Willie Hutch – In and Out (1982)

Last day of the Christmas holidays.

Been choosing some new carpet and furniture for the “music room” to make the place a bit more homely and welcoming.

Quite excited about how the room will look if I’ve got the measurements right …..

In the background, I’ve been working my way through some more of my 12 inch singles.

This popped up just before dinner and it’s got to be added to the blog right now.

Perfect early 1980s soul/funk/disco on Motown with an absolutely killer guitar line that is just incessantly catchy.

It really gets no better than this!

Play loud!

Cerrone – Supernature (1977)

The first day of 2023 has started peacefully and productively.

I wasn’t feeling my best last night so I decided to avoid the New Year’s Eve trip to the pub and instead stayed at home listening to records and watching a few episodes of the outstanding “Detectorists” which is one of my favourite TV programmes of the last couple of years – inevitably, I’m late to it!

I was in bed by 11pm but was woken up by a large number of people shouting and singing and letting off fireworks in the street.

Thoughtless swine, couldn’t they have caused all that commotion earlier ….?

As it was, I still rose early and pottered about making notes to hone my New Year resolutions and goals – not sharing them yet, mind!

After that, some shopping, some cooking, some reading, some social media messaging with my kids as they gradually came to, some football, 500 press-ups and then a futher alphabetical trawl through my collection of 12 inch singles.

Gratifyingly, four of the ones I checked out were already on the blog: check here for Camper Van Beethoven‘s indie masterpiece “Take The Skinheads Bowling”; check here for Caribou‘s perfect “I Can’t Do Without You”; here for one of Nick Cave‘s career highs “Distant Sky”, and; here for C-Bank‘s electro classic “One More Shot” from 1982.

The next tune that came up was Cerrone‘s electronic disco masterpiece “Supernature” which was released in 1977. Apparently featuring lyrics written by an uncredited Lene Lovich, this 10 minute gem is a worthy companion piece to some of the peerless classics released by Giorgio Moroder around this time – check here for one of my absolute favourites, “Chase” released in 1978.

Anyhow, you can’t go wrong with this – incessantly catchy.

Play loud!

Lamont Dozier – Going Back To My Roots (1977)

After my inability to find even a tenuous link between a song and the proceedings at the World Cup yesterday, I fear I’m drawing another blank so far today. Of course there’s still a couple more matches to come later but, really, have you ever seen anything dozier than the Wales defence this morning against Iran?

Hang on, I’m back!

I stumbled upon this song in a roundabout way this morning while browsing Discogs.com for a few secondhand seven inch singles. I’d already selected a couple of items from one seller and noticed that he was also selling Odyssey‘s funk classic “Going Back To My Roots” which came out in 1981 (their career high “Native New Yorker” can be found on the blog here).

I’d always assumed it was the original but I was surprised and delighted to learn that I was wrong and that the song had actually been written and recorded four years earlier by the late, great, Lamont Dozier who died back in August.

Lamont was, of course, most famous for his work with Brian and Eddie Holland who co-wrote a dozen or so number one hits for The Supremes and Four Tops in the 1960s. You can find a few of them on the blog if you look or check here for a Four Tops classic!

Mr. Dozier is also namechecked in Billy Bragg‘s outstanding “Levi Stubbs’ Tears” which you can find here.

Norman Whitfield and Barratt Strong
Are here to make right everything that’s wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you

Anyhow, Dozier’s original version of “Going Back To My Roots” is a stone cold disco funk classic with an unbelievably catchy guitar riff.

Don’t know about you but I’m zippin’ up my boots and goin’ back to my roots.

Yeah.

Play loud!

The Valentine Brothers – Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) (1982)

I’ve knocked off work for the long bank holiday weekend which has been called to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. I’m not much of a royalist but I do give our head of state a lot of credit for her public service and consistent integrity and quiet dignity. I have little confidence that the subsequent generation(s) will be remotely as admirable.

My quest for a new home carries on later in the week, I’m viewing quite an interesting property in a very pretty part of a neighbouring town. It wasn’t available to look at today but I wandered down to the place at lunchtime to get a sense of the vibe and general environment. Very peaceful and could be a nice spot though the house is a little smaller than I was really after.

One thing that will be cheaper than at my current home will be the electricity and gas bills. We currently have a pretty big place and so it was with some trepidation that I downloaded our new bill from our energy supplier yesterday morning. The proposition was to increase monthly payments from £220 to £450 …. I reckon that’s a little on the high side because we have just replaced an old boiler. Nonetheless, I suspect the figure doesn’t factor in the next enormous rise in energy prices due in October …. The good news is that my ex-wife will be taking over the bill when I move out and I’ll be in the clear!

