Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

As the mid-1980s turned into the late-’80s, the Quiet Storm sound, invented by Smokey Robinson and perfected by Luther Vandross, became the genre’s standard. When it was good, it really was good. People like Freddy Jackson, Anita Baker and Jeffrey Osborne were turning out some great music of that type (perhaps even the best); but when Michael Fucking Bolton started to muscle in on it, and Peabo Bryson sang MFB covers, Quiet Storm had to go (even if it had to be replaced by New Jack Swing and the soul-free wailers Boyz II Men). In any case, this mix represents much more than Quiet Storm material.

Southern Soul man Marvin Sease is in a rather restrained mood here. His surname rhymes with an adjective that would accurately describe the general gist of his lyrics (I certainly do endorse the title of his rather good 2001 album, A Woman Would Rather Be Licked). Here, however, he is not proposing the reciprocal performance of lewd acts, but old-fashioned marriage. Success took long to come to Sease: by the time he made his breakthrough as a solo artist in 1986, he already was 40.

One of my all-time favourite soul songs is on this mix, Tashan’s Ooh We Baby. Tashan (pronounced Tay-shon), who was signed on Def Jam, was received well critically, but never broke through commercially. It’s a pity; his 1986 album Chasing A Dream is one of the finest soul albums of the 1980s. The singer, born Thomas Jerome Pearse, is still performing, apparently releasing a new album this year.

Another unusually named singer here is Sherrick, who had a UK hit in 1987 with the excellent Just Call (which is on Any Major 80s Soul Vol 1) . The song featured here, Baby I’m Real, is a cover of the song by The Originals (I’ve always wanted to write that) and appeared on the same LP as Just Call. Sherrick evidently styled his look on DeBarge: dainty moustache and oiled hair just this side of the jheri curl. Like DeBarge, Sherrick (born Lamont Smith) had recorded on Motown, as the singer of the clumsily-named Kagny & the Dirty Rats; in fact, he was discovered by Berry Gordy’s wife Raynoma. His only solo LP, as far as I can ascertain, was released on Warner Brothers. Sadly, Sherrick died in 1999 at 41, just as he was beginning to record new songs.

It’s an injustice that English soul singer Paul Johnson did not have much success. His song When Love Comes Calling should be a soul classic. That and Half A World Away were produced by fellow UK soulster Junior Giscombe (Mama Used To Say). Johnson, who had a mean falsetto, had previously been a singer with the group Paradise. He later duetted with Mica Paris on her debut LP and released a second album in 1989. He has a Facegroup group, on which he writes: “My life is now somewhat removed from the music industry. I am head of a department in an inner city college where I work with young people and adults who despite very difficult circumstances are attempting to improve their lives through accessing education.”

I trust that nobody is going to confuse Shirley Jones with the mom of the Partridge Family. This Shirley Jones was one of the fabulous Jones Girls (who featured on Any Major Soul 1978-79 and 1980-81). I think that Shirley’s 1986 album, Always In The Mood, was her only solo effort. Do You Get Enough Love is the LP’s stand-out track, and topped the R&B charts. Apparently Jones took an extended break from recording after that to raise her son. She still performs on stage (find her on MySpace)

Shirley Jones’ MySpace page reveals that she has lately shared a stage with fellow Philly star Jean Carne (who added the ‘e’ to her name for reasons of numerology in the 1980s). Born in 1947 as Sarah Jean Perkins (Carne is her married name), she has had a long career, starting in the early 1970s — including a stint as female lead on Earth Wind & Fire’s first two albums — and reaching its zenith on Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International label (she featured on Any Major Soul 1978-79). Closer Than Close topped the R&B charts, but further commercial success eluded her. Carne is probably one of very few soul singers fluent in Russian.

Chicago-born Miki Howard launched her career with her Come Share My Love album, which included the hit Imagination. The daughter of gospel singers stepped out with the late Gerald Levert for a while, and played Billie Holiday in Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X. She had some success until the mid-1990s, when she retired from recording and became a radio DJ in Atlanta instead. She came out of retirement in the early 2000s and now performs as a jazz singer.

