José Feliciano : Golden Lady

A touch of rain and sunshine made the flowers grow
Into a lovely smile that's blooming
And it's so clear to me that you're a dream come true

Stevie Wonder is pretty good. I don't think he's quite the genius everyone works him up to be, as he has a lot of output. He has put a lot of song to tape. And while some of it is fantastic ("Sir Duke" for example), a lot of it is just boring, or worse, crappy. "Golden Lady" is not one of those songs. "Golden Lady" is a fantastic love song, nothing fancy but funky and cheerful. It's purely celebratory.

We've discussed José Feliciano in passing earlier in this blog. Aside from penning the ultra-mega-super Christmas hit, "Feliz Navidad", and of course the excellent theme to "Chico and the Man", hit the charts primarily with his covers. He usually brought a nice casual latin groove with his fabulously expressive voice and simple acoustic guitar.

His take on Stevie's "Golden Lady" is no exception. He brings his trademark latin flair to the original, taking a great song to the next level. Where Stevie's tribute to his woman was a laid back affair, José injects a passion that crescendos throughout the entire piece. By the end, there's no doubt how he feels about his woman.

I'm dedicating this one to my woman, with heaven in her eyes.

"Golden Lady" is from José's 1974 release, And the Feeling's Good, which was literally just re-released. My copy came from the most excellent most excellent compilation, As We Travel: Folk Funk Flavours & Ambient Soul, which also gave me the song from American Gypsy and several other amazing tunes.

[You can listen to José Feliciano's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Golden Lady" by navigating to the post "Song098" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Red Hot Chili Peppers : Nobody Weird Like Me

Back before the Red Hot Chili Peppers lost their cojones under the bridge, they were a pretty fierce funk-punk alternative radio standard.  When Mother's Milk came out in 1989, it was still two years before Nirvana would shatter the Billboard charts (thanks to SoundScan) and bring hard rock back into vogue as a potential revenue stream.  At the time I was just discovering the college radio scene (having just gone to college and all) and was listening to Nothing's Shocking, Disintegration and Hunkpapa on heavy rotation.  (I didn't discover the Pixies until much later.)  Mother's Milk fell right into the mix.

"Nobody Weird Like Me" is a great example of the crosscutting of funk and punk the band was famous for.  It begins with a hyperactive funk bass line, hammered out by Flea in quadruple time.  It's quickly joined by jackhammer drums and a metal-ish rock riff.  The song careens along at full pace, highlighted by Anthony Kiedis' rock-rap vocals and intermittent vocoder exclamations, until it culminates in an explosion that peters out into a slow funk groove for the remaining minute or so of the song.  Blam.

"Nobody Weird Like Me" appears on the Red Hot Chili Pepper's 1989 release, Mother's Milk.

[You can listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Nobody Weird Like Me" by navigating to the post "Song096" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Edwin Birdsong : Cola Bottle Baby

Okay, now, if you've been paying attention, you should recognize this tune. That's because Daft Punk sampled it for their awesome "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Edwin Birdsong was a minor player in the 70's funk field with his song "Rapper Dapper Snapper" that's also been sampled a bit.

The song is a loping funk piece built on a descending hook crafted with bubbling late-70's analog synths that gives it a very warm feel. It's not a burner, but it's got a good groove and reminds me a bit of P-Funk tracks from the same period. 


I really don't have much more to say about it. It's a fun track, though, and leads off Edwin's 1979 self-titled album, on which it's followed by the track "Phiss-Phizz".  Apparently he was into carbonation.  I pulled my copy from the appropriately named compilation Discovered: As Sampled By Daft Punk.

[You can listen to Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" by navigating to the post "Song092" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Daft Punk : Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

So, if you listened to the radio at all in 2007, you heard Kanye West's smash "Stronger". It was a decent rap over a killer vocoder-driven vocal track shouting "harder, better, faster, stronger". "How cool! What a genius!" you probably thought to yourself, at least if you're as square as I am. Well, he is a genius, but mostly a genius at picking out cool but obscure samples.

