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Ian Levine 3 Hour Podcast Solid Soul Sensations


Pete S

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Thanks for posting Pete, have started listening and of the bit I've listened to recognise a number of em like Kitty Dodswell Willie Wade Roz Ryan Anette Thomas Tony Drake Leroy Barbour and Billy byrd and the tempo is quite varied which is good. I guess if you have that collector gene in you it never leaves you.

Edited by Steve G
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eleventh commandment on fast track is not the same group as on chess. did he not listen to the records? the chess group is female and the fast track group is male.

anyways, I think the chess group is from boston.

He needs an issue of the Fast track record great B side.....

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PATRONISING AND POOR SWITCHED OFF AFTER 4 RECORDS WITH OUT SOUNDING RACIST IT WAS WHITE SHITE

Your loss...you talking about the Connie Stevens record, which is great Northern...of course there are no decent white Northern records, here we go again..

Edited by Pete S
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Your loss...you talking about the Connie Stevens record, which is great Northern...of course there are no decent white Northern records, here we go again..

each to his own i spose no offence but I cant help being a SOUL fan rather than listening to the beat i listen for the voice maybe its me LOL

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each to his own i spose no offence but I cant help being a SOUL fan rather than listening to the beat i listen for the voice maybe its me LOL

I know Flanny but you should maybe have listened a little longer, seriously it would probably have been more to your tastes than mine because there are way way too many 70's and crossover records for me on there. Like you say, to each his own.

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OK, I just listened to the whole thing (I didn't listen to each song all the way through but did hit all of his speaking and all of the songs). Here are my impressions as a collector but a total outsider to "the scene":

- he really didn't play any "unknowns" in the sense of records that are unknown to collectors. Actually, I can't comment on the white stuff, but all the soul records he played are pretty much known (with the exception of that david and goliath record, which was just okay, sounded like an underproduced don and juan). But when I look in say, Andy Dyson's box, I see mostly stuff that I know that is totally under the radar and stuff that I'm like "what the hell is that?" Maybe many of the records Ian played are unknown on "the scene" but they are known to collectors.

- i can't deal with the female floaty white pop records he plays at the beginning, they really aren't soulful at all to me. one thing he played later in the show, the barbara mills record, would have been amazing with a soul singer on top, the production and male backing are fantastic but when her voice comes in, it's awful (in my opinion -- don't flame me if you love barbara mills).

- The male white records don't sound like soul to me at all, they sound like pop / rock. I guess groups like the tempests were doing soul but a lot of the obscure records he plays are really pop productions. And there was the one beach record by second nature.

- his taste in cheaper, black soul records is good. Like the roz ryan, exits (I like how he played the a-side under the street lamp and not "you got to have money"), earles inc (although the super expensive one actually is a little better), 125th street candy store, and the melodics. Actually, I really like how much he's into the melodics because it's also one of my favorite records. I think the group is actually from Chicago, it's produced by Raynard Miner and a lot of groups went south to record.

- I like his taste in 70s records better than the 60s records in general, they are less pop at least

- that al mccall record he played on profile was fantastic. I knew of the record but had only heard a little bit of it before and somehow didn't remember it. Definitely really nice. I might even have it in a box somewhere.

- there were a few female records he played which are known and which I knew of but had actually never heard -- I really liked the Kitty Doswell and Ella Woods (I know I should know these already but I didn't). The Gracie Dumas and Marion Love records were just okay. Either way, I would buy any of them if I saw them.

- I never heard that wilson williams on ABC, it was pretty nice (not amazing but good). I actually have a totally different record by him on ABC, have to pull it out to see if it's also good.

- full flavor on forte is not that obscure / unknown

- I like how I get an unnamed indirect reference when he talks about "someone found one of the ringleaders". By the way, the flip of that vinyl record is NOT the ringleaders (all of my life is though).

- I like how he plays New Image - it ain't easy as it's way better than the earlier solo Charles Russell version which is known, and because Charles Russell (the lead) is a super nice guy and Ian says nice things about the record.

- the phenomenons without your love is not that rare, i don't understand how he's saying that when he worked at AVI.

- I like how enthusiastic he is about the records when he talks. Some of the history stuff is okay too but when he keeps taking shots at the other DJs for only playing expensive records (specifically arthur willis) it's just catty. The way to be a good DJ is to play good cheap and expensive records and not care about, react to, or emulate other DJs. I do agree that there is a trend to play only rare or expensive records but instead of complaining about it you should do something positive and be a good DJ without trying to explicitly react to anything.

anyways, that's just my stream of consciousness ramblings if anyone cares.

Edited by boba
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im half an hour in and think its superb to be honest,(apart from a couple of tracks which i didnt really gel with) that first record was fookin brill i think and "joe" was another great tune,lookin foreward to the rest to be fair,thing is i dont go nighters and i can only imagine what some of those tunes wld sound like out loud on a big system,also the tune at 36mins is top quality too,just my opinion

jason

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billy bryds been reissued i think - check gemm jason

Yes it was reissued Mark but way too soon, it hasn't really had it's day yet. Those of us with the original still play it. :thumbsup: and there are a lot of people that still don't know it.

