It's Your Thing by Senor Soul

I knew nothing about Senor Soul when I picked this single up the other day. It's a latin-flavoured take on the Isley Brothers' proto-funk track 'It's Your Thing', with some crisp drumming and funky Hammmond propelling things along. Research reveals that Senor Soul were none other than the precursor to WAR, the funk-rock outfit soon to jam and record with the Animals' Eric Burdon.

It seems there is an Ace Records comp out there which brings together the cream of their two LP's and few singles, including such curios as covers of 'Sunshine Superman', 'Psychotic Reaction' and 'Pata Pata'. I picked up two more of their singles when I got 'Your Thing': a cover of Lee Dorsey's 'Working in a Coalmine' and the self-penned (I think) 'Don't Lay Your Funky Trip On Me'. All good stuff. The sample below is of an extract from the A and B sides, but I'll post the whole A side when I get time.

The Double-O-Soul of Sonny Stitt

I was intrigued by this one: Sonny Stitt on a soul record? I'm glad I picked it up though. If you think you recognise the backing track you'd be right, it's Edwin Starr's paean to snappy dressing ladykillers, 'Agent Double-O-Soul'. In this case though our secret agent is the eponymous Sonny, blowing for all he's worth over two sides of atmospheric, stomping accompaniment from the Funk Brothers, Motown's untouchable house band.

The result is magic. Close your eyes and you can almost smell the cigarette smoke and feel the creak of the sprung dancefloor. Lovely stuff.

That's Enough by Roscoe Robinson

This tale of lovers' bliss from Arkansas-born Roscoe Robinson seems to me to epitomise everything that's great about early sixties soul music. There may be no overt social or racial consciousness here, but there is a simple joyousness and a lust for life that springs from this record the moment you put it on. Try listening to it without dancing, and try dancing to it without a smile on your face.

I Do by The Mighty Marvelows

This was a number seven hit in the R&B charts for The Mighty Marvelows in 1965. It's a two-and-a-half-minute minor masterpiece of eccentricly harmonized doo-wop. I wonder whether the Funk Brothers were listening to this when they came up with Frank Wilson's sublime 'Indeed I Do' for Motown a few years later?

Witchi Tai To by Everything Is Everything

Welcome to the inaugural post down in the Valley of Wax. I've spent 25 years in the Valley, and I still don't want to leave.

So what's it all about? Well, it's another blog about vinyl culture. If you're still reading this then like me, you probably can't get enough of the stuff, and read these blogs with the avidity that you chase after elusive 45s. Although I'm a collector I've never been especially motivated by rarity, but I am on an endless quest for the novel, the unusual or the forgotten.

I picked this 45 up in Camden Market, and although a webcrawl reveals that it was a hit in 1970 there is surprisingly little information out there. This folky, funky melange of American Indian trippiness was written by one Jim Pepper, who supposedly learnt the chant from his Indian grandfather. Pepper performed the song with a group under the moniker 'Everything Is Everything', before re-recording it under his own name. I find it a seductive little single, with a lazy floating horn-line that lingers long after the record has finished. Add to that some of the most hippy-looking label artwork I've ever seen (on Vanguard Apostolic) and you have the perfect package. Not bad for 50 pence.