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a jam by French electronic duo Daft Punk. It's an exceptionally  funky tune that takes a simple self-empowering chant, wraps it in vocoder splendor and splays it over groove in a most jazzy way. The vocoder is a device that breaks sound, particularly speech, down into composite wave forms. These are then transmitted and decoded resulting in a decidedly robotic tone.
In this case, the tone is also being warped by incredible keyboard work by the duo. In a sense, the vocals are the keyboard sound, not in a digital sampling sense, but in a very analog sense. Listen to the syncopated funk as they chop the lyrics up around 2:20 or the near incomprehensible squeaks in the final solo around the 3:20 mark. I just love the way they break it down, with the vocals becoming less vocal-like and more mechanically instrumental as the song progresses.

Meanwhile, the hook jams underneath, pumping the funk and holding down a solid base for the duo to vamp over. It's like jazz-funk from the '70's that's been shipped via time machine to the new millennium.

You can find "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" on Daft Punk's 2001 release, Discovery. While this song is an amazing tune, and when it's on, it's hard to argue that it's not my favorite tune of all time (the groove is just that good), the rest of the album is more pedestrian dance. There are people who love Daft Punk, but alas, I am not one of them. Except this song. This song is awesome.

[You can listen to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by navigating to the post "Song091" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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John Gregory : Six Million Dollar Man

The problem with John Gregory, aside from his having two first names, is that there are a lot of them out there. There are all sorts of John Gregorys and a bunch of them are musicians. But the John Gregory I'm talking about is the British composer and arranger from the 60's and 70's who also recorded albums under the pseudonym "Chaquito". And man, could this guy arrange the heck out of a tune.

Like most 70's cop and action TV themes, Oliver Nelson's theme for The Six Million Dollar Man is a tiny little gem of orchestral funk.  It's great listening in its own right (especially if the six million dollar sound effects are included). John takes this already fabulous tune and cranks the knob to eleven to create a rip-roaring brass-fueled musical adventure.

It starts with these crazy horn runs that swing back and forth between the speakers. Then the backbeat starts and the horns go to work on the main theme, but the flutes and other winds are still flurrying around the stereo spectrum. This little, almost disconcerting motif continues throughout the entire tune. Somewhere in the middle the band drops out and we get a nice drum and bongo solo. Then the band jumps back in and hits the theme again with even more gusto than before, if such a thing is possible.

It's a whirlwind of a piece and if you're lucky you can find it on John's 1976 release on Pye Records, The Detectives, which is, as it sounds, an entire record of funkified brass-driven detective themes. Yes, this album is awesome, and you should own it. I don't actually have the vinyl, but I do have Six Million Dollar TV Themes which is a compilation that includes this album, plus other cop show themes from other albums, almost all of which are just as awesome. Definitely worth grabbing.

[You can listen to John Gregory's "Six Million Dollar Man" by navigating to the post "Song090" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Lassigue Bendthaus : Superbad (Soul Substitute)

Lassigue Bendthaus is one of the many many nom de plume's for Uwe Schmidt (also know as Atom Heart and Señor Coconut), a German musician who dabbles primarily in electronic music. In the mid-90's he developed his own software that performs "vocal simulation based on vocal resynthesis generated from original vocal raw material". So, what I take from that is, the software samples his vocals, chops them up, then reconstructs them, which introduces all sorts of interesting digital artifacts. It's along the lines of "glitch" music, where the digital edges and errors of electronics and samples, rather than being fixed or smoothed over, are embraced and used as the very source material for the piece. The vocals are chopped into tiny phonemes which are repeated and stretched providing a very robotic sound.

"Super Bad" is an early James Brown original, and as such is an extremely analog piece of hard funk. One of the cool things about Uwe's version is that, even though the song is completely reliant on digital technology, constructed completely in the realm of the electronic, from the programmed drums to the android vocals to the synthesized horns, he's managed to keep the organic funk of the original. Even with all the bleeps and bloops, it rocks, and though it doesn't have the sheer sweat-soaked fury of the original, it could easily wind up a dance floor.

The album, Pop Artificielle, consists of ten covers of a wide variety of musicians, from Donovan to Prince to ABC (which I almost posted instead), all done in this very digital vein. It's an excellent album and a fun listen.

