Last week in honour of what would have been Andrew Weatherall's 59th birthday Dr Rob posted a series of mixes at Ban Ban Ton Ton, lovingly researched and put together mixes delving into Andrew Weatherall's record bag, focussing on the soul, funk and jazz records that Andrew played at various times and in various places. If you missed them and need to catch up the links are here-
Weatherall's Funk/ Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow
Weatherall's Jazz/ African Waltz
Weatherall's Funk/ Darkest Light
Rob asked me if I wanted to host the sixth part of this series here at Bagging Area. Obviously I said yes. It also gives me a chance to wish Andrew Weatherall a very happy belated birthday, wherever he is currently residing.
Rob writes...
Last week on Ban Ban Ton Ton we were
paying tribute to, and celebrating the birthday of, Andrew Weatherall. In 2021 we
collected a ton of reggae and
dub tunes that the legendary DJ / producer was known to spin, but this year
we attempted to do the same with some soul, jazz, and funk. We posted a total
of 5 mixes, but here are a few more songs that I didn’t quite manage to squeeze
in….starting off with some strung out soul…
The Chi-lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life comes from the group’s A Lonely Man long-player, released in 1972. It`s not really typical of the band`s output, well it`s not really typical for a soul tune at all. Full of recordings of ocean surf and seabirds, heart-tugging violin strings and smothered in truly spaced-out reverb. The vocals leaving vapour trails, while otherworldly winds whip the cryptic lyrics, that hint at childhood hardship and poverty. Mr. Weatherall played this tune late one night in 1993, on Kiss FM. Andrew said that it reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil et La Mer, which he played immediately after. The intro of the Chi-lites song was later sampled and looped for the Quiet Village track, Victoria’s Secret.
The Persuaders` It`s A
Thin Line Between Love & Hate also came out in 1972. It is one of
the 90-odd songs featured in Andrew`s Black
Notebooks - a “pan-genre” collection of Youtube clips, created for
his close friends, that shine a spotlight on musical moments of extreme
emotion, often concerned with heartbreak and loss. Everything in there is a
wonder, and well worth tracking down. This song was famously covered by The
Pretenders. Chrissy Hynde apparently used to sing it when she was still
knocking about with the Sex Pistols and working in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne
Westwood`s Worlds End shop.
It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate
Maceo & All The Kings Men`s I Remember Mr. Banks, I guess is more jazz than soul, while the playing feels deeply connected to the blues. Saxophonist Maceo Parker is best known as a member of James Brown`s band, but all The King`s Men were a short-lived project, formed in 1970, when the musicians in said band, having had enough of Brown, all quit. They toured and recorded two albums, the first of which was Doing Their Own Thing. This is the closer from that LP, and something, again, that Andrew aired on Kiss.
Dudley Moore`s Bedazzled, is jazz, for sure. The title track from his score for the 1967 movie of the same name, that he also starred in alongside Peter Cook - as the Devil - and Raquel Welch as “Lilian Lust”. It was Chris “Soft Rocks” Galloway who hipped me to this, when he put it on his own tribute mix, One Horse Shy In A One Horse Town - a sublime selection of songs that Weatherall turned him on to. The terrific Johnny Trunk reissued the soundtrack in 2016.
Sibusile Xaba`s Wampona is the sole slice of of African soul / jazz / funk here. This is something that featured in Andrew`s now sorely missed NTS radio shows, Music`s Not For Everyone - essential monthly bulletins of “outsider”, well, everything musically. I was super chuffed when he played this, as I`d just posted a typically “wordy” review of the album on Ban Ban Ton Ton. Sad, I know, but this fanboy felt momentarily qualified.
Shuggie Otis` Aht Uh Mi Hed is a song synonymous with Weatherall, a big “backroom” favourite, that probably became a constant around the early days of The Heavenly Social, at The Albany on Great Portland Street, and later Turnmills, before they opened the bar off of Oxford Street. A slice of sweet, stoner introspection, a little weary, and wasted, with some pioneering Sly Stone-esque use of a drum machine. I`m not sure, but it was probably the original Maestro Rhythm King. Absolutely essential, and every home should have one. The record, not the drum machine that is.
The next three tunes are all lifted from NTS shows, and shaped, cut, from very similar sonic cloth as Shuggie`s seminal offering.
Mandre`s Isle De Joie is taken from Mandre 4, a “lost” early `80s album from the artist behind synth-y disco Loft classics, such as Light Years and Solar Flight, which was rescued and reissued by Rush Hour in 2010.
Jean Pierre Decerf`s sleazy Touch As Much dates from 1977, and could originally only be found on a highly sought after Library Music LP that he released under the alias, Magical Ring. It`s since been included in a brilliant retrospective of Jean Pierre’s work - Space Oddities 1975-1979 - put together by Alexis Le Tan, DJ Jess, and Born Bad Records.
Doug Hream Blunt`s Fly Guy is privately-pressed soul, lo-fi garage gangster boogie, which got reactivated in 2011, and was later picked up by David Byrne`s label, Luaka Bop. If you’re into this sort of stuff, try to locate a copy of the Personal Space compilation on Chocolate Industries.
A straight up funk track to follow. The Memphis Horns` Soul Bowl is pinched from a promo CD, entitled The Chairman’s Choice, complied to celebrate the opening of Heavenly Recordings` bar / club, The Social on Little Portland Street, back in June 2001.
Eugene Record`s Overdose Of Joy and Tyrone Davis` Is It Something You’ve Got? are both shining examples of the old soul sides that were revived by Andrew and Terry Farley when they manned the “alternative” room at Shoom - first at Busby`s, on Charing Cross Road, and then at The Park, on Kensington High Street. The pair revisited these two tunes on a wonderful BBC 6Music show in 2012, which lead to the Eugene Record tune being licensed and repressed on a 45 by London’s Love Vinyl label / shop. Eugene Record was, coincidently the lead vocalist of, and main songwriter for, The Chi-Lites.
Representing the Weird & Funky World of library music, I’ve cued up James Asher`s bonkers Vertigo, taken from his 1981 Studio G LP, Abstracts. This is piano-led jazz really, but James goes to town on the twisting and phasing, and the track finally hits a mad Orb-like breakdown.
As a Balearic
aside, Oscar Falanga, who once famously staffed the counter at fabled Soho
record store, Trax, later remixed James Asher, in the guise of this prog house
nom de plume, Aetherius.
Lastly, there’s the sitar-driven hippie exotica love-in, freak-out of Tally Man, composed and performed by Jimmy “Little Jim” Page`s main `60s guitar-slinging rival, Big Jim Sullivan. A tune taken from Big Jim’s 1967 album, Sitar Beat, which also features his cover of Donovan`s Sunshine Superman, another firm Andrew Weatherall favourite.
4 comments:
Top stuff! A name we'll never forget.
More top soul, jazz and funk than you can shake a stick at.
Wow! It touched me to see Mandre’s Isle De Joi - and the mention of The Loft. I am just imagining the magic that might happened in an alternative universe where Andrew Weatherall could share the decks with David Mancuso on a Saturday night in The Loft’s later incarnation on E. 3rd St in the late 80s and early 90s where I would find myself any give Sunday Morning at 3:30 in the morning lost in music, both legends vibing off the audience in that third ear affect Mancuso and Waetherall both shared.
Great to hear you hitching up with 'Ban Ban Ton Ton' and the balearic evangelists.
-SRC
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