The Loft - Quinny's recent unearthings

**QUINNY** · February 14th, 2006, 06:31 PM

Due to my imminent move, I thought it only right that I removed all my records from my late parents' house. So, up into the loft I did go, to dig out my old 45's and the odd LP/12" records still there. Many went straight to the local tip, but I saved about 500-600 45's including quite a few that I'd hoped I'd find. Sadly, still no Leon Lee 'He Was A Man'.......it has to be somewhere.

I thought some of these might be of interest to a few of the folk around here who were DJs in the early Disco days. O.K. I admit some of these are damned rare, some totally unknown to most people, but they do give a fairly good account of the sort of material that was played in UK clubs by jocks like me. I even found mint copies of the USA/European Connection LP 'Come Into My Heart' and Cerrone IV!

Most interesting for me was coming across some really long lost gems that, in some cases, I'd completely forgotten about....until I gave 'em a spin. I came across some great Mojo singles (an English label that was part of the Blues & Soul empire) like The Elephant Band, Banzaii, Jimmy Dawkins, Moses & Joshua Dillard, the El Dorados, Fred Wesley & the JBs, Peoples Choice, Alvin Cash, Bobby Byrd, King Floyd, Tony Gregory.

Then there was stuff like (from 1971 -1979)
Shelly's Rubber Band c/w Say Yeah - Curly Moore & the Kool Ones 1971
Why Don't You love Me - John Miles (Yes, THE John Miles) 1971
Wells Fargo c/w A Few Dollars More - Babe Ruth 1972
Massai - Goom 1972
Get Some - Wee Willie & the Winners 1974
New York City Bump - Black Rock 1974
Pick Up the pieces One By One - A. A. B. B. (above average balck band) 1975
Rock On Brother - the Chequers 1975
If You ain't Getting Your Thing - L.J. Waiters & the Electrifiers 1976
Honey Trippin' - the Mystic Moods 1976
Dance and Shake Your Funky Tambourine - The Inner City Express 1977
The Funk You See Is The Funk You Do - John Tropea 1977
Spank Your Blank Blank - Morris Jefferson 1977
Gotta Get A Hold On Me - Margie Alexander 1977
Wide Stride - Billy Preston 1977
12 Engle Street - Renzo Fraiese (brilliant track with killer groove/bass) 1978
Spring Rain - The Destiny Orchestra label says 1979

and loads more.

Quite a few relatively rare beasts amongst that lot (sorry) and I played 'em all at some point.

**Disco Funk** · February 14th, 2006, 07:29 PM

Sounds like you've got quite the collection. You should try ebay if you decide to sell some of the more collectable titles. By the way, the AABB is really the JBs. James Brown was angry about AWB's Pick Up The Pieces, which he felt was a rip-off of the JBs Hot Pants Road. So he took the original recording, re-recorded the drums and added strings and new horns, creating Pick Up The Pieces One By One. And the Babe Ruth 'A Few Dollars More' cut is the second half of The Mexican. Mystic Moods had a great funky breakbeat track called Cosmic Sea, which has appeared on various compilations.

Before you sell of any stuff, record them to your PC or burn them to CDs!!! :)

Disco Funk

**QUINNY** · February 15th, 2006, 03:04 AM

Originally Written by Disco Funk

Sounds like you've got quite the collection. You should try ebay if you decide to sell some of the more collectable titles. Disco Funk

Some of them are in piss poor condition...playable, but boy they look tatty

Originally Written by Disco Funk

By the way, the AABB is really the JBs. James Brown was angry about AWB's Pick Up The Pieces, which he felt was a rip-off of the JBs Hot Pants Road. So he took the original recording, re-recorded the drums and added strings and new horns, creating Pick Up The Pieces One By One. Disco Funk

Yeah . You can still hear the horn stabs of Hot Pants Road underneath.

Originally Written by Disco Funk

And the Babe Ruth 'A Few Dollars More' cut is the second half of The Mexican.

