Magazine had a near-hit with Shot By Both Sides in January 1978. It’s arguably the first post-punk single – and certainly one of the best of that year.

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This slow-burner, with its smouldering brass decorated by guitar licks, is a classic example of the steamy New Orleans hybrid of blues, soul and jazz. A bittersweet ballad of betrayed love written by Al Reed, Danny White’s emotive vocals perfectly articulate the emotion in the lyrics.

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The deeper I delve into the vaults of old soul, the more buried treasure I find. Like this 1965 gem by The Brilliants.

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This tune was released on Syd Nathan’s legendary King label in Cincinnatti four years after they put out James Brown’s landmark first hit Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag in 1965.

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James Hines is one of the more fascinating figures of funk and soul – a six-foot-seven, 300-pound, legally blind albino guitarist, producer, composer who became a preacher after getting his sight back.

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You know when your eccentric auntie drinks a bit too much sherry at Christmas and embarrasses everyone by singing along to a record and dancing around the tree?

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This came out in 1977 when I was pogoing in a seedy cellar somewhere to a snotty young band that sounded nothing like this. But if you love soppy soul ballads, with a sweet singer emoting at the top of his range and backing vocalists echoing his heartfelt words back at him, then this is for you.

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This has to be one of the most impassioned vocals of all time, Nelson Sanders’s sobbing, heartfelt interpretation of the song title – I’m Lonely.

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I don’t think I ever heard the name Levi Stubbs until Billy Bragg wrote and sang a song in the mid-Eighties called Levi Stubbs’ Tears. Even then I doubt I realised who he was.

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Not just a deep cut – this psych-garage gem is positively subterranean. And I’m only posting it for the title. It’s rubbish, of course, but I’m intrigued by what little I know of the perpetrators, The Driving Stupid.

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