Roburt

Of course Bobby had been hooked up with Don Robey as his booking agent (Buffalo Booking) and record label owner (Duke). Bobby had started out in Memphis around 1952 where his early career was overseen by Sunbeam Mitchell and WDIA's David Mattis. In fact it was Mattis who started Duke Records and cut Bland's first sides at WDIA's studio. However, Mattis knew little about running a record label, so Robey offered to help out for a portion of the record label. Before long, Robey eased Mattis out of the picture and transferred Duke Records to Houston (where he ran his Peacock Record company from). So no doubt, Bobby Bland had to fight his corner to get his full due from Robey for both his recording work & much of the fees paid direct to the booking agency for his live work. Bobby Bland had played a gig in Miami just a few weeks before the LA gig, presumably he had been paid for his work that night ...............

Most soul artists back in the day survived by playing gigs on the chitlin circuit. That had to earn money from live gigs as (unless they gained hit records) they rarely made good money from their recording work. Life on the road was tough. The singer(s) and their backing musicians would squeeze into a station wagon and head from gig to gig. If these were in the south then racism reared it's ugly head and they were restricted in where they could eat & stay. Then there was the grind of getting (late at night) from gig to gig. Many road accidents occurred with the singer or the musicians being injured or even killed (in May 68, 3 members of the Impressions backing band + 2 other performers were killed in an auto crash in Winder, Ga). Another pitfall was the promoter clearing off without paying the artists. This didn't just happen in backwoods venues in out of the way locations on shows organised by hoodlum promoters and was a regular event. The likes of Chuck Berry & Wilson Pickett were well known for not going on stage until the performance fee had been handed over. One well known occurrence happened in December 64 in Los Angeles at the famous Hollywood Palladium (a venue so established that the Laurence Welk TV Show was staged there for many years in the 60's). On that night, a few of the artists actually performed (Aretha Franklin, Gloria Lynn) but by the time Bobby Bland was due on stage, the promoter had disappeared taking the cash taken on the door with them. Bobby refused to perform and the crowd went mad & smashed the venue up ..... see attached newspaper piece ...........

Yes, 'The Soul of Ike & Tina Turner' LP was issued in the summer of 61 and does seem to be about the first use of the term on a record release .....

The WBOB stn out of Galax, Va is now gospel stn WWWJ but that plays white gospel not the type of stuff we like. So I doubt it would have had an R & B format back in the day.

There's a talk radio stn out of Jacksonville (Florida) that uses the call letters WBOB. HOWEVER that has only been going since 2010 and being talk radio wouldn't have need for a 45 library that goes back to the 60's. In the 60's this same stn had a pop format but went by the name of WPDQ. There was also a country stn based out of Minneapolis in the mid 90's but that got bought out and flipped to a rock format. From 1947 to 1997 (?), there was also WBOB out of Galax, Virginia and that stn was sold on to new owners in 1984 (format before & after sale unknown to me). This area is bluegrass country, so I have some doubts that the stn would have held a big library of soul 45's. Lots of US radio stns took on different identities down the years & so I guess another one may have used the moniker of WBOB in the past but I have no idea of it's details.

A clip put up on youtube (by a Southern Soul member) of Otis singing live back in his gospel days (with Cash McCall) .........

It seems that SOUL started being used by US blacks in the 60's as a term to help them try to retain ownership of things that had been theirs for some time that were now being taken on by the American population at large. Soul food (the cuisine of southern black slaves & their descendents) was also a term that sprung into general use use in the mid to late 60's. Black poets / writers had started to use the term. It seems that LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), who wrote the book 'Blues People -- Negro Music in White America' (1963) may have been the first to use the word in a musical sense (he was a fan of jazz / gospel / blues & the styles that developed from them). Like much 'street level' slang, I guess we'll never really know where it actually originated but it wasn't from mainstream music journalists that's for sure.

