Garethx

No Tyrone Davis yet! Can someone post "I'll Be Right Here"?

Personally I love the fact that the mainstream media has never been able to pin down the soul scene to the complete satisfaction of those actively involved in it. Surely one of the primary sources of the appeal of the whole thing is that any attempt at explaining it can never begin to unravel its complex mysteries. Long may it remain so.

Scans of Eddie Hill added:

Scans of the Teri Thornton added:

I think "Let's Talk It Over" is admirable, but not an essential deep soul record: for me personally it's just too rambling and un-focussed, although I accept that it's a stellar piece of singing. There was an interesting insight into the recording shared by Andy Rix on here some years ago. He met the writers of "Love Slipped Through My Fingers", Lewis, Farmer & Lewis and they could basically remember everyone else cutting the song with the exception of Sam Williams. There was an amount of speculation that the other Sam Williams 45 on Uptown (another Capitol subsidiary) was by none other than Tony Williams of the Platters, but this guy sounds nothing like him. Wonder who he really was?

Agreed. The other two are worth every penny as well...

Nancy Butts now sold.

I have a copy of Betty Willis on Rendezvous. I'll dig it out tonight.

For sale: TERRI THORNTON "MOLLY MARLENE" (MOTHERS 1000) M- £90 EDDIE HILL "I CAN HEAR YOU CRYING" (GE GE 502) M- £50 with slight label fade to the "I Can Hear You..." side NANCY BUTTS "I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND BABY (I GET LONELY)" (FLAMING ARROW C-19) £110 SOLD Paypal, cashiers cheque etc. accepted. Please PM if interested in any of the above. thanks, gareth.

The Cody Black 45 on Renaissance is completely un-connected.

The version Searling played at Wigan was by Nate Adams on an Atlantic studio disc covered up as Hermon Hitson. Hitson's own version as per the CD released last year is also great, but quite different to the one you would have heard via Pete's Wigan tape. Am I alone in finding Sam Williams admittedly fantastic reading of this song my least favourite version? I'd be interested to know what others think...

Don't forget George Perkins' own great version of this tune, cut in more of a midtempo vein.

It's a Japanese only release from '79 on a Malaco imprint through Vivid Sound. I believe the tracks (which are essentially songwriters' demos) were actually recorded a few years earlier. James Carr released "Hold On" on Atlantic 2803 in 1970/71, and the Tate demo of the song provides this release with its title track. I don't think Tate was contracted to Malaco as an artist throughout this time. It appears to have been pressed in very small quantities and very rarely turns up for sale. I became aware of it in the 80s via a tape Mark 'Binsy' Taylor did for me of primarily Japanese-released soul. I think he received the track "I Can't Do Enough" via John Ridley. In the last few years Grapevine have released I Can't Do Enough on at least one CD compilation and maybe as a single too. Perhaps Paul Mooney can confirm the full story behind the Japanese release. I'm not suggesting there is anything murky about this particular album, but I have been told that Vivid Sound often released tracks when they had sketchy permissions to do so at best. As I stated above, I think this is one of the most scintillating vocal performances in soul history: Tate's double tracking with himself is miraculous in its skill and dexterity, and the bloodcurdling climaxes in delivery are a perfect example of what the art of soul singing is all about. The track has rightfully become an anthem at Soul Essence: who played it first there? Perhaps Gavin Page or Gareth Donovan can fill us in...

Haven't heard of this being "re-issued" as such. I suspect Malaco customer services won't know much about this release, as it was issued about twenty eight years ago, and in any case the Japanese releases of previously unissued material from around that time often present something of a legal minefield. The slick packaging sometimes obscures the fact that these companies were releasing material they had no legal claim to. Well done for snagging one, Paul: as you say, I Can't Do Enough is sublime: in my book one of the very best soul records ever made by anyone, full stop.

The Tabu lp is a different one and does not include What Kind of Love. The MCA lp should be fairly easy to pick up.

