boba

Hi. Today on my radio show I interviewed Benjio Caffee, member of the Satagans and Solid Gold. Benjio was originally from Birmingham, AL and was inspired to get into music by his neighbors Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams. He joined the Air Force and while in the service he formed a group called the Cameos, performing in Berkeley, CA and in Alaska. Benjio moved to Chicago in 1961. Throughout the 60s, Benjio performed in nightclubs in Chicago, performing in Red Saunders' review at different clubs throughout the city. Toward the end of the 60s, Benjio began writing songs for producers Leo Austell and Hillary Johnson (for example, writing for Betty Everett, including "Take Me", the B-side to her hit "There'll come a time"). In the mid-60s, Benjio did a show with the Sheppards and made friends with the group, becoming especially good friends with their guitarist Kermit Chandler. After the group broke up, Benjio started singing and writing songs with Kermit and they formed a vocal group called the Satagans. They recruited a third member, Willie Logan; Benjio knew Willie's sister and Willie had previously sang with the Doowop group the Equallos (who had also cut a soul record as the Plaids). The Satagans were initially produced by Len Bowden, who produced a 3-song demo recorded at RCA studios. The recordings had a unique, psychedelic sound -- especially due to the Pharoahs' backing (with Charles Handy on flute and Master Gibson on congas) and Kermit Chandler's guitar work. Kermit's gravelly lead vocals added to the psychedelic feel of the recording. A few copies of the tracks were pressed on a 10" acetate with the intention of shopping the recordings around to different labels. Willie Dixon immediately picked up the record for release on his Yambo record label. After signing with Dixon, Chandler became very ill and died. The group replaced Chandler with James "Brother" Isaac of the Sheppards and re-recorded the vocals with Isaac on lead. Dixon released "Smokin" / "Lovers to friends" on Yambo and "Smokin" got radio play in Chicago. Unfortunately, the group never really came together as a performing group and soon drifted apart. In the late-70s, Benjio formed a new group called Solid Gold with his wife Lucy singing lead and a couple of other male backing singers. Lucy had previously sang live for several years with Donny Hathaway as "June" as June Conquest's replacement in "June and Donnie". Solid Gold released on record -- "Don't you know" / "The Magic" -- on Fortress, a tiny Kankakee, IL record label in the late 70s. Although the record was a nice ballad and even got picked up by the national label AVI, it received little play. The group almost signed to RCA but failed due to management problems and soon broke up, although they have since recorded a few more times. Benjio has continued to be active in producing music since the 70s. You can check out the interview at the bottom of my interview page at: https://www.sittinginthepark.com/interviews.html thanks, Bob

i think it's the only record by a "tojo" but maybe the artist released other records under another identity, it would be nice if "dj beans" revealed the artists real identity.

frankly, vietnam and protest related songs are two separate things. most vietnam songs are not protest songs, a couple (the charades' and jimmy holiday's tracks) are even pro-vietnam, but most are just love songs about lost loves as vietnam was just the context for people's lives for 10 years and love songs were the convention of the genre. vietnam became a backdrop for the songs. protest songs were a separate genre entirely. the original poster didn't really make it clear what the phd student's actual thesis was or what types of songs he/she was looking for. i hope it's something coherent.

I think it's the change of pace

also, there are 2 bobby o'browns on single B (or at least 2, I have 2 on my shelf), 111 and 113, you want the 111#, which I would say should be $50-$100 set sale and less on ebay

shouldn't be too hard, don't let someone rip you off on this

i could probably do at least two more full show of different vietnam songs but the quality would suffer or they would be more deep-soul focused which is less in the theme of my show. as for socially conscious songs, i do one every mlk day, you could do hundreds of hours of songs of those, it's a genre in of itself, i don't see a point listing them unless it's a thread listing maybe the most "important" ones like curtis mayfield's "move on up", marvin gaye's "what's going on", isley brothers "fight the power", etc.

