In my early teens I was a big fan of The Allman Brothers’ 1971 live album At Fillmore East. And this 13-minute instrumental was my favourite track.

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This funky tale of a vengeful black god coming to fix the injustices of the world comes from another of those lost masterpieces – an obscure album of jazz-funk matched to black-consciousness lyrics called Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse.

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Wishbone Ash were rock dinosaurs during the punk wars but they played the tiny Marquee Club one night in 1977, prior to playing Wembley Arena two days later.

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Funny old time, the late 1960s. The British blues boom was coming to an end and bands were turning those 12-bar tunes into heavy rock.

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I don’t know a darn thing about Jacqueline Jones, and I can’t find anything out on the Interweb. No biographical details, no other tunes. But what a voice! 

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I’ve never heard of Betsy Legg before and I bet you haven’t either. This eponymous album – “Betsy” – is, as far as I know, her only record.

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The Undisputed Truth were Norman Whitfield’s Motown laboratory for his psychedelic soul constructions, testing out songs that would end up with The Temptations. This was their only hit.

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You can imagine how hilarious it was when I was a schoolboy to discover there was a rock group called Fanny. Adding to the overall hilarity, they were GIRLS. (more…)

Here’s the only known recording by the strangely named Sag War Fare… which is apparently meant to be a pun on “Savoir Faire.” (more…)

He’s not exactly a household name but Popcorn Wylie is one of the key figures in Detroit soul music. A producer, songwriter, singer, bandleader, pianist and record label boss, he discovered some of the biggest names and played on some of the biggest Motown hits. (more…)