Robbk

Great interview. Thanks Graham. Especially getting to hear that Four Clippers Fox record I got to see in several friends collections, but was never able to find a playable copy. I knew Jay Davis was a Detroit singer, and have a few solo records by him, but didn't know he was in all those different groups that I had all those '60s records. I knew about the early 70s records, but never bought them.

It could be a lower case "e" on its side, based on what looks like a "base" on the bottom of the vertical line. But IF that were the case, the "base" of the symbol would be on its left side. We have no way of knowing what it stands for, unless we can think of which pressing plants, and record masterers in that region's company or owners or staff personal names could match what the symbol represents. It's like a shot in the dark, unless we can find some documentation that matches the information we know is concrete.

Thanks, I only meant it could represent a lot of different alphabet letters and individual symbols of record masterers or pressing plants, rather than a wide gamut like "everything in The World". If I ever say anything "personal" about any forum poster's actions, it will only be positive, in praise, not putting someone down. I wouldn't want to be "combative" and ruin the mood here, of people who come here to learn and share knowledge and bringing good music to each other.

Sorry. I didn't mean at all to be prickly. I was agreeing with you about it looking like a "q", and just adding another possibility. And I wasn't trying to disparage the idea that a recording engineer would mark a record if they cut the master.

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood, thinking the post meant that it was a Tempos' record on Riley's. I have The Terrifics. I have seen a Tempos listed as 8783. And maybe that one was slated, maybe scheduled(or maybe never got that far), but never pressed up. If it WAS pressed up, it must have been an extremely small pressing and withdrawn, or possibly test pressing only. But one never knows for sure, because so many master copies and test pressings of projects that were previously unknown, or were listed on paper, but thought to have been cancelled before any pressing, have turned up many years later.

It certainly could be a lower case "q". It could be a backwards "p". It could be, or represent a LOT of different things.

Of course he etched that, because he mastered the record.

Now that you mentioned that, I DO remember seeing that type of marking, and wondering what that represented.

It looks, to me, like "C. I. ". One of Columbia's? IF the tail of the letter C's portion that crosses the vertical line represents the letter "T", THEN it is a fancy "CT", which would represent Columbia Terre Haute. However, I don't think the pressings look like those of the Terre Haute plant, not being styrene, and the label printing fonts and graphic layout doesn't look anything like what Terre Haute EVER used. So I doubt that the logo represents "CT". I can't think of any Columbia facility that is in a city that starts with the letter, "I". But, the only codes that I know of that start with the letter, "C", are Columbia's. Regarding the label and font style, I recognise them as those used by of one of the main Illinois pressing plants used by northern and central Illinois record labels, and especially independent labels. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of that plant.

It certainly could be the mastering Co., just as much as the possibility of the pressing plant. I haven't heard that recording engineers put marks in the trailout.

I've seen 8783 and 8784 listed, but never seen scans of them, nor seen physical copies of them, even in big Detroit Soul collectors' collections. So, they must have been dead rare, and only pressed up in extremely small numbers. I wonder if 8784 even got to the pressing stage. I 'm not sure if I've seen a scan of 8783, or not. So, I think that may have been pressed up. I'm SURE I've never seen anything on 8784 (other than its listing).

I'm sure that's a pressing plant marking. I've seen it on several Chicago label records. I'd bet it's a fairly small, indie, Midwestern pressing plant.

I've also never seen a non-USA-distributed demo. I assume that Bob Lee leased it to Mercury after the local Chicago sales got high enough. That was during the time when Mercury's relatively new Chicago office was looking to grab up a lot of the local talent. He did that with several of his productions. His productions were all over the map. He was one of the most prolific producers who never had a long deal with any one label. I wonder if Lee was a bit quirky, and maybe not the easiest to get along with?

That's my favourite song by him.

I don't know the exact date, or even year, that the "But It's Alright" East Coast ex-songwriting partner of Sidney Barnes, J.J. Jackson died. I remember the announcement, that seems to have been about 10-12 years ago; but as the years have been flying by at supersonic speed lately, I could be very wrong.