Born Too Late...

If you are in the mood for "a simmering gumbo of Soul, R 'n' B, Rock 'n' Roll, Girl Group, Hillbilly & Black Gospel songs from the golden age of 20th century pop music" then head over here where Marie and her ever excellent Vintage Spins will provide just that.

Today's track on Spools comes courtesy of a female vocal group from the late 50's called The Poni-Tails and was their only US hit single The wonderful coming of age tune, "Born Too Late" started life as a B side before some DJ's preferring it to the A side flipped it and started playing it instead. Despite some decent follow up singles it proved to their only hit.

Born too Late

More Okeh...

Another tune from the wonderful Okeh label, this time from The Triumphs with a 100mph dance floor filler from '67. With tunes like this it kinda makes you wonder how they managed to stay on the danceflooor for 8 hours at a time ? I'm a bit of  a latecomer to the joys of Northern Soul but have yet to come across a bad track from Okeh.

I'm Coming To Your Rescue

Stopped In My Tracks...

Sometimes when you have the MP3 player on shuffle a song comes along that just stops you in your tracks and stops you doing what you are doing. It quite often happens to me when Etta James comes on. I was thinking how best to define Etta's unique voice to the few uninitited few who may not know her, but don't think I could sum it up better than Bonnie Raitt when she said "There's a lot going on in Etta James' voice, a lot of pain, a lot of life but, most of all, a lot of strength." Beautifully put.

All the pain and heartbreak that beset Etta's life is conveyed in every note of that raw, emotional, vocal style that could only be Etta.

All I Can Do Was Cry

Comin' Down...

Jackie Shane was a gay black cross-dressing androgynous rhythm and blues singer who rose to fame in the early 1960’s mainly in the more liberal environs of Toronto. I recently saw an article on the web that described him as a cross between Little Richard, Prince and Eartha Kitt. That gives a flavour of his appearance but what is more important is the prodigious talent of the man, originally from Nashville

Beyond his strong Toronto following Jackie never achieved commercial success with only one hit record to his name in 1963 with his cover of William Bell's "Any Other Way which showcases his deeply emotive and powerful voice beautifully. Follow up single "In My Tenement" did not have the same impact but did contain this superb Bobby Darin cover on the flip side..

Comin' Down

Pearly Dewdrops...

In honour of Prince playing Glasgow this Thursday today's tune comes courtesy of Grangemouth's finest, The Cocteau Twins. What have The Cocteaus got to do with His Royal Badness you may ask. In a recent interview with Mojo, Prince professed to being a fan of the band, even going as far as saying that The Cocteaus were "the soundtrack to a night of partying in Bryan Ferry's studio". I love The Cocteaus but have never really thought of them in tandem with partying. Maybe, just maybe, Prince's idea of a party may be slightly different to mine.

As I will not be going along to see the dimunitive one on Thursday, I will instead share one of my favourite Cocteaus songs with everyone who will not be shelling out £100.00 of their hard earned dough at The Hydro on Thursday.

Pearly Dewdrops Drop

Some Sunday Soul...

A little bit of Sunday Motown from 1962 from the supremely talented Mary Wells. Written and produced by Smokey, on first listen "Two Lovers" appears to be about having your cake and eating it but listen closer and the song cleverly reveals the "Two Lovers" to be one and the same person. There is a very good reason why Bob Dylan once described Smokey as "America's greatest living poet".

All the more remarkable is that the girl with the golden voice recorded this track when she was only 19 years old. Mary will be forever remembered for the wonderful "My Guy", but there was so much more to her music than that, as this track shows.

Two Lovers

Nashville via Glasgow...

