Featured Blog Posts – December 2007 Archive (10)

I Remember The ..

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Added by Edie Antoinette on December 24, 2007 at 6:30pm — 10 Comments

More on Leroy Hutson

An amazing record -- quite possibly the best ever by Chicago soul legend Leroy Hutson! The whole thing's a smooth soul masterpiece beyond compare -- a stunning blend of great songwriting, sexy vocals, and buttery production that rank it up there with the best work of 70s giants like Marvin Gaye, Leon Ware, or Roy Ayers. Leroy's got a voice that's both warm and mellow, yet incredibly honest at the same time -- and the songs on the record show a range of colors and…
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Added by Edie Antoinette on December 23, 2007 at 10:00pm — 5 Comments

The Bar-Kays: Then and Now

The Bar-Kays
The Original Bar-Kays
of which James Alexander is
the lone surviving member
Click To Enter The Barkays.com
The Bar-Kays, 1978. Back row, from left to right:

Charles Allen, Frank Thompson, Winston Stewart,

James Alexander, Michael Beard and Harvey Henderson.

Front row, left to right:

Lloyd…
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Added by Edie Antoinette on December 16, 2007 at 9:12pm — 8 Comments

Remembering Otis Redding

It's 40 years this week since the tragic untimely death of Otis Redding. Here's how his widow, friends and extended family at Stax Records remembered him:…



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Added by Edie Antoinette on December 16, 2007 at 8:31pm — 1 Comment

The Dynamic Superiors



From Wikipedia



The Dynamic Superiors are a motown group from Washington, D.C., United States.



The group formed in 1963 with members Tony Washington (lead), George Spann (1st tenor), George Peterback, Jr. (2nd tenor), Michael McCalpin (baritone), and Maurice Washington (bass). After a ten year wait, they received their first recording contract in 1974. They recorded with moderate success throughout the 1970s.…
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Added by Shelley "SoleMann" King on December 16, 2007 at 5:54pm — No Comments

Glad To Be Here!

I am glad to be part of the "Out of the Past" group, and look forward to getting to know you and share in this great music with you! Thanks to Edie for getting in touch with me! I run a near-daily soul/jazz/blues/funk/gospel blog, "Get on Down With the Stepfather of Soul," at http://stepfatherofsoul.blogspot.com, so please stop by and check out what I'm trying to do over there. I occasionally DJ at a…

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Added by stepfatherofsoul on December 11, 2007 at 1:50pm — 2 Comments

An E'Funk-P'Funk Production

George-Clinton-nv01.jpg

George Clinton, (born July 22, 1940) principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of 1981. He has been hailed as "The Prime Minister of Funk" as the leader of Parliament, as well as "The King of Interplanetary…

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Added by Edie Antoinette on December 11, 2007 at 1:00am — No Comments

2007 Shepherd Express Award "Best Acoustic Guitar Player"

My Son..Evan Christian!!!!

Guitar Aficionado…
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Added by Edie Antoinette on December 6, 2007 at 5:58pm — 9 Comments

Out Of The Past-Art In Motion

Lord if this isn't one of the BEST collaborations that mine eyes have EVAH seen!

The inimitable Nicholas Bros and The Contours -First I Look At The Purse
The rest of the menu is great too! Enjoy!

Added by Edie Antoinette on December 6, 2007 at 2:52am — 4 Comments

Introspection

Entr'acte

  1. play Norman Brown — Night Drive
  2. play Norman Brown — Feeling
  3. play Norman Brown — Still
  4. play Miles Davis — miles 1
  5. play miles 2
  6. play miles 3
  7. play miles 4
  8. play miles 5
  9. play Marvin Gaye — I Met A Little Girl
  10. play Santana — 01 Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
  11. play Santana — 02 Black Magic Woman-Gypsy Queen
  12. play Mongo — 02. Afro Blue



The history of the Butlers/Raw Soul is dense, but for all of us music nerds, that's normal. It is not totally clear what year the Butlers actually formed but they released their first single in 1963 on Liberty Records. That single was "She Tried To Kiss Me" and another single followed on Guyden entitled "Lovable Girl." After the Guyden single the Butlers took a break not recording another record until the single "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" was released on the Phila label in 1966. The group also backed Charles Earland and Jean Wells on one Phila single ("I Know She Loves Me"). 


As you might be noticing, the Butlers were doing a fair amount of recording but not achieving much success. The group's recordings sold regionally but never had the promotion to make an impact on the national scene. After the single with Phila, the Butlers moved to the Fairmount label (part of the Cameo-Parkway family) and released a handful of singles, some being reissued singles of the past. The Butlers were with Fairmount for 1966-67 and then moved to Sassy Records. Sassy released the group's greatest single (in my opinion) "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" b/w "If That's What You Wanted." A copy of that 45 sold for just under $500 last summer on eBay. Even though that isn't that much in the world of record collecting--it's still a hefty sum. The Butlers released another single on Sassy ("She's Gone" b/w "Love Is Good") that appears to be even 
harder to come by then the "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" single.

 

The true history become a bit blurred here as the AMG biography states that the Butlers last record was released on C.R.S. in 1974 (". However, between 1971 and that single, Frankie Beverly formed a group called Raw Soul and released a number of singles. Some of the songs recorded by Beverly during this period are "While I'm Alone," "Open Up Your Heart," (both on the Gregor label) and "Color Blind." "Color Blind" was released by the Eldorado label and rerecorded by Maze. Beverly's big break came when Marvin Gaye asked Raw Soul to back him on a tour. Gaye helped Beverly/Raw Soul get a contract at Capitol. Beverly decided to take the group in a different direction, a name change occurred, and Maze was created. 

The above isn't the most complete history of Beverly but hopefully someone will know a way to get in touch with the man or his management because a comprehensive pre-Maze history needs to be done on Frankie Beverly (his real name is Howard, by the way). Below you'll find every Frankie Beverly (pre-Maze) song available to me right now ("Color Blind" will be up soon). 

If you have a song that is not included below, shoot it over to funkinsoulman (at) yahoo.com and it will go up in the next Frankie Beverly post (later this week--highlighting Maze). Also, if you have any more information please share your knowledge. The Butlers material has been comp-ed sporadically (usually imports) but the entire Maze catalog has been reissued and is available. 

Enjoy.  "She Kissed Me" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967) 
 
 "I Want To Feel I'm Wanted" (not sure which label or year) "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" (Phila, 1966) "Because Of My Heart" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967)
   
 "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" (Sassy, 1967)
   
 "If That's What You Wanted" (Sassy, 1967)
 



Frankie Beverly is one of those cats that has lasting power. He started in the music business doing a tour with doo wop group the Silhouettes and then formed his own group called the Blenders. The Blenders never recorded a single, Beverly wouldn't appear on wax until forming the Butlers a few years later. Along with Beverly, the Butlers included Jack "Sonny" Nicholson, Joe Collins, John Fitch, and Talmadge Conway.

Beverly would later enjoy great success fronting Maze and Conway would become a
well-known penning Double Exposure's
"Ten Percent" and the Intruders' "Memories Are Here To Stay." 
 While Maze is a phenomenal group, Beverly's work before that group will always stand out as his best (imo).

The Butlers produced tunes that most Northern Soul fans would kill for and Raw Soul gave the funksters something to pursue. If, by chance, you know of a way to get in touch with Frankie Beverly or his management, please drop me an e-mail. It would be absolutely great to do an interview with him about his pre-Maze work. He's still playing out, most recently doing a New Year's Eve show in Atlanta.
:: Funkinsoulman ::

Power...Through Simplicity ♪♫♪

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