Beach Music Curse Or Cool?

[soulfulsaint]

I have tried hard over many years to give Beach Music the benefit of much doubt. I've even spent a few days in Myrtle Beach shagging, but that's a long story.

Everytime I listen to a record released on the Beach Scene, even by those artists with great soul heritage, I am disappointed to the point of despair. Those that have been played on the rare northern scene from Admiral Ice to Oxford Nights are pretty insipid too.

Okay, the two scenes share a few things in common, not least a love for the music of the past and according to a recent posts they are now even 'covering up' sounds in Carolina. But are the two scenes really that close? I have always found the northern scene 'grittier', more informed, and more passionate about the music.

We are much more obsessive and have a greater number of nutters per hundred. The Beach Scene, by contrast is really a lovers' nostalgia scene for divorcees, and I've given up caring what gets played there. Most of it is gash beyond belief.

If I'm wrong then please help me with the list of great unkowns - especially the hard core rarities that you'd strangle your neighbour to own.

Name one Beacch sound that really touches the soul? One will do.

[Simon M]

Whats all that about Saint . Its probably not cool , but

Mellow Madness "Save the youth" (Mega)

Dynamic Upsetters "make myself clear ( mega)

Both rare frantic modern soul dancers ,much sort after .

Mellow madness is on this link https://www.soul45.org/cgi-bin/radioshow.cgi?record=16

Cheers

Simon

Edited April 1, 2006 by Simon M

[Modernsoulsucks]

Are you two not mixing up what is Beach music and 45s that just happen to have been recorded and released in the Carolinas.

ROD

[Simon M]

Are you two not mixing up what is Beach music and 45s that just happen to have been recorded and released in the Carolinas.

ROD

Pretty sure both bands Ive metioned are, Beach scene peolple . Think Ive got a releases on Shag time too

[Modernsoulsucks]

Pretty sure both bands Ive metioned are, Beach scene peolple . Think Ive got a releases on Shag time too

To be honest I've not heard the two on Mega but with you describing them as "frantic" I can't imagine them being played in past 20 years. Would you say those two are very similar to "Party time man" and "Integrity" cos that's the Beach sound. Any variation is a no-no. I remember getting my DJ mate to play "Too late" Mandrill and that died a death.

Im sure Oxford Nights wasn't a Beach 45 cos it's the wrong beat. Besides by middle of the 80's the 60's sound was dying out in the clubs. I've been to quite a few and all I heard was 70's and 50's blues/jump R&B. It was rather strange cos the first club I wandered into in '79 played a lot of 60's and by ' 88 I don't recall any really. "Wish you were here" by Billy Eckstine on Motown was one of the few and we'd class that as MOR.

I don't actually think there's a beach vinyl collecting scene anymore if Ebay is anything to go by. Back in late 90's CDs were already taking over and DJs were getting rid of their 45s.

As Stuart said they didn't seem very passionate about the music and were just going thru the motions. What I find a bit worrying is that I've been to a couple of do's around the NW where all I've heard is 70's and our R&B [not the same as what's played over there] with very few 60's 45s.

There were some fantastic 45s from the Carolinas in the 60's and 70's and some guys who collected them like Lew Stanley but I think if you asked Lew he'd probably say he wouldn't be seen dead in a Beach club.

ROD

[FrankM]

The Beach Music scne would appear to me to be more of a dance scene with live bands still playing an important part. The DJ's seem to be interested in taking on modern blues and Soul tracks and remixing them or persuading the artists to re record them to make them more suitable for Beach Music plays.

Here's this week's beach music chart you may recognise some names and even some titles but how may will be played near the beach at prestatyn next year.

https://www.beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResou...RnBchTop40.html

[givemesoul]

Whats all that about Saint . Its probably not cool , but

Mellow Madness "Save the youth" (Mega)

Dynamic Upsetters "make myself clear ( mega)

Both rare frantic modern soul dancers ,much sort after .

Mellow madness is on this link https://www.soul45.org/cgi-bin/radioshow.cgi?record=16

Cheers

Simon

[givemesoul]

It may be modern soul but it's not northern soul ,the keb darge playlist proves that a bit of dis co funk

[Simon T]

Whats all that about Saint . Its probably not cool , but

Mellow Madness "Save the youth" (Mega)

Dynamic Upsetters "make myself clear ( mega)

Both rare frantic modern soul dancers ,much sort after .

Mellow madness is on this link https://www.soul45.org/cgi-bin/radioshow.cgi?record=16

Cheers

Simon

Simon

You’ve always had impeccable taste in music, but Mellow Madness is Shiite. Now when are you gonna sell me Ben Jackson?

[Dave]

The Beach Scene, by contrast is really a lovers' nostalgia scene for divorcees, and I've given up caring what gets played there. Most of it is gash beyond belief.

Contrast? That sounds like a typical Friday "Northern" soul night to me.

Name one Beacch sound that really touches the soul? One will do.

Whatsisname Perry??

No... maybe not

[soulfulsaint]

Must confess I like 'Save The Youth' but its hardly classic Beach is it?

[Simon M]

Yeah the two Mega records I metion would have bombed on the beach scene . Perhaps thats why they are hard .

They both remind me of the very early Modern soul all

niter scene , When Northern soul had its screaming

unwanted child, which was eventually sent to its own

room . A time of soulful disco , bass line southern

state dancers (beach ,Steve Basset rocked) and even electro funk soul . Dam I

might have to write a book about it .

SImon M . ( Save the youth is ok Simon T , I'd buy it for a tenner lol)

Oh By the way I think ive got a great soulful beach record , 60/40 the title is on a red lable !

