the memphis boys again

The long awaited 'Soundtrack to Roben Jones' Book', Memphis Boys - The Story of American Studios is to be released here in the States on March 13th. As our man John Broven says in his excellent introductory essay, "It seems scarcely credible that 'Memphis Boys' is the first compilation devoted to Chips Moman's American Recording Studios..." It most certainly does. As I'm sure you know by now, we are just huge fans of Chips and his mighty American Group, and it does my heart good to see them getting some of the attention they deserve.

Just as Roben told us in the interview thing we did two years ago now (!), her liner notes point out that "There is passion in all of the American Group recordings... the passion that comes from knowing that one has endured" Endured they most certainly have, as has the timeless music they created there in those few short years in Memphis.

This essential CD manages to provide an in-depth overview of that music (no mean feat in this one disc package), by including obligatory chart toppers like Son of A Preacher Man, The Letter, and Angel of the Morning while paying close attention to the Soulful side of things as well.

Major R&B hits from King Curtis, Arthur Conley, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack, James & Bobby Purify, Oscar Toney, Jr. and James Carr stand alongside little known gems from favorites like Solomon Burke, Spencer Wiggins, Percy Milem and L.C. Cooke. One of the highlights of the album is an obscure take on Dark End of the Street by The Glories, the Frankie Gearing led Detroit vocal group that would soon rename themselves Quiet Elegance and begin recording across town with Willie Mitchell at Hi.

Speaking of Hi, I'm sure you've all heard the story of how James Carr's original, definitive version of Dark End of the Street was waxed at Royal Studio as well, while the board at American was under repair. Well, according to Tony Rounce's brilliant track commentary, Joe Simon's top twenty R&B hit Nine Pound Steel (the tune that Wayne Carson and Dan Penn wrote 'a pound a day') was cut on South Lauderdale Street under similar circumstances, while the American console was acting up again. As you may recall, Sam Baker told us that he also recorded for Sound Stage 7 at Royal, cutting the great I Believe In You there, presumably around the same time. This kind of synergy with Hi goes all the way back to when Chips brought Carla Thomas around the corner to cut Gee Whiz in 1961, and Sandy Posey across town five years later for the same treatment on Born A Woman (which is on the CD, by the way).

One could go so far as to say that American actually represented the evolution of the early Hi Sound, as Reggie Young, Bobby Emmons, Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech were all session musicians at Royal at one time or another... not to mention the fact that Chips hired James and Willie Mitchell to run his horn section up until Willie left to concentrate on Hi full time in late 1968...

On March 1st, which would have been his 84th birthday, Willie was honored in a private unveiling ceremony of the newest Shelby County historical marker, located directly in front of the studio he loved and ran tirelessly until the day he died. Still in operation under the guidance of his beloved Boo, Royal remains a Soul Mecca.

The same cannot be said for American, I'm afraid...

This is what the corner of Chelsea and Thomas looks like today, with a brand new Family Dollar location completely occupying the space where the Ranch House Restaurant and American Sound once stood... what a shame.

For now, though, get out there and buy the CD, read the book, and "Stand and feel the echoes of the countless hits of ages past!"

melvin carter

This is a picture of Don Robey, the man Willie Mitchell referred to as the "Houston Mafia," and Roosevelt Jamison depicted as a "cold-blooded man." His place in the history of this music we all love is secure, but he certainly leaves you wondering if his ends justified his means. In the superb The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'N' Roll, Preston Lauterbach paints the most complete (and chilling) picture yet of this gun-toting Texas misanthrope who knew how to get things done.

Although he most certainly was not alone in the practice, Robey made sure he got a piece of the songwriting and publishing on virtually every R&B record he released, often sharing it with the actual composer on the top side, but taking it all for himself on the flip.

After he took over the Duke label (literally at gunpoint) in 1952, he had no qualms about listing 'D.Robey' as the sole composer on most of Bobby Bland's and Junior Parker's early B sides. I'm not sure why (maybe he just thought it was too obvious or something), but by the early sixties, he had developed a songwriting alias, 'Deadric Malone'. The source of much speculation over the years as to whether or not this was an actual person (some said it was his wife), I've come to believe he just made it up.

It was the ever vigilant Lauterbach who pointed out to me that there are two Memphis sreets which follow each other in quick succession as you cross over Lamar Avenue on Airways Boulevard on the way out of town - Deadrick and Malone! One can only imagine the wily Robey on his way to the airport, seizing on this random sequence as his new nom de plume. Wild!

