{"id":17910,"date":"2012-10-25T14:55:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T19:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=17910"},"modified":"2012-10-25T14:55:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T19:55:48","slug":"whats-funky-at-soul-fire-revue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2012\/10\/25\/whats-funky-at-soul-fire-revue\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s funky at Soul Fire Revue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The host talks about what albums are inspiring his show lately<\/strong>By Jeff Listerman<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m still picking through several thousand CDs I\u2019ve piled up over about thirty years and it\u2019s quite a task, let me tell ya (if anyone can rent me a Bobcat skid-loader with a bucket attachment real cheap, you can contact me through the station\u2026.)\u00a0 Anyway, spending countless hours separating the wheat from the chaff has been long overdue, and the fruits of this labor are soon to be heard on the Soul Fire Revue.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recently been going over a dozen or more compilations of lesser known soul and funk, and after going through them song by song, I have found some killer grooves. Most had one or two decent tracks but as you might imagine, all of these comps were not created equal. Some of the comps and comp series that I\u2019ve been dissecting are a couple discs from Keb Darge\u2019s Funk Spectrum Series. One, Keb Darge compiled with Kenny Dope on the Kay Dee Records label, and two called, Flying Funk<\/em> and Flying Groove<\/em>. These all had at least a few tracks I liked, but not many I fell in love with. The grooves on the Keb Darge stuff are unfailingly super soulful and danceable, but to me, rarely super-funky which is what I really got my radar out for. I also like a killer vocal struttin\u2019 out over the top of my funk like I like icing on my cake, and those Keb D discs are mostly instrumental.<\/p>\n

But now i\u00b4ll tell ya what did really grab me: one is the James Brown\u2019s Funky People<\/em> series, three different discs called \u201cparts\u201d 1,2 and 3. These are part of James Brown Productions that were recorded and released on his own People label that he started in 1971.<\/p>\n

You gotta dig JB to really get into these cause the music as well as many of the vocalists are heavily influenced by the Godfather, and sometimes the influence is over the top, but that kind of makes it interesting too. In fact, the whole series is an interesting document of time and place with songs like the drivin\u2019 super-fonky song \u201cYou can have Watergate but Gimme some Bucks and I\u2019ll be Straight\u201d by Fred Wesley and JB\u2019s \u201cSoul Power \u201874\u201d by Maceo and the Macks, Maceo Parker, that is. My favorite song from all three is Lyn Collins\u2019 relentless \u201cRock Me Again and Again and Again\u201d from the first volume (or \u201cpart\u201d).<\/p>\n

The other disc that rang my bells was Dave Hamilton\u2019s Detroit Funk Rare and Unreleased Twisted Funk 1967-1975<\/em>. Again, these tracks were just way grittier and funkier than those on the other comps. Generally, the rhythms were just funkier and more complex and interesting. Dave Hamilton has put his name to quite a few other old soul comps, especially for the Kent label, and they may contain quality stuff as well, I’m just not as interested in 50’s and early 60’s soul as I am funk from the seventies.<\/p>\n

Oh sure, there are some on this disc that aren\u2019t anything too special, but quite a few are terrific. I love the singer who has five separate tracks on the disc, named Billy Garner. He busts out ferocious with the lead track, \u201cBrand New Girl, Part 1\u201d. It\u2019s dynamite and his other tracks on the disc are plenty good. Gotta say, I always love those few songs in funkland that are truly hilarious while keepin\u2019 a groove. Two you gotta check out are \u201cGarbage Man\u201d by an outfit called Ike Turner presents the Family Vibe<\/em> (on comp In Yo Face! The History of Funk<\/em>) and The Witch Doctor<\/em> by Over Night Low (from the \u201cKing\u201d records comp). Well this particular Dave Hamilton disc has one that\u2019s right up there and it\u2019s the ridiculous \u201cHunchin\u2019\u201d by Gip Roberts, those back-up singers are a riot, I shook my head and laughed every time I heard it.<\/p>\n

Soul Fire Revue airs every Saturday from 8-10 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The host talks about what albums are inspiring his show lately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4332,"featured_media":17911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1173,1174,1331,586],"class_list":["post-17910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-funk","tag-jeff-listerman","tag-soul","tag-soul-fire-revue"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/191b8289c6b11fe6b62c3c72d5af0.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4332"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}