"Who is that Girl?" a question i asked my Mother at a Family Gathering during the summer of 1974, but as i soon found out, there was no question that this was no girl, but The Stylistics singing You Make Me Feel Brand New and this began love affair with The Group thats has lasted 33 years.

In the fall of 1992 The Stylistics were coming here for a concert and a dream was about to come true....I was soooooooo excited, but that excitement turned into disappointment when they cancelled because of low ticket sales. It would be another 12 years before they finally made it here.

Spring 2004 it was announced that the Stylistics would be here with Teddy Pendergrass for a benefit we have here every year called A Night To Remember....Finally i got to see them, but was disappointed again, because Russell Thompkins Jr. was no longer in the group, but his replacement Eban Brown sounded like a younger Russell, so it was all good plus it was nice seeing Airrion Love and Herb Murrell 2 original members.

There are now 2 separated Stylistics groups...In 2000 Russell Thompkins Jr. formed the New Stylistics and sadly he no longer gets alone with Airrion and Herb. I know what happened because i am a member of the Soulful Detroit Forum and Russell drops in from time to time, it's very suprising what went on in the Original Stylistics, i'm not going to go into here about that, but if you truly love music this site is for you.

http://www.soulfuldetroit.com/forum/

THE STYLISTICS Russell Thompkins Jr, Airrion Love, Herb Murrell, James Dunn, James Smith

I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING



ONLY FOR THE CHILDREN




BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW





THE STYLISTICS
Eban Brown, Airrion Love, Herb Murrell, Van Fields

PAYBACK IS A DOG



MEDLEY OF HITS




RUSSELL THOMPKINS JR. AND THE NEW STYLISTICS Russell Thompkins Jr, Raymond Johnson, James Ranton, Jonathen Buckson

MY HEART




STOP, LOOK, LISTEN (TO YOUR HEART)





BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW




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Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on January 25, 2008 at 2:44pm
Nude Africa still there, but i mostly go to the Anything goes forum....LOL
Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:39pm
That don't make no sense...

You always make my day Sole..and your blogs always take on a life of their own--I love that!

Now you got me wanting to go find Nekkid Africa again too...lawd ain't no tellin WHAT ain't up in there now, if it's still there.

They got some kinna network like that at Ning now too...but the name is super offensive--at least for me...ugh. But same type stuff...I repeat...ugh.

Hercules is on and they are cracking my side! It's from the 60's with the big shiney pects and bad special effects. Priceless!
Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on January 25, 2008 at 2:33pm
Workers At Former Clark Bros. Make Startling Discovery
Four Large KKK Murals Are On Second Floor Walls
posted October 11, 2004

KKK murals found at former Clark Brothers Furniture building at Main and Market. Click to enlarge.
Workers doing demolition work at the former Clark Brothers Furniture building at Main and Market made a startling discovery. When stucco was removed from second-floor brick walls, there were four large murals of a hooded Ku Klux Klan member astride a black horse.

"We were shocked," said Alejandro Richter, whose construction firm is helping ready the building for a condominium project.

He said, "We said, 'Whoa!' We know what the figures mean.

"I never thought we would uncover something like that."

Mr. Richter said the owners were also shocked when they saw the figures.

There are two on the north wall and two on the south wall of the identical murals.

At the bottom of the murals is scrawled the name J.G. Schrock. An old city directory in 1950 gives an individual by that name who was living in Rossville and listed as a welder.

Mr. Richter said the walls will be cleaned later in the project, and the murals removed.

He noted, "It is part of history."

Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:32pm
Airrion67 eh? I guess you said 'forgitt them hounds'!!! Shoooot! lol

Is that site still up??? Hilarious stuff uppin there.
Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:30pm
Sole: "Yeah i remember seeing Hoppi there...BIG SMILE/LMBOOOOO"...

Edie: Yeah, Lil Hoppi hates clothes--but at least she had some class with her's...lightyear's from some of them greasy parts I saw there...assaultin my eyes like that...hmph! ROFLMBOOOOOOO
Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:27pm
And po Klu...I know they got you too with that username...they probaly sent you notes like...

"Hmmmmm is that Klu as in Klux???" lol

What 'is' the significance of the name if I may ask?
Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:25pm
Sole was like..."now wait a cotton pickin minute!!! Imma black man!!!!!" BWAAAAAAAHAAAAAA!!!!!
Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:24pm
ROFL...Sole was so adorable with it...I mean they was on him like white on rice when he posted that story--ran the po child out like he had stole somethin..po child..ROFLMBOOOOOOOO and it didn't help that he's forgotten his username at the end of the blog posting was ----"Airrion Love"...rofl

Sole told me they went ballistic!!! bwaaaaaa haaaaaa
Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on January 25, 2008 at 2:23pm
Nude Africa...LOL. I changed my name briefly, but now it's Airrion_67...BWAAA HAHAHA. Yeah i remember seeing Hoppi there...BIG SMILE/LMBOOOOO
Comment by Edie Antoinette on January 25, 2008 at 2:11pm
Po Suggah7..they was messin with my baby. When sole first told me that I fell OUT laffin--and he had to go out and come back with a new more politically correct username...LOL!!! So funny. I can't remember the name of that site but Hoppi was there too.

I went over there to be a voyeur, as I'm sure many did and I was APPALLED by all them frontal attacks looking like sea urchins (the cooties) and black nasty lookin behinds all UP IN THE WEBCAM..

*edie just rolled out the chair and is on the flo laffin her butt off!!!!!* ROFLMBOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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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