3008. V.A.: History of Rhythm & Blues, Volume 1: The Roots 1947-52
3009. V.A.: History of Rhythm & Blues, Volume 2: The Golden Years 1953-55
3010. V.A.: Atlantic Rhythm and Blues, Volume 1: 1947-1952
3011. V.A.: Atlantic Rhythm and Blues, Volume 7: 1969-1974
3012. V.A.: History of Rhythm and Blues Vocal Groups
3013. V.A.: This Is Soul
3014. V.A.: Apollo Saturday Night
3015. V.A.: The Best of Chess Vocal Groups
3016. V.A.: The Best of Chess Rhythm & Blues
3017. V.A.: The Best of Chess/Checker/Cadet Soul
3018. V.A.: Chess Sisters of Soul, Volume 1
3019. V.A.: New Orleans Rhythm & Blues
3020. V.A.: Never Before Released Masters from Motown's Brightest Stars - The 1960's
3021. V.A.: From the Vaults
3022. V.A.: Hard-To-Find Motown Classics, Volume One
3023. V.A.: Hard-To-Find Motown Classics, Volume Two
Mixworthy: "Thin Line Between Love and Hate," Persuaders; "Clean Up Woman," Betty
Wright; and "Love Won't Let Me Wait," Major Harris, #3011; "Mr. Lee," Bobbettes,
#3012; "Cool Jerk," Capitols, #3013; "Temptation 'Bout to Get Me," Knight Brothers,
and "Dear One (It Was a Night)," Gems, #3015; "Does Your Mama Know About Me," Bobby
Taylor & the Vancouvers, and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," Jimmy Ruffin,
#3022; "Smiling Faces Sometimes," Undisputed Truth, and "He Was Really Sayin'
Somethin'," Velvelettes, #3023.
The next couple of sections cover soul and R&B from the late '40s to the early '70s,
beginning with collections on Atlantic (#3008-3014), Chess (#3015-3019), and Motown
(#3020-3023). If you conducted an ILM poll (or polled any large group of similarly
oriented music listeners; once again, I'll refrain from using the "R" word) on the
greatest label ever, my guess would be that Atlantic would come out on top. As my
relatively low number of Wilson Pickett/Ray Charles/Otis Redding/Sam & Dave/Solomon
Burke (etc.) picks in the alphabetical section already made clear, it wouldn't be high
on my own list. (I probably ended up listing a couple of dozen Atlantic songs anyway,
just by default.) Atlantic almost always kept the rough edges intact, whether it was
soul, doo-wop, girl-group, or any other style of black pop; if you're someone who
counts rough edges as synonomous with honesty and urgency when it comes to music, a
box set's worth of Atlantic stuff would just barely serve as a starting point...Tommy
Chong played guitar for Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers (insert your own drug joke, I'm
too tired to think of one myself at the moment). He also co-wrote "Does Your Mama Know
About Me," enough to grant Canadian Content status to the song (Chong was born in Ed-
monton), so it probably still gets some airplay on CHUM today. Our 35% Cancon regula-
tion has been keeping the likes of Pagliaro, Valdy, and Keith Hampshire in cigarette
money for decades..."Smiling Faces Sometimes" is one of my favourite songs ever, but
it's also more than that. I don't know if there's a song I have more admiration for--
for its wisdom, for its strangeness, and for the fact that it was onto something his-
torically new and important before anyone else got there. I compiled a meticulously
chronological early-70s soul CD for someone last Christmas--the dates were taken from
Billboard and ordered by week of chart entry--and before Riot, before Superfly, before
"Superstition", before War, before any of the stark, paranoid black pop that sound-
tracked that era, the Undisputed Truth were first out of the blocks in June of '71.
Allowing that there were earlier hints that something unfamiliar was coming into
being (Sly's "Thank You [Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin]" was pretty out there), the
creepiness of "Smiling Faces Sometimes" must have been startling. It's not a Nixon
song in name, but it may be the greatest Nixon song of them all.
