The Ultimate Soul Record
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The Ultimate Soul Record
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It was whilst I was at sixth form college at Lytham St Annes that I stumbled across a real peach of a record in a junk shop just outside the town centre. I used to spend all my lunch times wading through the hundreds of deleted imports which somehow found their way into the appropriately named 'Moochers'. Singles used to be 20p whilst the Albums were £1.00 and it was a real treasure throve for Soul Lovers. I'd already picked up lots of Ric-Tic, Neptune, Chess and Cadet originals which were quite rightly the envy of those who knew about such things. One day I was continuing my systematic plundering of Moochers when I came across a title I hadn't seen before, 'Woman of the Ghetto' by Marlena Shaw. I knew straight away it wasn't going to be a Northern Dancer but it sounded interesting so I took a copy. That evening when I put it on my turntable and was amazed by the rich, soulful sound which emanated from my stereo. Born of the civil rights movement it compared life in the Ghetto to that of the middle class suburbs. It was so emotively delivered that it left me feeling guilty to be white. It was, and still is, the most definitive Soul record I have ever heard. The richness of the Marlena's voice, the social context, the raw emotion and the fabulous orchestration made it a very special offering. The following day I returned to Moochers and bought every copy I could find. As was usually the case at weekends a few of us would meet up at my house and listen to some 'sounds' before making our way to either 'The Gallopers' or Blackpool Mecca. Normally it would be Tamla Motown or Northern Soul we'd listen to, but I thought I'd give Marlena a spin for a change. 'What do you think of this?' I asked putting a copy onto the turntable. Bad mistake, because ten minutes later all my spares had been bummed off me and I was down to my last two. I could have sold them for a big profit, but I decided to give them away instead. Maybe this was because I'm a soft touch or maybe it was because I thought the song deserved to be heard. In any event it had to be better than letting them rot in Moochers. In 1975 I moved into Higher Education in Lancaster where my taste for Crombies and Ben Shermans had little place. I was surrounded by Afghans and sandals, soccer was secondary to rugby and Dave's and Tony's were replaced by Phillips and Kevins. Most significant however were the sounds that emanated from the hostels, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd. The hairy types have always been guilty of musical snobbery and they made little pretence at disguising their disdain for soul. Those who bad-mouthed my music invariably had little experience of it and usually based their judgements on commercial Motown. It was a time when I took an awful lot of crap. "Billy Butler and Shirley Ellis, do they run a chip shop in Grimsby?", "I thought it was only teeny boppers who liked Soul", "Soul music all sounds the same to me". No problem, I could handle it! The college, in a patronising way, had developed a 'tutorial' system which was designed to help new students 'settle in'. They had seemingly forgotten that we were eighteen and not eight. Even the tutors, who each had responsibility for about twelve students, seemed embarrassed by them. In any event they hadn't a clue what to do in them and after my first two meetings sipping coffee and making small talk I decided not to go to any more. Unfortunately this was not an option as my tutor, a guy by the name of Ben Holgate, summoned me to his office and instructed me not to miss again. He also informed me that each member of the group was expected to host one meeting. He had heard about my my trips to Wigan Casino and my love of soul music and wanted me to talk about them. My turn to host the tutorial eventually came around. I was not in a good mood as the hairies traipsed into my room and started drinking all my coffee. My one consolation was that at least I held the platform. For once in their miserable lives they were going to have to listen to what I wanted them to listen to. I still remember the tracks that I played, 'Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding, 'In the Bottle' by Gil Scott Heron, 'Talkin' bout Poor Folks' by Lou Edwards and 'If I had my Way' by Troy Keys. Unquestionably however my ace-in-the-hole was Marlena Shaw. I wouldn't go as far as to say I converted them but when a die-hard Led Zepper says, 'Can you play that again?' you know you've made real progress. It made me realise just how rewarding missionary work can be. As a consequence I was even given an occasional hour DJing at the College Disco which suprisingly enough went down rather well.. If you're looking for the definitive Soul record, a record which embraces all aspects of what the genre is about then why not try Marlena Shaw's 'Woman of the Ghetto'. It is now available on the 'Blaxploitation' CD by Global Records (RADCD43). The trouble is that after hearing it nothing else will ever compare. |
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Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
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