Prince Phillip Mitchell is better known as a successful songwriter than as a singer. He started his career as a teenage member of The Premiers and The Checkmates in the late 1950s. Like Jean Carn, in the ’70s he sang on Norman Connors records. His solo LPs made little impact, and in 1979 he withdrew from recording, reappearing briefly in 1986 with the rather good Devastation LP. He seems like a great guy with a good story. Check out this 2001 interview.

TRACKLISTING
1. Maze featuring Frankie Beverley – Before I Let Go (live)
2. Alexander O’Neal & Cherelle – Never Knew Love Like This
3. Force M.D.’s – Love Is A House
4. Sherrick - Baby I’m For Real
5. Marvin Sease – Let’s Get Married Today
6. Jean Carne – Closer Than Close
7. Tashan - Ooh We Baby
8. Freddie Jackson – Have You Ever Loved Somebody
9. Shirley Jones – Do You Get Enough Love
10. Kashif & Meli’sa Morgan – Love Changes
11. Jeffrey Osborne – You Should Be Mine (Woo Woo Song)
12. Luther Vandross feat Gregory Hines – There’s Nothing Better Than Love
13. Miki Howard – Come Share My Love
14. Paul Johnson – Half A World Away
15. The Winans feat Anita Baker – Ain’t No Need To Worry (12″ version)
16. Prince Phillip Mitchell – I Taught Her Everything

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The next Any Major Soul will cover the years 1988-89. I don’t think that I have enough quality material to continue this series into the 1990s (though I might make a couple of 90s soul comps. Should I? You tell me). The series started with the years 1970-71. On reflection, I regret not starting it with the 1960s. So that might be an option for the future. Again, you tell me whether I should go in that direction.

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If I had any concerns that I might not be able to cover the 1980s with great soul music, then I was entirely mistaken. This series will go up to 1988-89 (at which point I’ll consider whether 1990-91 is worth covering). The 1982/83 season saw the continued rise of the Quiet Storm, corporate smooth soul stuff which would eventually choke the genre. There isn’t much of that on this collection (and where there is, such as Beau Williams’ Elvina, it’s great).

Opening track Time Is appeared on veteran funk group New Birth’s swansong album, I’m Back, a title that proved terminally temporary. Put together in the late 1960s by Harvey Fuqua, New Birth scored a number of R&B hits throughout the ’70s.

The LIVE Band, from New York City, released only one album (on The Sound of Brooklyn label). The title feature here sounds a lot like a Maze song, especially Joy And Pain, with the vocalist doing his best to emulate Frankie Beverley’s phrasing. It would be horribly unfair to call this a pastiche, though. It’s a great track from a fine album.
Gayle Adams represents the Washington D.C. soul scene here. Like so many other artists on this set, her career was relatively short-lived. Perhaps best-known for her cover of the Four Tops’ Baby I Need Your Loving or possibly the dance hit Love Fever, both from the album featuring Don’t Jump To Conclusion, the sets one mid-tempo number, with a rather nice guitar solo.

Among the bonus tracks for Any Major Soul 1978-79 were Switch, which included two brothers of the DeBarge clan, Bobby and Tommy. Through their good office the younger siblings, led by El DeBarge, landed a contract with Motown subsidiary Gordy. It would be an injustice if the group’s reputation were to hinge on the chart-fodder Rhythm Of The Night; the group produced some excellent soul music. Check out the acoustic guitar solo on All This Love.

I have been unable to find out anything about Lenard Lidell, or even if he ever released anything else but his 1983 four-track EP, Afternoon Affair, from which the lovely Sweetie Pie comes. It was released by the L.A.-based Jara Records. Likewise, I have no information on The Vosonics, other than that they apparently recorded in Oakland, California.
Beau Williams was going to become a replacement member of the Temptations, but was rejected because at 5’8” he was considered too short. In reparation, of sorts, the Temps appeared on George Benson protégé Williams’ 1983 debut album Stay With Me, on which Elvina appeared. The song is a classic in some Cape Town karaoke bars, invariably causing much distress to singer and listeners when it comes to the high note at 4:20.
Fred Parris was one of doo wop group Five Satins, who recorded the original version of In The Still Of The Night, and he still tours with an incarnation of the group. In the 1980s, he led the now unnumbered Satins on a very nice soul album. Homepage here.
Windjammer, from New Orleans, are probably best remembered for the 1984 hit Tossin’ And Turnin’. Stay is from their self-titled debut, released 1982. Five years earlier, guitarist Ken McLin had ambushed Tito Jackson on a hotel escalator with a Windjammer demo. To his credit, Tito listened to the tape, and two years later that charming man Joe Jackson became their manager.
Like Windjammer, Atlantic Starr were for a while produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a period that produced gems like Silver Shadow and Let The Sun In as well as MOR ballads like Always. Circles preceded that period, with James Anthony Carmichael doing producing duty, with Sharon Bryant still with the Lewis brothers before leaving and replaced with Barbara Weathers.

