Two top notch tracks off Vel Lewis's (Shady Grady) 2005 album ... you can tell from the quality on display here that the guy has both talent & a long musical heritage ... DAWKINS & DAWKINS on lead vocals ...

the re-worked LIFE song ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGMvfDY7jM8

AND one from Vel's songbook ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=az1VcT0usT4

 

 

View full article

The Bright Side of LIFE - Vel Lewis

View full article

On 01/05/2023 at 09:44, Roburt said:

The above should probably have gone into the ARTICLES section. But being in my 70's & not fully tech savy, it was much easier for me to just post it up where I put all my other posts. 

BTW, my full article on VEL appeared in the last edition of SOUL UP NORTH.

A pic of Vel Lewis performing at Soul Trip 2018 ... 

 

John, have just 'upped' it in to the article format

thanks for posting

Many thanks.

 

Further to the above, I've just been chatting with Vel Lewis (of LIFE) again & the process of 'cleaning up' the old master tapes has started. It's the 80's lead singer from the group that has copies of the tapes from their 83 album.

HOWEVER, the co-writer of "TELL ME WHY" also got back in touch with Vel to say he had copies of the album master tapes too. ONLY THING IS ... turns out this is tapes of a different album. The additional tracks now unearthed were cut in Philly in the mid 70's (so not long after the TELL ME WHY session) but with a different keyboard player as Vel had moved on (taken a more 9 to 5 job by then). Vel says these tracks were cut with a full 70's Philly sound, with Don Renaldo being in charge of the studio musicians.

The facts linked to the group and their recordings just gets even more intriguing. 

A 1968 pic of the Futures (it's so early, Vel Lewis had not yet joined the group).

Vocalists form the front line, musicians the back line.

It was the musicians who became LIFE in 73/74. 

Futures lead singer (James King) is btm left. in the pic ... & looks very young indeed.

 

 

A couple of trivial facts about Tell Me Why, Walt Khan, the records producer, mixed the instrumental track of The Four Perfections I'm Not Strong Enough in 76 for the UK Cream release. Maybe not as good as Bari Track but he bought out the instruments really well.

I had to collect the finished tape from Walt's studio in Philly and on the wall of the reception area was a framed stock copy of Tell Me Why. I told Walt the record had been played in the UK, which he was surprised to learn. The record hadn't taken off in the US but he must have been proud of his involvement to get a copy framed. Of course I should have asked if he had any copies to sell or were there any unreleased tracks, but I didn't. 

Walt Khan went on to produce quite a few big disco hits so may have got some real silver or gold discs to display.

19 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

Of course I should have asked if he had any copies to sell or were there any unreleased tracks, but I didn't. 

Yes, you really should have asked.

Vel Lewis has confirmed that the groups (Life) unreleased 74/75 album was cut @ Walt's Queen Village Studios in Philly. He was pleased to learn that Walt had a framed copy of their 45 up on his studio reception area's wall.