Dyke & The Blazers

Just got a hold of the Ace Records comp "So Sharp!". Anyone else into Dyke & The Blazers?? Is there anything essential missing from this compilation??

All I can say is this cubicle is funkin' out.

Thanks,

Chris

 

When you collect the hits, you can't forget Mr. Christian, who died too young. Nope, this has all the Original Sound material; 2 Lp's worth, and the CD is a lot less expensive than trying to find mint copies of those Lp's.
Mix of mono and stereo, but as much stereo as there is. Pretty much an A's and B's collection(expanded from the original '80s Lp of the same title)
with a handful of Lp cuts left over, so it has all the pop, soul & 'Bubbling Under' chart sides. I'd love to get hold of that original regional release of "Funky Broadway"[Artco 101]out of Phoenix and distributed in only a few states before Art Laboe bought Dyke's contract and found the last star his label would have(not that they had many).
Very strong soul collection; a shame Wilson Pickett got the hit with "Funky"; good version, but Dyke's is just as strong, and as it's the one I heard first, well....being young and impressionable, it'll always be first.

ED

 

I Like Dyke

I went and checked to see what my Funky Broadway 45 was: it's an original sound.

I got three Dyke singles, each on grey, white, or black original sound labels. I especially like "we got more soul", kind of a punky soul answer to "sweet soul music". I can't say the sound quality is killer, tho.

A couple of times I looked for Dyke albums on e-bay, but they are kind of pricey. I might pick up that ace comp when i get a chance.

 

Not so in Baltimore, ED. It was Dyke's version first and it was the hit. I saw 'em live in 67 for $2.

Ah, the old days.

mud-

 

Sometimes luck is with you, Mud....and you were lucky to see Dyke & that band live; must have really cooked!

Must be why John Waters loves Baltimore so much ; he, and the city, have exquisite musical taste. For the record, Dyke's version charted nationally on the soul chart beginning Feb. '67, and got to #17, slow but sure. But it didn't chart nationally in pop until April, and never got beyond #81 after six weeks, then fell off, returned in July, eventually pushed itself to #65, but by then Pickett's version was out and he got the top ten version. Part of this was probably that Original Sound wasn't a big label despite the success of their OLDIES BUT GOODIES series, and didn't promote what could have been a smash well enough. That the single lasted so long on the chart[24 wks soul, 15 Hot 100]was pretty impressive, given most hits lasted 9-13 wks at the time. Just never made it nationally.

Still better than Pickett's, IMO. The original is still the best, though Wilson knew what to do with it, wicked as he was.

ED

 

Aha -- so that was you in the audience during the fake crowd noise on Funky Bull - Part 1

I bet that was a SHOW. I discovered Dyke & The Blazers through Napster by complete chance. One listen and I was constantly on the lookout for a used copy of "So Sharp!". Wasn't until I finally gave up looking that it dropped into my hands during the lunch hour. Isn't this always the way?

 

Boy, caught red-handed!!!



mud-

 

Well, that Wicked Pickett had national distribution. You know how it is.

mud-

 

Great R&B band!! My fave is "Let A Woman Be A Woman, Let A Man Be A Man"!!! He might have become more famous if he had lived longer.

 

So did Original Sound. A bigger problem might have been the lack of airplay; OS didn't have a lot of clout in that area, and Pickett had Atlantic behind him. Laboe's main problem was always that, after the OBG catalog, he couldn't build acts into stars, something Atlantic did pretty well. What little AM radio success Original Sound had was fleeting: in 1959, Sandy Nelson("Teen Beat")and Preston Epps("Bongo Rock"); after that, a lot of years before any consistent hitmaking, again fleeting: Music Machine("Talk Talk")and then Dyke's many chart singles, not all of them successful. On the other hand, Laboe let Dyke be Dyke, didn't try to change his style. That was good for us, if not for Dyke. Had he gone with a major, his luck might have been different; yet he was an unusual character, hard to read, and probably, like James Carr, would have been incapable of helping build a career for himself. Sad, really.

ED