Still In Love from the Stronger Than Ever set is indeed excellent. On to the question in hand: I have yet to see a 7" 45 issue of Gwen McCrae's Keep The Fire Burning on US Atlantic. I've seen many deejay copies over the years, but the issue appears to be elusive. Can anyone tell me what's on the other side? Similarly, I've only ever seen the US WDJ of Norman Connors Take It To The Limit. Many of the popular records of the time were surprisingly hard to find on US 45. The mainstream importers tended to concentrate on bringing in 12" releases to the exclusion of 45s. Bluebird records in London was one of the last places I recall having the option to buy either the 12" or 7" release of a major label soul release on import. Because of weak sterling the price of a standard 12" US single was getting up towards the £6 mark around 1983-4 (indeed the prices of these used to fluctuate wildly) whereas no-one seemed to be prepared to pay prices over the odds for major label 45s. Demand from the average club deejay seemd to be mainly for 12" singles (and with the horrible standard of styrene used by US Columbia, RCA, Phonogram etc. who can blame them) The turnaround time for getting domestic issues released in the UK and Europe was fairly rapid, so demand for 45s was often satisfied via this mechanism. Often tracks from US albums which became popular overseas were completely different to those pushed by the US record companies and released as 45s. A pretty good example is that of Luther Vandross, where US Epic often released the most AOR friendly releases on his albums as US singles, either the slushy ballad or rocky 'dance' tracks, while the UK soul scene would concentrate on the more obviously 'soulful' numbers.

"now if you said you bought it for a couple of bucks a year or 3 ago then that would be something cool... otherwise its not." Sorry for not being 'cool' enough to wait twenty years and dig it out of a proverbial crate. Thanks for the pics though. gareth

Best Love by Rose Royce is one of my favourite records of all time.

What a brilliant record. Sorry, don't have one for sale.

Souljazera: there was an entire thread on the subject of 'worst buys' a few years back. It didn't run for long. For some reason contributors were not very forthcoming. I mentioned picking up Veda from Soul Bowl because I'm sure many of us on here did. It was widely and glowingly reviewed in all the magazines that dealt with soul music at the time, from Blues & Soul to Black Beat and all points inbetween. I'm pretty sure that Robbie Vincent even played it on his Radio 1 show on Sunday evening for at least a couple of weeks. John Anderson must have stocked and sold a quantity approaching four figures. The point I'm attempting to make ties in with what was written on the thread on forgotten modern spins recently: in those days there was a seemingly endless flow of quality modern soul records being imported to the UK on a weekly basis. I'm sure that if some of these were re-appraised by the deejaying fraternity a few of them would cross over to the rare soul market and become in-demand again. A mate recently showed me some old Soul Bowl lists he had kept from the late 1970s: on them were records like Trey-Js and Guitar Ray for £1.50 (along with Northern things like The Just Brothers and Honey Bees on Garrison for £5.00); suggesting that both titles were around in fairly significant quanity (holds hands about a foot apart). I freely admit to having spent fortunes over the odds on mediocre 'rare soul' over the years. I've sold practically all those type of records, but funnily enough I still have boxes of the 80s independents I bought from SB, Record Corner, Dave Raistrick, Voices, Bluebird etc. I still get a buzz from playing these records and I hope that I'm not alone in thinking that at least a few of them will have their day: it's not about monetary value at all: it has more to do with a hope that a new generation of fan will pick up on them and appreciate them for the great records that some of them undoubtedly were.

Or £3.50 as a new release from Soul Bowl in 1984...

One of the big rarities that has never really turned up in any quantity. I used to love this as a youth but haven't heard it out for years. Got to be only a handful in collections.

That long-time want must be some record...

The other day I googled a 45 which has been a long-standing want of mine: Bobby Thomas's "The Road Is Rough" on Boblo and came across a completed listing for it on the Yahoo Auction site: where it sold in November for a whopping 49 cents. It reminded me of the early days of Ebay before collectors had cottoned on to the fact that this might be an interesting resource. Those days of previously unimagined bargains on Ebay itself are a thing of the distant past and the whole enterprise has prospered as an edifice built on its users greed, vanity, impulsiveness and insecurity: essentially all the weakest parts of the human spirit. I'm sure as time goes on Ebay and Paypal will be increasingly subject to competition from other auction sites, maybe even sites where commission is a thing of the past and the sites revenues can be driven by online advertising. A challenge to their virtual monopoly will only be a healthy thing. This won't happen overnight: if Ebay were a country its GDP would make it the thirteenth largest economy in the world. Perhaps the first step is to simply boycott Ebay and as others have said on this and other threads return to the traditional forms of buying records from lists and events or 'privately' from other collectors.

Pretty sure Ron Holden was black.