Has This Ever Been Played Out?

[Guest andyrattigan]

Has the track "Brown Sugar" by these lads ever been played out? It's as cheap as chips. It's an instrumental that I've always loved. Very edgy with a great stomping beat and sax break. I've never heard it spun at any events I've been to down through the years. Maybe you old timers jumped around to it in the 7t's. Any info?

[Guest andyrattigan]

Also any boots of it?

[Guest Johnny Mack]

This was a massive sound circa 73/74 - big play at Blackpool Mecca and early Wigan - same time as Mike Post instrumentals were popular. It came out on US Warner Bros (7 Arts if memory serves me right)- I have a white demo somewhere - great record. Can't remember if it was booted or issued on UK Warners.

I'm pretty sure Zu Zu Blues Band on A&M carries the same or very similar backing track - think there was a link producer-wise, or otherwise, between this A&M 45 and Watts 103rd Street Band.

Take care

John

Has the track "Brown Sugar" by these lads ever been played out? It's as cheap as chips. It's an instrumental that I've always loved. Very edgy with a great stomping beat and sax break. I've never heard it spun at any events I've been to down through the years. Maybe you old timers jumped around to it in the 7t's. Any info?

Edited November 8, 2007 by Johnny Mack

[Paul R]

Came out as the B side of their version of "The Joker(on A Trip Through The Jungle)" on UK WB around late '74 to cash in on scene plays. Always been one of my favourite instrumentals.

Paul

[Philb]

Has the track "Brown Sugar" by these lads ever been played out? It's as cheap as chips. It's an instrumental that I've always loved. Very edgy with a great stomping beat and sax break. I've never heard it spun at any events I've been to down through the years. Maybe you old timers jumped around to it in the 7t's. Any info?

This used to get spins, and was very popular at the Three Cups in Chelmsford in the early 80's.

Phil.

[Guest andyrattigan]

I've got it on Keymen Records (light green label). I think it's original but the sound is a bit muffled. Is this just due to poor production or were their keymen boots floating about?

Edited November 8, 2007 by andyrattigan

[Dave Thorley]

Interesting and very influential L.A. group, see below

[edit] Charles Wright and the Wright Sounds

Charles Wright was born in 1940 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, before moving to Los Angeles in the early 1950s, playing guitar and singing in several doo-wop groups including the Turks, the Twilighters, the Shields and the Gallahads. He also briefly worked as an A&R for Del-Fi Records. In 1962, he formed his own band Charles Wright & the Wright Sounds which included future Watts Band member, John Raynford, along with Daryl Dragon, aka "Captain" of Captain & Tennille. Over the course of the next six years, Wright would add more players to his group and these were the players who would eventually become known as the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, at least by 1968. Several of those members, namely drummer James Gadson, bassist Melvin Dunlap, trombonist/arranger Ray Jackson, and both guitarists Al McKay and Benorce Blackmon, would play on several Dyke & the Blazers charting singles, including "We Got More Soul" (1969) and "Let a Woman Be a Woman, Let a Man Be a Man" (1969). The Wright Sounds played in several venues across Los Angeles but their best known stint was three years (ending in 1968) at Hollywood's Haunted House nightclub.

[edit] First Watts 103rd Band

The name, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was originally coined by Los Angeles producer and Keymen Records owner Fred Smith in 1967. However, between 1967 and 1968, the Watts 103rd name applied to four different personnel configurations before settling into the final band who played on every Watts 103rd album from 1968 forward.

Smith produced a theme song for KGFJ radio personality, DJ Magnificent Montague. The song became so popular that Smith released it as a single in 1967 and created the name, Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band for the studio group who had recorded it. A personnel listing for that iteration of the Watts 103rd band is not available but according to Wright, Leslie Milton, originally from New Orleans, was the group's drummer.

Soon thereafter, the band was renamed the Soul Runners and "Spreadin' Honey" was re-released under the new name, this time on the MoSoul label (a Keymen subsidiary). The Soul Runners would release two more singles (both on MoSoul) but they had little relation to the other formations of the Watts 103rd band with the exception of arranger James Carmichael who worked with both groups.

[edit] Second Watts 103rd Band

In 1966, Carmichael and Wright were both working as session players for the Nashville West recording studio. Their group of studio players was discovered by Fred Smith and comedian Bill Cosby who needed a backing band for his upcoming album, Silver Throat. Smith hired the Nashville West players and gave them the Watts 103rd name.

Due to their association with Cosby, the new Watts 103rd band landed a deal with Warner Bros. Records, becoming the first R&B band to sign with them. They released a debut album in 1967. Technically self-titled, the album has also come to be called Hot Heat & Sweet Groove after a sub-title found on the back cover. "Spreadin' Honey" was included on this album, per Warner Bros. insistence, even though none of the players on the album had actually played on the "Spreadin' Honey" single.

Wright generally disavows this album as a true Watts 103rd project, preferring to describe the second album, Together as the "first" Watts 103rd LP.

