Note to Marks & Spencer: Whispering over the top of slow motion footage of food doesn't make it tast...
Note to Marks & Spencer: Whispering over the top of slow motion footage of food doesn't make it tastier or any less fattening.
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Subtitled “funk classics from sassy soul sisters” this album’s sentiment may have it’s heart in the right place, but it fails to describe the full picture here. These women are sexually, emotionally and vocally aggressive, leaving their men in no doubt as to who wears the trousers in their respective relationships. Each track here oozes raw sexuality, whether the role of the singer is that of a bored housewife (“Crumbs Off the Table”) or as sexual predator (“Your Thing Ain’t No Good Without My Thing”). The titles alone are sheer class.
Culled from the dusty vaults of Warner Bros’ legendary, bottomless soul archives this is an album of twelve virtually unknown tracks from between 1968 and 1974 performed by fourteen virtually unknown artists (honourable exception: Gladys Knight). But don’t let this hitherto anonymity of the artists put you off. With no reputation to cement or live up to, there are fourteen women here who are singing for their supper.
1968-1974 was, for soul music, a golden age when ideas were in abundance and the merest groan or howl of a black female on vinyl had the artist tagged as a diva. Everything here is impossibly funky. With some of the beats and the rhythms, you can see how the sampling culture of late 80s hip-hop artists caught on so rapidly: there is much booty here for those crate diggers.
So what of the individual tracks? Well with so much attitude going on here, I’ve marked the tracks out of five and, due to the constant message of these tracks, I have given a YKSMIWSS (You Know She Means It When She
Sings) reference too. Hold onto your afros, we're going back into time.....
**1. Laura Lee: Crumbs Off The Table** Fantastic start. Wah wah guitar and an impossibly funky beat with a brilliant deep bass. Her voice is by turns sexy and husky and this midpaced song is full of great surprises and twists and turns. It's about a woman who's man is too tired to make love in the evening's after work and Laura's becoming a bit suspicious. Mark: 5/5 YKSMIWSS: "You ain't able/All you wanna give is the crumbs off the table"
**2. Betty Moorer: It's My Thing** This is a cover of the old Isley Brothers tune and sounds quite badly produced as it sounds like Betty's shouting into megaphone. The brass is thre and so is the attitude but this version is sadly almost unlistenable. Mark: 4/5 for the song 1/5 for the production YKSMIWSS: "You say I need love now and that is true/But to me it makes a differnce who I give it to"
**3. Stovall Sisters: Hang On In There** A fast beat with the kind jangly guitars and wibbly keyboard bits that wouldn't go unnoticed in an episode of Starsky and Hutch. These girls are oozing soul and passion and the message is: stick with your guy and don't go sleeping around is he doesn't show interest. Mark: 3/5 YKSMIWSS: "When you feel that this shit is old/Just hang on in there"
**4. Vera Hamilton: But I Ain't No More (GSTSKDTS)** This is great! Back to the midtempo, funky stuff. Vera's voice is great and no note seems an impossibility. The bass and the brass sections are brilliant and the the backing vocals have just as much attitude as the lead vocals. Great stuff. Mark: 5/5 YKSMIWSS: The acronym in the title: "I used to be a Genuine, Stomped-on, Torn-up Sho-nuff, Knocked-down, Dragged-out, Tied-up, Strung-out fool for you (but I ain't no more)"
**5. Ann WInley: Watchdog" Sadly not a soul song about the BBC consumer-interest show but the story of a woman being stalked and spied on "like a watchdog". It's another superb midtempo funky number with some superb 70's porn piano and keyboards (to match Champ666's ex-moustache). Mark: 4/5 YKSMIWSS: "So go on get out my way/I don't need Columbo on my case!"
**6. Betty Davis: Anti Love Song** Coming on like an even gruffer Macy Gray this is how you seduce a listener on record. The vocals are huskily whispered, virtually in your ear, about everything Betty doesn't want from a particular man because he's too much of a temptation. Betty pretty much talks her way through this track, but that should deviate from the fact that tune has more rhythm and blues that the current crop of MTV-friendly rubbish. Quite brilliant Mark: 5/5 YKSMIWSS: "I know you could possess my body and make me scraaaaawl"
**7. Jody Gayles: You Gotta Push** A chugging track very similar to James Brown's music. Another song with below average production and the track suffers slightly from that. The guitars nag as the bass comes in and out, but it's the beat and percussion that still the show as they're extremely inventive and impossibly funky. Mark: 3/5 YKSMIWSS: "I love you and every dog has it's day/But you've just got to meet me halfway"
**8. Gladys Knight: Who Is She (And What Is She To You?) Possibly the most fanous soul star on here, is the old Motoen regular Gladys Knight, complete with her Pips. A great beat starts this off (I'm sure it's been sampled somewhere) and more porn keyboards and guitar come in. Gladys is on top form on this tune which sounds a lot like Repect Yourself, another diamond from this era. Mark: 4/5 YKSMIWSS: "Goddammit! Who is she and what is she to you"
**9. Lyn Collins: Give It Up Or Turn It Loose** I like Lyn Collins. I've got a couple of her dusty old albums on vinyl and she hasn't cut a bad tune. Her voice is clear, pronounced and soulful and in the late 60's she was chosen by James Brown to join his "Funky People" collective. The lovely Lyn weighs in here with a cover of a Brown song and pisses on the original. More midtempo, brassy, funky stuff. There's a pattern developing here. Mark: 4/5 YKSMIWSS: "Hold on and squeeze me tight" (oo-er).
**10. Marie "Queenie" Lyons: Your Thing Ain't No Good Without My Thing** This is an "answer record" to the Isley Brothers' It's My Thing. Are we getting the "thing" idea now? Marie provides possibly the most passionate vocal performance on this album so far, and that's not an easy thing to accomplish. Mark: 4/5 YKSMIWSS: "You don't realise that I've got a good thing too"
**11. Ann Sexton: You're Gonna Miss Me" Another brilliant tune with an incredibly soulful, mournful performance from the singer. More downtepo and pronounced than other offierng on this fine album and way too short at under three minutes, but still a diamond. Mark: 4/5 YKSMIWSS: "You better think about it, babe, if you choose to leave/But you're gonna miss me"
**12. Cold Blood: I'm A Good Woman** For a three minute track, this has an epic acapella sung intro that sets out this song's intentions straight away. The beat is uptempo and joyous, promoting the positives in the early 70's "bra-burning" movement. Brilliant, poignant and dated stuff. A super end to the album. Mark: 5/5 YKSMIWSS: "I'm a good woman/So don't treat me like dirt". (You go giiiiiiiirl!)
OVERALL Every one of these obscure, hitherto undiscovered tracks has one thing in common: their singers have more soul and passion and guts and feeling in their left nipples than the likes of Beyonce, Christina Milian or Jamelia will ever have. And that's a shame.
TImeless music with an outdated message.
Thanks for reading.
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