Billboard repeated this supplement in 1968 & 1969, so they obviously saw it as a good marketing tool (bringing in lots of ads). Below see an ad in the mag for their 1968 supplement + a piece on the UK market from their 69 supplement .......

The piece on soul music on Wikipedia gives more credit to Atlantic Records than Motown ................ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music Whoever it was that first coined the term (in the sense that we mean), I bet they were a lot more 'street level' than the likes of anyone at Billboard mag (or even than Berry Gordy).

I've done a bit more research on the topic, using Billboard mag as my source and it seems there was a Brit angle to all this. See two jpeg's posted below of bits lifted from Billboard. By June 68 they were asking (themselves, rather than their reporters being told) what SOUL was. They asked readers to comment on the question 'what is soul' and published some replies. It also seems that they were also taking into account what Dave McAleer (of Soul Survey, London) was telling them. They had started up a column in their black music section titled 'Soul Sauce' and were picking a 'Soul Sauce Best New Record of the Week" (a bit like Richard's Radio Hallam 80's radio show) ........... ............ HOWEVER .................. the first real use of the word in a black music sense that I can find in Billboard is a piece in which they interviewed WWRL's Magnificent Montague back in May 64. The piece was about his views that lots of US radio stn's still weren't employing black DJ's even though the cuts that black jocks were playing on R&B stn's were eventually ending up top of the charts on 'white' pop stns. Montague defined soul as .......... "the last to be hired, first to be fired, brown all-year round, sits in the back of the bus feeling. You've got to live with us or you just don't have it". Guess he had strong feelings !!!! So it seems that it was the use of the term by black US radio DJ's that brought it into fashion.

Even at the end of June 67, Billboard (& record labels such as Nashboro / Excello / A-Bet) were still calling it R & B music. .... AND YET ......... "Sweet Soul Music", "Soul Finger", "Soul Dance No.3", "Raw Soul" and "Lou Rawl's Soulin" were all on the mag's charts !!

Billboard mag was still calling it's black music charts 'Rhythm & Blues Singles & LP's' way past September 1965 when Stax released the Otis Redding LP 'Otis Blue -- Otis Redding Sings Soul'. Back in April 62, No.1 on the mags 'Hot R & B Sides' chart was "Soul Twist" by King Curtis (this Enjoy 45 having first made US radio playlists at the start of Feb 62). King Curtis was also the artist involved when SOUL next appeared in the title of a charting 45. This time it was May 64 and the tune was "Soul Serenade". So I'd say the term crossed over from the jazz world & started replacing R & B as a common name for popular black music in the early 60's. The 'Soul Twist' was a popular dance in black night clubs across the US in 1962, so the term was being used on a regular basis in that context by April 62. By the mid 60's, although mainstream mags such as Billboard was still mainly using the term R & B, soul was the term used by many music lovers. Soon after she signed with Atlantic (67), Aretha Franklin became known as 'Lady Soul' (her LP by this title being released in Jan 68). And of course she had cut the track "Soulville" for Columbia as early as 1964. So by 67 the term had become the most dominant of those used to describe black music. "Soul Man" & "Sweet Soul Music" both came out in 67.

Of course the A side of "Needle In A Haystack" was a massive US hit. The 45 "Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong" escaped in summer 70 and went straight onto the soul chart. After a few weeks it also entered the Billboard Top 100 Pop chart where it remained until 14th November (being @ # 65 that week). The following week (21st Nov 70) their follow-up 45 (Soul Clock 1005) escaped and so I guess there would be little point in pressing up too many new copies of #1004 after that time. So maybe both the yellow & gold label 45's had been released by November 70 with the 2nd press being to meet the demands made after the track hit the US Pop 100 (when no doubt many mainstream US pop selling record shops would have been ordering copies for the first time). I'd guess that the success this 45 enjoyed would have made Canyon's cash flow situation even worse (lots of money going out to meet pressing plant demands before any of the distributors / shops got anywhere near thinking about paying for the 45's they had received).