Anyhow, as the “cost of living crisis” continues to bite, what could be more pertinent than to post the original version of the tune that Simply Red covered as their debut single in 1985. Almost inevitably, The Valentine Brothers‘ original take of “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)” is far superior to the cover version and is a classic combination of funk and politics.

Bought this on 12″ single a few weeks ago and keep returning to it.

Play loud and turn down those radiators!

Ripple – The Beat Goes On And On (1977)

A lovely morning in middle England.

I made another early quick trip to the Co-op for essential provisions accompanied by the sound of raucous birdsong and the bellringers just getting underway at the local church. It was nice to see that the bunting has started to sprout ahead of next week’s holidays to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and I mused on the best way of enjoying the coming long weekend.

I woke this morning to find my fantasy football team had earned me a few quid overnight in the North American Major League Soccer matches. I know nothing at all about any of the players but my Moneyball-esque approach to player selection seems to work wherever it is applied.

Later on, it is the final of the Indian Premier League and I’m looking forward to discovering whether my evolving approach to fantasy cricket is going to generate any more summer spending money to invest in my vinyl colleciton. I won a few quid last week on some English Twenty20 matches which has morphed nicely into a couple of seven inch singles!

As I type, I’m awaiting the first email photo updates of my middle daughter who is running the Edinburgh Marathon this morning – fingers crossed we get a few pictures and that she gets a good time!

The only blot on the landscape for today is my appointment with our back lawn. It’s in need of some attention though I’m reluctant to give it any as we currently have around twenty baby blackbirds marauding round the garden and gallivanting in the birdbath. I’ll miss them when I find a new place but I won’t miss the lawnmowing ….

A decent garden is a redline for my new home; for birdwatching and barbecuing!

Anyhow, I’ve just placed a Discogs order for Ripple‘s joyous slice of 1970s disco “The Beat Goes On And On” so I might as well elevate it to the pantheon of the bestmusicofalltime, pronto.

Two versions for you, the 7″ single version and the the 12″ “disco mix” – I actually prefer the former but you choose.

Play loud, etc!

William DeVaughn – Be Thankful For What You Got (1974)

A beautiful morning today in middle England.

Up at 6am and listened to several articles from the audio edition of this week’s Economist.

Spolier alert, there’s a lot of bad things happening in a lot of places at the moment.

By contrast, my life is one of peace and amazing choice.

I slipped out to the local Co-op to get some food and alcohol for later. Mused for a while before making a decision. Lots of good options.

Later on, I’ll have to decide how to navigate through the overlapping smorgasboard of live sport – Premier League Football, the last day of England’s first test match with the West Indies and also the crucial Six Nations Rugby clash at Twickenham between England and Ireland.

Rich world problems.

As such, this seemed apt.

Just bought the secondhand vinyl off Discogs.com.

Perfect soul music to reflect to.

The 7″ version and then the blissed out LP take.

George McCrae – I Get Lifted (1974)

Things got very tricky at “work” today when lunchtime required participation in a Teams meeting while also trying to simultaneously watch live coverage of both the Women’s Team Final of the Artistic Gymnastics and Bianca Walkden‘s successful fight for the bronze medal in the Taekwando +67kg category. In the end, I had the meeting on the Surface Pro, the Taekwando via the BBC on the iMac and the gymnastics via Eurosport on the TV.

I believe I should qualify for an Olympic medal in “multi-tasking” as a result.

Having recently posted A Tribe Called Quest‘s career high “Can I Kick It?” (here) in honour of British medals at Taekwando, I was all set to post Talking Heads sublime “Born Under Punches” to commemorate another success in the same sport.

However, dipping into today’s Olympics highlights programme, I was blown away by the gold medal that was won by Kuo Hsing-Chun from “Chinese Taipei” (that’s Taiwan to you and me) who was competing in the 59kg class of the women’s weightlifting (clean and jerk variety).

Having secured victory, she then decided to go for the Olympic record. But, rather than attempt a weight just over the old mark, she decided to go for a lift that was 6kg over the old record ….which she proceeded to do with ease! One of the classiest things I’ve ever seen in sport – and I don’t really like watching weightlifting.

Anyhow, a vinyl copy of George McCrae‘s 1974 LP Rock Your Baby turned up in the post over the weekend and, as well as featuring a magnificent six minute version of the title track (previously posted here), it also includes the stone cold funk/disco classic “I Get Lifted”.

