10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1091: The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT.
THE MAIN INGREDIENT: Summer Breeze
A familiar act with a familiar song, albeit not a song we're used to hearing performed by this act. The Main Ingredient are best-remembered for "Everybody Plays The Fool," a # 3 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1972. I don't remember whether or not I've ever heard anything else the Main Ingredient ever did, but I can say I heard their take on the Seals and Crofts hit "Summer Breeze" for the first time this week, when Dana included it in this year's Soul Pit.
And it's a cool version in its own right. I think it's time I did a deeper dive into the Main Ingredient's c.v., mindful of the truth that any record you ain't heard is a new record. And we're always looking for new records.
(I think it's a safe bet that many of our regular listeners expected to hear "Summer Breeze" in the Soul Pit, just not as performed by the Main Ingredient. The version they expected closes this year's Soul Pit [as seen below], providing "Summer Breeze" bookends. That makes us feel fine.
THE 5TH DIMENSION: Up Up And Away
Have you seen Summer Of Soul yet? You must. Filmed at the Harlem Cultural Festival over a six-week period in 1969, assembled and annotated by Questlove as a 2021 feature film, Summer Of Soul is just a phenomenal work. Yeah, I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I do believe Summer Of Soul is (at the very least) one of the finest pop music documentaries ever produced, one of the greatest concert films ever made, and quite possibly the all-time # 1 in both of those categories.
Among the film's many, many highlights is an incandescent live performance by the 5th Dimension. Many have thought of this group as too establishment, too mainstream pop, but godDAMN they deliver here. If you ever dismissed the transcendent splendor of the 5th Dimension, it's well past time to reconsider them.
An embrace of the 5th Dimension should go beyond their live performance in Summer Of Soul. The records in the group's cavalcade o' hits are stunning: well-produced, well-performed, irresistible. Dana chose two 5th Dimension gems for this year's Soul Pit, "Age Of Aquarius" and "Up Up And Way." It just so happens we'll hear the 5th Dimension again in next week's show.
PEABO BRYSON: Minute By Minute
Playing Peabo Bryson's cover of the Doobie Brothers' "Minute By Minute" enabled me to deliver TIRnRR's (presumably) first-ever reference to TV's What's Happening!!: "Which Doobie you be?" (I could have saved it for the final set's spin of "Takin' It To The Streets" by Quincy Jones, but you know me; mine is the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, but the patience of Johnny Ramone.)
HONEY CONE: Want Ads
Bubblesoul. Honey Cone's 1971 # 1 smash "Want Ads" is one of the definitive examples of that late '60s/early '70s hybrid of pure, bouncy AM radio sugar performed by black artists. Think early Jackson Five and Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold," or the shoulda-been-hit-singles by Josie and the Pussycats (with the incredible Patrice Holloway on lead vocals) as reference points. "Bubblesoul." Nothing else describes it better, except maybe "YEAH!"
QUINCY JONES: Takin' It To The Streets
Yeah, as promised, another Doobie Brothers cover. Have we ever played the Doobie Brothers on TIRnRR? I suspect not, given my prevailing and pervasive dislike of most of that group's material, but it's possible. We're large. We contain multitudes.
I sang a Doobie Brothers song once, warbling "China Grove" when I failed the audition to join a country rock group in college in 1977. That's likely the only Doobietune I ever liked at all. I actively loathed "Black Water" when it was an inescapable hit during my high school years, and I cringed in '79 when Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh referred to "What A Fool Believes" as "the closest thing we had to an anthem this year." An anthem, Dave? It is to blurgh....
Upon further review, I might concede that "Takin' It To The Streets" is at least as palatable as "China Grove," perhaps more so. The Doobies' original version sports a less-objectionable-than-usual (and actually pretty decent) lead vocal by the song's author Michael McDonald. Quincy Jones' 1978 cover enlists Luther Vandross and Gwen Guthrie for the vocals, and we're all winners. That's what this fool believes.
THE ROBINS: Riot In Cell Block No. 9
They fought the law and the law won. For now.
It would be a stretch to call the Robins' 1954 R & B classic "Riot On Cell Black No. 9" as a musical precursor to '70s blaxploitation flicks, but its lyrical tale of prison insurrection is closer in spirit to Shaft and Superfly than it is to the great 'n' goofy novelty hits of the Coasters, the subsequent vocal group that included ex-Robins Bobby Nunn and Carl Gardner. Yakety yak? Don't talk back...if ya know what's good for you.
HUEY "PIANO" SMITH AND THE CLOWNS: Sea Cruise
"Sea Cruise" was written by N'awlins boogie-woogie ivory-tinkler Huey "Piano" Smith, and a 1959 hit by Frankie Ford. The version played this week on TIRnRR is the Forgotten Original, but it was originally unreleased, leaving Ford's take as the first "Sea Cruise" to set sail. Both versions use the identical backing track by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, with the hit version replacing Smith's lead vocals with white guy Ford. The racist implication of the record company's decision was purely coincidental, I'm sure. Ooo-wee, baby.
IKE AND TINA TURNER: Gonna Find Me A Substitute
"Gonna Find Me A Substitute" was an LP track on 1961's The Soul Of Ike & Tina Turner, the first album by this incredible duo, whose unfortunate (to say the least) off-stage combustibility overshadows the immense oomph of their accomplishment on wax. Ike Turner was close to an R & B rock 'n' roll genius, and he'd be rightly and widely celebrated if he hadn't been such a lousy human being. Instead, he's deplored. As he should be.
The title of this song serves as unintentional commentary on Ike and Tina's relationship. Tina was still Anna Mae Bullock, billed as Little Ann, when she began performing and recording with Ike Turner's band in the late '50s. When their recording of "Fool In Love" attracted record label attention in 1960, Ike realized he needed (or thought he needed) to maintain control of his singer. He changed her billing to Tina Turner, and then trademarked the name, so she could only use it under his aegis; if Little Ann left Ike, well, he could just get a substitute to be the new Tina Turner.
Bastard.
Tina Turner survived all of that. She even took her name with her. Nothing could stop the voice--and the soul--of Tina Turner.
SARAH VAUGHAN: Smooth Operator
No, it's not the Sade song. Sarah Vaughan is one of the legendary singers of American jazz, but her 1959 single "Smooth Operator" flirts with pop, R & B, rock 'n' roll, and even a hint of what would come to be known as the girl group sound. Jazz? Sure. Why not? All of your labels are belong to us. Pretty smooth.
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze
The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. The Isley Brothers' incredible take on "Summer Breeze" earns its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). We'll hear a few other candidates for GREM! on next week's show.
That is, in fact, ALL we'll hear on next week's show, as TIRnRR presents a finite glimpse of the infinite: The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Hope you can join us.
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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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