Willie Hobbs – Yes My Goodness Yes on Silver Fox 45

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone. I’m hoping that since my last post of Lou Rawls by now you’re all in a pair of flip flops, Bermuda shorts and a straw hat, eating something delicious off the grill, while imbibing some cold refreshments. Now these refreshments could be some home made iced tea or perhaps a Miller High Life (the champagne of beers). Whatever it is you’re drinking and eating, let me encourage you all to do something this weekend that involves some good old barbecuing. With that being said, let’s move on over to the next gem I have up on the turntable. This record, (and I apologize already for you people who dig on complete record scans), was dug up with the name scratched off of the label. It was common back in the day for DJs to get rid of record labels, whether they soaked them in the bathtub to remove the label, put a totally different label on to confuse rival DJs, or just scratch it out so it was illegible. That’s not what I’m doing here at FMF folks, I want to spread the word about these records, so I hear you when you say: “Pres: Where’s the label man?” My only answer is to ask Steve, who thought he was cool enough to have his name over Willie Hobbs “Yes My Goodness Yes” on Silver Fox Records from 1969. **(If anyone has a proper scan, feel free to send it to me and I will gladly credit the digger-thanks!)

A subsidiary of the SSS powerhouse label (Check out this Compilation some on the SSS label at Dusty Groove), this Nashville based label turned out some funky soul by Hobbs, Bettye Lavette, Rueben Bell, and Hank Ballard among others. Run by the off the wall Lelan Rogers of International Artists Records fame (along with the man who succeded Sam Phillips at Sun Records one Shelby Singleton), this Texas psychedelic label man put out some decent Soul in the late 60′s. It’s here we find Willie Hobbs.

Hobbs ran the circuit, he was on the Soft, Sound Plus, Le Cam, Mercury, Bandit, and Silver Fox Labels. This man could slang some Soul people. “Yes My Goodness Yes” is a perfect example. Starting out with a guitar groove and subdued organ, Hobbs defines the word Funky Soul on this cut. If he had any reserves about his woman on this track, it is not apparent. He’s as confident in his woman as the backing band is tight and in the pocket. With some Southern style Soul horns, and Hobbs pouring his heart of this funky track, it’s a wonder that this record (and label for that matter) have been underground Soul classics. A compilation was released in 2005 entitled Yes My Goodnes Yes, Soul Treasures from the Silver Fox Label, which I can not recommend enough.

This weekend is going to be a monumental one. I’ll be doing a live mix with the one and only Funky 16 Corners . We will be both picking out some ripe records from both of our crates and collaborating on a two part podcast. This will be the first of hopefully many double podcasts here at FMF. The pocast will be up in it’s entirety by the beginning of the week on both of our blogs, so please keep your ears and eyes open for it. Enjoy your weekend people, and Keep Diggin’!