In the summer of 1967, I had the opportunity to play bass as the only White member of Little Hamp & The All-Stars for three great months.
Two singers, Little Hamp and his brother Leon, a great guitarist, a funky drummer, a talented organist and me on bass, just turning age twenty-four that July.
They were all in their 30s and 40s and had played around Dallas and toured on the chitlin' circuit for years.
I was going to tu dental school in Houston at the time, during the academic year.
Had a band there, too.
Anyway, we played six nights a week all that summer (Monday was dark) at the Phantasmagoria, a really cool dance club/bar located in the former Knox Street Movie Theater just off the Central Expressway in Dallas.
Our soul music was non-stop and we put on a great R&B show.
While we played, kaleidoscope slides, colored lights, cartoon and movie clips and enormous projections of moving amoeba-like mixtures of oil and water were on our bodies and the screen behind us.
It was a great gig with fine musicians, hot go-go dancers, good crowds, cheap beer and it paid me 25 bucks a night.
We played ALL the Soul and R&B songs by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, James Brown, Joe Tex, Arthur Conely, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson.
Otis and Sam & Dave had so many great songs, we'd play them as a continuous medley.
My favorite songs were "Try A Little Tenderness," "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "These Arms Of Mine," "Shake," "Hold On I'm Coming," "Soul Man," "I Thank You," "Doggin' Around," and "A Change Is Gonna Come."
Sometimes, caught up in the music, I'd step onto a table from the stage and lope through a fast song like Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere & The Raiders.
On slow songs, we'd sway together behind the lead singer, who'd dance, do stuff with the mic stand and fall to his knees when the moment was just right.
We'd always have the customers on the dance floor, often they'd stop dancing and stand there to watch us perform.
As the only white guy in the band, I'd get questions about how I got the gig.
I, by chance, went to watch them the first night I got home from dental school and they had just fired their bassist.
I told Little Hamp I could play, knew all the songs and had equipment.
I started the next night.
Too cool.
I showed up, wearing nice jeans and a Rolling Stones tour T-shirt and Hamp told me to dress up more because "We's a show band."
So, thereafter, I did.
I had a white Fender Precision Bass and a Bassman amp with two 2x12" cabinets, plus bell bottom trousers, Beatle boots and Carnaby Street shirts.
Other nights I'd look like Dylan or CSN&Y in leather vests or be in a pastel Nehru jacket with a medallion around my neck.
On weekend nights, I'd often go to other clubs and sit in with their bands after hours.
On weekdays, I'd work at my real summer job being one of the adult supervisors for the City of Dallas Summer Recreation Program at Kiest Park in Oak Cliff.
Lots of music, lots of girls, lots of beer, lots of night moves, lots of daytime sunshine and not much sleep.
I've never had more fun.
Before that gig, I was into the music of the English Invasion pretty much.
The Stones, The Beatles, The Animals,......
Once I went Black, I've never gone back, though, musically.
Playing bass in a Soul band was wonderful.
But, when that summer ended, I went back to tooth school.
I like all types of music, but this listing (on the sad occasion of Wilson Pickett's death) was previously posted by me and it shows where my heart still is:
Wilson Pickett, RIP - The Greatest Soul Artists:
For me:
1. Ray Charles.
2. Otis Redding.
3. Sam & Dave.
4. Stevie Wonder.
5. James Brown.
6. Wilson Pickett and Ben E. King.
7. Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls and Al Green.
8. Felix Cavaleri of The Rascals.
9. Richard Manuel of The Band.
10. Jackie Wilson, Joe Tex, Johnnie Taylor, James Carr, Eddie Floyd, Percy Sledge, Jerry Butler, Sly Stone, Marvin Gaye.
That's the shortest listing I could make myself come up with from the musical genre that is my very favorite.
I've been playing and singing some of these artists' songs at gigs since the late fifties.
Van Morrison crossed my mind also, as did Eric Burdon of The Animals and Joe Cocker.
I also thought about Smokey Robinson, whom Bob Dylan supposedly once called "America's greatest living poet."
For the record, I think that Otis Redding (sometimes called "Mr. Pitiful"
, Wilson "the Wicked" Pickett (also known as "The Midnight Mover"
, along with the singing team of Sam Moore & Dave Prater are the greatest male Soul artists, who were ALMOST STRICTLY "soul men" throughout their recording careers.
It seems to me, many other fine artists I've listed either transcended the Soul Music genre with their great versatility or actually did more as Pop, Rock, Funk and Rhythm & Blues artists.
To me, the Motown hits are Soul Music mixed with the slickness of Pop.
So are the great recordings produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff which are collectively referred to as TSOP, "The Sound of Philadelpia."
With people all over the world joining in to form a love train.
I submit that, at least for me, the wonderful Stax/Volt recordings from that studio in a former movie theater on McLemore Avenue in Memphis, TN, featuring Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Booker T. Jones, and Al Jackson, joined by songwriters Dave Porter and Isaac Hays (I think he should probably make our composite, extended, best soul artist list for his mega record, "Theme from Shaft," and the cool album "Hot Buttered Soul"
, plus the backing riffs from The Bar Kays and The Memphis Horns, embody what I consider unadulterated Soul Music at its zenith.
In fact, if you then include the soulful hits backed by David Hood, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett and Jimmy Johnson and recorded over in Muscle Shoals, Alabama along with all the Memphis stuff, I think you've pretty much found the best examples of pure, gritty, sweet soul music.
[Arthur Conley] "Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah" [/Arthur Conley].
You know, I may be weary and sometimes I do get dreary, reading and posting on these same old, shabby threads.
But then a topic like this one comes along and "Hold On, I'm Comin'!!"
Presto, "You've Got Me Humming" "The Happy Song," heading down "Funky Broadway" toward "The Land of 1000 Dances" with "Mustang Sally," whose phone number is "634-5789," on my arm and I'm "Ninety-Nine and a Half" per cent sure that "I'm In Love."
Sally, baby, "I Can't Turn You Loose," 'cause "That's How Strong My Love Is."
When you "Shake" in "These Arms Of Mine," there's no more "Pain In My Heart."
Suddenly, I'm "Hard To Handle" and "I Thank You."
So, how do you rank 'em, the greatest male soul artists?
Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.
Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.
[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 5/3/2009 1:27p).]