[You can listen to Lassigue Bendthaus' "Superbad (Soul Substitute)" by navigating to the post "Song057" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Funk Factory : Rien Ne Va Plus

I was first introduced to the Funk Factory via the Beastie Boys' "Car Thief" (from their 1989 opus Paul's Boutique) which was built almost entirely on top of samples from this jazz-funk masterpiece.

"Rien Ne Va Plus" is a slow burn of a funk song, scored with delicious analog synths, bass, chicken scratch guitar and rock drums.  The synthesizers bubble and flutter throughout the song, wrapping it in deep 70's shag, very P-Funk in it's sound.  The song is super-funky, nearly polyrhythmic, in that there are often multiple bass lines running at once.  The ensemble vocals draw a lot from the psychedelic soul bands, like Rotary Connection and the vocal lines are very jazzy, slightly angular, with almost progressive melodies.  But the real clincher is the excellent extended scat sections.  The first, sampled almost in its entirety by the Beasties, is performed by a heavily modified, almost vocodered voice and the second nearly verges on ecstatic screaming.

At first I thought "Rien ne va plus" was just some French thrown in for, you know, pretentious continental flair.  And, I guess it is, but it does have meaning within the song.  "Rien ne va plus" is what they say at a French (or more likely Moroccan) roulette table for "no more bets" (it literally translates as, I think, "Nothing goes anymore.").  The song is all about riding the lucky roulette wheel of love.  Or something.  It all ties together. Trust me.

"Rien Ne Va Plus" can be found on Funk Factory's 1975 self-titled sizzler.  It can also be found on the very nice four disc What It Is! Rhino funk sampler, which is pretty good.

[You can listen to Funk Factory's "Rien Ne Va Plus" by navigating to the post "Song056" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Lindsay Mac : Use Me

Lindsay Mac is a cellist with a bit of a unique streak.  She wants to be a singer-songwriter and has taken to playing her cello standing up, strapped like a guitar over her shoulder, so she can sing more easily.  That uniqueness comes across in spades in this cover of Bill Withers' classic tune "Use Me".  This is no dainty string quartet.  This is a full-on cello-fueled piece of electrified funk.  Normally, takes on this song turn me off because the original is just so... so... so damn awesome.  "Use Me" is a song that expertly combines both joy and despair, hope and hopelessness, and just plain raw lust, into a simmering cauldron of deep funk.  Lindsay does not forget this.

She manages to keep the power of the slow funk while updating the song with a bit of electronic studio play and, of course, cello.  She's got a real drummer driving the back beat behind her while she tears up the bass lines on her favorite instrument.  That's all accentuated with a little bit of scratching and of course she sings.  It's a little bare, but I think that's it.  There are couple of flourishes here and there, but I think those are primarily overdubbed, electronically-processed cello.

She also does really great trick where somehow her own vocals are scratched.  I'm not sure if she recorded them to vinyl first or if it's a studio trick, but it's damn cool.  Especially effective is the start of the second verse, where she hollers 'My brother!' and the DJ totally breaks it down.  It's ass-kicking-ness of the first power.  It got me thinking that it would be a completely awesome move if, in her live shows, she only played the cello part and really did let a DJ play her vocals off a record.  Even cooler if she somehow managed to switch back and forth between live and recorded vocals.

Anyway, the song is an amazing version of an amazing song.  Extremely well done, and it really does what a cover should do, which is to give you a familiar touchstone while still presenting everything an artist has to offer.  It makes me want to buy the album, which, by the way, is called Small Revolution.

[You can listen to Lindsay Mac's "Use Me" by navigating to the post "Song052" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Mandingo : Manhunter

Mandingo is a weird band. First of all, I'm not sure they were actually a band per se, but rather a set of studio musicians who did library music for some of the British production companies, although I read somewhere it was actually the Geoff Love Orchestra. They played music that was composed primarily by folks who wrote for soundtracks and production companies, like Brian Fahey and Mike Vickers.

