Johndelve

A must buy. My favourite act of the last forty years or so.

I saw the film a few days ago. While I had no intention of sitting through it and trying to catch anyone out on inaccuracies there were a handful of things that did jar a little: 1 ) The Dramatics would not have come on AFTER Martha & The Vandellas at the concert 2) Larry Reed was seen singing the opening words of "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get" to a girl when the song, Tony Hester's, came out four years later 3) A scene with the group singing that song depicted them as a quartet - which, while obviously included to show what Reed had missed out on - was simply not right. Still, none of that is vastly important and I would echo my admiration for a film - it's a momentous topic that no other film maker has touched - that is indeed hard to watch because of the violence; you definitely don't exit the cinema feeling uplifted.

I well remember that Soul Book review when it first appeared; Godin really didn't like it one little bit did he, and I suspect some of that was down to his uneasy relationship with Tony Cummings at the time. I thought then, and think now, that the chapters by Simon Frith and Ian Hoare were pretty average - so I'm definitely with Dave on that - but the one by Clive Anderson was great and I learned a lot from it. He - Anderson- was an excellent writer on soul and I have no idea what happened to him.

Indeed you are right Chris. As I have written in my ongoing Volume 2 of Spinning Around: The History Of The Soul LP (which will be published in March or April 2018): " I don't have On My Own which features“I Can't Make It On My Own”, a sprightly and invigorating side that also came out as a 45. Discogs puts the LP as 1970 but that is unquestionably incorrect. Firstly, the single is aurally obviously some years later than that, and second, the album includes a version of “Shifty, Shady, Jealous Kind Of People” and The O'Jays didn't cut that until 1972." Best John

Fair points too, Mickey, but I think there ARE public protests, for example in this very thread, it's just that hardly anyone cares. And to that point, I agree it doesn't say much for the majors who can't be bothered to allow enthusiastic volunteers (though, to be fair, I think there are some exceptions) to help out - even take the lead - on planning releases of retrospective material, but the companies have bigger fish to fry and, once again, it's such a low priority for them that they can't be bothered. Finally, I doubt if the bootleggers are making much money on releases like the Ernie K-Doe, but obviously enough for them to take the trouble.

I think, Mickey, that assumes that a) copyright holders even know about these issues in the first place and b) that they could be bothered to do anything about it even if they did. I can't see many people in the business going to the trouble of alerting someone as powerful as Amazon over something like an Ernie K-Doe CD that will sell very few copies in the first place.

Good morning. I know Ady contributes to this forum so hopefully he may pick up on it. 1. Is there going to be another release of FAME material soon ? It seems a while since the last CD came out. Volume 2 of the complete singles, maybe ? 2. How about Sam Bell in your writers series ? I know he hardly has the name or cachet of a Jerry Ragovoy or a Phillip Mitchell but he was a superb under rated writer who deserves some acclaim. Cheers

Yes, I think they are drying up, but not surprising after thirty years or so of trawling through back catalogues. Ace are still a great source of course, but are repeating more and more tracks from previous releases. The music on those two Interstate CDs mentioned above is sublime based on the track listings but I think it is 99.99% likely they are bootlegs. Too many different labels involved for legit licensing I would have thought.

Bought my copy direct from you months ago ! Best John

The great "School of Life" made it to #22 on the soul charts in July 1972...he only had two other national chart hits apart from that : "Hardtimes S.O.S" (#62 in July 76) and "If You Ain't Man Enough" ( #93, December 1976)....all superb sides.....

Off top of my head: Aretha: Baby, Baby, Baby Aretha:, Think O'Jays: Looky Looky Marvin : Inner City Blues Bill Withers : I Cant Write Left Handed Dells : Wear It On Our Face

One of the greatest soul men that has ever lived. Not just his singing, and God knows that was good enough, but his writing too. I just hope he knew how much pleasure he gave to so many.

Morning Mike. Slightly possibly towards "Southern Soul" in ITB, but both lists were reasonably close. Volume " will appear in March/April 2018 for sure. I mentioned my progress on it above. Pleased to say that Mr. Lew Kirton bought my book this week... Best John

Good morning everybody. You're not wrong about the ITB list. I did it in Issue 17, April 2000, ten years after the Voices one. I'm not sure how to post a copy up at moment but may do so later (when my wife is around: she understands such things) if anyone is interested. I did go through the two and compare, though, just for my own interest and 47 of the top 50 from the Voices list were still in the Top 100 of the ITB one. Ashford & Simpson "Gimme Something Real", "Charlie Jones "Love, Life & Re-Ality" and Ollie Nighingale " Sweet Surrender being the casualties. In my recent Book, A & S have found their way back into my top 100, and although Charlie hasn't, I still gave it a very thumbs up review. Ollie will almost certainly make the Top 100 of my second Volume L - Z, which I am on track fro publishing in March or April of 2018. I'm currently up the the letter "R". Thanks by the way to anyone who has bought it so far. Still a reasonable amount of copies left but when they are gone that's it. There will be no reissues.

Well done Steve. Enjoying the book and no one in the world knows more than you about Scepter Wand, that's for sure. I know from personal experience how much effort goes into writing a book like this and you should be proud of what you've accomplished.

I'm still waiting, too. Not for the first time with this series, either.

I would agree with all those who have directed you to John Ridley's marvellous Sir Shambling website, but these should get you weeping : Bettye Swann - Be Strong Enough To Hold On Barbara Lynn - People Like Me Kim Tolliver - Where Were You Reuben Bell - Asking For The Truth Gloria Barnes - Old before my time Bobby Womack - I'm through trying to prove my love to you Irma Thomas - Somewhere crying King Hannibal - Party Life

Good luck with this, Mark. It looks most interesting and you are featuring some books I didn't know..all best John.

I would also add that neither the recent Pied Piper CD from Ace nor the Soul Harmony Book from a few years back - and also McGrath's Soul Discography - makes any mention of anyone called Carnell Silver Butler in The Dynamics. I have no doubt he sings with a current line-up of The Dynamics but he certainly didn't seem to in the sixties and seventies.....

Harmon Bethea's "Got To Find A Sweet Name" and Ralph Graham's "Differently "would be nice.

I can't add anything about record shops north of Watford, but here's something I wrote for a Brighton website back in 2008 which will hopefully be of interest to some. https://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/category_id__1743.aspx?path=

A superb CD. One of the best ever put out by Numero. Highly recommended.

Very good and enjoyable book, with some excellent stories and interesting photos, and pleasing to see that the typos that slightly spoilt Detroit'67 have been sorted out.

I love these old regional soul charts, particularly interesting to see singles that did well locally, but never hit the national charts. e.g George & Gwen (McCrae), Holly Maxwell, Mary Holmes, Sam Baker, Johnny Williams and quite a few more from the one above.