Stateside

DAVID RUFFIN - BLACKMAIL - UNRELEASED CD

TEMPTATIONS - I GOTTA KNOW NOW STEVIE WONDER - LIGHT MY FIRE CHUCK JACKSON - I CAN'T LET MY HEAVEN WALK AWAY STEVIE WONDER - I CAN'T LET MY HEAVEN WALK AWAY

Condition: Vinyl is excellent with a small feint scuff on Track 1 side 1 and Track 5 side 2 which do not affect play. The Sleeve has a drill hole in the top left corner and has some slight ring wear on the front and some signs of ageing on the rear, but the record is over 50yrs old, so good considering. See photos. WILL ONLY SELL/POST TO UK RESIDENTS. £1050.00 plus £10.00 Postage. Bank Transfer or Paypal. Note: A Near Mint Copy sold on Discogs Dec 2023 for £1373.05 and a VG+ copy for £2576.09 In Oct 2022

Just a few that float my boat

That's the one! Taught me everything I know about soul music and I'm older than him

My older brother (by 5yrs) was into John Mayall, Cream, Hendrix and my older sister (by 4yrs) went out dancing and bought records like Jimmy James - I feel alright, Oscar Toney Jnr - For your precious love, Marvin & Tammi - Ain't no Mountain, Otis Redding etc etc. Because my dad was attached to the forces we moved around a lot, so although I was born in Cleethorpes, I never lived there. When we settled in the north west in 1968 I was 15 and went to the local youth club which was playing Lee Dorsey, Jnr Walker, Stax, Motown, Atlantic. All readily available stuff. Then one day my cousin came from Cleethorpes to visit, 1969/70 I think, and he brought a little box with him that had Mamie Galore, Major Lance, and loads of others that I can't quite recall now. I was hooked. While writing this I keep meaning to ask if anyone knew my cousin Phillip Dade, he has since passed away. Running alongside that I became friends with another soul fan John Clement and we went together to the Raven in Whitchurch where Soul Sam was dj 1972 I think. This was the first northern soul venue we went to. After that it was Wigan, Blackpool, The Ritz, The Orwell. The whole time we were collecting records playing them down the phone to each other.

There's a version of Tainted Love on a cd called Rediscover the 60's which is a mix of the vocal and the instrumental versions. Came out in the 90's I think.

I'm off Salmon fishing in Scotland in October and we'll be mostly listening to "Sole" on the way up and hoping to catch them using a "Superfly"! We'll certainly be "Wading In The Water" and hope my line doesn't get "Caught Up" or "Wrapped Tied and Tangled"

What a funny lot we are. If only Tavares had stayed as Chubby and the Turnpikes when they released Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel and it hadn't been a hit.

I have some friends in particular who have been friends for almost 40 years and since I was attending Wigan, Blackpool and the Ritz. They only recently acknowledged my love for sixties and seventies rare soul in the past few years, since they decided they like "Northern Soul". When we go to their house they put on a playlist from Spotify or Apple and say "here's some NS for you. On comes a record like The Snake for instance and they quickly ask, "have you got this one"? No I haven't. Why not? they ask. and the rest of the evening is spent with me trying to explain the nuances of what I like and what I don't like, and why, without pi**ing on their bonfire. I'm pleased that they have decided they like "Northern Soul" and they are liking it for the music and the feel good factor, and I don't think they have ever been to a venue or even danced to it, to my knowledge. They are looking forward to seeing the televised version when it comes out in August and I hope they enjoy it because they will know some of the songs and they will feel part of it and that isn't such a bad thing is it?

I would think of this more as a beat ballad rather than your archetypal Northern Soul and to my ears sounds soulful and a well produced effort. Compare that to something at the other end of the spectrum like The Mello Souls - We can make it, and for me there's a very good reason that record is rare, and that's because most of the copies probably went in the bin.

Now this is what happens when you put a new orchestral arrangement behind an original vocal and you have to ask the question, why bother. There's a whole album of this if you can bear it. This one has Mica Paris duetting with Jimmy.

I don't usually get drawn into debates about soul music as I think it's subjective. I've always hated the term northern soul and would rather refer to my favourite genre as sixties or seventies rare soul, and I'm not part of any scene. I went to The Raven, Wigan, Blackpool and latterly the Orwell. The BBC proms was to me, a modern day effort to replicate that sound and given they probably weren't listening to the originals out of choice, before being asked to play them, they effectively "reverse engineered" them, and I think they made a pretty good job of it. I don't thnk the BBC Orchestra are trying to be part of any scene.