________________________________________________________________________________
3024. V.A.: Okeh Rhythm & Blues
3025. V.A.: The Roots of Rock, Volume 6: Sunset Soul
3026. V.A.: Old King Gold, Volume 4
3027. V.A.: Hurt So Bad: Early Sixties Soul, 1950-1965
3028. V.A.: Tears in My Eyes
3029. V.A.: What's Happening...Stateside?
3030. V.A.: "The Beat Is On": Sue Instrumentals, 1959-1967
3031. V.A.: The Detroit Girl Groups
3032. V.A.: The History of Hi Records: Rhythm & Blues, Volume One
3033. V.A.: The Gamble Records All Stars
3034. V.A.: Soul's Greatest Hits
3035. V.A.: 15 Original Big Hits, Volume 2
3036. V.A.: Hot Wax Greatest Hits
3037. V.A.: Heart & Soul
Mixworthy: "Cry," Johnny Ray, #3024; "Hurt So Bad," Little Anthony & the Imperials;
"Mother-In-Law," Ernie K-Doe; "Wish Someone Would Care," Irma Thomas; and "A Cer-
tain Girl," Ernie K-Doe, #3027; "I Wanna Make You Happy," Margaret Mandolph, and
"This Must End," Impressions, #3028; "Don't Rush Me," Baby Dolls, #3033; "The Name
Game," Shirley Ellis, and "Yes, I'm Ready," Barbara Mason, #3034; "Whatcha See Is
Whatcha Get," Dramatics, #3035; "Me and Mrs. Jones," Billy Paul, and "Rainy Night
in Georgia," Brook Benton, #3037.
The rest of soul and R&B: anything that's not Atlantic, Chess, or Motown, including,
to lead off the mixworthy list, one very strange white guy. I probably should have
#3015 filed in the same '60s section where the Spector collections and Dream Babies
are, but one of those Detroit girl groups was the Primettes, who were the Supremes-
plus-one a couple of years before the fact. Diana Ross is pictured on the cover, so
I instinctively filed it in soul/R&B--silly when Darlene Love's over in the '60s pop
section. Before this devolves into a dorky was-the-first-Jam-album-punk-or-new-wave?
meditation--with the always complicated minefield of race thrown into the equation
(i.e., I'm probably overcompensating for the occasionally voiced charge that '60s
Motown wasn't "black enough")--I'll move on...I've got good Little Anthony, Irma
Thomas, and Barbara Mason collections on CD, but I only have these stray tracks on
vinyl. The Irma Thomas cut is duplicated on #3027 and #3029; great song, but I've
gone on to discover "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" (B-side of the
original "Time Is on My Side"), which is even better. After Fats Domino, I heard Ir-
ma Thomas mentioned most often in the first few days post-Katrina as one of the unac-
counted-for hometown musical icons. Both are alive and well...Margaret Mandolph's "I
Wanna Make You Happy" is amazing. For the longest time, I could not locate a single
piece of information on either her or the song (beyond the matrix number--Planetary
106--supplied by #3028's song credits): nothing in whatever soul books I have, noth-
ing on the internet, nothing anywhere. I finally located a short paragraph buried in
an online "History of America's Girl Groups" by Shelia Burgel. The biggest eyeopener
is that Margaret was 13 years old. Little Eva, Millie Small, and Lesley Gore made
some famous records that everyone would agree were pretty great, but they didn't get
their names on anything quite this good. Opening line: "What a nice party/And I know
just why I'm feeling so blue..."