Edited by Steve G
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'The way to be a good DJ is to play good cheap and expensive records and not care about, react to, or emulate other DJs. I do agree that there is a trend to play only rare or expensive records but instead of complaining about it you should do something positive and be a good DJ without trying to explicitly react to anything'

I really like your way of thinking Bob . Thanks for the detailed post .

I shall listen tomorrow night with an open ear. He earns bonus points from me for not staying safe by playing what he knows works because someone else plays them. He has the funds and contacts to buy a guaranteed hit list , he is showing imagination in sourcing what he feels isn't genrally known so thats a tick in my book.

Whether I like his choice remains to be seen .. bit like jukebox jury isn't it :D

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I really like your way of thinking Bob . Thanks for the detailed post .

I can't believe I haven't been flamed yet. Where is that Mark S dude that was flaming me in that other thread? Either way, I tried to be totally honest though as there were positives and negatives.

I shall listen tomorrow night with an open ear. He earns bonus points from me for not staying safe by playing what he knows works because someone else plays them. He has the funds and contacts to buy a guaranteed hit list , he is showing imagination in sourcing what he feels isn't genrally known so thats a tick in my book.

actually I think this was way overpromised as after all that bragging about unknown rare records and how he's still a big collector, pretty much all the records are known. He could have said "I'm playing a great set of lesser known cheap and expensive records I haven't played before" and it would be fine. It could even be what the dancers consider a great set. The "unknown" thing isn't true though. In today's times, soul 45 collecting and finding unknown records takes a massive amount of time and energy and money, pretty much daily, for long periods of time. That's how people like Butch have amazing unknown records in their boxes. You can't just decide to collect again and buy records for a relatively short period of time and have some things that dealers offer you and end up with quality unknowns. Even with unlimited funds. Before you could go to the US and listen to tons of 45s in a warehouse and find all kinds of unknown (at the time) rarities. It's totally different in 2012.

I don't think he should have done this podcast because it's showing his hand. I guess he really believes that most of the records are unknown.

Edited by boba
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just listened to the podcast ' Ian played some nice records ' always been very knowledgeable guy 'many thanks IAN LEVINE

Edited by giant
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Guest ritchie

PATRONISING AND POOR SWITCHED OFF AFTER 4 RECORDS WITH OUT SOUNDING RACIST IT WAS WHITE SHITE

Why use colour to drive home your opinion if you are not being racist?

Imagine that statement using the word black...

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Why use colour to drive home your opinion if you are not being racist?

Imagine that statement using the word black...

ask if wish to talk about such issues then do the following

if site related - post in the feedback forum

if real world related- post in the political forum

thanks

mike

note

one follow on post removed

as said if wish to discuss such matters then use the relevant forums

thanks again

mike

Edited by mike
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Love the Sam Williams Singers 'For My People' track.

Is that the one Bob referred to as disco .lol

Gospel soul in my book , used to play it at joes bar in town , sounds great out loud :)

And a £10 record at most .

I enjoyed the music , but in all honesty it isn't all nighter music .

The billy Byrd track , to those that didn't know it ?was in sales by moi last week , with full mp3 of both sides !

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Listened to it last night and it was pretty fascinating. Practically all the good records have been well known and collected for an appreciable time.

Some of the less familiar sounds were jaw-droppingly bad and so out of kilter with the current flavour of the rare soul scene in 2012 that it would take someone with Ian's chutzpah to play them in a venue. Sam Williams Singers sounded like something the Twyla Tharp ensemble should be dancing to (not a good thing for a 'soul' record) while a few of the white major label things were gratingly abysmal. I'm all for left-field programming but some of these were stretching the definition of 'music' let alone 'soul music'. That thing on HBR was laugh-out-loud poor.

Where it was good was in terms of Ian's enthusiasm. I liked his description of almost fainting when he heard the Connie Stevens 45. It's great that Ian can still get a buzz from collecting and that came over really well. He remains a great raconteur.

On a technical note was it just me or was everything pitched-up so much that some records were almost un-listenable? To rave about Willie Wade as one of the greatest records ever and then play it at +10 so that all the delicacy of the arrangements and vocals were lost is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Overall a fascinating listen though.

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Why use colour to drive home your opinion if you are not being racist?

Imagine that statement using the word black...

I never highlited anything check my original post, and meant no offence was just saying it was watered down pop music sung without soul

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Just finished listening. Musically it covered the spectrum from superb to; well average IMHO. BUT I'd rather have someone play a few that didn't hit the mark with me than ones they know are certainties.

I did however find the bits between the music tedious. Who are these DJs that only play rare records with no regard to quality Ian keeps banging on about. Its a charge often leveled but no one is ever named despite Ian saying we all know who they are. I don't.