I'm surprised Wells Fargo wasn't copied by The Bombers....it.probably had more going for it than the Mexican/Few Dollars More (except it wasn't from a film / cult composer). It reminds me of some Disco track or another and its driving me semi-loco trying to remember which one.[/quote]

Originally Written by Disco Funk

Before you sell of any stuff, record them to your PC or burn them to CDs!!!

I'll be transferring them at some point, that's for sure.

**TheLordOfFlatbush** · February 15th, 2006, 07:11 AM

Originally Written by QUINNY

Due to my imminent move, I thought it only right that I removed all my records from my late parents' house. So, up into the loft I did go, to dig out my old 45's and the odd LP/12" records still there. Many went straight to the local tip, but I saved about 500-600 45's including quite a few that I'd hoped I'd find. Sadly, still no Leon Lee 'He Was A Man'.......it has to be somewhere.

I thought some of these might be of interest to a few of the folk around here who were DJs in the early Disco days. O.K. I admit some of these are damned rare, some totally unknown to most people, but they do give a fairly good account of the sort of material that was played in UK clubs by jocks like me. I even found mint copies of the USA/European Connection LP 'Come Into My Heart' and Cerrone IV!

Most interesting for me was coming across some really long lost gems that, in some cases, I'd completely forgotten about....until I gave 'em a spin. I came across some great Mojo singles (an English label that was part of the Blues & Soul empire) like The Elephant Band, Banzaii, Jimmy Dawkins, Moses & Joshua Dillard, the El Dorados, Fred Wesley & the JBs, Peoples Choice, Alvin Cash, Bobby Byrd, King Floyd, Tony Gregory.

Then there was stuff like (from 1971 -1979)
Shelly's Rubber Band c/w Say Yeah - Curly Moore & the Kool Ones 1971
Why Don't You love Me - John Miles (Yes, THE John Miles) 1971
Wells Fargo c/w A Few Dollars More - Babe Ruth 1972
Massai - Goom 1972
Get Some - Wee Willie & the Winners 1974
New York City Bump - Black Rock 1974
Pick Up the pieces One By One - A. A. B. B. (above average balck band) 1975
Rock On Brother - the Chequers 1975
If You ain't Getting Your Thing - L.J. Waiters & the Electrifiers 1976
Honey Trippin' - the Mystic Moods 1976
Dance and Shake Your Funky Tambourine - The Inner City Express 1977
The Funk You See Is The Funk You Do - John Tropea 1977
Spank Your Blank Blank - Morris Jefferson 1977
Gotta Get A Hold On Me - Margie Alexander 1977
Wide Stride - Billy Preston 1977
12 Engle Street - Renzo Fraiese (brilliant track with killer groove/bass) 1978
Spring Rain - The Destiny Orchestra label says 1979

and loads more.

Quite a few relatively rare beasts amongst that lot (sorry) and I played 'em all at some point.

Interesting find!!!

Transfer them and never forget that Vinyl existed!!

**RetroRuss** · February 15th, 2006, 08:17 AM

How fantastic Q!! There is no better experience in life (IMHO) then going digging in the loft and finding old records. Just recently had a bit of a sort out, moving some recently acquired 80's Pop/Rock 12" into the loft and bringing down a couple of boxes of 70's Disco Soul & Funk, acquired when the kids were babes in the 90's and I never got round to going through them properly. It was amazing to find "A TripTo Your Mind - Hudson People", "The River Drive-Jupiter Beyond" on an obscure label I'd never seen before & a sleeve to Ashford & Simpson's - Bourgie Bourgie (no record :o )...yet!!

**QUINNY** · February 15th, 2006, 09:33 AM

Originally Written by Headlamp

How fantastic Q!! There is no better experience in life (IMHO) then going digging in the loft and finding old records. It was amazing to find "A TripTo Your Mind - Hudson People", "The River Drive-Jupiter Beyond" on an obscure label I'd never seen before.

I reckon most of the AZO copies were sold in the UK. You'd have thought there would be a few of them for sale at any one time from US record dealers, but most seem to be the UK PYE pressings.

