Bloodstone On Epic

[boba]

Hi. Does anyone have a copy of this 45? Does it even exist? One of the sides is on a Japanese comp but it could have been unreleased from tapes. Any info would be appreciated (a scan would be awesome). The specific info is this:

Epic 50437 - Got to Find Myself Another Baby / Weeping Willow Tree

Thanks in advance.

[Roburt]

I love me some Bloodstone; not least because when they had just changed from the Sinceres to become Bloodstone, they relocated to the UK. They worked a lot (with Mike Vincent) just up the road from where I now live, in Chipping Norton. Unfortunately, the studio was pulled down a few years back (a workmate was around at the time & pulled loads of acetates out of the skips set up by the studio when it was being stripped down) -- such a 'den' wouldn't be allowed up there now, Chippy's where our Prime Minister, the News International skels & loads of actors / TV presenters live.

Anyway back to Bloodstone, I have tons of their stuff (London, Motown, T Neck recorded tracks) and my task of helping you is complicated by the fact that some of their T Neck stuff was released in the UK on CBS / Epic ......

ALSO ...my collection is in such a state of disarray (filing wise) that it takes me days to unearth a specific 45 if I'm looking for it (the time taken being much extended as I find other 'forgotten gems' along the way).

But I will look & will post again if I have any luck with regard to this 1977 single.

BTW, I was in touch with ex group member Charles McCormick in the 1980's and have a cassette full of his unreleased solo efforts here somewhere (don't ask me to find it though !!).

Edited April 10, 2012 by Roburt

[Roburt]

Just checked Billboard mag & in the edition dated 26th February 1977 its reported that Bloodstone had left London Records to sign with Epic on a contract supposedly worth $2.7 million.

Guess, sumat went wrong with that deal as Epic certainly didn't get their money's worth from the group (who had resigned to Motown by 1979).

UPDATE: Billboard in early March 77 re-report group's signing with Epic but state deal was NOT worth $2.7 million.

HOWEVER, the 2 year gap in releases after they signed with Epic (for a group that had enjoyed 8 US hit soul chart 45's / 6 US pop chart hits in the previous 3 years) does seem to suggest that they were 'tied in' at Epic and were unable to escape that contract to sign with another label.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Roburt

[Roburt]

Of course, T Neck was distributed by Epic when Bloodstone were signed with the Isley Bros label (1982) but I guess neither they (or the Isley's) cared too much about that situation.

Another 'even sooner' link with CBS / Epic came via Al Johnson. Johnson had been signed (by Norman Connors) to a deal with Columbia in 1979. At the same time that he & Norman were laying down his first recordings for CBS, Al was working with Bloodstone on their first tracks for Motown (after the group had finally managed to escape their Epic deal).

STRANGE OLD WORLD AIN'T IT !!

[Roburt]

Bloodstone were trying to get their name back in front of the record buying public in early 1979. That pril they did a PA at LA discount record store, Freeway Records. This massive R & B related store organised a massive sale day on Good Friday that year. Loads of artists were invited along to 'meet' the public. Bloodstone were one such outfit, as was Ray Parker & Raydio, Alton McClain & Destiny, Undisputed Truth, Apollo, Glass Family plus Bobby Womack, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Harvey Mason, Tate Vega, Vernon Burch, etc.

The store was selling didcounted vinyl that day & to attract extra customers ran a 'disco' on their parking lot before getting Rare Gems to perform a set actually inside the store.

They certainly don't have days like that down anyone's local record shop these days.

Boodstone must already have been working in the studio for Motown by this date (mid April 79)and seeking to re-establish links with their old audience.

[boba]

thanks. does the epic single exist?

I don't even think it exists on a UK or other country press.

[Roburt]

would guess that the tracks that were to form the 45 were (AT LEAST) cut & mixed down. At some stage there was obviously a big falling out between the group & Epic.

This may have happened after the proposed 45 was allocated a release number but before copies actually hit the shops. Whether promo / radio stn copies were pressed up I don't know (maybe they were pressed up & then not sent out due to whatever the dispute between the two parties was).

I'd guess there's a master tape sat somewhere in LA and maybe a couple of acetates kicking around somewhere in the US.

The proposed Epic 45 doesn't seem to have been reviewed in Billboard, so I'd think no issue copies ever existed but that's just me adding 2 + 2 and getting 5.

[Roburt]

I've found out a couple of UK Epic 45's by the group.

Unfortunately they date from 1982/84 & were T Neck label releases in the US.

A bit of background on them ...... originally from Kansas City but spent some years gigging around California.

Got p*ssed off & so returned to Kansas to re-invent themselves. Had some tracks in the can but didn't want to release them as by the Sinceres. Renamed themselves Bloodstone & managed to land a UK tour in 72 as support for Al Greene.

Went down a storm in the UK, so Decca signed them up. Initially a couple of their Sinceres US recordings were put out here on Decca before they were teamed with Mike Vincent.

He took them off to Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire & here they cut "Natural High" (UK Pop Top 40 in August 73).

Some of the guys got homesick; Melvin Webb quit & headed back to the US, whilst Roger Durham died.

Group enjoyed loads more success in the US but never made the UK pop charts again.

Relocated back to the US in the mid 70's.

[boba]

I'm pretty sure the epic tracks were completed as one of them appeared on some Japanese compilation LP. But not the other side. I knew the epic UK records were just the UK releases of the t-neck records.

FYI, the pzazz record isn't their first record. I have an earlier 45 by the group on the Zina label out of new york, definitely the same group given the credits.

[Roburt]

I like their T Neck / UK Epic 45 track "It Feels So Good" from 1984.

I have their 1st UK 45, it was released on UK Decca on 7th April 1972 (got it on a demo & it states the release date).