The West of Scotland has always had a strong tradition of listening to good ole country music, in many cases leading to bands being formed to share their love of a sound normally associated with Nashville. None more so than the supremely talented John Miller, who formed the Radio Sweethearts in the mid 90's. The initial line up include Teenage Fanclub's Francis Macdonald and Gerry Love but due to Fanclub commitments Love was replaced with Martin Hayward of The Pastels and celebrated fiddler John McCusker. While everyone else was listening to Britpop, The Radio Sweethearts were ploughing their own furrow, opening for the likes of Townes Van Zandt and, unwittingly, releasing their debut album after recording 15 tracks with Kim Fowley who then took the recordings back to The States and the next thing the band know they have a record released on U.S. indie label, St Roch Records.

There is an authenticity about the records of John Miller that simply cannot be faked. Whilst listening to the Radio Sweethearts, or his terrific 2002 solo album, "Popping Pills" you feel as though you are listening to country standards that have been covered by someone, which is meant as a compliment to the songwriting skill of John Miller.

He appears to have hung up his guitar at the moment but hopefully one day we will see John recording again and continuing Glasgow's love affair with the sounds of Hank Williams and all the other country legends that the city so warmly embraces.

Lonesome Blue

Sometimes Less Is More

Toussaint McCall may be remembered by some for his appearance in the John Water's movie Hairspary miming to his own song, and only hit, "Nothing Takes The Place Of You". As well as being a great, timeless soul balladeer Toussaint played a mean Hammond organ as you will hear on this great,understated track on Ronn Records from way back in 1967. Sometimes less really is more.

Nothing Takes The Place Of You

All Is Quiet Where Angels Fear...

I was listening earlier today to the Festive 50 from 1982 and as I was listening I was thinking how many of them were bona fide chart hits and it turned out that a fairly large number of them were including "Mad World", "Straight To Hell", "Only You" and, of course, "Come On Eileen".

There were also a large amount of tracks that should have been hits that weren't, most notably the track that made it to Number 10. The Wild Swans' "Revolutionary Spirit" can easily take pride of place alongside the best songs of their Scouse peers, The Teardrop Explodes and Echo And The Bunnymen. Released on Zoo Records, with the Bunnymen's Pete de Freitas on drums and future Woodentop Rolo McGinty on bass, The Wild Swans' debut single received great (and well deserved) critical acclaim but no chart success. Despite being championed by Peel, Kid Jensen, Janice Long and their fellow musicians the band split in '82 with some members joining Care and The Lotus Eaters. Despite only the one single at the time there influence far outweighed their sales.

It would be another 6 years before their debut album appeared, with the classic "Bringing Home The Ashes", which was criminally ignored upon it's release. Great, timeless songs that gained them a cult following in Germany, The USA and especially The Philippines where their wonderful melodies and Paul Simpson's gorgeous voice seemed to strike a chord with music fans.

The Revolutionary Spirit

Can I Change My Mind...

Today's post was going to be Tyrone Davis' excellent "Turn Back the Hands of Time" but George at the ever excellent Jim McLean's Rabbit beat me to it by a few hours. However, as Tyrone was born on this very day back in 1938, I feel that a second helping of his smooth, poignant vocals would be appropriate. Just listen to the wonderful horns at the start before we even get to the vocals. I believe that today's tune, "Can I Change My Mind"  knocked "I Heard It through The Grapevine" off the Number 1 spot in the Billboard R'n'B chart upon its release back in '69 and, in my humble opinion, is as good a track as the classic Marvin Gaye tune it replaced at the top of the chart.

Can I Change My Mind

Fifty Dollar Habit...

On one of the comments on Sunday's Judy Clay posting, I was reminded of her great duet with William Bell. I have posted before,back in 2011, about this much underrated and understated of soul singers who was one of the principal architects of the Stax/Volt sound, but as you can never have too much of a good thing I felt it was time for another airing of his prodigious talent.

Best known for "Private Number" and his debut single from 1961 "You Don't Miss Your Water" he had a recording career stretching over 30 years. I can't claim to be an expert on his work but I have always been fond of this track from his 1972 release on Stax, "Phases Of Reality".

I don't recall posting a track with an electric sitar before on Spools..not sure if it is just me but it reminds me of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"...Hope you enjoy...

Fifty Dollar Habit