SOME PSYCHEDELIC FUNK/SOUL - CHESS CURIO CORNER

Artist: FUJI; Title: REVELATIONS (Pts. 1&2); Label: CADET; Format: 7"; Cat. No.: 5665; Year: 1969; Country: US.

Today's post - 1st in a while as I'm in the process of selling my house and moving down the West Country - is this curio released on Cadet in 1969 by "Revelations" by Fuji.  Which can be best described Pyschedelic Funk - and a bloody good example it is of it too.

Fuji - real name Ellington Jordan - released this gem in '69 backed by one of the 1st black rock band Black Merda - from Hendrix's hometown Seattle and songwise pretty much reflects the state of things in the States in the late 60's in cities like Detroit, which weren't great - especially so if you happened to be black.  It was planned to be part of an album but - as with a lot of these type of projects the album with the great title of 'Mary Don't Take Me On No Bad Trip' was shelved and finally saw the light of day as recently as 2005! Whether this was down to Chess' worries about alienating their traditional fan-base after the realease of Muddy Waters 'Electric Mud' I'm not sure - but it wouldn't surprise me. 

Music-wise does sound a lot like Hendrix then the fact that Fuji was friends with him certainly played a part and showed how much an influence he was having on black music in the late 60's - even influencing the likes of The Temptations and Chess label-mates Rotary Connection.

One other bit of info I did find on Fuji was that he co-wrote Etta James' anthem "I'd Rather Go Blind" - which you'd like to hope is a nice pension plan for him.

Bought this for £8 about 7 years ago - and seen it selling on Discogs for £22, and a DJ Promo copy on Popsike that went for $64.  And having played it again for the first time ages I can see why people'd want to pay that much for it - and it's a great example of that type cross-genre type of music which I'm a bit of a fan of. And as an example of Pyschedelic Funk - then look no further!

Quick thanks to whoever posted the biog info on Fuji on Discogs and Allhiphop.com - as it's always to have an idea of who these poeple are.

ARETHA - CASA ESPANYOL

Artist: Aretha Franklin. Title: La Casa Que Jack Construyo. Label: Atlantic-Hispa Vox. Format: 7". Country of origin/issue: Spain. Cat. No.: H - 364. Year; 1969.

Today's offering is this 1969 Spanish issued single from Aretha.  The A Side gives you her version of the rather brilliant "The House That Jack Built"("La Casa Que Jack Construyo"), and until a fortnight ago I'd always assumed that this had been written specifically for Aretha.  It wasn't. The original is by Thelma Jones - issued on Barry in the States in 1968 - and Soul City over here in the UK a year later (possibly as an attempt to cash in on the success of the Aretha version), and more funk based that the better known Aretha version.

The flip side gives another classic bit of Aretha in the form of "I Say A Little Prayer" - Spanish translation/title being "Rezo Una Pequena Oracion".

And of course the great thing about these european issues is that they come in picture sleeves - which UK singles didn't properly have until well into the 1970s - and the rear lists/shows the other Aretha Franklin 45s already issued in Spain up till that point.