Kesalocasoul

Ann Sexton - You've Been Gone Too Long (Impel/Seventy 7) tells us how she succumbed to Jody's charm, because her man's been gone too long. As James Brown said "don't leave your homework undone..."

Thanks to Geeselad, Peter99 and Dylan for the correct gender assignment of the name Jody in many soul songs (Songs That Are A Woman's Name). Here is a short article by Sarah Sicard (Task and Purpose US military website) on the history of the name Jody in songs. A diminutive of Joe the Grinder, it was/is used in military cadences (marching and running songs) and then appeared in many Blues and R&B songs, before entering the Soul genre. https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/brief-history-jody-original-mr-steal-girl/ Johnnie Taylor famously had hits with Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone and Standing in for Jody (both Stax), #1 and #13 on Billboard, respectively. Here are some others: Bobby Patterson - Right on Jody (Paula) Jean Knight - Don't Talk About Jody (Stax) Bobby Newsome - Jody, Come Back and Get Your Shoes (Spring) Geater Davis - I Don't Worry (about Jody) (Luna) Sir Charles Jones - Better Call Jody (Hep'Me) Tyree Davis - I'm Leaving You in Jody's Hands (Metrolina Soul) Marvin Sease - I'm Mr Jody (Jive) Quincy Jones - Boogie Joe the Grinder (A&M) A female counterpart, Ms Jody (Vertie Joann Delapaz), also recorded a series of (18+) albums for Ecko. See Heikki Suosalo's article: https://www.soulexpress.net/deep206.htm#msjody Harder to find are the references within songs, such as James Brown - I'm A Greedy Man (Polydor) "my name ain't Jody, but my name is Brown..." Any other references to Jody or Joe the Grinder in Soul songs?

We've already had JJ Barnes Sweet Sherry, but here are a couple more Sherry/Sherries: Shake Sherry (sometimes Sherrie) - Contours (Gordy) Sherry Washington - Ray Godfrey (Spring)

The last contribution is a bit of a mood dampener, but as I don't feel we have even scratched the surface on this topic, here are three more: Stella - Norman Connors and the Starship Orchestra Stella by Starlight - J R Bailey (his version of the jazz/film standard) Stella Lost Her Groove Again - Roy C (song referencing the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back) So not all about the same lady!

Eloise (Hang On In There) - William Bell Ella Weez - Leroy Hutson Dinah - Temptations (Eddie Kendricks lead) and David Ruffin (solo) Cleo's Mood and Cleo's Back - Junior Walker/All Stars and Who is Betty? - Shirley Brown

Stuart Maconie was the guest on View from the Boundary, at lunch on Test Match Special today (Radio Five Live Sports Extra). Lots of Lancashire, sporting and NS nostalgia. Begins at 13.22 and runs for about thirty minutes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_five_live_sports_extra

Never seen this before, so thank you for posting. Another great track, "Ain't That Loving You", from Bobby Bland at the beginning, too. I am less sure about the two Melvin Van Peebles contributions, "A Birth Certificate Ain't Nothing But A Death Warrant Anyway" and "Eyes On The Rabbit".

How about Lou Rawls and the Muppets...

I have always thought that there is a similar mistake to that by Arthur Ponder, at about 1 min 40 seconds on Otis Redding's Give Away None of My Love from the Tell the Truth album. Must be a Macon thing...

Thank you for this. Mercifully there is an instrumental version too - which still names the sporting hero Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron in the title. Country soul reminiscent of Roy C's Honeydrippers/J Hines and the Boys etc.

Here is Paul Kelly's "The Upset". Great tune, from a great talent, which I had not heard before, so thank-you. Btw on the Pieces of a Dream song Fo-Fi-Fo (4-5-4), Moses Malone is talking to Dr J - who I now discover is Julius Erving, another basketball player.

Saddened to learn of the passing of ex-baseball player Willie Mays, aged 93. He was featured in the Joe Tex song “I’m A Man”, b-side to S.Y.S.L.J.F.M. (The Letter Song) on Dial. Any other songs featuring sporting heroes? I can think of basketball player Moses Malone in Pieces of a Dream’s Fo-Fi-Fo and a few that feature Muhammad Ali (Alvin Cash, Matt Covington etc).

