ok. i have been spinning the last few weekends at sunday BBQs here in sunny california. the venue is a VFW hall (veterans of foreign wars - this hall is all retired black servicemen in their 40s-60s).

my thing is 1960s soul (mostly northern, i guess, and what you brits call 'club soul', ). detroit - philly - new york, etc and heavy on the girl groups and classy urban soul (strings, etc).

the crowd at the VFW has been VERY gracious and appreciative - EXCEPT that i am getting increasing requests for 'more 70s' and 'more funky'.

some things i have played (from the very few tracks i have that fit either of these categories) and that have gone over well are:

margie hendrix - jim dandy

alex brown - love really hurts without you

syl johnson - same kind of thing

sweet inspirations - them boys

ural thomas - can you dig it

wasters - don't stop

raelettes - come get it i got it

young hearts - get yourself together

so... can some early 70s experts give me some advice on records similar to these that might please these folks (and won't bankrupt me!!)??? thanks! (maybe sticking to 1970-75 as i can't deal with anything later than that myself!)

thanks!

ok. i have been spinning the last few weekends at sunday BBQs here in sunny california. the venue is a VFW hall (veterans of foreign wars - this hall is all retired black servicemen in their 40s-60s).

my thing is 1960s soul (mostly northern, i guess, and what you brits call 'club soul', ). detroit - philly - new york, etc and heavy on the girl groups and classy urban soul (strings, etc).

the crowd at the VFW has been VERY gracious and appreciative - EXCEPT that i am getting increasing requests for 'more 70s' and 'more funky'.

some things i have played (from the very few tracks i have that fit either of these categories) and that have gone over well are:

margie hendrix - jim dandy

alex brown - love really hurts without you

syl johnson - same kind of thing

sweet inspirations - them boys

ural thomas - can you dig it

wasters - don't stop

raelettes - come get it i got it

young hearts - get yourself together

so... can some early 70s experts give me some advice on records similar to these that might please these folks (and won't bankrupt me!!)??? thanks! (maybe sticking to 1970-75 as i can't deal with anything later than that myself!)

thanks!

Wade through the Crossover thread in refo and see what floats yer boat

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/forums/topic/64319-another-crossover-friday-oh-yesssss/

If your audience are mainly black then might be a good idea to take punt on playing some Southern Soul ie southern states, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana etc etc.

Just my thoughts on it

I am not much of a DJ myself these days, but i used to DJ a bit and I found when i was DJ'ing to a crowd of older blacks, who wouldve been young people when

the records i played came out, generally were not at all interested in hearing any rare soul or anything they werent familiar with.. so while I thought i was going

to amaze them with my collection, I found that I did not have most of what they were requesting! ha.. in fact a couple of times they seemed quite put off that

here was this young, non-black guy playing soul music that they didnt know.. i dont know.. something to think about.

regards,

Jacob

Check our some of the Philly stuff, Harold Melvin, Lou Rawls, Teddy P etc etc always seems to go down well...also David Ruffin and some of the early 70s Motown sounds great too...

Chri

I am not much of a DJ myself these days, but i used to DJ a bit and I found when i was DJ'ing to a crowd of older blacks, who wouldve been young people when

the records i played came out, generally were not at all interested in hearing any rare soul or anything they werent familiar with.. so while I thought i was going

to amaze them with my collection, I found that I did not have most of what they were requesting! ha.. in fact a couple of times they seemed quite put off that

here was this young, non-black guy playing soul music that they didnt know.. i dont know.. something to think about.

regards,

Jacob

EXACTLY! that happened the first week. thought i would blow their doors off with rare stuff, but they just politely nodded (and got bored after a bit). honestly, the two best responses i've got so far were to: Gwen McCrae - 'been so long' and Superlatives - 'i don't know how to say i love you (don't walk away)'. strange!

and the coolest request (one of the few that i actually had) was darrell banks 'our love is in pocket'! for an old fella from flint michigan! that was cool.

Check our some of the Philly stuff, Harold Melvin, Lou Rawls, Teddy P etc etc always seems to go down well...also David Ruffin and some of the early 70s Motown sounds great too...

Chri

precisely.... can you name some? (not being flippant - i really don't know anything about this stuff!!) i mostly know about the early end of the 60s and know more about girl-group and R&B than i do about the smooth early 70s stuff. or some temptations tracks that will please them? (i don't have any temps singles after get ready/fading away).

the closest i have is:

1) delfonics 'i was there' on cameo (which i think is from like 1967 anyway)

2) manhattans 'million to one' (deluxe)

man, i am lost on this stuff! i think my problem is that i was born in 1971, so i don't even remember this stuff from listening to the radio. it's just totally alien to me.

