Garethx

Bessie Banks on Volt. "Try To Leave Me If You Can" is on both sides of the dj copy. The issue has a bonus in the shape of the awesome "Ain't No Easy Way" and seems far harder to track down than any variant of her Quality 45s.

In terms of similar-sounding records it might be worth looking into The Impressions catalogue as they genuinely invented this type of bouncy harmony dance soul with "Little Young Lover" in 1961-2 and continued to make records in this vein throughout their career. From the Skip Jackson timeframe a great one is "Wherever She Leadeth Me" on Curtom.

According to Popsike there are Bestway pressings of the demo with the labels on the correct sides as well as the more common 'mis-labeled' copies. Tefteller sold one in the last few years. The only issue listed there appears to be a Monarch pressing. Is there a Bestway pressed issue as well? If issue owners could throw up some scans that would be greatly appreciated. Also can anyone offer an opinion as to how the Monarch sounds? I had a BW demo with the labels reversed and it sounded magnificent, as their styrene usually did. As a rule their releases often sound much better than most US vinyl. Monarch, as we know, was often responsible for a pretty shoddy product. Their styrene loses its lustre pretty quickly and is very prone to marking easily and getting noisy after just a few plays.

No. The SWF 45 is from Orlando, Florida. As others have said two tremendous sides.

Not especially, Chris. There are often copies on ebay. Usually goes for a decent amount of money because it's such a great album, but I think it should be possible to get a nice copy for fifty or sixty quid. In reality it's no harder than copies of the Fontella Bass or Montclairs lps on Paula, but demand is usually strong.

Bear in mind this is a late '80s re-press on 45 and not an originally issued Paula 45 from the 70s. The Paula album is the way to get this in original format.

The ballad version of "Color One Tear Black" on the other side of the Strike 45 is a truly incredible record.

Did you see the Richard Marks 45 on Note offered on ebay last year Dylan? Pretty good but the seller seemed to be under the impression that he should be getting $10,000 for it! Back on topic I can't really see what the fuss is all about regarding Wally Coco. It's tended to wash over me a bit on the few occasions I've heard it out. It doesn't have anything like the personality of a 'mould-breaking' record for me personally. It certainly ain't no "Summer In The Parks". I guess it's helped by the fact that it's on a very interesting label.

Are you referring to Did You Ever Lose Something? For me that's one of the greatest underground soul records ever made, regardless of style or tempo.

Hi Looking for a clean copy of Carnival 556 The Pretenders "Hearts Were Made To Love" / "For The Rest Of My Days" Don't need the other release of "Hearts", just 556. Thanks in advance, gareth

I don't know if it's the mix as much as the mastering. Successive generations of great records were f*cked up by the LH pressing plant: dozens of great Bobby Bland/OV Wright records, through to Soul Bros. Inc., Benny Harper and on to Little Major Williams and so on and so on. All have pressing faults yet remain great 'lost' pieces of art despite the obvious manufacturing shortcomings. I accept that those shortcomings make the record difficult to play out. That factor has definitely hampered this record in becoming the classic it should be seen as. Ally this to the fact that a quantity turned up and everybody I knew had one (and tried to play it out) and you can see how it now gets glossed over. I maintain however that seventies independent soul music gets no more creative and intense than this. Benny Harper and the musicians who went into the studio with him that day deserved better. At that moment they truly cooked. With gas. Home use and a little perseverance in listening intently to what might have been left behind on the master is the key here.

I'd say the likelihood of Flynny's Benny Harper being the same guy is extremely remote. The vocal performances are like chalk and cheese. Don't know how anyone could sell the Harper Soul 45 unless they had a spare. Rare soul simply doesn't come any better for me, as the record has everything (vocal brinkmanship, compelling song, overall urgency and a soaring arrangement), with the exception of good sound quality, which is a real shame. It's only through listening on headphones that you get to fully appreciate the bass playing for example, which is outrageously good. Despite that it's still a phenomenal piece of vinyl and I wish I owned another ten records which are as good as it.

Bought for 75 cents at the Chelsea flea market.

Or indeed the Velvet Underground 'N. Dolph' acetate?

As an aside give another listen to The Sweets' "Something About My Baby". Is it just me or do they sing the line "We stick together like CHEESE and honey" in the last thirty seconds of the song?

Thanks Sean. I only stumbled across it on Spotify of all places. Have since snagged a Vivid Sound copy.

Does this exist on a US 45? Or just the Japanese album? I know Geater Davis released it on Seventy 7, but his version is not quite as good to my ears. TIA for any help.

That's a very good question Mike. The wikipedia entry for Winter In America* claims the 45 was a sizable R&B hit at the time (#15). This doesn't seem to square with the evidence which suggests that the US Strata East 45 is not exactly plentiful. I've even heard it claimed that this particular 45 is a downright bootleg and was categorically not issued at the time. Perhaps the various European issues were imported back to the States for the record to receive club and radio spins. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_in_America As I mentioned in my post above I found the US Arista 45 of the live edit from the It's Your World live album extremely difficult to turn up. The US promo 12" from 1976 (with The Glitter Band's "Makes You Blind" on the reverse) is offered for sale far more frequently, yet still fetches decent money: https://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?pagenum=1&searchtext=gil+scott+heron+bottle&incldescr=&sortord=dprice&thumbs=&currsel=

I recently posted a want here for the US Arista single (AS 0225,1976). It proved far harder to find than I'd ever imagined, but I eventually got a copy where somebody had tried to clean the styrene with some kind of solvent. It looks horrible but plays reasonably well. Timings are 3:55 for the A side, 3:58 for the B side. This is an edited version of the "It's Your World" live recording, but with overdubbed horns which don't appear on the album version. This is the variant with the longest spoken intro: "Help us out Brian" etc. In my opinion this is the ultimate version and makes the Strata East cut sound very static. I'd still like a really clean copy if anyone has one.

"Go Ahead" has been something of a cult record for a good few years (and very good it is too). I'd always dismissed the uptempo side "Before And After", as it's quite messy and very badly recorded and mastered, but it's actually a pretty good Tighten Up clone. The label is from Jamaica, New York (as opposed to Jamaica, W.I.) and there are a couple of other reasonable soul records on the logo. I dug it out to play at Soul Or Nothing earlier in the year and played the ballad side by mistake (gold labels with blue type are pretty difficult to read in the dark). A few people came up to ask what it was and one or two to remark that they also had it but didn't have the courage to play it in a nightclub.

So is the blue one definitively the same version as the SS7 issue? Don't think I've heard that mentioned before. Are people sure they're not confusing this with the blue label Jaber issue of "We're Not Too Young" which is the same as the Mainstream issue of that particular record. For what it's worth I think the SS7 cut of "Lover Come Back" is a better soul record than the orange Jaber version.

Ten Miles High still remains an amazing record. I'd love to hear an instrumental without the vocal and sound effects as the playing of the rhythm section is is pure dynamite: Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Roger Hawkins etc. in full-on mode. At the time they were arguably the greatest soul musicians in the world. While it is undeniably a pop record it is underpinned by some serious soul credentials.

Insiders is surprisingly difficult on a stock copy as mentioned above. Another example where the demo is extremely commonplace but the issue is appreciably harder to come by is Kenny Carter "Don't Go." The other Kenny Carter RCA Victor 45s are relatively frequently seen on issues, but 'Don't Go' seems, to me at least, extremely elusive.

Agreed Jim. The only thing that could have bettered this would be the possibility of Steve Perryman doing a version.

Bear in mind that 'Reid' is the original label.