The music is a cross between the pop orchestras of yore and the funk of the day. It's full of brass, strings and percussion (though I suppose you could say the same of the Love Unlimited Orchestra), but it's anchored by a funk backbeat, some heavy bass and even some rock guitar, which tends to make it sound like the soundtrack to a 70's cop show, which is to say, it sounds awesome. Plus it's really percussion heavy. In one interview, Mike says they had four drummers and seven percussionists in the studio at once.

"Manhunter" is the kick-off song for the album, and rightfully so. It's some seriously heavy funk, anchored by the tight bass-line and the rhythm guitar. The horns carry the tune with full-on intensity and the whole thing is buoyed throughout by the non-stop barrage of percussion. Apparently, Mandingo LPs were the go-to records for hi-fi salesmen back in the day. When you 'drop the needle' on this one, you'll see why.

The records were on EMI and were released primarily in the UK. Also, they used to release in quad as well as stereo and I can only imagine how this would sound remixed for 5.1 surround. You can find "Manhunter" on Mandingo's 1975 release Savage Rite. Their albums have been repackaged as 2-for-1 deals, which is a pretty good deal, except they don't seem to be in print any longer. And I was first introduced to Mandingo on the excellent Sound Gallery compilations, both of which are worth owning, although they too seem to have passed on.

[#43]

American Gypsy : Golden Ring

This one's hard to classify. There are flutes and a string section, and the whole thing has a close, dark feel to it, but there's also some upbeat funk and scatting going on. I think it falls somewhere between psychedelia and soft rock; between Santana and America. It's tough to say.

Regardless of where you try and pigeonhole it though, it's a great tune. There's not much out there about American Gypsy on the interwebs, so I can't give much background, except to say this is off their third album.

The songs starts off with a bit of psychedelia, some acoustic guitar, light organ, light echo on the vocals, all vaguely trippy. There's something about the way they process the vocals on this track that makes them sound very close-up, almost like the singer is in your head, whispering in your ear. Then, about 90 seconds into it, they funk it up, bringing up the speed, adding wah-wah guitar, more strings and a bebopping scat solo. Then they slow it down and do it all again. It trips and grooves, it's alternately spooky and funky, which doesn't seem like it would work, but they really make it go.

You can find "Golden Ring" on American Gypsy's self-titled 1975 release. But I found it on this most excellent compilation, As We Travel: Folk Funk Flavours & Ambient Soul. It's full of 70s psychedelic funk like this. A superb compilation; highly recommended

[#41]

MC 900 Ft Jesus : Falling Elevators

MC 900 Ft Jesus is an interesting cat. Yes, his name comes from Oral Roberts, who said he was personally contacted by a 900 ft. Jesus. He's ostensibly a rapper, and he does rap on this album. But he's not very good at it. He's got that whiny-white-guy problem that most white rappers have, but the real problem I have with his lyrics, which are about serial arsonists or serial killers or surrealistic wordplay, are actually pretty sophomoric. They sound like a high-schooler's idea of Lynchian depravity. (Although he did pen the awesome, "Everybody shut up and leave me alone, I'm going straight to heaven", so, props for that.)

But he has two things going for him in my book. First, the music is good. Nice and funky, with deep bass and a driving rhythm. Second, he's got the turntable wizardry of DJ Zero, which, while criminally underused, is still astounding. I still regret I missed the one opportunity I had to see him live. Apparently, he performed a set completely on his own, and he was amazing.

"Falling Elevators" itself isn't so much a rap song as... Well, it's not a rap song at all. Really, it's a rip-off of Bitches Brew/On the Corner-era Miles Davis, with Mark (that's the MC's real name) uttering some decent spoken word over the top. But those are great Miles albums, and this is a near perfect tribute, with a driving bass line, hyper-syncopated dueling drum kits (yay!), a bass clarinet (more yay!), bongos, organ noodlings and just about anything else you can think of that would make it cool. There's even a couple of interludes where a trumpet floats in like a wraith, dominates, then dissipates into the emptiness. It's an aggressively laid-back funk jam and a thing of beauty.