The connection with my new Taiwanese hero was too obvious to avoid I’m afraid.

Perfect pop music.

Play loud, etc.

Stevie Wonder – Superstition (1972)

Last night I had my fingers crossed that the weather would turn out as well as the forecasts suggested.

Out of bed early before the temperatures started to rise, I put my left shoe on first, as always, and got the mower ready to tackle a lawn that really needed a good “seeing to”.

I was hoping that, touch wood, the grass wouldn’t be so long that I’d need to do it twice – once on a higher cut and then, properly, on a lower one.

Fortunately, I was in luck and, after a quick check to make sure that there were only three leaf clovers amongst the multifarious flora that make up the greensward, I was off and “running”.

And, indeed, sweating.

A lot.

While shearing the edges of the lawn, I noticed that our random family horseshoe was not quite on a vertical plane and quickly brought it back to the necessary perpendicular.

Hopefully avoiding a few suboptimal outcomes as a result.

With the job done, I showered, read a chapter from John Darwin‘s superb “The Empire Project” and then settled down to watch an excellent England performance in the T20 International against Pakistan at Headingley.

After that, beer, wine and this – a new post on the blog.

I’ve previously posted Leatherface‘s early 1990s punk classic “Not Superstitious” here – and that sums me up to a tee.

A ruthlessly evidence based approach to life.

Oh yes.

As Stevie Wonder observes on simply one of the greatest funk driven dance records of all time:

When you believe in things

That you don’t understand,

Then you suffer,

Superstition ain’t the way

’nuff said.

The LP version then live sometime soon after and then live on Sesame Street in 1974 ….

Play loud!

Scott Davis and the Movements – New York Apple Jack (1979)

It’s been a warm, lazy day and I’ve got an underlying feeling that I’ve not made the most of it.

I was out of bed a bit later than normal and by the time I was properly up and about I’d decided that it was already a bit too hot to bother getting the lawn mower out …. I fear that I’ll have to do the chore tomorrow regardless of the temperature.

Anyhow, I spent some quality time listening to a superb double CD called Keb Darge Digs For … P&P (subtitled “Killer Underground Deep Funk, Disco Funk, Soul & Philly from New York’s legendary P&P Records”). It really is a great compilation and it includes a neat cover version of Stevie Wonder‘s all time career high point “Superstition”. A quick check on the blog revealed that somehow or other, I’ve never got round to posting that tune and I resolved to rectify this grievous omission this afternoon.

However, the penultimate track on the compilation turned out to be a stone cold, funk/disco classic that I’d never heard before and I decided to push Mr Wonder back until tomorrow and post this song instead.

Scott Davis and the Movements‘ New York Applejack LP was released in 1979 and is, it’s fair to say, a somewhat obscure album that has never been given a release on CD. Looking at the stats for it on Discogs.com, 25 people own the LP while 290 are looking for it. There are no copies for sale on the website and the last time a copy was sold was three years ago when a record with pretty poor quality vinyl went for £90. I think it’s fair to say that I’m not going to be adding it to my collection anytime soon.

The instrumental version of “New York Apple Jack” is far superior to the vocal version and features the sort of choppy funk guitar that I simply can’t get enough of. Great bass, keyboards and percussion make it a worthy entry to the pantheon of the bestmusicofalltime!

Party time!

Play loud.

Shannon – Let The Music Play (1983)

I just love this record.

I have it on both 7″ single and 12″ single and it’s impossible to find a bad version of this song.

Back in the day, I was conscious of the emerging electro/disco scene and really enjoyed many of the tracks.

However, this didn’t always translate into my vinyl purchases and it is only over the last decade or so that I have been filling in the significant gaps in my collection.

Indeed, looking back through my 900+ posts on this blog, I was staggered to discover that not only had I not already posted this tune but, also, that I’d omitted stone cold classics such as Freeez‘s “I.O.U.” from the previous year.

I will remedy this tomorrow.

That’s not to say that a few related songs haven’t made the blog. For example, check here for C-Bank‘s sublime “One More Shot” from 1982 and here for Madonna‘s career high “Into The Groove” from 1985.

Anyhow, I’ve not much more to add this evening.

A spot of French Chardonnay to accompany an outstanding dinner featuring baked eggs, asparagus, errr, some sort of cheese, cabbage cooked in an interesting way and some artisan bread has left the creative (and descriptive) senses largely dulled.

Time to close the blinds and “throw a few shapes” to some loud music methinks.

The original video and then the 12″ mix.

Play loud, etc.