With the threat of rain looming hard, I decided to bypass my local digging spot and head up to a record sale in North Jersey with the one and only Devil Dick. He said he had bought a record from a guy on E Bay, who sent him an e mail about a record sale, and that he had in the neighborhood of 30,000 45s. Yeah that’s right, 30,000. He didn’t reveal that number until we got there. It’s funny because a friend e mailed me with a Craig’s List ad that coincidentally was the same sale. So at the butt crack of dawn, DD picked me up and we trucked our old asses up the Parkway to what turned out to be a really great sale. The sky looked like it would open up any time, and the guy running the sale in his back yard was ready with some tarps. At that point, when he said: “The 45s are ready”, it could have rained cats and dogs, because I found a dry spot to sit and listen near the garage. What happened next, was basically a dream day digging. There were a few people going through the 45s, but really we had the run of the boxes. I don’t know if the chance of rain really held people back, but whatever the case, it was to our advantage. We dug for well over two hours, and both came back with hand fulls of sweet Soul and gritty Funk 45s. I was so excited I didn’t take any crate pics, but I’ve enclosed a few pics of the booty I pulled home. There were a few weird record guys (besides us), most notably a guy we’ll call “The Gospel Slob”. This guy made it well known he was looking for Gospel records, on Savoy if we saw them. I threw in some non-Savoy Gospel and he had a hissy fit. He then let out a large belch in front of a few women without blinking an eye, hence the slob moniker. Then, the portable set up by the seller broke, and the Gospel Slob was trying to get his hands on mine, which wasn’t happening. Actually, a lot of people kept picking my portable up, and were a bit scared when I told them it wasn’t for sale. I mean I am in no way, shape, or form intimidating, but I do have a few tattoos (and so does DD), so maybe that put them off. It’s a 70’s child phonograph made of plastic, not a Sherman tank and these people were tossing it around like they didn’t care. At any rate, a good diggin’ experience, and I’m looking forward to getting some more of this guy’s stash of records. Below is a list of what I got for those who are interested.
Sat Digs:
Clarence Reid – Nobody But You Babe/ Alston
Syl Johnson – Someone But You/ Hi
Moody Scott – (We Gotta) Bust Out of the Ghetto/ Sound Stage 7
Soul Sisters – I Can’t Stand It
Betty everett – I Got To Tell Somebody/ Fantasy
The Crusdaer – Greasy Spoon/ Chisa
Bad Bascomb – Bo Diddly/ Paramount
Jimmy McGriff – The Bird/ Capitol
David T. Walker – Can I Change My Mind/ Revue
Jimmy “Bo” Horne – Let Me Be Your Lover/ Sunshine Sound
Dave “Baby” Cortez – Funky Robot/ All Platinum
Lou Donaldson – Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky/ Blue Note
Bobby Byrd – Keep On Doin’ What Your Doin’/ Brownstone
Masters of Soul – I Hate You (in the Daytime and Love You at Night)/ Duke
Little Milton – Friend of Mine/ Glades
Linda Perry & Soul Express Eddie Billups – I Need Someone/ Mainstream
Lou Johnson – A Time to Love, A Time to Cry/ Big Top
Bobby Powell – Do Something For Yourself/ Whit
Syl Johnson – Same Kind of Thing/ Twinight
General Crook – Do It For Me/ Down to Earth Records
LLoyd Price – They Get Down/ GSF
Creative Funk – Funk Power/ Creative Funk
Lou Toby and His Heavies – Heavy Steppin’/ Peach-Mint
One G Plus Three – Summertime/ Paramount
Rasputin’s Stash – Your Love Is Certified/ Cotillion
Barbara & the Uniques – What’s the Use/ Arden
Carlton Moore – Soul Jamaica/ Tobin
Dorothy Norwood – Get Aboard the Soul Train/ GRC
Lou Rawls – You Made Me So Very Happy/ Capitol
Gloria Taylor – You Got to Pay The Price/ Silver Fox
Eddie Harris – Instant Death/ Atlantic
King Curtis & the Kingpins – Whole Lotta Love/ Atco
Lee Eldred – Shackin’ Baby/ Mercury
Flea Market Funk 
NICE HAUL! private affairs are the shit. i love that funk power track, and any syl johnson on twinight is bound to be a winner. whats on the other side of the wilbur bascomb? i dont have any singles from that album. about those 45`s i packed up for you, were talking a normal size 45 box…packed…and im asking lierally next to nothing for them. i just dont want to blow shit up on the public tip. we gotta get a better way of contact. i got lots of records im trying sell and im about as reasonable as they come. enjoy the wax…get back to me….paul
i’ll most def be at the spot next week, so keep it on the DL and before I go i’ll check the box for sure. alternatively, you can hit me up on my e mail: djprestige@djprestige.net the flip side of bad bascomb is the same track, i believe in mono. yeah private affairs are really great. i’m down with them, especially if they are not crowded. lots of $$$ Lps, but I’m more about the 45s. see you next week.
