Satta Massagana was the debut single of The Abyssinians, arguably the greatest of all the vocal groups to come out of Jamaica. (more…)

Marc Bolan – The Wizard

8th February 2022 · 1960s, 1965, Music

Straight outta Stokey…. this was local boy Marc Feld’s first single, released by Decca in October 1965. With its stripped-back R&B sound, it could be filed under Freakbeat, and you can already hear the nascent influence of psychedelia and fantasy in the lyrics.

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Here’s a lost masterpiece blending jazz, funk, blues and soul – and psychedelia – by The Loading Zone, a long-forgotten late-1960s band from San Francisco. (more…)

The Rolling Stones, recorded live at the BBC in 1965, just as they were transitioning from a band playing blues and R&B covers. (more…)

Here’s a classic example of country music’s breakaway Bakersfield Sound by Buck Rogers from 1965. (more…)

MC5 – Kick Out The Jams

17th January 2022 · 1960s, 1969, Music, Punk

The night I saw the legendary bass man from the legendary MC5 – and he didn’t play their legendary song, Kick Out The Jams. (more…)

In the pantheon of soul greats, Major Lance never got the name recognition of Curtis Mayfield, his mentor and collaborator on the Chicago soul scene in the Sixties.

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The Amen Break is the much-sampled drum loop that spawned a thousand tunes and kick-started drum & bass. Here’s the song that started it.

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A teenage Lyn Collins sang lead vocals on this Northern Soul stomper in an obscure girl group called Charles Pikes & The Scholars.

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The exuberant brass motif that drives this swinging soul number sounds instantly familiar, perhaps because of the many lives this song has had since it was written by The Chi-Lites’ lead singer Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders.

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