I think that is the one of the ones that doesn't really work well on 45s though.

leo austell (now deceased) owned both the renee and twin stacks labels

there was already a thread on this record a while back, someone posted another label it was on, it was very colorful. john, you missed a micron copy very cheap on ebay a few days ago, like $50

i *HATE* polished records, one of my number one pet peeves

thanks a lot. I will try it if my first option (and I guess dthedrug's option of I think pouring boiling water over the record????) falls through. Thanks a lot.

very rare chicago record

thanks a lot for the holes. The variations has to be a mistake though, that is the bay area group on samaki that didn't record until the late 70s and that is their late 70s cut?

yes, my mistake, thank you.

thanks so much, I will see if I can fill in the missing numbers later. The 1000 numbers are the unrelated mickey stevenson people label. I think everyday people is on a 3rd unrelated label. There is a clay tyson on the james brown label you are missing also. Thanks.

Is there a 45 discography of James Brown's people label anywhere (not the mickey stevenson people label)? I sort of collect the label but I don't keep my stuff in label order (my stuff is in artist order) so I don't really know if I'm missing anything oddball, I'm interested in seeing a numerical list of the label. Thanks in advance.

Lee Shot Williams is a different Lee Williams than Lee Williams and the Cymbals.

i don't think they're on ebay now any more than they used to be. neither are very rare and one is even on a major label. look on popsike to get some idea about the frequency of sales. i don't see them now that much, if anything they're on ebay less now than they used to be.

chess did do a few one sided demos for some things though

Hi. Today on my radio show I did another music show. You can check it out on my music page at https://www.sittinginthepark.com/shows.htm . Playlist follows. Thanks again for your interest. Marvelettes - You're the one for me Bobby - Tamla (LP) Creslyns - Boom-chip-a-boom - Beltone Petites - Is thirteen too young to fall in love - Ascot Charmaines - GI Joe - Fraternity Ribbons - Teach me how to dance - Gramo Chilites - Go away dream - Brunswick (LP) Final Solutions - Got to get through to you (unreleased mix) - Numero (CD) Dells - We got to get our thing together - Mercury Impressions - Sooner or later - Curtom Vows - When a boy loves a girl - Sta-set Candi-bars - You're the one - Candi-stix New Jersey Turnpike - Stay away - Viterect Soul Majestics - I done told you baby - Al-tog Three Pieces - I need you girl - Fantasy August - If he makes it good (I can make it better) - 14 KT Gold Percy and Them - Look in the mirror of my eyes - Roulette Roy Kinard - Part time love affair - Bazar Side Effect - Changes - Fantasy Darwin's Theory - Accept the Truth (about yourself) - Darwin's Theory Longstreets - You can't have your cake and eat it too - Mighty Oak thanks, Bob

dude, shouldn't this be in the ebay sales section???

I can just imagine them being like "this is good, but this is really missing something. THIS REALLY NEEDS MORE CHIMES!"

I recently bought a record on ebay. It ended up having a nasty sharp warp not in the description (not a heat warp though) that makes the needle bounce off the record and it will only play at 2.5 grams or higher. I won it at a decent price and it is clean otherwise so I would like to avoid sending it back if possible. I have heard of people who have record flattening machines and I was wondering if anyone (like a record store somewhere) offered the use of these machines as a service. From my understanding, these machines are mostly designed for LPs and don't work well on 45s. Someone told me that there is one specific machine that works on 45s that heats and cools the record over a 24 hour period that can remove the warp (and that the other machine that doesn't work only does it over a 2 hour period). Does anyone know any more details and know if anyone offers a service (ideally in the US but anywhere I guess) that gives access to one of these machines to de-warp a 45? I'm not looking for someone to stick a 45 between two sheets of glass and stick it in the sun or the oven or blow dryer or any other home grown technique, or for some home advice either. Thanks.

i just compared deadwax of green vs. yellow and they're different. green only says #1003 in bigger handwritten letters yellow says 103-R and has something else scratched in later i played them back to back and the green has no chimes and the yellow does. i can't find my red copy to compare. so i would say the blue is the rarest still but the green is the alternate mix. there you go.