence, saying it was down to him that she managed to finish writing the play.) The Persuaders was fantastically over the top – a nicely melodramatic flourish to close the show.
DuckDuckGo rocks!