All of this has been on a kind of hypothetical back burner over here for a while, but something happened just recently that really sort of drove it home. Ace's indefatigable Tony Rounce told me that they had recently acquired a tape of demos from Goldwax co-owner Doc Russell's son, and that this was on there:

Melvin Carter - original Goldwax demo

Ace Of Spades

It just gives me chills.

I was finally able to get a hold of our friend Roosevelt Jamison the other day who, you'll be happy to hear, has responded amazingly well to the radiation treatment he received for eight brain tumors, which as of now no longer exist... how great is that?! Although he doesn't recall anything about the actual tape that Tony has, he knew Melvin Carter well. "Melvin and O.V. were very tight," he told me, "He was the guitar player for The Sunset Travelers when O.V. was with them, and when he crossed over, Melvin came along with him and started playing in O.V.'s band."

"Yes, Melvin wrote Ace of Spades - Eight Men, Four Women too! All Robey ever gave him was twenty five dollars for each of them, then when the records came out he took full credit for himself, and never paid Melvin another dime!"

Imagine? The discovery of these demos, which were apparently recorded before O.V. ever signed with Back Beat, points out what a ruthless son of a bitch Robey really was. Like O.V., Melvin had a day job as a sanitation man in Memphis, and he came in off his shift one day and laid down for a nap, asking his wife to wake him up around seven for a rehearsal that evening. When she tried to rouse him, however, he was dead - the victim of an apparent massive heart attack in his sleep.

Peacock 1956

Something Reminds Me

Melvin Carter had a couple of releases of his own on Robey's Peacock label in the mid-sixties (with Malone taking the composer's credit, of course), which go for big bucks if you can find them. This beautiful ballad comes to us courtesy of Sir Shambling, and illustrates how great Carter was.

I'd like to fill in some of the blanks on him (like - do any photographs of him exist?), so please, detectives, get in touch if you have any further information on Melvin to share with us.

Thanks!

muscle shoals mystery

Speaking of British record guys with unreleased tapes, Soulscape head honcho Garry Cape got in touch a while back with this: "I have all the Wishbone tapes sitting here in my office and am steadily going through them looking for unissued stuff... I found this song which, to me, sounds like it was cut at Hi. It sounds like O.V. Wright - but I think it is just different enough for it to not be him.

"Although it doesn't immediately sound like a Muscle Shoals recording - it may be that it is a song associated with the Shoals. I've run it by Wishbone head Terry Woodford and he has no idea - except to say what we already knew, that it's not one of his productions. I have thrown this around the UK, and nobody can come up with who it is - or may be." He went on to say that Terry thought it might have been written by Frank Johnson, but it's not listed as one of his compositions in the BMI database.

Unkown Artist

If I Could Kiss Her Lips One More Time

I agree, it certainly does put you in mind of O.V., and has a kind of 'Hi' sound, but in the end you can tell it's not him. I originally ventured a guess that it could possibly be Oscar Toney, Jr., but on second thought, I don't think it's him either. "It sounds to me like a 'finished' master, and probably has already been released," Garry said, "I really do think it is someone 'obvious' though!"

So, why don't we do like we did in the old Mystery Contest days, and award a prize (of as yet unknown origin) to the first detective to correctly identify who this might be (along with the evidence to back it up) in the comments... "Maybe someone can put us all at peace!"

...Detectives?

in the basement

I'd like to take this opportunity to bid a fond farewell to In The Basement which is ceasing publication 'in it's current format' after some sixteen years. Editor David Cole says that "It is my intention to not go away..." and he has plans to expand the ITB website in the near future. I, for one, am certainly looking forward to that, and would like to offer David, who is truly one of the 'good guys' in this game, my sincere thanks for sending those amazing magazines to me across the big pond all these years, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. "Real Soul - And Then Some!"

archives

Hey, everybody! As I've continued on with the concept of 'Soul Sauce' as an occasional column here on the main page, I've run into the problem of how best to archive past columns.

Today I hit on the idea of YET ANOTHER BLOG PAGE!!! ("really," you say, "Red, really?") - well it's not as bad as it sounds. Once an issue of the ol' Sauce drops off of Soul D, I'm going to split it up so that each individual topic will get its own post, comments, etc. in the Soul Sauce Archives.

Woo-Hoo!