Anyway, I do really dig this album, it's one of my favorites, but I find I tend to listen through the lyrics rather than to them and just hear the music. If you can do that while digging the funk, it could be right for you. "Falling Elevators" comes from MC 900 Ft Jesus' second album, 1991's Welcome to My Dream.

[You can listen to MC 900 Ft Jesus' "Falling Elevators" by navigating to the post "Song034" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Jimmy Smith : I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe

"Well, I got ...
More bounce to the fuckin' bump
And if you want to know why,
It's 'cause I'm motherfuckin' truckin' ..."

I gotta admit, what first excited me about this tune was the opening bars which are sampled pretty plainly by the Beastie Boys on "Professor Booty" from their Check Your Head album. Very few things get me more excited (musically) than catching a sample reference I've never heard before, even one so gratuitous. After that second tom fill, my brain immediately jumps to the Beastie's ingenious lyrics.

From there though, the song opens up into those gorgeous ringing female vocals. With only a hint of lyrics around the the chorus, they carry that sparkly 70's vibe that makes you feel like you've just been swept aboard the Mothership on its way to Studio 54 for some seriously laid back funking. You can just imagine the afro-sporting, rhinestone-jumpsuit-clad backup singers "oooh-ing" and "ahhh-ing" their way through the sessions with the sweeping hand gestures and slow camera pans.

You know what else those vocals remind me of? That Eastern Airlines ride at Disney World back in the 70's, where they showed movies of folks singing and celebrating all around the world over a super-groovy soundtrack. There's something about some of the music from that era that for some reason really brings me back to that ride, ostensibly one of the more boring rides for kids, but I just lo-o-o-oved it. Now we know why.

The track itself is a relaxed, sexy groove, and who would expect anything less from a Barry White cover? The song really belongs to the vocals and the rhythm section, who lay down a nice sustained rolling funk shuffle throughout. Jimmy Smith jazzes around the organ pretty well, though he's buried down in the mix a bit, so you have to really listen carefully to catch his far-out solos.

This tune was featured as a rip from a 45 back in November 2009 at the always great Funky16corners blog, in case you missed it. It's also available on Jimmy Smith's 1974 LP, Black Smith.

[You can listen to Jimmy Smith's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe" by navigating to the post "Song008" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Propellerheads : History Repeating (ft. Shirley Bassey)

For some reason, the Propellerheads only put out one album, but it's a great one. Arriving on the scene in the middle of the 90's lounge resurgence and around the same time as Austin Powers, the album is acid-jazz-soaked electronica, chock full of bass and horn-driven funk riffs with a twist of 60's spy themes. In all, it's a potent cocktail that should get your bootie shaking regardless of what sort of mood you're in.

Highlighting the set is "History Repeating", which features the astoundingly dynamic vocal talents of Shirley Bassey. You might remember her from such incredible numbers like "Goldfinger", "Moonraker" and the almighty "Diamonds Are Forever". The old dame still has it, and she belts the tune like it's the theme to a long lost Sean Connery-era James Bond flick. The song has it all, a shag-worthy rhythm section, a funky organ groove, a killer horn line, and of course Shirley's sterling vocals. Gotta love it.

If you're interested, and you should be, you can find "History Repeating" on the awkwardly titled Decksandrumsandrockandroll. (When I wrote this, Amazon had it for 2 bucks, plus shipping and handling. Delivered to your door for five bucks? Sold!)

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The Nite-Liters : Serenade for Jive Turkey

Just in time for Thanksgiving! "Serenade for Jive Turkey" is a raving full-band funk stomper with a bit of a prog bent. It starts with a scream and barrels along from there with a solid funk groove. Then around chorus-time, it breaks into an angular riff that's hammered out by the horns and some wordless vocals. Then, in a master stroke, it ends with a killer drum fill and two (just two, no more, no less) claps. Bang, bang! All done!

A sure-fire upbeat mood-alterer. Be sure you play this one while you're stuffing that bird, if you get my drift.

I don't know much about The Nite-Liters themselves. I'm pretty sure I picked this one up from the excellent Funky16Corners website, but it can also be found on their recently re-released 1973 album "A-NAL-Y-SIS".

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