Edited April 27, 201015 yr by ljblanken

Wade through the Crossover thread in refo and see what floats yer boat

https://www.soul-sour...day-oh-yesssss/

If your audience are mainly black then might be a good idea to take punt on playing some Southern Soul ie southern states, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana etc etc.

Just my thoughts on it

my southern/deep stuff is the ONLY thing saving me there! irma thomas/johnnie taylor/robert parker/sam&dave/jimmy hughes/etc are the only reason they haven't asked me leave!

I found when i was DJ'ing to a crowd of older blacks, who wouldve been young people when the records i played came out, generally were not at all interested in hearing any rare soul or anything they werent familiar with...

Jacob

Exactly. What's wrong with James Brown or early Kool & The Gang, Stevie Wonder etc? They probably just want to "get down" with what they remember from their youth, and wouldn't thank you for trying to educate them on those eccentricities peculiar to the UK Soul scene!

Try playing something similar to what was going down in London clubs in the early 70s perhaps. You should be able to get hold of it fairly cheaply too!

Edited April 27, 201015 yr by mel brat

Try a Billboard search for the years your after and cherry pick from that. This thread needs some pics. Am I the only one who's thinking this?

Try a Billboard search for the years your after and cherry pick from that. This thread needs some pics. Am I the only one who's thinking this?

that's a great suggestion AND leads to a bigger question i have been thinking about.

Billboard ranks for categories like "pop" "country" etc. But some categories come and go (like isn't there a "hip hop" category?) question is... back in the 1960s-70s, was there a "soul" category?

R&B I think. Get the pics and playlist sorted and put them up.

R&B I think. Get the pics and playlist sorted and put them up.

just found this list of categories on wikipedia... gonna do some digging!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_R%26B/Hip-Hop_Songs

just found this list of categories on wikipedia... gonna do some digging!

https://en.wikipedia....B/Hip-Hop_Songs

Remember one of Northern Souls factors is the obscurity/unavailability of most of the tracks. Obviously down to the lack of airlplay/sales so if it wasn't popular then it sure wont be popular now.

My own experience of this. I worked in Denmark in the 70s I was fresh from Wigan and had tapes of all the sounds Frank Beverly,Christine Cooper Bobby Treetop etc. I spent a lot of time with 2 black ex pats one from Georgia and the other from Detroit The job involved a lot of car travel Mack and Nat frequently recieved tapes from back home and our journeys were accompanied by a mix of my Northern and thier contemporary sounds, (they liked David Bowie)

On the more soul/funk side the tunes were Fred Wesley and the horny horns, Bensons World is a ghetto, Harold Melvin Bad Luck (as opposed to dont leave me this way, all my freinds etc.) Curtis Mayfield I did try and talk to Nat the Detroitian about Motown and all that stuff but he didn't have any real knowledge of the place. I came away with the opinion that those guys were into the GROOVE, rather than my 100mph stompers

Remember one of Northern Souls factors is the obscurity/unavailability of most of the tracks. Obviously down to the lack of airlplay/sales so if it wasn't popular then it sure wont be popular now.

My own experience of this. I worked in Denmark in the 70s I was fresh from Wigan and had tapes of all the sounds Frank Beverly,Christine Cooper Bobby Treetop etc. I spent a lot of time with 2 black ex pats one from Georgia and the other from Detroit The job involved a lot of car travel Mack and Nat frequently recieved tapes from back home and our journeys were accompanied by a mix of my Northern and thier contemporary sounds, (they liked David Bowie)

On the more soul/funk side the tunes were Fred Wesley and the horny horns, Bensons World is a ghetto, Harold Melvin Bad Luck (as opposed to dont leave me this way, all my freinds etc.) Curtis Mayfield I did try and talk to Nat the Detroitian about Motown and all that stuff but he didn't have any real knowledge of the place. I came away with the opinion that those guys were into the GROOVE, rather than my 100mph stompers

what strikes me about what you say is the tempo! these folks really don't care for anything uptempo! why is that? so much R&B and soul was fast - but since 1970 there hasn't been any uptempo black music (that i can think of). its kind of weird!

what strikes me about what you say is the tempo! these folks really don't care for anything uptempo! why is that? so much R&B and soul was fast - but since 1970 there hasn't been any uptempo black music (that i can think of). its kind of weird!

