FOR BEN E. KING

Artist: BEN E. KING (feat. JIMI HENDRIX); Title: II'S ALL OVER; Label: ATLANTIC; Format: 7"; Cat. No.: AT 4007; Year: 1964; Country: UK

This is a post I've been meaning to do for a couple of weeks now - but've only just gotten round to, as a tribute to Soul legend and former Drifters frontman Ben E King who we lost recently.





Looking today at this 1964 release of his which features the classic Soul format of the period - big ballad A Side and more up-tempo B Side.  In this instance the A Side gives you "It's All Over" - co-written and produced by Bert Berns (using his Bert Russell moniker for the writing credit). It's another of those great slow-burning big soul ballads with some great backing vocals from the Sweet Inspirations (line-up around this time comprising Doris Troy, Dee Warwick, Cissy Houston, and possibly even Dionne herself).  Although not as well know as some of the better known Ben E King stuff - this is still well worth checking out.



As is the B Side - "Let The Water Run Down".  As already mentioned this is more up-tempo of the two sides on offer here.  Written again by Bert Berns as Bert Russell - and again with Doris Troy and Co. on backing vocals - it's another good one! And did I mention that the guitarist on this is none other than Jimi Hendrix? It's from that period when Hendrix did a lot of session work for Atlantic - alongside this he proivided the guitar-breaks on Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy" as well the Isley's "Move Over And Let Me Dance" (which I've featured on a previous post a while back). An excellent track that's again well worth checking out!

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.