you missed nothing today. in case you were intrested, heres my mere piddlence: gary burton-new quartet/ecm, gil scott-pieces of a man/flying dutchman, al hirt-soul in the horn/rca, teresa brewer-oily rags/flying dutchman amsterdam, bobbi humphrey-blacks and blues/blue note ronnie foster-sweet revival/blue note art farmer-gentle eyes [with soulsides] mainstream plus a very few others. my boy called me a spoiled bastard for calling today a bomb out. hes got a point. what we consider to be our worst records would probably blow the minds of your everyday music fan. hit me up
yeah we may be spoiled, but you have to put your time in, and a lot of those records just come to you in time. there really isn’t a day that goes by when i dig that i don’t get excited, i mean even on those kinda slow days. i rarely come away empty handed, and at a private sale, there is now way i’m getting home with out some heat. i’m a big fan of the al hirt and of course the bobbi humphrey. i was pissed today because i thought i had a a giorgio “tears” on 45, but it was just “song for my father”. all in all though, it was a good day. talk to you next week.
i had to reply,cause i like what you said about puttin in time. i have lots of friends that dont collect or dj, but love the music. except they seem to think the shit just falls out of the sky. it boils down to love. if you love something, you spend time and put in work…rewards follow. by no means do i dislike in any way what i found today. i get too caught up in “gotta get that rare unknown promo blah blah shit today” that i forget some of the best shit is right in front of me, and rare alot of the times has nothing to do with it. thanks for droppin that jewel and ill check you next week. oh yeah…that dude mike from the spot that has the 45’s sometimes said hes holding something for you if i heard him correctly. peace
Gee, maybe I should move to Jersey. You guys seem to have better luck there, than I do here in Indy.
Man, a guy that I just spoke with got a HUGE haul from Indy….I think it’s all relative, the ebb and flow of vinyl. i don’t get much Midwest Funk here in Jersey (the recent cop of the Soul Tornadoes I belive to be a fluke but I’ll take it). We do get a lot of Philly/ East Coast, and a grip of All Platinum/ Stang and all the off shoots. I guess it’s just boils down to how much you look. Glad you’re enjoying the diggin’ tales.
Holy crap, a Rasputin’s Stash 45.
You live in a pretty good area for 45s. Up here in Canada it is nowhere, nowhere near that kind of sickness. Wow. I’m excited just reading your titles.
Nice work.
yeah, i never find a rasputin’s stash record in the field. all in all, as ice cube would say: “it was a good day”.
indeed, it as a good day…
yeah for sure. i just discovered i got a couple of doubles, so i need to unload a few, you got anything you want to trade devil?
Well, thank you for sharing the diggin’ stories. They’re always fun to read and they give me a glimmer of hope.
I wonder where that guy found that huge haul. Guess I don’t get out enough.
As for me, it doesn’t matter where the soul and funk come from. Midwest, northeast, northwest, south, whatever. What matters to me is if it’s HOT!
I did make a couple of interesting scores on eBay this week, both of them from, it turns out, an Indy dealer. One is a lot of 12 45s on the Cat label (Gwen McCrae and Little Beaver….I got it for the Little Beaver stuff), the other is a lot of 25 soul, funk and dance records. Some of the names are familiar (Dennis Coffey, The Detroit Emeralds, Dorothy Moore, Major Harris, Eddie Kendricks, The Persuaders, Jimmy “Bo” Horne, The Ritchie Family) but a lot of them aren’t. See if you’ve heard of any of theses: Direct Current, Sweet Thunder, Livin’ Proof, Captain Sky, John Davis and the Monster Orchestra, Eastbound Expressway, Attitudes, The McCrarys, etc. The nice thing is, I only had to pay $14 for all that. I only hope there’s some good stuff in it. But that’s the risk you take. (I also collect 60s garage and 50s and 60s rock instrumentals for the record.)
Again, thanks for the diggin’ stories and thank you also for turning me on to a lot of this. Your blog is one place I look at to discover or re-discover soul and funk that I don’t get a chance to hear about otherwise. Both you and Larry Grogan are to be commended.
Okay, done with the long rant. Off to pop on some 45s on the ol’ turntable.
