Garethx

What's on the other side of it, Steve? Is it any good? Would love to see a scan.

The track that's normally touted as a famale vocal to Ordinary Joe is "Do To Me" by Lonette McKee, but that's on Sussex. A good record, but not really anything like OJ, to my ears. Would be interested to hear anything else that's musically closer.

The version of the track used on the first Maxine Brown album released by Kent in about '84 is rather different from the 45. This could be the source of your MP3. A totally fantastic tune, whatever the version. 100% class, and a record which, if re-activated, could be bigger than it ever was in the 1970s.

Are you sure we're talking about the same 45, John? I'm referring to the super-rare original 45 version on KoKo: maybe a handful of genuine copies. I'm pretty sure at least one member of the forum has got one...

Are there any releases after Connie Laverne? Further to this, are there issue copies of "Can't Live Without You?" Finally, what's the current market value of the Connie Laverne 45?

Just noticed another one of these on Ebay. Are all copies of this double sided demos? Does this make the fantastic "A Mighty Long Way" the only unreleased track on the famous Japanese CD?

Is Al Williams of La Beat fame the same vocalist who recorded "The Other Side Of Your Love" on Crajon with Denise LaSalle / Gene Miller in the early 1970s? The vocal on that record is superb. On this subject I must say the above track sounded very good at the 100 Club the other week.

Good to see G.C. Cameron getting lots of mentions in this section. What a spellbinding voice this fellow had. All three Motown solo lps and the album of duets with Syreeta are well worth picking up. Particular favourites of mine are "Include Me In Your Life" and "Strong Love" from "G.C. Cameron" and "Your Love Won't Turn Me Loose" and "Tippin" from the ace "Love Songs and Other Tragedies" set.

I think the Harder You Love was played from an original acetate. Dean told me at the time that they found it in LA. I'd love to know who has it now. As you say, Christian, an awesome record.

I really like it. Who's the artist?

When was this covered-up, Dan? I remember Kitch and Dean Anderson playing a Darrell Banks cover-up in the late 80s: it was actually The New Sound on Turbo: the lp track "Don't Take Your Love." I've talked about this lp before. The group contained Robert Tanner (although he doesn't sing lead on DTLY) and the album features a re-recorded version of Tanner's "Sweet Memories" 45 on Magatone. The album is virtually impossible to find on original, but has been re-issued (probably illegally) in lookalike format in Japan, both on vinyl and cd. Even the re-issues are tough to find, and one sold on ebay for about £100 last winter. They also had an amazing acetate which really sounded like Darrell Banks, called "The Harder You Love," which actually turned out to be Darrell Banks and was issued by Goldmine on "The Complete Recordings" cd many years later.

With regard to the current JM auction, I've got a question about the Glenda McLeod 45: it states that there are maybe three original copies in existence. It was played in the mid 80s by Dave Thorley, Ian Clark and Stuart Cosgrove, who originally found it on an Echoes-sponsored trip to the Carolinas. At least one of those copies was a 12" on (I think) a light blue version of the HGEI label. Who had the other copies of the red 7" issue? Also, who was behind the issue of the common (bootleg?) copies of the record on opaque vinyl?

Very hard to get and very expensive on Uptight. Probably four figures. It's been compiled on a couple of cds: Goldmine's Modern Milionaires, and the Richard Caiton retropective on Grapevine. The latter is well worth picking up.

I agree with Pete: Lennon & McCartney were incredible songwriters on a scale that no-one will ever match. They changed the face of popular music in a way that no-one ever will again.

A couple from me: Gerry Goffin & Carol King; Jackie Avery.

I agree that Mojo Man by Nelson Sanders is an acquired taste, but the other side of the record, "I'm Lonely" is surely one of the greatest deep soul obscurities, almost without exception. Agree with some of the choices here, such as Terri Goodnight. I would like to add a particular hate-object of mine: "I Can Feel Him Slipping Away" by Tobbi Bowe on Patheway. Absolutely dreadful and an unforgiveable play when compared to the major label version by Mamie Lee. An almost definitive case of a record played because of its rarity rather than its quality.

Last time I looked in Mr Barnfather's sales box he had one for (I think) £40.

