The great Major Lance tunes that everyone is mentioning on the Major Lance thread has got me thirsty for more Chicago Soul. Just what was it that made all those records by Gene Chandler, Otis Leavill, Major Lance and many more so special and distinctive?

https://www.soulclub.org/stream/Otis_Leavil...o_Be_Lonely.ram

Edited January 8, 200520 yr by Billy Freemantle

The great Major Lance tunes that everyone is mentioning on the Major Lance thread has got me thirsty for more Chicago Soul. Just what was it that made all those records by Gene Chandler, Otis Leavill, Major Lance and many more so special and distinctive?

https://www.soulclub.org/stream/Otis_Leavil...o_Be_Lonely.ram

link

It's that lovely cheap typewriter style font on the label that does it for me

I always put it down to the more polished sound to the recordings from Chicargo as opposed to the raw sound coming from detroit . Maybe they used better recording equipment

I always put it down to the more polished sound to the recordings from Chicargo as opposed to the raw sound coming from detroit . Maybe they used better recording equipment

link

Chicago Soul is actually diverse in it's sound. Compare One-derful to D-town and both are examples of raw or "hard soul" and somewhat similar in sound. Then you have Motown/Golden World/Ric Tic compared to Brunswick (and in a lot of cases) Okeh, which was Columbias "black" outlet. But the majority of Chicago was recording Curtis Mayfield songs, so you could use that as a basis of Chicago sound. Theres no way to pigeonhole "a sound" for such a major city in the history of soul.

-Mike

"Chicago Soul" by Robert Pruter is an excellent starting point. Chapter one is "Chicago at the dawn of the soul era" and it ends with "Chi Sound and the demise of the Chicago Soul Industry". Along the way it takes in chapters on Vee Jay, Chess, Okeh, Constellation, ABC Paramount, Brunswick etc etc. It also looks at smaller entrepeneurs and their labels such as Tarpon, Gerri, Jacklyn and so on.

Highly recommended

ISBN 0-252-06259-0

Godz

Edited January 9, 200520 yr by Godzilla