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Eddie don't like furniture - John Hegley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igFkYJ_XeOY I first heard of John Hegley when I was part of a team that "put him on" at the north London community centre Caxton House, just ten minutes walk east of Archway tube station. The gig was a disability arts Christmas concert, perhaps the first collaboration between Islington Arts and Entertainments and SHAPE, and took place round about 1990 with John headlining with his band, the Popticians. We had advertised the event on the SHAPE m

Caravan of Love - Isley-Jasper-Isley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0TOPvCaX2M While "The Highways of my Life" may have been Chris Jasper "greatest hit" with the Isley Brothers, his finest hour - the one that he will be remembered for - is without doubt "Caravan of Love". In 1984 the three "youngsters" in the Isley Brothers, Ernie and Marvin Isley and brother-in-law Chris Jasper, left the band to form offshoot group Isley-Jasper-Isley. They split up three years later, with Ernie and Marvin returning to the Bro

Harvest for the World - the Isley Brothers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUxiKQXxGR8 One of the results of the Isley Brothers expansion into a sextet was the introduction of social and political awareness into their music. The first example of this came early in 1975 when they recorded the angry "Fight the Power" (see https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/fight-the-power-part-1-2-the-isley-brothers ). On the same day they recorded the gentler, sadder, even despairing "Harvest for the World", releasing it the fol

The Highways of my My Life - the Isley Brothers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygAKlgB-8Ys Pub quiz question: which of the members of the Isley Brothers was not a bone fide Isley Brother and why? The answer is Chris Jasper, who died in February of this year. The Isley Brothers began in 1954 as a foursome of siblings Ronald, Rudolph, O'Kelly and Vernon, who was killed in a motor accident in 1955. The others continued as a trio until 1973 when their younger brothers Ernie and Marvin joined along with Chris Jasper, who's ol

Only the Strong Survive - Jerry Butler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPkd9ZQOtbI Jerry Butler's biggest hit was "Only the Strong Survive" from his one classic album "The Ice Man Cometh". In 1967 he teamed up with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, soon-to-be major movers behind the TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) sound of the 1970's. Ostensibly a parental advice song, for many it became one of those hidden black emancipation anthems, although this subtext is harder to envisage than, say, Joe Tex's "The Love You Save (

He Will Break Your Heart - Jerry Butler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAohwPAFTLk After Butler's departure from the Impressions in 1959, he struggled to maintain the success he had with the Impressions - his first few solo singles were US R&B Chart hits but didn't make the US Hot 100 - until his old schoolmate and fellow Impression, Curtis Mayfield, teamed up with him as songwriter, guitarist and harmony singer. Mayfield was the only Impression that hadn't held Vee Jay's singling out of Butler as the group's lead

For Your Precious Love - Jerry Butler and the Impressions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N7v2AhO5E There are many examples of groups suddenly suddenly discovering that one of their number is now being credited as the leader with the rest consigned to the nominal role of backing singers or band: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Eric Burden and the Animals, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and so on. And there are often many different reasons for this, not always the ones that Ross, Burden, Harley and co give. While groups such as Tommy

Friday on My Mind - the Easybeats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSowZcvoqr4 I confess that I had never heard of Snowy Fleet (real name Gordon Henry Fleet) until he died on February 17th of this year. He was drummer for the Australian band the Easybeats which had one huge hit in the UK and the US in 1966, and pretty much nothing else in either country. But what a hit: "Friday on My Mind" is one of those anthemic songs that sums up a state of mind recognised by ordinary people that is universal. As much as an

The Gypsy Faerie Queen - Marianne Faithfull

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwbCZ5mDZWM Marianne Faithfull's 1978 album "Broken English" (see last post) included three tracks co-written by her and on her next album after that all 9 tracks bar one were co-written by her. Thereafter Faithfull's next thirteen studio albums consisted mainly of tracks in which she was cowriter, providing the words with others composing the music, with the exception of four LPs deliberately dedicated to recording covers: "Rich Kid Blues", "