Etta James & Sugar Pie DeSanto – In the Basement/ Cadet

I’m still trying to catch up on some sleep from a great night out this past week. The Original Upsetter, Lee Perry played here in Asbury Park at the legendary Stone Pony. The man, every bit of his mid 70′s, showed no signs of slowing down, and commanded the crowd while leading his backing band Dub is a Weapon with great fervor. As well as being a super tight band, they had another journeyman legend among them Larry McDonald, who’s played with Gil Scott-Heron, Peter Tosh, Bad Brains, and Taj Majal among others. If you can check the show out at a venue near you, FMF says do it. I’d like to give some shout outs before I bring you this next dusty gem. I want to big up Semantik from Crate Kings, and Bobbalin’ Hot from Mama Feelgood Music, who are the newest members of the FMF family. Check out what they have going on repectively at their spots. Because really, it’s a family affair here. Ok, on to some music, this time we’re going to Chicago via Oakland and Los Angeles with Etta James & Sugar Pie DeSanto doing “In The Basement” on Cadet.

Both of these Funky Divas have definitely been down the path of success on their own, releasing records and touring extensively in their own right. Where Etta was more of the commercially successful artist, Sugar Pie did not achieve that commercial notarity that songs like “At Last” gave James. Sugar Pie did have “Git Back”, which was the song that got me keeping an eye out for her records, but it seems to me DeSanto was an artist that was always on the cusp of great things, not in the great things that James’ career path took her down. Both women were discovered by Johnny Otis, and then went further on, making great contributions to the Soul, R&B, and Jazz genres. Sugar Pie was hired by the Godfather himself, James Brown, to be his opening act for a couple of years. During her career, she established herself as a strong songwriter, not just a performer, penning songs for Billy Stewart, Little Milton, the Dells, Bobby McClure, Minnie Riperton, Jesse James, the Whispers and Fontella Bass . I’m not saying DeSanto was not successful, just not as successful in some eyes as James. She was a powerhouse of a singer/song writer, a stick of dynamite in a five foot frame ready to explode with her sound. Etta moved from her Gospel beginnings to her vocal group The Peaches to R&B sides on Modern, which eventually landed her on Chess subsidiary Argo in 1960. These two female titans would come together musically in 1966 on the Cadet label with this very tune here.

The side starts off with some dirty guitar and nice little drum break. From there, the two let loose and combine a 50′s Rock and Roll beat with gritty Funk and supercharged Soul which results in one helluva tune. They’re letting it all hang out and doing whatever they want in the basement. It’s like Vegas, what goes on in the basement stays there, because you dare not do those things in the outside world. I mean that’s why you go to the basement: “Where can you go/When your money is low?” The basement of course. You can dance to any music you want, party all night long, do the dance you want to do; PLUS there’s all the comforts of home, and the food and drinks are free. Hell, you can even take shelter from the storm. Now they both didn’t say which storm. Etta may have been referring to the drugs (James battled heroin most of her career, rumoured to have picked up a habit while on tour with Little Richard years earlier), or alcohol, but the basement, no matter the reference, was a safe haven for living and enjoying whatever you wanted. I am a fan of this record, it’s got some grit and grime to it, and it’s the years both of these women spent on the road with the boys touring that gives this record that bit of grittiness that makes it work. Both women have gone on to have great careers, recording, touring and living their life the way they wanted to, sort of the same philosophy as hanging out in the basement. I’ll be back over the weekend with some more treats. Keep Diggin’!

Joe Simon – Come and Get It from the Sound Stage 7 45

From the amount of hits I had early this week, I am assuming that the FMF family has been digging on The Sound of Now! Mix. I was really feeling all of those records, and of course it’s my pleasure to pass them along to you. Whether you know all of the records, some of them, or none of them, there is a little something for everyone in there. I have a little announcement, as I’ve just found out that I will be on the DJ roster at The Lucky Cat , opening up for The Budos Band on Friday June 22nd. I will be DJing alongside some 45 DJ greatness, namely Nick Cope (of Hot, Funky, and Sweaty Fame) and Honey Dripper, (the Daptone Records DJ). Big ups to Sport Casual for hooking me up with the gig. I’ve got a few gigs coming up, the aforementioned one and another Asbury Park 45 Sessions on July 6th. Plus if you’re interested, I’ll be opening up for the Bad Brains, Bouncing Souls, McRad, and a whole slew of other bands at The Paul Green School of Rock Festival at the Asbury Lanes on the second day of the festival, June 24th.

This next record was one I picked up recently, and I have to be honest, I almost didn’t get it. “The Theme from Cleopatra Jones” is a nice little piece, but other than a promo Disco 12″ I dug on Spring, I was gonna give up old Joe Simon. When I dropped the needle on the B-Side of his biggest hit “The Chokin’ Kind” from 1969, I knew that “Come and Get It” on Sound Stage 7 was a keeper.

Born in Simmesport, LA in 1943 Simon eventually relocated to Oakland, CA and released “My Adorable One”, a small blip on the radio radar. He recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals while doing sides for Vee-Jay, and in a short time, he’d be making moves on a national level. Things would soon change (making him more of an appealing artist) after he met John Richbourg. Richbourg was a disc jockey out of Nashville, and helped to guide Simon’s career path in music, specifically on the Sound Stage 7 label, the very label this record is on. He showed Simon how he could mix Country and Soul, a formula that would work for Simon over the years. Throughout his musical career, he would score hits with “Nine Pound Steel”, “Teenager’s Prayer” and “The Chokin’ Kind”. His eventual move to Spring, would produce “Cleopatra Jones”, “Drowning In The Sea of Love” (produced by Gamble & Huff), “Step by Step”, and “The Power of Love”.

“Come and Get It” is a pleasant mix of Funk and Soul, with a dash of that Country style he was known to infuse his records with. The twangy guitar, sweet horn section, and tinge of organ (Stax imitation or ripoff?) flow nicely as Simon pours out his baritone coolness and willingness to give it all to this woman (everything he has baby). Were this song recorded with a fiddle and slide guitar, slowed down a bit, and put on the local Nashville AM station, it would seem fit to be blasting out of a jacked up pick-up truck with a gun rack, a la Country style. However, this version IMHO was probably blaring late night out of a dime juke box joint where the patrons were bumping and grinding while finishing their half glasses of Schaefer beer. What I’m saying is these lyrics, and Simon’s knack for recording basically Country/Soul records, are versatile, and his years in Nashville under the tutalege of John Richbourg did him a lot of good. He was able to develop a unique sound, that was obvious long after he left Sound Stage 7. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. See you around the flea market. Keep Diggin’!

**For those of you in the Central Jersey or Tri-State area: Lee “Scratch” Perry is performing at the Stone Pony with Dub is a Weapon. Run, drive, walk, jog, take a bus, travel by dragonfly like Jimi Hendrix, but see this man. He’s in his late 70′s and he’s not gonna be in AP ever again. He goes on at 9:45. Cheers.