Rob Jones reviews soul records from his vinyl collection.
Bird Rollins - Love Man from Carolina (1972)
Bird Rollins also known as B Rollins, Mr Bird Rollins, Mr Bird Rollins The Good Man, etc., was born in Albany, New York back in 1934 and recorded his first record 'That's All I Wanna Do' on the Johnson label in 1957. Fast forward a few years and we find this slightly obscure uptempo dancer on Calla which bears all the hallmarks of a memorable soul classic also released on the UK Mojo label the same year.
Calla was an independent label started by Nathaniel 'Nate' McCalla which eventually became part of Roulette Records. Apparently poor old Nate (a bit of a gangster himself), fell foul of mob-connected Roulette boss Morris Levy who allegedly had him bumped off in 1980. PS: I've used the word 'allegedly' here for health reasons. 😄
Black and Blue – What I Got (1970)
Perhaps unfamiliar to many, Black & Blue were a Greensboro, North Carolina-based band who formed in 1968 and operated under the influence and leadership of producer/arranger Duke Hall, a former member of the Platters organisation. The band members were Ted Hall (vocals), Tony Hall (keyboards), Paul Foster (bass), Larry 'Slick' Hall (bass) and Archie Durham (vocals).
There's actually a lot more information on record labels than might appear at first glance, so for newer collectors who read label details but find the abbreviations or number sequences confusing, let's break this one down. In this instance and starting on the left side of the label from the top, DJ-172 was the Mercury internal promotional series number and (73011) was the commercial catalogue number. The smaller 1-44505 was the master (matrix) number for that specific side. Grico Music was the publisher who owned and controlled the publishing of the composition, while (ASCAP) stands for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers - a US non-profit performance rights organisation which still ensures songwriters, composers and music publishers all receive royalties when their music is performed publicly. Intro.:17 was an identifier for radio DJs to indicate how much overtalk time they had before the vocal kicked in and 2.28 was the record's duration to show radio programming directors that the song wasn't too long for air play. On the right from the top, the Duke Hall producer credit for 'GAME PRODUCTIONS' suggests that this track most probably originated outside Mercury’s in-house studio system and was instead licensed in. The writer credits are below the song title at the bottom centre with the Duke Hall arranger credit below the band. Demos have the same track on both sides in mono and stereo, and the issues were coupled with 'Goin' Back to Miss Anne' on the flip.
Certainly one of the finest and arguably one of the rarest soul records on the Mercury label, 'What I Got' can be rather expensive to buy today, but I believe it still hasn't yet realised its true potential in terms of its real value. Having said that, at least collectors can rest assured it hasn't fallen prey to the bootleggers yet, making any clean copy you may find well worth the investment.
Bobby Sheen - I May Not Be What You Want c/w Something New To Do (1972)
Bobby Sheen (Robert Joseph Sheen) was born in St Louis on May 17th, 1941. Having moved to Los Angeles as a child, he later became involved in the city's thriving R&B scene as a teenager, singing with groups including the Robins and later working with several local vocal ensembles. Under the guidance of producer Phil Spector he went on to change his name to Bob B Soxx and scored a major hit 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah' with Darlene Love and Fanita James as Bob B Soxx & the Blue Jeans on which he sang the lead. His most recognisable song among soul fans however is probably 'Doctor Love' (which also has a great flip called 'Sweet Sweet Love'), with 'Something New to Do' gaining quite a bit of traction some time later.
Untangling the confusion between white demo originals and the bootlegs of the still sought-after 'Something New to Do' can be quite challenging, but there are several things worth remembering. First of all, 'I May Not Be What You Want' was originally the A-side, so the two stars on the label were on that side. Having said that, the later 1973 demos have the stars on the 'Something New to Do' side, but these can be identified by the 1973 date below the credits. Without getting too bogged down in matrix numbers here, my research has shown that some of the white demo labels were apparently pressed onto existing unlabelled stock copies, so those demos carry the stock copy matrix in the deadwax. If you hold the white demo up to a strong light, the bootleg will reveal itself to be a sort of brownish translucent colour, although it's rumoured that there was yet another bootleg which was solid black! One way to avoid all this would be to play it safe and go for the US green label stock copy, as these were never bootlegged; but it's worth bearing in mind that there are actually plenty of them circulating across the UK, Europe and beyond, so it pays to look around before dropping big money on it. I have included both sides in the videos below as I'm sure you will agree 'I May Not Be What You Want' is a somewhat underrated tune which has been quite overshadowed by 'Something New to Do'.
Bobby Sheen passed away on November 23rd 2000.
Chairmen of the Board - Let Me Down Easy (1972)
A record I've often referred to as "the missing link" as far as the UK is concerned, as I've never understood what the company could have been thinking when they decided not to release it as a single over here.
The band had a huge UK audience which has since developed into a cult following and this record was certainly one of their best, so perhaps it was a marketing oversight which left fans turning to the US Invictus label to complete their COTB collections - sometimes after only discovering the song's existence in later years.
Concept Nine - When (1971)
Released on Ray Charles' Tangerine label, 'When' features the distinctive voice of Gladys Horton of the Marvelettes and it's a song which certainly has the feel of an old Motown dancer. Concept Nine was essentially an experimental studio project which included other vocalists/musicians J J Barnes and members of the Flaming Emeralds. This record really should be dug out of obscurity and given a well- deserved new lease of life.