________________________________________________________________________________
3038. V.A.: Let's Have a Party
3039. V.A.: Mercury Rockabillies
3040. V.A.: Starday-Dixie Rockabillys, Volume One
3041. V.A.: Starday-Dixie Rockabillys, Volume Two
3042. V.A.: King-Federal Rockabillys
3043. V.A.: Hillbilly Music...Thank God! Volume 1
3044. V.A.: Country Hits of the '40s
3045. V.A.: The Roots of Rock, Volume 10: Sun Country
3046. V.A.: Tennessee Country
3047. V.A.: 30 Grand Ole Country & Western Favorites
3048. V.A.: Cream of the Country Crop
3049. V.A.: All Time Country Greats
3050. V.A.: Country & Western Winners
3051. V.A.: Great Stars of Country Music
3052. V.A.: Country-Western Radio
3053. V.A.: Greatest Country Hits of the 80's, 1980
3054. V.A.: Don't Shoot
3055. V.A.: The Story of the Blues
3056. V.A.: St. Louis Town 1929-1933
3057. V.A.: Southern Sanctified Singers
3058. V.A.: Memphis Beat
3059. V.A.: Cajun Vol. 1--Abbeville Breakdown
Mixworthy: "One Hand Loose" and "Bottle to the Baby," Charlie Feathers, and "Eeny
Meeny Miney Mo," Bob & Lucille, #3042; "You're Learning" and "I Wish It Had Been a
Dream," Louvin Brothers, #3043; "Got You on My Mind," Miller Sisters, #3045; "I'm
Lonesome," Ernie Chaffin, #3046; "So Lonesome and Blue," Del Reeves, #3047; "In the
Jailhouse Now," Webb Pierce; "Please Help Me, I'm Falling," Hank Locklin; and "Oh,
Lonesome Me," Don Gibson, #3049.
Rockabilly, country, and blues. It's been at least 20 years since I listened to some
of the songs listed above, so I'm really relying on memory and name recognition here.
Whatever rockabilly I own was mostly bought in the early '80s, when I was under the
influence of the Cramps, X, and local hillbillies the Viletones, whose frontman Steven
Leckie was then in the throes of a very severe Elvis complex. I said earlier that I had
a bit of interaction with Leckie at the time through Vinyl Museum Norm. One recollec-
tion still cracks me up: him all excited about this new British band he'd bought on
import who were the real thing, living heirs to Sun studios and the wild abandon of
the earliest rockabilly...the Stray Cats! My enthusiasm didn't much outlast the moment
when Hüsker Dü came along and supplanted X and the Cramps as my favourite band, but I
can still see why it's one of those genres (like mid-60s garage) that stops time for
some people, a pure and unselfconscious version of rock and roll that was never bet-
tered (leaving aside the narrowness and reactionaryism that often accompanies such
devotion)...Speaking of which, I guess I could be called a reactionary when it comes
to country music. When country sounds like "old" country--which for me covers anything
and everything from the Carter Family through to the arrival of Hee-Haw--there's a lot
of it that I love, and there'd undoubtedly be lots more if I took the initiative to
investigate a little. But I start to lose the plot through the '70s, and when I hear
country music of the past few years that's supposed to be a big deal because it chal-
lenges the genre's inherent conservatism or stodginess or whatever--stuff like the
Kentucky Headhunters, or Confederate Railroad, or Big & Rich, or Brooks & Dunn--it
almost always makes me cringe. Basically, the more that newer country tries to sound
like (what it apparently perceives to be) "rock," the more it sounds like bad Sha Na
Na to me. (I'm aware, I should say, that almost all rock music that tries to sound
like rock these days is just as bad, albeit a different kind of bad.) I downloaded
the New Riders of the Purple Sage's first album last week, a pretty and thoroughly
predictable bit of fluff that I'm liking a lot. I wish country had stayed on some-
thing resembling that course.