Billy Perhaps I was too hasty in using the phrase "woefully simplistic." I didn't mean to offend. It's true that The Masqueraders recorded in a fairly wide variety of styles and at a number of studios, but I think it is possible to explain this in some very concrete terms. Groups which we tend to think of as really influential in soul history, such as The Falcons or Impressions were fortunate enough to be very successful very early on in their careers. With You're So Fine, I Found A Love, or For Your Precious Love The Falcons and Impressions respectively forged a musical identity that they never really veered from. Curtis Mayfield didn't ever really change tack until his solo years because he didn't have to. Maybe he couldn't change because his public and his record company demanded the patented Impressions sound. Similarly, The Falcons remained, in their various incarnations a gospel-based, heavy soul group. Wilson Pickett himself didn't really reinvent himself in twenty subsequent years of recording. The Masqueraders didn't really have this luxury. Their first records, as The Stairs and The Masquaders sold in miniscule amounts, but when I hear these records they reek of the Masqueraders to me, an initiate. To the uninitiated these particular records may sound like generic doo-wop and generic embryo soul. The Masqueraders travelled to Detroit to audition for Motown, who liked them but didn't really need another group with a hard tenor lead: they already had The Temptations and The Contours, to name but two. They stuck around Detroit because they continued to work the clubs; they made Detroit type soul records with La Beat because they thought the records would sell. Lou Beatty believed in them but couldn't really muscle in on the big money in Detroit, regional or national record sales. The move back down south to record for Bell, Wand and (briefly) Amy at American Group Studios yielded fantastic results artistically, for me the true and instantly definable, classic Masqueraders sound: the records I mentioned above all have this and to me don't sound like any other soul group: Chips Moman and American cut a few soul groups at the time, having reasonable success with The Dynamics on Cotillion, for example, and despite being cut at the same studio with the same musicians at broadly the same time, The Dynamics' records sound nothing like The Masqueraders. Most of The American material was self penned. "How Big Is Big" is something of an exception: it was a cover of a New York pop song by Joe Levine and was a departure sound wise. I personally love it, and have played it whenever I have deejayed for some years. It doesn't feature Lee Jones, and I can concede it could be by any number of groups. I like it because it works well in a left-field Northern Soul context: I wouldn't begin to say it rivals some of their own, more personal material of the time. Crucially, lasting success at this time evaded them. "I Ain't Got To Love Nobody Else" was a reasonably big hit, covered by (off the top of my head) such notable soul singers as Bobby Womack, Dee Dee Warwick and Carolyn Franklin to name a few, but it was to be their last hit record. I fully believe that, given luck, their sound would have become far more influential, and their songs more widely recorded by other, more feted performers. From the American years, they moved to Hi, where, frankly, every artist sounded like a Hi artist. But we must remember, they were courted by Hi, rather than the other way round. It was a case of another label recognising their gifts but being unable to "sell" them. It is worth remembering that Hi submerged many quality singers financially (but not artistically) at this time. Otis Clay, OV Wright etc. all had to work in the wake of the phenomenon that was Al Green: it was only business sense that the confirmed hitmaker should demand the lion's share of promotional budgets. The move to ABC to work with Isaac Hayes should have worked but didn't. A familiar, cyclical story in their career. Throughout, however, I maintain that they made very few generic records. The vast majority really do have their own identifiable Masqueraders stamp. Crucially, they had a fairly long career for non-hit artists because successive record companies were knocked out by the amount of sheer talent within the group. Generic, soundalike artists don't have careers with that amount of longevity. They don't get asked to work with generations of the hottest producers in America (as The Masqueraders were with Chips Moman, Willie Mitchell and Isaac Hayes). Please listen again, Billy. I can unreservedly recommend the Grapevine compilation on the group: you'll see what a tremendously creative axis The Masqueraders were.

One thing occurs to me about JM's current auction: Johnny Summers "I'm Still Yours" at less than "Dearly Beloved." Does someone out there know something I don't?

Some great groups mentioned here. Must say I think The Hesitations are ridiculously overrated: they simply couldn't sing, either as soloists or in harmony. For me it has to be The Masqueraders. The Temptations were very much a 'styled' entity: pliable but (very) capable voices for the latest projects of their writers and producers. I'm not saying that they were not talented singers: few can actually match Ruffin, Kendricks and sundry other erstwhile Temptations on pure vocal ability. What makes The Masqueraders very special is that they wrote the vast majority of their recorded output, and those songs are actually spectacularly good. Records like "Please Take Me Back," "I Ain't Gonna Stop," "I Aint Got To Love Nobody Else," "Average Guy," "Let's Face Facts" and, particularly "This Heart Is Haunted" (as Lee Jones & The Sounds of Soul on Amy) are all phenomenal soul songs, some of which have been covered admirably, but never bettered. In Lee Jones and Robert Wrightsill they had two world class tenor leads, and the lighter voice of Sam Hutchins was (to my ears) the equal of, for example, Eddie Kendricks. I think that the view that has The Masqueraders simply taking on others' styles is woefully simplistic. They were a unit with a complete identity of their own. When I read the interview with them on Greg Tormo's website I am not ashamed to admit that I wept at the thought of them still rehearsing every week despite not having had a record deal since 1980: their unshakeable faith in their own ability is completely admirable. I look forward to seeing them perform over here at some point in my lifetime. I hope Lee Jones can be pressed into service: the thought of them all experiencing the kind of welcome they merit is a fantastic prospect. They are the very essense of Soul.

Original is a white label with green type, if memory serves me correctly. Don't agree that it's a screeching, wailing mess. More like one of the very best northern oldies. Pure adrenalin, pure atmosphere.

I realise that this record qualifies as out-and-out swamp pop, but I've always had a soft spot for it. Mickey Buckins wrote many great soul songs with George Jackson which were cut at Fame by Bettye Swann, Willie Hightower, Spencer Wiggins etc.

I regard the Faye Crawford 45 as one of the very best of its kind. Far better than many run-of-the-mill beat ballads, it really is majestic. And pretty rare on black issue too!

I'm pretty sure that the cut of Johnny Maestro & The Crests "Stepping Out Of The Picture" on the Kent lp "Big City Soul Volume 2" is quite different from the 45. This could be the 'tape' version played at Stafford. I'm sure Ady Croasdell can confirm. He was, of course, the source of many of the big sounds of 83-85: Torture, The Magic Touch, Not My Girl etc.

It's an early 70s 45 on the Golden Three label from New York and is called "Why (The Knower)." I'm sure this was played by Keb in London just before the Sixties Newies explosion in the early 80s.