HIS OWN COOL

Years ago I saw Isaac Hayes on a late show, Letterman or some other show, I've forgotten. He was conducting a big band, might have had strings and a horn section, I've forgotten that too. What I do remember is there was a shitload of musicians and he was leading them through a note for note rendition of "Shaft" that sounded exactly like the record. I knew he was multi-talented as a performer, songwriter and arranger, but watching this performance it hit me that he was not unlike Brian Wilson, Phil Spector or some other producer in that the huge production was heard first in his head. All the building blocks were there. Everything I've heard since has been informed by that viewing. There are very few people who can stretch a song out like Hayes. The tension raising and lowering, climaxing, exhaling, crescendos and all manners of dragging you back in.

Hayes's cover of Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" (hit version by Dionne Warwick), is a perfect example. It's also an excuse to repost the song yet again, because the old link went dead. We can't be sitting around here without a working link to this tour de force. So there's that and his cover of "Come Together". Six minutes of top 40 turned into twenty four minutes of trippy layered downtempo subtly psychedelic soul.

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Listen:
Isaac Hayes - Walk On By mp3 at Internet Archive
Isaac Hayes - Something mp3 at The Frump

THE PACKAGE

The first song on the first solo album by Curtis Mayfield is "(Don't Worry) If there's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go". It's a whopper, a jam and a half. Fu-huck yeah. It starts out kinda quiet with fuzz bass and a woman saying that people should start reading the Book of Revelations, ho-hum, but then the congas seep in, okay, so now we're moving. Then Mayfield, with heavy echo, comes in, "Sisters! Niggers! Whities! Jews! Crackers! Don't worry, if there's a hell below, we're all gonna go!", followed by a scream, and then the thing just takes off. It's got everything you could ask for. strings and horns playing off each and that glorious wah-wah. As close to ground zero of the classic blaxsploitation sound as it gets. ("Shaft"? Get out of town. This is a year before Isaac Haye's signature song.) And it's probably Mayfield doing the fret to pedal work, being that he did when it was played live. The drums? Shit, that funky beat is unrelenting. As are the congas, bongos and the heavy, heavy bass line. As amazing as the song is, it's but one on an LP that is similarly packed with thick layers of psychedelic soul (listen to "Move On Up"). And all of this written, sung, and produced by Mayfield after a successful run with the Impressions and his own record label.

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Listen:
Curtis Mayfield - (Don't Worry) If there's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go mp3 at Internet Archive
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up mp3 at SGS (?)

TUBBY MEETS WHITFIELD IN A CAR

A car just drove past my apartment complex blasting the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money". Someone in my neighborhood. Blasting that almighty jam. I would not have thought that possible. I love the song, a Gamble and Huff produced slab of Philly style psychedelic soul. If you have never heard the long version, turn this sucker up and listen to all the shit going on in it. It almost borders on dub in places. I was in the mood so I'm dragging you along with me.

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Listen:
The O'Jays - For the Love of Money mp3 at AMPS (?)
Visit:
For the Love of Money at Wikipedia Production notes and more
Gamble and Huff at Wikipedia

ARE WE EARLY? OR LATE?

Well this certainly adds to the late sixties psychedelic soul clusterfuck. Fuji, whose real name was Ellington Jordan, was the guy who wrote "I'd Rather Go Blind", a hit for Etta James (right after being released from jail, so the story goes). He was pals with the Temptations' Eddie Kendricks, who introduced him to a band called Black Merda. Together, Fuji and Black Merda recorded an album that wasn't heavily promoted, and went nowhere. Everyone who writes about it online seems to revere like it's some sort of psychedelic soul godhead. I've only heard a portion of it, and a handful of Black Merda's things without Fugi, so I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's overrated, or that a lack of promotion didn't sink it. But, I'll tell you what, it made me want to lose myself in some psychedelic soul stuff from the A-listers. The Temptations cuts below were produced by Norman Whitfield, with guitar by Dennis Coffey. That's a killer combination right there. Hard to beat. Chess/Cadet, the label that released the Fugi LP, were probably throwing up there hands. "Aw fuck. We can't compete with that."

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Listen:
Fugi - Mary, Don’t You Take Me On No Bad Trip mp3 at Brobots
Black Merda - Ashamed mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Black Merda - Long Burn the Fire mp3 at Hard Raw Deep Funk
The Tempations - Ball of Confusion mp3 at LZ Center
The Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone mp3 at Radio George
Dennis Coffey - Scorpio mp3 at EricMGrant.EJFlavors 
Full LPs:
Black Merda - Three full albums (via Diveshare) at Hard Raw Deep Funk
The Temptations - Cloud Nine (streaming) at YouTube Put this one on, turn it up, and go about your business for 35 minutes. It's perfect for that.

LEST WE NEED REMINDING

How bad were the eighties? Just listen to these two versions of "Ball of Confusion". The original by the Tempations is quintessential Norman Whitfield. (Whitfield produced much of the psychedelic soul era Motown stuff, that much you should know.) When the Temptations made the leap from matching suits to flashy paisley, Whitfield was the guy who crafted their sound. Listen to all of the stuff going on. Man, oh man, it's thick. "How about some fuzz over that bass?" "Let's get a little crazy with the percussion", and so forth. Now listen to the version that Tina Turner did with BEF in the eighties. Even with a certain amount of wiggle room for just going with the synth wave that permeated the decade, and with all due respect to Turner's prior output, it pretty much blows. Jeez, did the eighties suck.

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Listen:
The Tempations - Ball of Confusion mp3 at LZ Center
Tina Turner - Ball of Confusion mp3 at AM Then FM
Another good one produced by Whitfield:
The Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone mp3 at Radio George.
Visit:
Norman Whitfield at Wikipedia

FUZZ + HORNS = CLICK MEAT

This is some good stuff. Aquarium Drunkard used Dennis Coffey, the Funk Brothers, Lee Perry, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Dr. John as reference points, and they're not far off. Others have referenced George Clinton and Norman Whitfield, and the latter is really the most accurate, but with a twist. Monophonics sound like they listened to the all of the Whitfield produced psychedelic soul on Motown, and then lost the records; as if they just started winging it, filling in the gaps with stuff from the rest of their record collection. Just check these, all four are worth a listen.

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Listen:
Monophonics - They Don't Understand mp3 at Hillydilly
Monophonics with Fanny Franklin - All Together mp3 at Aquarium Drunkard Direct linking to mp3 disabled. Go there to get it.
Monophonics - Bang Bang (streaming) at Heavy Soul Brutha's
Monophonics - There's a Riot Goin' On (streaming) at Sunset in the Rearview