Various Artists - UK Stax Singles 1968-75 (2004)
Description
Various
UK Stax Singles 1968-75
Magical Moments In Soul Music History (2004)
Tracklisting
01 I Wanna Testify - Taylor, Johnnie
02. One Part Two Parts - Porter, David
03. Keep An Eye On Your Close Friends - Newcomers
04. Free For All - Mel & Tim
05. Love Slave - Alexander, Margie
06. My Honey And Me - Emotions
07. If You're Ready (Come Go With Me) - Staple Singers
08. I've Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do) - Floyd, Eddie
09. Hey You Get Off My Mountain - Dramatics
10. Walk On By - Hayes, Isaac
11. It Ain't No Fun - Brown, Shirley
12. My Whole World Is Falling Down - Bell, William
13. You're Leaving Me - Ollie & The Nightingales
14. Soul Clap 69 - Booker T & The MG's
15. Hearsay - Soul Children
16. Chains Of Love - Hughes, Jimmy
17. My Baby Specializes - Bell, William & Judy Clay
18. You Need A Friend Like Mine - Thomas, Annette
19. There's Gonna Be A Showdown - Allen, Rance Group
20. Baby Please Come Back Home - Barnes, J.J.
21. Trouble - Knight, Frederick
22. Just Because Your Love Is Gone - Banks, Darrell
23. Stay Baby Stay - Daye, Johnny
Description
Quote:
Yellow Stax's finger clickin' singles output excited the UK's soul fans with every eagerly awaited release: justifiably so!
I know it's hard to believe, but wayback in the 60s and early 70s soul in this country was very much an underground thing. That's to say it wasn't part of the mainstream. It was rarely heard on radio, never on TV, and most major record stores didn't even stock the stuff! Soul lovers - of which there were many - eagerly devoured magazines like Blues & Soul and Black Music for news of releases on their heroes and heroines and then scoured the specialist shops for the music, which was taken home and listened to in almost reverential awe.
One of the American labels that supplied the underground soul lover with his/her almost illicit fixes was Stax, doyen of the Memphis scene. Thanks to licensing agreements, first with EMI, then Pye and eventually Polydor, a lot of Stax material was issued over here. Often the British releases - whether on the much loved pale blue label or the classic yellow one - were very different to the American issues and that only served to add to their appeal amongst collectors.
Now, some 30 years after the fact, Ace have taken all the hard work out of the collectors' task by bringing together a beautifully balanced selection of UK Stax singles on one neat little CD.
Amongst the 25 tracks here are inclusions from some of the label's heavy hitters - the Staple Singers, the Emotions, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Floyd, Booker T and the MGs and William Bell. But as is often the case with compilations of this sort it's the material from the lesser known artists that brings the appeal, and collectors will find lots of treasures here. For starters there are beauties from Northern soul heroes like J J Barnes and Darrell Banks. They're complemented by even lesser known artists like Johnny Daye and Annette Thomas, while for lovers of the group sound there's the ever-dependable Dramatics, Ollie and the Nightingales, and the Soul Children.
But the one track here that sums up the spirit of Stax - and in fact its underground appeal - is There's Gonna Be A Showdown from the wonderful Rance Allen Group. Allen is something of an acquired taste, but his vital music provides the essential link between the secular music of Stax and its roots in the storefront churches
of the South. This one cut is a gem amongst many. Like the other 24 tracks it's finger clickin' good!
By Bill Buckley (Blues & Soul)
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