Edited April 2, 2006 by Simon M

[Guest Andy BB]

Eh? I may well be missing something here...

A couple of stonkingly fine tunes which are featured on the CD "I love beach music"

Any Day Now - Chuck Jackson

Goin out of my head - Little Anthony

And from "The ultimate Beach Box"

Don't play that song and Stand by me - Ben E King

Walkin up a one way street - Willie Tee

And to surely put it beyond any doubt at all

A quiet place - Garnett Mimms

Doesn't seem too bad to me...

[Modernsoulsucks]

I think our own Northern shares the same DNA, and I'll tell you why. It was the early beach scene in the 60 and 70s that created a quite prolific output of sounds that have already had an impact in shaping the northern scene. Of course the obvious Nomads, Soul Set, Embers etc but also Dont forget that the beach scene output spreads from georgia, right through the Carolinas and into Virginia with the likes of Robert Tanner and many many more.

Andy, I still think you're confusing the Beach Music scene with local Carolina acts. I agree we do share "same DNA" but that's because they're both soul music based. Nomads and Soul Set were more likely "garage bands" influenced by Black music because in the 60's a lot of white kids in the Carolinas were into it. I guess biggest Embers 45 on Northern scene would be "Watch out girl" but side played in beach clubs up to late 70's was "Far away places". I'd also agree that there has been a crossover of both records played in the 60's there and local acts but Im sure you can put that down to various UK dealers hooking up with John Swain from Raleigh or the Wax Museum back in the '70's.

Andy BB is right to list those tunes under the umbrella of Beach and you do hear them on Beach radio but in my experience not in the clubs now. The soul content was no longer that important last time I was there in '96. It just had to have the right rhythm for dancing, which is the consuming passion over there, not the music. Tracks by Anne Murray, Inmates RADAR UK, Rockin Louie And Mamajammas, KWS, some rock chick with a version of "Meet me with your black draws on" [i liked that!!] and loads of current bluesy stuff from the likes of Malaco etc. CDs were also becoming the preferred format mainly because that was the medium that new stuff they now liked was released on. I obviously can't remember everything from 10 years ago but 60's content Nil and soul content decreasing.

ROD

[Modernsoulsucks]

Gotta be worth a visit and if you see a DJ called Gene Petty, well you can't miss him ,he's about 20+ stone, say hello from me.

Stay away from those grits!!

ROD

[ockers]

I have tried hard over many years to give Beach Music the benefit of much doubt. I've even spent a few days in Myrtle Beach shagging, but that's a long story.

Everytime I listen to a record released on the Beach Scene, even by those artists with great soul heritage, I am disappointed to the point of despair. Those that have been played on the rare northern scene from Admiral Ice to Oxford Nights are pretty insipid too.

Okay, the two scenes share a few things in common, not least a love for the music of the past and according to a recent posts they are now even 'covering up' sounds in Carolina. But are the two scenes really that close? I have always found the northern scene 'grittier', more informed, and more passionate about the music.

We are much more obsessive and have a greater number of nutters per hundred. The Beach Scene, by contrast is really a lovers' nostalgia scene for divorcees, and I've given up caring what gets played there. Most of it is gash beyond belief.

If I'm wrong then please help me with the list of great unkowns - especially the hard core rarities that you'd strangle your neighbour to own.

Name one Beacch sound that really touches the soul? One will do.

Drifters pour your little heart out.....

Dink Perry between hello and goodbye

Could Ben Moores i got a winner in you be classed as beach???

Gretna for the Cup!!!!!

Edited April 2, 2006 by ockers

[Guest Netspeaky]

A vintage shot of early shaggers. From Cornell University.

The roots of shag can be found in the cross-pollination of black music and club dancers in Myrtle Beach with the natural openness of a fun-loving and carefree group of '40s white teenagers. The racially myopic mainstream radio stations of the '40s South did not play black music. The kids had flock to the beaches to hear it on jukeboxes.

Certain individuals, such as Billy Jeffers (photo) and "Chicken" Hicks are credited with developing the early aspects of the dance. These teens attended black night clubs and were allowed to watch from the balcony. In an era of segragation, this was called "jumping the Jim Crow rope." They adapted what they saw and liked. They are also credited with initiating the "Beach Music" phenomenon, by convincing jukebox owners to put R&B into the playlist.

Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy

Unlike other musical-dependant social developments primarily associated with the Sixties, Shag music (often called "beach music") didn't have a scene to spring from, no primary city of development. Of course, the easygoing beach dances that used the name had a point of origin - the beaches of South Carolina, where white kids had broken the color barrier as early as the 1930s by convincing local DJs to add rhythm and blues to their lists. However, there were no bands dedicated to shag music during the movement's zenith in the mid-60s. Shag was one of those rare cultural events that picked its own music after the fact.

That doesn't mean there's no distinct sound or feel to the music. The shag dance is sort of a lazy jitterbug, done on beaches at night, always with someone of the opposite sex. Therefore, the music shaggers picked for their soundtrack had to be sunny, sexy, fun, and lazy. Depending on who you talk to, shagging can be done to songs as diverse as Elvis' "Return To Sender" and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," but the general consensus is that there should be a slow shuffle at the bottom and some sort of southern soul on top. The big hits of shag are almost all one-hit wonders, cherry-picked for their utility - Willie Tee's "Teasin' You," the O-Kaysions' "Girl Watcher" - but that also gives the scene room to breathe. And, as has been proven by its continuing popularity, room to expand.