Both the yellow & gold versions of this Soul Clock 45 state 'Distributed by Canyon'. Wally Roker's Canyon Records was just about bust at the end of 1970 (the Whisper's "I'm The One" Soul Clock 105 being just about the last 45 they put out on Soul Clock in Nov). By December the group's contract had been sold to Janus Records & their first 45 for the label (Janus J-140 : a Canyon / Soul Clock production By Ron Carson / Art Freeman) had been issued. Another Whispers 45 had escaped on the Roker label ("Where Have You Been") around April 70, so Wally must already have been trying to cling on to his labels at that time. The last 45 on Roker (from Swamp Dogg) escaped some time later (early 71 ?) and some further 45's (most probably old recordings) escaped on RRG (Roker Record Group) in 1971 BUT way before the end of 1971 the whole concern had gone up in smoke. I would guess that the 2nd edition of the Whispers "Needle In A Haystack" 45 came out between the end of 1970 & the middle of 71. So I don't think a date of 1973 (mentioned above) would be correct for a legit issue.

More on WROX .......... https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/wrox

A piece on the stn's top jock; Early Wright ........... https://vimeo.com/36804284 More on him here ........ https://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/18/news/mn-45076

On TV now (10.30am) on the Dave channel (& repeated in an hour on Dave ja vu -- Channel 25) is the US programme 'American Pickers'. In this show the 2 guys (pickers) are visiting the ex studio of radio stn WROX in Clarkesdale, Miss. They get to look in the studio where Ike Turner started out & DJ'ed back in the day. See here for info on the radio stn ........... https://www.wroxradio.com/interact/wrox-history

An old radio ad for shows held at Carr's Beach ........... ....... and the newspaper ad that goes with it (pity they didn't have a pic of Tammi Terrell) ....................

A youtube clip of them performing in recent times (2011) ............ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjqNcxrWoSg And an ad for a gig they undertook at Carr's Beach in May 66 ......... Can anyone confirm if the backing track used on their version of "Stupidity" is infact the same one as used on Solomon Burke's version ? If so, that only leaves the cut "King Of Fools" that they could have played on.

There were a number of groups that took the name of the Van Dykes. The most famous one was the one from Texas that recorded great soul sides for Mala back in the 60's. Others were groups from Brooklyn (King / Deluxe) and New Haven, CT (Green Sea) but there was a fourth one that cut for Atlantic Records. This post deals with the soul outfit from Annapolis, Maryland that only got to make one record; “Stupidity” being the 45's A side which was released by Atlantic back in 1962. In recent times this cut has been featured on 2 different CD collections; 'Right Now (Atlantic Club Soul & Deep Cuts)' plus 'Let's Soul Dance (Black Dance Crazes 1957 -1962)'. Why should I be interested in the details of an outfit that only got to cut one record over 50 years ago. Well lots of groups had long and successful lives even though they never really made much impact recording wise. The Van Dykes are one such band as in the Annaplois / Baltimore area they were a major force for around a 10 year period. Their 45 actually did well locally, gaining extensive airplay on WEBB and actually charting on WWIN, then the top local pop radio station (where it peaked at No.11). However it is for their live work that they are really remembered. The Van Dykes were at their most popular in the Annapolis & Baltimore area from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. During that time, not only did they get to record for Atlantic Records (in 1962) but they played numerous live gigs at venues such as Carr's Beach, Sparrow's Beach and the Dixie Ballroom at Gwynn Oak Park (just outside Baltimore). They even got to perform on the old Buddy Dean TV Show broadcast by Baltimore's WJZ-TV station, which was the show that inspired the 'Hairspray' movies. In fact the movies writer / director & producer John Waters recalls watching the group perform in the early to mid 60's. The band was largely a family based affair that grew out of two earlier outfits both of whom came together at Bates High School, Annapolis. The five strong Organoes singing group consisted of Albert & Lonnie Brown, Calvin Offer, Harvey Ennis and Walter Randall. The second teaming was the Van Dykes Combo who's members were Roland, Bill, John & Alvin Brown, William Jones and Joe Gidwick with femme vocalist Pat Wynn (both line-ups dating from December 1954). Roland Brown said about the Van Dykes "The group started life back around 1953 and I became a part of it in about 1954. It started with Reginald Harris, Lionel Thomas and some more young fellows that were at the time attending Bates High School. They had the idea for a band, got together like some other youngsters, and in '54, when I picked it up, we just kept on playing". The band's line-up continued to evolve and by 1962 the line-up was Calvin Offer (lead singer), Lonnie Brown (keyboards), Roland Brown (drums) Albert Brown (sax), Delbert Puschert (sax) and John Bryant (trombone), John Coates (guitar) and Joe Wood (base). Roland Brown acted as their manager and got them many bookings at top local venues. For a number of years, they backed up acts appearing on shows at Carr's Beach (located just south of Annapolis). They acted in a similar role for a big soul revue held in mid August 1966 at Baltimore's Civic Center (DJ Rockin Robin's 4th Anniversary Show – see ad). Around 1990 they decided to come back together for a few shows and they continued to play reunions through till at least 2014. For these shows, their line-up featured brothers Albert Brown, Roland Brown, Bill Brown and Lonnie Brown plus Delbert Puschert, John Bryant and John Coates with either Calvin Offer or Jobo Brown handling lead vocal duties. So a band that only enjoyed one 45 release continued to exist many years after all but a few fans had long forgotten about them. The strange thing is, that for an outfit of talented musicians that played all their own instruments, there is a lot of doubt if they even played on their own recordings for Atlantic. See article on them here ............ https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/ph-ac-cn-van-dykes-1113-20141113-story.html