________________________________________________________________________________
3060. V.A.: Nuggets
3061. V.A.: Pebbles
3062. V.A.: Pebbles Volume 2
3063. V.A.: Boulders 7
3064. V.A.: Mindrocker Volume 2
3065. V.A.: The Sound of the Sixties
3066. V.A.: The History of Northwest Rock Volume 1
3067. V.A.: The History of Northwest Rock Volume Two
3068. V.A.: The History of Northwest Rock Volume III
3069. V.A.: The History of Latino Rock: Vol. 1 -- 1956-1965, The Eastside Sound
3070. V.A.: The Best of Louie, Louie
3071. V.A.: Golden Hits from the Gang at Bang
3072. V.A.: Michigan Rocks
3073. V.A.: Thunder Alley • Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
3074. V.A.: Beat-Parade 1967 im Jaguar-Club
3075. V.A.: The Fabulous Bubblegum Years
3076. V.A.: Revolution • Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
3077. V.A.: The Autumn Records Story
Mixworthy: "Lies," Knickerbockers; "A Public Execution," Mouse; "Liar, Liar," Cast-
aways; "You're Gonna Miss Me," Thirteenth Floor Elevators; "Psychotic Reaction,"
Count Five; "Baby Please Don't Go," Amboy Dukes; and "Open My Eyes," Nazz, #3060;
"Don't Come Around," Trolls, #3064; "My Heart Cries," Romanceers, #3069; "Louie,
Louie," Black Flag, #3070; "Hang on Sloopy" and "Sorrow," McCoys, #3071; "Journey to
the Center of Your Mind," Amboy Dukes, #3072; "Simon Says," 1910 Fruitgum Company;
"Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" and "Chewy, Chewy," Ohio Express; and "Gimme Some Lovin',"
Crazy Elephant, #3075; "Free Advice," Great Society; "Sad Little Girl," Beau Brum-
mels; and "No. 1," Charlatans, #3077.
Garage, garage, garage, with a couple of spiritual descendents, bubblegum and hippie-
jangle, tacked on at the end. (The Latino-rock collection actually leans more towards
R&B and non-garagey--uh, regular?--rock and roll, but the Premiers and Cannibal & the
Headhunters are on there, so I've always filed it here.) Next to all the '90s stuff
I've been catching up on, I've accumulated more garage music than anything else since
I started downloading a year ago. I always hope that once you get past the "Hey Joe"
cover, the "In the Midnight Hour" cover, the three Rolling Stones covers, and the 13
useless originals that fill up every garage compilation, there's bound to be one
excellent song. Sometimes things work out exactly as planned; other times they stick
on a fourteenth useless original. I'm being unfair--there's a lot of garage music I
love, but I guess my point is that, for a genre that gets excavated by reissue labels
like Sundazed and Rhino (and many others far more obscure) as if there's an inexhaust-
ible reservoir of brilliance, it's been my experience that the ratio of inspired-to
generic starts to reverse itself dramatically once you move beyond Nuggets. I think
a box set or at least greatly-expanded version of Nuggets was put out sometime in
the past few years; my copy's the blue-cover Sire reissue from the late '70s, which I
got as a cutout at Cheapies. I've listed seven songs from it, having already accounted
for the Seeds and the Barbarians tracks in the alphabetical section, ranking Nuggets
with American Graffiti as the most used compilation in my collection...There's defi-
nitely stuff I've missed on albums #3061-3068--I was listening to Mindrocker last week
and noticed a couple of good songs on side one for the radio show--but the Trolls'
"Don't Come Around" is the only thing I know I've put on more than a couple of tapes
and CDs for friends. Nuggets, pebbles, boulders--are there any Concrete, Sediment, or
Gravel collections worth owning?...The Gang at Bang was salvaged from my parents' col-
lection. One of them, I'm not totally sure which (leaning towards my mom), initialled
the front cover inside the bubble that lists the four McCoys songs. With some trepi-
dation, I Googled "Gang at Bang" for an image--got one on page three, and never had
to avert my eyes once...#3074 is a German LP split between the Rags, the Lions, and
the People. You can run, but you can't hide: among the many covers is "Hey Joe"...I
wrote a bit about the Charlatans last year. The one album they managed to get out in
their lifetime (Philips, 1969) would be near the top of my list of things I have on
CD but wish I had on vinyl instead. "Time to Get Straight" is the only song on there
as good as "No. 1" from the Autumn collection, but the album's delayed release and
quick disappearance just adds to the general fascination I have for the band.