TRACKLISTING
1. The New Birth – Time Is
2. Vernon Burch – Simply Love
3. The LIVE Band - A Chance For Hope
4. O.T. Sykes - Lonelines Inside Of Me
5. Roberta Flack – I’m The One
6. Gayle Adams – Don’t Jump To Conclusions
7. DeBarge – All This Love
8. Lenard Lidell – Sweetie Pie
9. Beau Williams – Elvina
10. Bloodstone – Go On And Cry
11. Fred Parris and the Satins – Let Me Be The Last One
12. Windjammer – Stay
13. Randy Crawford – In Real Life
14. The Vosonics – Set My Soul On Fire
15. Gwen Guthrie - It Should Have Been You
16. Atlantic Starr – Circles
17. Mtume – Would You Like To Fool Around

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As usual, here are a few bonus tracks of songs I was particularly disappointed to exclude from the mix (those not worried about the customary CD-R time limit of these mixes might want to add the bonus tracks to their playlist).

Randy Crawford appears on the mix; here she gets another outing in duet with Al Jarreau in their gorgeous version of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s Your Precious Love, recorded with the Yellow Jackets at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. The first side of the 1982 album of the festival, Casino Lights, consists of Crawford and Jarreau dueting (plus a rather nice version of Imagine by Crawford solo).
Keni Burke had initial success as one of the Five Stairsteps (Ooh Child) before going solo on George Harrison’s Dark Horse label, where he was produced by Billy Preston. He wasn’t very successful, and so worked as a session bass player for the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, Bill Withers and Ramsey Lewis. In the early 1980s Burke signed with RCA on which he released two albums, including 1982’s excellent Changes, on which the oft-sampled Risin’ To The Top appeared.

Margie Joseph’s career went back to the 1960s, when she was a soul singer in the Aretha mould on Stax and then, under Jerry Wexler’s tutelage, Atlantic. Modest success followed in the 1970s until an album she recorded for Philly’s WMOT Records went unreleased because the label went bankrupt. Joseph briefly taught elocution at a school before making a comeback with her 1982 Knockout album, showing Aretha Franklin that you can do dance records without screaming.
Do I Do was Stevie Wonder’s final masterpiece before drowning himself in the schlock of I Just Called To Say… This is the full, ten-and-a-half-minute workout from his Original Musiquarium collection (which one cannot describe as a “best of” compilation, because a double album could never cover Stevie’s best), with Dizzy Gillespie guesting.
Anita Baker achieved her breakthrough with 1986 outstanding Rapture album. Angel comes from her 1983 debut, which never was much promoted. In fact, Baker was told early in her career to pack in the singing gig because she supposedly had no good voice. Whoever offered that piece of advice was not the brightest light on the A&R switchboard.
Finally, Melba Moore shows that she has lungs: check out that note she holds for 36 seconds at the end of The Other Side Of The Rainbow. And if you think 36 seconds is not very long, listen again.

Al Jarreau & Randy Crawford – Your Precious Love.mp3
Keni Burke – Risin’ To The Top.mp3
Con Funk Shun – Love’s Train.mp3
Womack & Womack – Baby I’m Scared Of You Baby.mp3
Melba Moore – The Other Side Of The Rainbow.mp3
Anita Baker – Angel.mp3
Margie Joseph – Knockout.mp3
Stevie Wonder – Do I Do.mp3

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More mixes
More ’80s Soul
’70s Soul