"Love Is Trying To Got A Hold Of Me"

Saddened to learn of the passing on 26 April 2024 of Nick Daniels III, vocalist on Tavasco's "Love Is Trying To Get On Me" (Rampart - 1980). Sincere condolences to his wife, family and friends. https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/festivals/dumpstaphunk-bassist-nick-daniels-iii-has-died/article_e0e290f0-04bb-11ef-967f-57af343b4fc3.html Apart from the Tavasco 504 album mentioned in my earlier post, he was also the featured vocalist on an album called Run To Daylight released in 2022 by the Groove Krewe, a New Orleans musicians' collective. He also worked closely with the Meters/Neville Brothers and was a member of their off-shoot band Dumpstaphunk. Here is the title-track from Tavasco 504's "Be Yourself", with Nick (left below) singing and playing his distinctive five-string bass.

Here is an article on Tavasco (now known as Tavasco 504), written at the time of the release of their Be Yourself CD (Mar/Apr 2021). Its release coincided with the start of the pandemic, so it probably didn't get much promotion. The album is a mixed bag, albeit with occasional bursts of great vocals. There is no mention in the article of Love Is Trying To Get A Hold Of Me, but it definitely the same group given the solid New Orleans credentials and the uniqueness of the name, which is explained in the article (a verbal conflation of Courvoisier and Tabasco, apparently!). Does anybody know the tracks that were supposedly released in the UK on the "Hidden New Orleans" album? I can't find any reference to it elsewhere. BandTavasco504_MarApr_2021.pdf

I particularly like his later sides, including "Better Believe It" (link attached), "Just Like The First Time" and the ballad "Bless Your Little Heart". There was a great compilation called Better Believe It: The Cream Of The 70s Sides issued by Westside in 2000, which included the bizarrely titled "Watchin' Johnny Carson Thru' My Toes"

Alas, the end of the second clip perpetuates the myth...

Thanks for this. Sad to learn of Edith Brown's passing. Shame no one took up Willie Barney's offer to reissue all of the Four Brothers material (final paragraph of the article in Juke Blues #14).

I can't find any reference to Sam and Kitty in Robert Pruter's book "Chicago Soul" (Bayou Press 1991), but he did refer to them in an article on Four Brothers/Bright Star/Hit Sound for Juke Blues #14 (Winter 1988/89) and in a discography in the following issue #15 (Spring 1989). He names them as LeRoy Dandridge and Edith Brown, perhaps the source of the information for the "In The Basement" article.

A member of the Tymes may have forgotten the name of the writer of "You Little Trustmaker", but it is on the disc and can be confirmed by searching https://repertoire.bmi.com/ (then enter writer/composer Christopher Mark Jackson), which also show the 26 other songs he wrote and registered on BMI.

I said in my first post that I am having feelings of déjà vu with elements of this thread and it seems we have been over this ground at least four times before! Chris L;'s reply on 15 June 2012 (page 3 of Artists We Know Nothing About -below) seems most interesting.

There is also this Van McCoy article (Black Music, July 1975), interviewed by Tony Cummings (not NS's favourite scribe, if I remember correctly), which refers to both Chris Bartley and Mark (Chris) Jackson (end of column seven and column eight).

BMI lists 27 songs by Christopher Mark Jackson, including all of the songs mentioned in the article, and the BMI award-winning "You Little Trustmaker" by the Tymes (1974). Meanwhile, in 1972 Chris Bartley was recording with the the Ray Alexander Technique "I Am In Love With You", "I Wonder Why", although I prefer "Taking The Long Way Home", with a different lead?

I am having feelings of déjà vu with elements of this thread. Here are the three articles in Blues and Soul about Chris Bartley (December 1968) and Chris Jackson (April and August 1970). One has already been attached to this thread. Both appear to be real people! One a native New Yorker, the other from Detroit.

Some great choices so far. My main man is – and always will be – Tyrone Davis. The song that got me hooked was “Could I Forget You” (Dakar) on an Atlantic compilation called “Heavy Soul”. https://www.discogs.com/release/6811218-Various-Heavy-Soul What an album that was for someone finding their way in the world of soul music. This track along with John E Abbey’s enthusiastic reviews of each of Tyrone’s releases in Blues and Soul had me searching out all of his earlier recordings and everything he released until his untimely passing in 2005. “The Ladies Choice” triple CD is an easy way to hear all of his Dakar material (but perhaps not for those who prefer to listen to vinyl only); my only disappointment is that it did not include any previously unreleased tracks. There was always much duplication in his output, so amongst my collection of 49 Tyrone albums and 65 singles, I have at least 13 copies and some five different versions of “Can I Change My Mind”. The success of Tyrone’s sound went on to influence many other producers/artists and a future thread might try to identify some of these. Examples include Vernon Garrett “I Am at The Crossroads” (White Enterprises); Air Tight “When It Works Out That Way” (Blues Unlimited); and Nate Evans “This Time with Feeling” (DPR). And, of course, many tracks by, if not the entire works of, Marvin Sease…