Garethx

Many thanks Pete. God, I love this record. Early Motown just has a mystique that much of the later material lacks.

Just been listening to Eddie Holman's "Hold Me In Your Arms" on Grapevine again, and I have to say what a simply amazing record this is. I've never really thoroughly listened to the lyrics before, and they really make the record a masterpiece of regret and understated emotion. I'm guessing the reason it was never released at the time is that at over three minutes long it was deemed too long to be a single. Shame that it was dropped from allnighter playlists as soon as it was released on Grapevine. Before it came out it seemed you couldn't avoid it: it was played about ten times at Cleethorpes 2003. Oh well...

Pete, have you got a full soundfile of Eddie Holland "Daydreamer" that you could post up? It would be very much appreciated.

The Martha Jean Love cover-up is a fantastic record, that would have been a massive sound at any point in the scene's history.

Another Searling 'exclusive' that I used to really love was Carl Hall's "Teardrops and Heartaches": an unissued Mercury recording and a beautiful example of Carl's unique and incredible voice.

Brett: you may be interested to know that the Wee Willie Walker was issued in Japan in the late 70s on a Vivid Sound/Goldwax album. It's a version without horns and backing vocals, and to me, even better! Credit must go to my old George Jackson compardre, Noss, who hammered this brilliant track at every opportunity for years.

I've never heard this version before. Has a completely different vocal to the classic mix of the track, and, as you say Pete, an extraneous keyboard sound throughout. Crap (IMHO) compared to the acetate as played out by the great and good.

A record whose unreleased status always staggers me is Garland Green's "Come Through Me." So much better than anything GG did get released by Spring at the time. The unreleased Motown material is a fascinating topic. I wonder how the production meeting where "Suspicion" was binned went: the simple fact is they didn't get it too wrong too often, there was such a sheer wealth of quality material to choose from that gems were bound to be relegated. My own favourite unreleased record from this source is Eddie Holland's "Daydreamer". Can anyone post up a soundfile of this marvellous track?

These look really dodgy. The labels seem very amateurishly reproduced, with at least a couple of tell-tale errors in the production.

Robert John "Raindrops Love and Sunshine" (A&M) Cajun Hart "Gotta Find A Way" (Warner Bros)

I'd agree with the sentiments of those who say "buy anything". Each Womack lp contains moments of soul history. The Poet lps are probably the most accessible, but probably the most uniform and least individualistic examples of his work. My favourites are "Communication", "Understanding", "Looking For A Love Again", "Facts Of Life" and "Home Is Where The Heart Is", which all contain the essence of Womack at his most dazzlingly creative: stretched out, completely spontaneous examples of a supreme soul artist connecting with his audience in a way which is still breathtaking. These albums also contain plenty of covers of pop hits and idiosyncracies such as the ode to Hillbilly moonshine making "Copper Kettle" which to the uninitiated may sound a bit strange, but which to me are quintissential Womack: I love his version of Bacharach & David's "Close To You", for example, which comprises about eight minutes of the most natural, intimate and confidential example of an artist talking on a record. The Poet series and the MCA albums after these sound a bit more corporate and polished: they are very much products of LA as opposed to the funky and loose arrangements of the Memphis and Muscle Shoals work of the 70s heyday, but all contain some stunning songs. Even the largely unappealling "Last Soul Man" set (which has a truly horrible version of Living In A Box) contains the stunning "Gina" a crushingly soulful tribute to his (presumably long suffering) wife. Agree with JOT on the Valentinos retropsective. It's interesting to me that the best two tracks are the ones which feature Bobby on lead vocals as opposed to his various brothers: "See Me Through" and a magnificent demo of Wilson Pickett's "I've Come A Long Way", both of which were unissued at the time.

I believe that one of the very most appealling things about the rare soul scene is the absence of people who would set themselves up as 'heroes'. In the main the pre-eminent deejays and collectors are remarkably ordinary folk: just part of something bigger and members of the scene who tend to have a few better records than the majority of other punters. The great thing about the scene is that everyone is a punter to some extent, and there is no great kudos attached to being close to a particular disc jockey, promoter or whatever. Contrast this with other scenes where the posing element is basically the main part of the endeavour and I'm sure you'll all agree that the balance on our scene is just about right. The legends are the records, and the heroes are the people who made those records, not the people who play them to other people who share their passion.

I've heard Butch play this at the last three 100 Clubs.

The same old story: great record gets played on the crossover scene by collectors and sits at the same price for years. Said record gets played on the Northern scene a few years later by a certain deejay and the price rockets, with everyone and his cat seemingly after it. I can't blame them. In this instance a fantastic tune. The WDJ definitely seems far more plentiful than the issue copy.

I think this is a bootleg.

Thanks, Rich. So the old chestnut about the mis-spelling of the name is a bit of a red herring (apologies for the mixed metaphors).

On a slightly more anorak-like note was the version of "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" by Johnnie Taylor as featured a later re-recording on Stax? It sounded later than the Sar version. Was this ever released on Stax?

Anyone see this on ebay recently? Has someone paid a lot of money for a pressing? I thought the original was distinguished by the spelling of "Patton" (original) as opposed to "Patten" (bootleg) on the label. https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...4723556848&rd=1 What do you all think?

Agree heartily on the merits (or otherwise) of Billy Sha Rae's "I'm Gone". A very poor substitute for the real thing. Is "I'm Gone" as rare as everyone is making out? I don't think so, as I'm sure Soul Bowl had an (admittedly small) quantity of these in the seventies. There have to be more than a dozen copies.

I was lucky enough to get the "Melody Of Life" album from Soul Bowl for £5 in the mid 80s: wonder how many copies they had? Cream track for me is the awesome "I Found A Love".

There tend to be lots of copies of this 45 on American record websites, just search under the Columbia label number; it was a Billboard top 100 pop hit: they're always much cheaper than at UK dealer prices.

Must say what a fantastic run of singles Gwen McCrae had on Columbia: "Lead Me On", "I'm Losing The Feeling", "Been So Long", "Ain't Nothing You Can Do" and "Always On My Mind" are all great examples of Miami Soul at its finest.

Could someone post up a scan of an original copy?

The picture looks like a young Lonette McKee. From IMDB: She was ranked in People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 1995. Was the first black actress to play Julie in a major American stage production of "Show Boat". Father is of African-American, Native-American and European descent; mother is Norwegian-American Began career as a recording artist in Detroit as a teen, signed with the Detroit-based M-S label. Released an album on the Sussex label in 1974.

Anyone out there interested in a copy of the above? It's in M- condition, with no writing or wear on the label. A mate of mine is interested in selling it, but doesn't necessarily want to go down the ebay route, as it's the kind of record that, for some reason, seems to 'underperform' on ebay. Manship lists it for at least £700, but the highest I've seen one make on ebay is about $500.