[edit] Third Watts 103rd Band

When Cosby went on tour, Wright was put in charge with creating a Watts 103rd touring band which included both the musicians he had just recorded Hot Heat with but also added in the Wright Sounds as well. The Haunted House also began to bill Wright and the Wright Sounds as the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band.

[edit] Final Watts 103rd Band

Creative disagreements lead to Smith selling his interest in the group to Wright. Newly freed, Wright reformed the Watts 103rd exclusively out of his Wright Sounds players and broke ties with the musicians he had recorded Hot Heat with.

A 1968 recording of a live session at the Haunted House became the partial basis for the second Warner Bros. album, Together. This was the last album credited to just the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band. The next three albums would be listed as "Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band".

In the band's early years, they were mostly known for playing covers of popular R&B hits but by the late 1960s, the group began to create original songs, resulting in a sound that was, as Charles Wright put it, "the middle ground between Otis Redding and James Brown" [1], reflecting the group's musical blend of different regional R&B and funk styles. Their experiments in long, loosely structured grooves, best heard on the Express Yourself and You're So Beautiful albums, could be heard as both influences on and influenced by contemporaries such as Sly and the Family Stone, the Isley Brothers and Parliament-Funkadelic.

[edit] Dissolution

As early as 1969, the Watts Band began to shed members. Al McKay left the Watts Band in 1969 and soon joined Earth, Wind & Fire. He was replaced by Benorce Blackmon. After recording the 1971, You're So Beautiful album, Gadson, Dunlap, Jackson, and Blackmon left the Watts Band to work with Bill Withers, playing on the albums Still Bill (1972) and Live at Carnegie Hall (1973).

Charles Wright went on to record four solo records after the departure of the Watts Band's core rhythm section, Rhythm and Poetry (1972), Doin' What Comes Naturally (1973), Ninety Day Cycle People (1974), and Lil' Encouragement (1975). In 2007, he released a new album, Finally Got It Wright, which includes an updated version of "Express Yourself."

"Express Yourself" was remade by L.A. rap group N.W.A. in 1988 and has been used for many soundtracks of movies, including Remember The Titans, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and Mr & Mrs Smith. "Do Your Thing" was featured on the soundtrack to Boogie Nights, plus numerous television commercials.

[Guest]

I've got it on Keymen Records (light green label). I think it's original but the sound is a bit muffled. Is this just due to poor production or were their keymen boots floating about?

Keymen 45 is a bootleg unfortunately Warner Bros is the original.

[Guest andyrattigan]

Keymen 45 is a bootleg unfortunately Warner Bros is the original.

Thanks. Got it for free anyway so no loot lost. Try to avoid boots but get stumped now and again.

[pikeys dog]

If you want an original, theres a demo on eBay at the moment - seller details pikeys_dog

It is the same tune as Zu Zu Man, but given a different treatment -

Zu Zu is the original though as it was co-written by Rebbenack... aka Doctor John, aka the Zu Zu Blues Band....

[Paul R]

If you want an original, theres a demo on eBay at the moment - seller details pikeys_dog

It is the same tune as Zu Zu Man, but given a different treatment -

Zu Zu is the original though as it was co-written by Rebbenack... aka Doctor John, aka the Zu Zu Blues Band....

Any idea on the year of the Zu Zu band?

paul

[pikeys dog]

Any idea on the year of the Zu Zu band?

paul

find out in a minute...

[pikeys dog]

find out in a minute...

Feb/March 1966....

[Mal C]

I have it on a nice sold center Australian Warner brothers release, looks the Dogs!!

M

[FrankM]

Gadson, Dunlap, Jackson, and Blackmon left the Watts Band to work with Bill Withers, playing on the albums Still Bill (1972) and Live at Carnegie Hall (1973).

The Bill withers' clips from the Old grey whistle test features this line up.

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=59934

[Guest brianhorton]

ANYBODY KNOW IF THIS IS THE SAME CHARLES WRIGHT WHO HAD THE NORTHERN OLDIE ON PHILIPS "KEEP SAYING"

[Prophonics 2029]

This isnt Chuck Wright on Ember as well is it.

[Guest]

It was and still is a great instrumental and goes down well today, ive played it a couple of times and its surprising how

many do not know it.

[Guest soul99 easylay]

Has the track "Brown Sugar" by these lads ever been played out? It's as cheap as chips. It's an instrumental that I've always loved. Very edgy with a great stomping beat and sax break. I've never heard it spun at any events I've been to down through the years. Maybe you old timers jumped around to it in the 7t's. Any info?

Have you got an mp3 of it?

I've never heard it!

[Guest]

Thar ya go!

WATTS_103RD_ST_RYTHM_BAND__.MP3

[Dave Morris]

It was and still is a great instrumental and goes down well today, ive played it a couple of times and its surprising how

many do not know it.

Nice one.Haven't heard it in years.Thought I'd sold my UK copy but just dug it out.

Dave.

[Guest]

Its always so good to hear stuff like that Dave.............whether you like them or not the sound puts you right back in the place where it mattered!

Steve

[Guest soul99 easylay]

Thar ya go!

Nice one, thanks!

Pleasently surprised with this, as I haven't ever heard it before

Cheers

TCK