Not related to this 45 at all, but it does date from the right period, details a Gino Washington live gig and is just nice (IMHO) .............. Dont forget that there was 'Police supervision at all times' at these events held at the Owosso Armory !!!

Again a bit 'off-topic' but Cathy Lynn also worked with Marsha Brody (of "Right Combination" fame). According to a youtube post, Marsha went to school in the early 60's in Chester, Pa (Smedley Jr High). Chester is just SW of Philly. On Marsha's tracks Cathy worked with Arthur Schroeck who was New Jersey born and from 1965 was a New York based studio musician. He posted a reply on the following youtube post ........... Cathy & Art Schroeck also worked together on the Preparations sides for Heart & Soul Records.

There are huge numbers of US soul 45's that refer to an upcoming LP that never actually materialised. This was usually due to financial problems the indie label experienced at the time. Many small 'new' indie labels sent out 45's to numerous distributors & / or record stores but were never paid for them as the records didn't sell initially & then were just dumped in discount bins to sell for a few cents. Thus the label never even got it's money back for the 45's that did go out to wholesale / retail outlets & soon found themselves insolvent. Mind you, sometimes labels had too much success too soon & so went into early bankruptcy. The LA based Canyon label (which distributed / ran a number of labels as well as Canyon itself) enjoyed good success with releases by the likes of Doris Duke, the Whispers, etc. But they put out so many 45's / LP's in such a short time that before the money really started rolling in, they had huge debts and so went out bust. BTW, Cathy Lynn was the Cathy in the group Jay & Kathy's Clowns and she was working with the likes of Lou Lawton ( of "Nic Nak Paddy Wack" fame) at the time (68/69). I guess that makes her & the group (+ S & K) New York based.

"Follow Through" is a gudun ................. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOmQda8brd0

After moving to LA, Wally & his mates (Dee Erwin, etc.) also worked with the likes of Ray Charles. One of the lovely records he had a hand in was Alex Brown's Tangerine outing "I'm In Love" ......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COKge0zoKSU Wally (along with Monk Higgins) cut the original (ABC) version of Tyrone Davis's "Can I Change My Mind" at Ray Charles Tangerine Studios in LA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjB16WhyPPc