Discovered 70s gems 10: Honey Cone - The Day I That I Found Myself

(A continuing series on music recently discovered that I never heard the first time around.)


Yet more from the Holland-Dozier-Holland stable, and we've finally reached Honey Cone.  Theirs was probably the high water mark for Hot Wax/Invictus when they hit the top of the US charts in 1971 with Want Ads (which I'm not sure was a hit outside the US).  But that's not what we're here for today.  Abrogating what I said yesterday, The Day That I Found Myself is a song that grew on me over a long period of time in the last six months or so.  Another spoken-word intro, with words that might sound a little basic, but this was after all early days for feminism.  It's catchy, but it was the harmonies that finally tipped the balance for me.

Their US chart trajectory was fairly typical for an act without a sustained career and, at #23, this was at the back end of that chart run.

Honey Cone 1970s singles

1970 Take Me with You (Hot Wax, US#108)
1970 When Will It End  (Hot Wax, US#117)
1971 Want Ads (Hot Wax, US#1, Wgtn #39)
1971 Stick-Up  (Hot Wax, US#11)
1971 One Monkey Don't Stop No Show Part I (Hot Wax, US#15, Wgtn #38)
1972 The Day I Found Myself  (Hot Wax, US#23, Wgtn #36)
1972 Sittin' on a Time Bomb (Waitin' for the Hurt to Come) (Hot Wax, US#96)
1972 Innocent Til Proven Guilty (Hot Wax, US#101, Wgtn #44)
1972 Ace in the Hole (Hot Wax)
1973 If I Can't Fly (Hot Wax)
1976 Somebody Is Always Messing Up a Good Thing

Discovered 70s gems 9: Glass House - Playing Games

(another in the continuing series on songs I've recently discovered that I never heard the first time around.)

Here's another one from the Holland-Dozier-Holland team.  I've never heard of Glass House, don't know anything about them, don't think they had any hits.  I don't actually know what H-D-H contributed beyond their record label, Invictus, but from the distinctive sound of the record, it's plausible the team produced and wrote it.

It didn't take long for this song to ensnare me, which meet my criteria for this series.

Glass House 1970s singles:


1970 I Can't Be You (You Can't Be Me)/ He's In My Life (Invictus 9076)
1970 Stealing Moments From Another Woman's Life/ If It Ain't Love (It Don't Matter) (Invictus 9082)
1971 Touch Me Jesus/ If It Ain't Love (It Don't Matter) (Invictus 9090)
1971 Look What We've Done To Love/ Heaven Is There To Guide Us (Invictus 9097)
1972 Playing Games/ Let It Flow (Invictus 9111)
1972 Thanks I Needed That/ I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore (Invictus 9129)

Discovered 70s gems 8: Holland-Dozier - Don't Leave Me Starvin' For Your Love

Eddie Holland, Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier left Motown records for pretty much the same reasons as everyone left: they were achieving, but not being rewarded, and had little control.

They set up two record labels: Hot Wax and Invictus, scoring some early hits in 1970 and 1971 with Freda Payne (Band of Gold), Chairmen Of The Board (Give Me Just a Little More Time),  and a US number one with Honey Cone's Want Ads.  All these were produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland; they also wrote the latter two.  But without the infrastructure (and financial muscle) of Motown, the labels didn't last more than a few years.

More about Honey Cone another day.  But before Lamont Dozier left for a minor solo career (peaking with 1974's Fish Ain't Bitin' - which notably wasn't written by him), the team put out a few singles of their own.

Don't Leave Me Starvin' For Your Love is, like a lot of their compositions, a low-key song without any real punches... but it really grows on you.  There's times I just could not get it out of my head.  And it's the only one of their own renditions that made a (minor) dent in the charts, credited as Holland-Dozier featuring Brian Holland.