The CAT haul is a good one. Little Beaver had some good sides (in my experience) on Cat. I have a beat up copy of “Funkadelic Sound” on CAT. I haven’t heard of too much on that second lot (although the Captain Sky did a bunch of stuff, most notably Super Sperm if I’m not mistaken). I’m glad you are liking the digging stories. I have so many of them and they just get crazier and crazier every week. Larry Grogan was really the guy who gave me the inspiration to get off my butt and start writing about all the records I was discovering, and honestly, it’s probably the best decision I’ve made (and most rewarding). This blog keeps me digging deeper and deeper each week. I hear you on the 45s, I’m rotating between my new scores and shark week. cheers.
I want to echo what Brian said regarding the digging stories, as well as the lists of finds. Love ’em. It’s sort of inspired me to do the same over on my blog. You definitely meet up with more characters than I do though. I can’t compete in that realm.
I also have to agree with what you guys said about puttin’ in time. The past couple of Fridays have led me to a couple of towns I’ve never searched before and my little excursions have been both fun and fruitful enough to make them worth the trip.
There’s been lots of digging in thrift shops and antique stores, through boxes of unsleeved 45’s, sort of a bargain basement of record collecting. But such is the love of the quest and not knowing what might turn up next. You might find nada or something monumental, usually something in between. I never tire of it.
Shoot, I got off on a tangent and forgot that I wanted to comment on a couple of your finds. The Soul Sisters and Lou Toby records are both also recent finds of mine and I love ’em both. I also really dig that Barbara & the Uniques disc. Would love to hear a bunch of the other stuff that you found. The Moody Scott sounds particularly interesting.
yeah i’m heading back to get the multiple copies of that lou toby. i’ll be puttin gup some of the new finds this week for SURE. i can’t wait to get them on here.
trade? hmmmmm…..
not sure, but i do know i need that “Masters of Soul – I Hate You (in the Daytime and Love You at Night) on Duke”
also: you best not be road trippin’ back up there without the devil!?!?!?!???
Once again, thanks for doing what you do, Prestige. It really is a treasure for me to listen to these mp3s on the week long shifts up at work.
yo DD, we’re hitting that place up again SOON. i need some of those records i left before the show.
i sent the cat a message but i’ve not heard back from him yet.
I will keep you posted!!!
DD
Very nice size vinyl catch of rare and golden goodies. Clarence Reid is my dear friend who is now on tour as both “Clarence Reid: (R & B set/clean) and his alter ego “Blowfly.” I actually sang on Blowfly’s remake of “Family Affair” but it was not placed in the Weird World of Blowfly soundtrack on Pandisc Records due to publishing dispute(s). Betty Everett was also a dear friend, whom the world lost years ago, I did the liner notes for her on the reissue CD release on the There’ll Come A Time lp. I interviewed her and asked if she knew what happened to Vee-Jay Records to cause the label’s downfall. “I don’t know,” she replied, “and I don’t think that Vee-Jay even knows why either!” I love Creative Funk for their single “Ready Made Family.”
thnaks for the kind words. i’d love to speak with you in regards to the whole clarence reid/ betty everett florida funk and soul connection. sounds really interesting for sure.
Sure, would love to talk to you about Clarence Reid/Betty Everett and the Miami scene, which I indeed studied for years: I researched the Miami, southeast regional phenomenon of records going gold and platinum in that market alone without ever being spread anywhere else across the U.S. Some of the unknown musical superheroes include Bombshell (“It’s The Bomb” & “Up Against The Wall”-Ms. B Records; Bombshell is the beautiful and extremely talented daughter of Miami Soul Queen Betty Wright) and Michael Sterling (“One More Chance”-Sterling Records, one of the most fantastic soul ballads ever recorded). Miami labels, as well as others in the region, were highly successful in that: 1) the label/artist made records for local exposure and airplay, the obtainable target market, which kept costs of promotion and marketing down, while effectively garnering airplay and vinyl/CD sales—WITHOUT THE USE OF THE INTERNET! 2) Strategic placement of tours and performances in locales showing increased and/or significant airplay and sales; and 3) Never losing the hometown advantage when the record did break in other national markets—Miami artists never forgot their roots and the local/regional fans that first put them on the charts. This kind of love allowed the artist to continue having airplay, from fans requesting the artists’ songs at radio, even when no new material was available. This should be an important lesson to any act/recording artist/group that wants to achieve an obtainable and realistic level of success. Hit me up on my email androintl@earthlink.net I will give you my number her in my office; in addition, I also do management for or am associated with Betty Wright, Emmanuel (GQ-“Disco Nights/Ido Love You/Make My Dreams Come True” fame) LeBlanc, Rudy Ray Moore (his new Dolemite movie is out now), Angelo Alexander (new CD “Angelo Alexander Sings Bessie Smith”-TripJazz Records) and Motherless Child featuring Matlock (“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child”-Jungle Mix by DJ Idrissa Morehouse-Andromeda International Records). Peace! Mark Matlock, Refuge Management/Andromeda International Records androintl@earthlink.net
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