It would not be an overstatement to say that I have been absolutely gobsmacked at the records in my collection that I've come across. Soooo many that I never thought I had. Must have much more of a collector when DJing, than I ever imagined. The depth and breadth of my collection astounds me at times and yet I know there are 1001 records out there that are considered more collectable/rare that I will never see or hear; most of what I have would make for interesting listening and are no way in the mainstream. Just hope I can land a show when I relocate. That would be funky.....broadcasting a hopefull;y relatively hip show from a decidely low key, out of the way, one horse town kinda place.

**DISCODISK** · February 17th, 2006, 06:10 PM

[quote="QUINNY"

Most interesting for me was coming across some really long lost gems that, in some cases, I'd completely forgotten about....until I gave 'em a spin. I came across some great Mojo singles (an English label that was part of the Blues & Soul empire) like The Elephant Band, Banzaii, Jimmy Dawkins, Moses & Joshua Dillard, the El Dorados, Fred Wesley & the JBs, Peoples Choice, Alvin Cash, Bobby Byrd, King Floyd, Tony Gregory.

[/quote]

well QUINNY good job you never threw the mojos on the tip :o mojo today is quite a collectable label in the last couple of years the price of some u.k 70s stuff has rocketed, mojo was a great label releasing class singles but apart from the pop hits, formations-at the top of the stairs,tammi lynn-im gonna run away from you,timmy thomas everybody wants to live together and the northern soul re-issues most had poor sales,leaving some quite valuble today so its scarcity rather than demand here.the other interesting thing about mojo is that they never released promos,tiny quantities were promo stickered with the relese date in red,normally promo stickers wouldnt affect the value of a record [even early tamlamotown records were stickered after the initial 500 promos had run out and they needed more, nice to have but today really dosnt really affect the value of most things on the label] but with mojo it can, it varies from title to title but in some cases it more than doubles the value.collecting mojo today from scratch would be very difficult indeed,anyway quinny the good news is mojo 2092036 THE ELEPHANT BAND- stone penguin is the second rarest on the label and would weigh in at a WHOPPING £85 [$150] AND YOURE THROWING RECORDS ON THE TIP??????? :o

**QUINNY** · February 18th, 2006, 07:43 AM

Mojo was truly FANTASTIC. Gawd, I almost used to worship that label. I'd never throw any of them on the tip 'cos nearly every release was an absolute winner. Funny thing I've noticed about them, is that the centre labels have all worn more noticeably than any other records I have.

Why are there no compilations with Mojo releases, that's what I'd like to know? That would make for some brilliant CDs. It's not as if there's any real info on the net about it neither, which I find a little bewildering. I would guess it's down to the fact that virtually all the releases were licensed from US labels on a strictly limited single run licensing deal and most of the tracks appear elsewhere on dedicated label anthologies or whatever.

Elephant Band...brilliant earthy, guitar and brass driven funk. the 'B' side is more or less a sped up version of the 'A' side.

DD: What's the rarest Mojo release? Wonder if I have it or used to play it?

**DISCODISK** · February 19th, 2006, 06:45 PM

Originally Written by QUINNY

DD: What's the rarest Mojo release? Wonder if I have it or used to play it?

its mojo 2092015 al kent -you gotta pay the price, a re-issue of als 67 ric-tic detroit classic, today this will cost you £300/$520 this is really rare as far as i remember this was pulled, i dont see how mojo ever had the rights to this as at that time it was owned by motown [this record originally released on track records in the u.k in 67 before motown bought out ric-tic, thats very rare too £100]
quite strange really as the detroit copy was once thought to be rare and can still be had today for a tenner and who would have thought a mojo release would fetch £300 :o im thinking of doing a collecting u.k labels thing here with listings ,because some 70s stuff is going mad especially stuff on jay boy,grapevine and right on!and if you dont get this stuff now you wont get it or youre really gonna pay for it in the future, and this may also be of inerest to the americans as they just may be surprised as to what came out here and not there.

**QUINNY** · February 20th, 2006, 03:49 AM

I had the Al Kent record on Track (and the Sandpebbles, Parliaments), but don't remember the Mojo release. Would have probably passed it by anyhoos, as I already had the Track 7".

The world really needs a Mojo anthology, especially as otherwise all the great tracks it released are spread to the four winds and would take a Sherlock Holmes to track down.