There is a lot of nonsence on the scene but I don't know a DJ that doesn't play quality cheap records too. (Granted I haven't heard every DJ but the implication is that they are well known / high profile DJs). IF the value and rarity is irrellevant why did Ian insist on telling us how cheap or rare each record was. Again I don't know a DJ that does that with such frequency.

Worth listening to but not as good as I expected, maybe that makes me one of the bigots?

Edited by ged parker
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Guest Matt Male

i liked most of it fairly easy listening but not much of it was now if you know what i mean

I know what you mean Ted.

Edited by Matt Male
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If this is the quality of stuff he's likely to play at the 100 Club, then I wouldn't cross the road to listen to him spin, let alone a five hour round trip.

And Willie Wade doesn't sound like Smokey Robinson on one side and Little Anthony on the other, he sounds like Alvin and the frigging Chipmunks because it's pitched up way too far.

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Am I The only one missing something here .. Pete posts up a 3 hr podcast of Ian levines current taste in music ... Then everyone takes it in turn to dissect it.

Does that mean , when everyone else posts a radio show podcast , we do the same ??only I haven't yet seen similar practice on here.

For the record , never met and absolutely no connection with Ian Levine .

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A few nice bits on there, thanks Ian.

In my oppiniun a very good D.J, he comes across very well and is obviously a soul music fan through and through - Can't knock it even if not all the tunes are to my taste.

All the best,

Len.

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Am I The only one missing something here .. Pete posts up a 3 hr podcast of Ian levines current taste in music ... Then everyone takes it in turn to dissect it.

Does that mean , when everyone else posts a radio show podcast , we do the same ??only I haven't yet seen similar practice on here.

For the record , never met and absolutely no connection with Ian Levine .

Absolutely nothing to stop anyone else doing the same Nev.

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Am I The only one missing something here .. Pete posts up a 3 hr podcast of Ian levines current taste in music ... Then everyone takes it in turn to dissect it.

Does that mean , when everyone else posts a radio show podcast , we do the same ??only I haven't yet seen similar practice on here.

For the record , never met and absolutely no connection with Ian Levine .

Thanks Nev.

Well Ian asked me to post the link as he isn't on this site, so I did.

That's the end of my connection with it.

But I believe that he must have wanted some kind of reaction to it or he would have told me to close the topic after posting it.

A lot of it isn't to my taste but you can't say that the bloke isn't sincere about his soul music.

If I were going to be doing a spot at the 100 Club with these records, I'd go for the most immediate first, the Hank Mullens and the like, keep the floor going with a couple of rare oldies (and he's got stacks of those, obviously he didn't want same old same old on the podcast), then slip in a few of the newer midtempo things, and then repeat as and when required.

Though me telling Ian Levine how to dj is a bit like me teaching Eric Clapton to play the guitar.

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The Ringleaders gets me, the B-side of the All My Life is not on the acetate {when I spoke to the owner} so that means they did 5 records Whats Happened + The B side then the acetate then Stating Over?

The b-side of the bootleg of All Of My Life is by a completely different, unconnected group. Think we've discussed it on here before. The four sides on the acetates are the coupling on the M-Pac 45, Starting Over and All Of My Life. On the acetates each released side is coupled with an unreleased side if that makes any sense.

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Am I The only one missing something here .. Pete posts up a 3 hr podcast of Ian levines current taste in music ... Then everyone takes it in turn to dissect it.

Does that mean , when everyone else posts a radio show podcast , we do the same ??only I haven't yet seen similar practice on here.

For the record , never met and absolutely no connection with Ian Levine .

No, its just because its being built up as the return of Ian Levine with the 100 club spot and everything. Also other people dont build everything up as "this is the best thing ever, better than so called top dj's are playing" blah, blah, blah

Most of the stuff I've heard so far is distinctly average with some absolute tripe in there. If he thinks this kind of stuff is going to cut it at the top level alongside Butch he's sadly mistaken.

If he just presented them as "this is music I really like have a listen and see what you think" that would be fine but I suppose thats not in his nature, he knows he going to get a reaction and is probably reading this now.

As said before not all nighter music in 2012

Edited by Steve L
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The Ringleaders gets me, the B-side of the All My Life is not on the acetate {when I spoke to the owner} so that means they did 5 records Whats Happened + The B side then the acetate then Stating Over?

no, the b-side to the (Giattino pressed??) white label boot is actually not the ringleaders at all. Don't know who it is though.

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No, its just because its being built up as the return of Ian Levine with the 100 club spot and everything. Also other people dont build everything up as "this is the best thing ever, better than so called top dj's are playing" blah, blah, blah

I think that this is exactly the point, he's a legendary figure who's made a lot of promises and this mix is supposed to be where he shows and proves himself.

Most people who don't like my show wouldn't put in the effort to listen and critique it, although if they did it wouldn't really bother me (although I'd probably respond). I don't think that people are irrationally ripping into Ian's mix either, I think people are being pretty reasonable and almost anyone noted some good things.

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