There were quite a few commercial soul compilations that came out in the UK in the in the early to mid '70s, eg Soul Explosion on RCA and It's All Platinum, that were pretty good. You should be able to pick these up very cheaply.

Track listing for Soul Explosion:-

The Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat/freedom for The Stallion

Wilson Pickett - Soft Soul Boogie Woogie/Take Your Pleasure Where You find It/Mr Magic Man

The New Birth - I Can Understand It/Wild flower

The Main Ingredient - Just Don't Want To Be Lonely/Everybody Plays The fool

The Moonglows - Sincerely

The Nite Liters - K Jee

The friends Of Distinction - Love Or Let Me Be Lonely

Hope someone else can oblige with a track listing for the All Platinum complilation.

Judging by your comments your audience sound like they are after something a bit more commercial and I don't suppose they'll be too bothered about tunes being played from an LP (if they are, you can tell them it's OVO!). Might save you a few quid. Hope this helps.

my southern/deep stuff is the ONLY thing saving me there! irma thomas/johnnie taylor/robert parker/sam&dave/jimmy hughes/etc are the only reason they haven't asked me leave!

There's your answer. Give 'em plenty of "classic soul" ie Pickett, Sam & Dave, Arthur Conley etc etc. Loads of Stax, Atlantic, Goldwax, Hi, Sound Stage 7, Chess stuff to go at. Tracks that made the R&B charts that they'll probably remember from both hearing out and radio plays. Most of it isn't even scarce so can be bought quite cheap but your audience don't care about rarity they just want to hear good soul music.

Let me do a spot for ya. Right up my street that

Let me do a spot for ya. Right up my street that

ha ha. be much obliged. right here in sunny Seaside California. you'll know you are there when you hear the gunfire and police sirens!!

There were quite a few commercial soul compilations that came out in the UK in the in the early to mid '70s, eg Soul Explosion on RCA and It's All Platinum, that were pretty good. You should be able to pick these up very cheaply.

Track listing for Soul Explosion:-

The Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat/freedom for The Stallion

Wilson Pickett - Soft Soul Boogie Woogie/Take Your Pleasure Where You find It/Mr Magic Man

The New Birth - I Can Understand It/Wild flower

The Main Ingredient - Just Don't Want To Be Lonely/Everybody Plays The fool

The Moonglows - Sincerely

The Nite Liters - K Jee

The friends Of Distinction - Love Or Let Me Be Lonely

Hope someone else can oblige with a track listing for the All Platinum complilation.

Judging by your comments your audience sound like they are after something a bit more commercial and I don't suppose they'll be too bothered about tunes being played from an LP (if they are, you can tell them it's OVO!). Might save you a few quid. Hope this helps.

DUDE.... you are a genius. in the US they had this company called K-Tel that would release comps like that called the "Superbad" series. i bet i could get those cheap. and some motown comps. i'd be in business for about 30 dollars!

KTF

Edited May 3, 201015 yr by simon t

KTF

Edited May 3, 201015 yr by simon t

DUDE.... you are a genius. in the US they had this company called K-Tel that would release comps like that called the "Superbad" series. i bet i could get those cheap. and some motown comps. i'd be in business for about 30 dollars!

See you listened to Bad Luck try and check the 6min album version with its social comment rap and bearing that in mind spin a few of the social comment motown tracks like Ball of Confusion Temps War (!) Edwin Starr leading on to Inner City Blues (Marvin) you may chance dropping Lamont Doziers Fish aint Biting or some Bobby Womack

Good Luck

John

Maybe check out Soul Train videos in Youtube.

Plenty of them, and you can check what was going on in the early-mid 70s.

there was a 90s comp series on rhino called "in yo face" that had a pic of a woman with an afro on each CD. download those and buy the 45s off of them from 10cent bins or lots on ebay. they're all hit funk 45s that everyone will recognize.

awesome suggestions/help from everyone. always know i can rely on this crowd to help out a DJ in need!

It's a long shot but why not try Jimmy James i know he was big here but he had some US singles success and plus he had a song A Man Like Me which is early 70's Northern soul

Chairman of the Board is another one great group

It's a long shot but why not try Jimmy James i know he was big here but he had some US singles success and plus he had a song A Man Like Me which is early 70's Northern soul

Chairman of the Board is another one great group

yeah! i played "pigtails and fairytails" by chairmen of the board and they really dug it. thanks!