HDH's 1970s discography:

1972 Don't Leave Me/Instrumental (Invictus 9110)

1972 Why Can't We Be Lovers/Don't Leave Me (instrumental) (Invictus 9125)

1972 Don't Leave Me Starvin' For Your Love (Part 1)/(Part 2)” (Invictus 9133; US #52)

1973 Slipping Away/Can't Get Enough (Instrumental) ” (Invictus 1253)

1973 If You Don't Wanta Be In My Life/New Breed Kinda Woman* (Invictus 1254)

1973 You Took Me From A World Outside/ I'm Gonna Hijack Ya, Kidnap Ya, Take What I Want  (Invictus 1258)

*Conflicting information on which is the A-side

Discovered 70s gems 7: Heavenly Temptations

(Number 7 in a continuing series on music I missed at the time, and only recently discovered.  Warning: this series is coming to be dominated by soul music, because that's what I'm currently listening to.)

In 1973, the Temptations' music was produced by Norman Whitfield alone, and he went to town.  He was a slave-driver, they were known as the Norman Whitfield Choral Singers, and his productions were extended works full of the socially-conscious lyrics that hallmarked the Temptations of the previous few years.

But he let them do a handful of the more basic love songs, and this was one of them.  Past the time of David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, this is short and lavish, and must be one of my favourite Temptations songs.

Released as a single, it sunk like a stone, allegedly due to a DJ boycott of Motown at the time.  I prefer to think of the record-buying public as simply capricious.

Discovered 70s gems 6: Michael Nesmith - Texas Morning

(Part of a continuing series on music I've discovered recently, which I never heard the first time around.)

In 1971, after a couple of significant hits the year before (Joanne and Silver Moon), Michael Nesmith released a single called Texas Morning - to the complete indifference of the record-buying public.

This song is a particularly melancholy one, about someone looking for a runaway girlfriend with no real hope of knowing where she is.

Nesmith has written a number of touching songs in his time but this one, uncharacteristically, was a cover.  It was written by Michael Murphy and Boomer Castleman, who each had their only major hits in 1975: Murphy with Wildfire (similarly mournful, but soppier) and Castleman with Judy Mae.  My feeling is they hit their respective peaks in Nesmith's rendition of this song.

From the album Nevada Fighter (cover above), home of another great Nesmith song, Propinquity.

After Hours: High quality northern soul

 

Nice to have received for christmas a wonderful compilation of soul music.*  It's After Hours, the Collection: Northern Soul Masters.  It gathers in a single volume three individual releases, subtitled From the vaults of Atlantic, Atco, Loma, Reprise, and Warner Bros records 1965 - 1974.

Wikipedia tells me "northern soul" is a British term for music that is fast-paced, mid-60s, Motownesque (but not Motown) - and obscure.

All that sounds rather specific and restrictive, but it applies fairly well to this collection.  The pace varies, it's not exclusively Motown-sound, most of it's actually from the 60s, but most notably the music here is good quality and obscure.  All very pleasant on the ear, and there's nothing here that's worn deep ruts in the brain.

Which is not to say the singers and musicians are all unknowns.  Although I've heard of less than a third of the artists before, there are some famous names.  Aretha Franklin is not represented, perhaps because she was too successful in that period (all her Atlantic singles hit top 50 Soul).  But the scattering of Names includes Bobby Womack, Mary Wells, early Sister Sledge, and the distinctive Esther Phillips.  Good to hear, too, is a 1969 Ella Fitzgerald recording of the Temptations' Get Ready.

Northern soul was successful enough as a movement in England for a number of 1960s recordings to hit the British charts in the early 70s.  The only song on this compilation I've heard before was Tami Lynn's I'm Gonna Run Away From You, which was recorded earlier, but not released until 1971, when the chorus was clearly updated from the original.  That original, since released elsewhere, is the only one here that I've heard before, and this updated chorus is the only snippet of music on this compilation that I can recall hearing at the time of release.  That's testament to the pleasing obscurity of all this music.

As to the quality test: try lying on the beach on a warm day, after a solid workout in the waves,  watching the kids play in the water and listening to this.  Heaven.

*This CD set languished on the shelves in Sydney for a few months, then sold out everywhere after a very favourable review in the Sydney Morning Herald.  I'm impressed that my wife managed to find a copy when I couldn't.