Northern Soul

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by WLL, Jan 11, 2019.

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  1. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
    Fat Harold's & Spanish Galleon
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2019
  2. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
    If you'll go back in the thread I believe I've posted an explanation of Beach Music. It isn't Surf Music or Beach Boys music. It is music to dance the shag to, with the classics often fairly obscure R&B and soul songs from the 50s and 60s, but most any song with the correct bpm for the dancers could get played. There has been a Beach Music subculture here in North and South Carolina and to a lesser extent Virginia and Georgia for generations. There are homegrown bands, a club circuit that many artists have extended their careers playing, Shag organizations in most counties where members get together to dance and socialize, local radio shows and even one dedicated Beach Music radio station out of Myrtle Beach.
     
  3. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
    "The Embers take on “It Ain’t Necessary” was first released on JCP (1054) in 1966, one of the last releases in the label discography, and also gained a national release the following year (Bell 644).
    Next up was “Just Crazy ‘Bout You Baby”, released twice in 1967 on eEe (Embers Entertainment Enterprises), with different flips: the first with “We’ve Come a Long Way Together” (eEe 0069) and the second with “Aware of Love” (eEe 0070). “Crazy ‘Bout You Baby” was played out in the UK by Gary Rushbrook in the very early eighties, toward the closure of Wigan Casino. Much more recently, The Embers take on Jerry Butler’s “Aware of Love” has also received plays on the northern scene."

     
  4. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
  5. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Thx for the explanation.
     
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  6. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
  7. oates

    oates Forum Resident

    Interesting to note that some people in the USA don't like the label "Northern Soul" because it doesn't make sense in the context of where the music comes from (e.g. often the Southern US states). How often have I heard certain groups described as "British Invasion" and what can this mean to people in the UK?
     
  8. JoeRockhead

    JoeRockhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Not a new term:

    Beach music - Wikipedia
     
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  9. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
    I was confused when I first started hearing the term. I thought it was a reference to the Philly Sound or perhaps recording coming out of New York. It took a little investigation but I got it figured out. :tiphat:
     
  10. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

  11. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    I hope not.
     
  12. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery Thread Starter

    ...

    Here's that vintage 70s UK TV NS doc I mentioned previously.
     
  13. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery Thread Starter

    ...Obviously, it's: (1) soul/r&b that is: (2) danceable.
    As I said, Beach/shag is a touch easier and rooted more in the early 60s/late 50s. The Drifters, arguably, are the " perfect example " of a an artist whos' music is sort of a " this is..." beach music. Or the Tams. NS is faster, the '64-
    65 Four Tops are, sort of, the " perfect example " of NS (even if their big records are too famous for NS!:laugh:).
     
  14. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
     
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  15. lazydawg58

    lazydawg58 Know enough to know how much I don't know

    Location:
    Lillington NC
     
  16. phish

    phish Jack Your Body

    Location:
    Biloxi, MS, USA
    I hate that I can't get any of these Sainsburys only releases.
     
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  17. Somerset Scholar

    Somerset Scholar Ace of Spades

    Location:
    Bath
    Have you tried Discogs?
    Or e-bay?
    This set is a real gem. 28 superb tracks.
     
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  18. phish

    phish Jack Your Body

    Location:
    Biloxi, MS, USA
    I need to check. The last couple I searched for was very close in proximity to the release and there were no copies. I guess now, there might be.
     
  19. Dondy

    Dondy Forumaniac

    I'm currently reading Nick Hornby's "Juliet, Naked" and that gave me my first little (and useful) lesson on Northern Soul.
    From a layman's POV, it seems Hornby knows his stuff...:)
     
  20. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery Thread Starter

    ...The Tams were kind of a cut-rate Drifters. They had a UK #1, IIRC, with " Hey Girl, Don't Bother Me " in 1970, I believe a few years already, wasn't it? But was it promoted/seen as a " Northern " side them in the U.K.?:confused:
    There seem to heave been a fair number of cases of " Northern " sides in the 70s breaking into the " real " pop charts in 70s Britain, but it seems, from my limited scholarship, that making the higher the chest of the Top e0 was fairly rare for Northern "-identified charters. Iyseems that Top 40, maybe Top 30 or so happened...Top 15 or above, maybe not so often:eek:.
     
  21. MGSeveral

    MGSeveral Augm


    Of course, Soft Cell didn't ignore this one (as well)
     
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  22. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery Thread Starter

    ...Plaaying Judy Street " What " again just now I noted it starting with that ding-ding-ding " chimes " percussive riff/tattoo...THAT .to me, is one of the things. musically, if not THE thing that says " Northern Soul/;that general sound to me...Wbat kind of chimes/bells/whatever were those anyway:eek::confused:?
    The whole NS thing was/is, obviously, an ongoing scene/subculture in the UK...buf it didn't - Well, I said it above already. there seem to have been relatively few " big hit " reissues of Northern sides charting in the UK to a major degree...Judy Street and Gloria Jones* " Tainted Love " made the UK charts in the 80s...through the.remakes by Soft Cell, stylistically updated, and " over there " (and white:winkgrin:) local artist/dies.
    I don't have time to listen to whole of that Tony Palmer Granada NS doc again now, though I have it on in the background now (Whopper. Ended up listening to it all the way through anyway:)...but early on someone says something interesting, that it was called the Wigan " Casino " despite not offering gambling...This threw me a little too!!!:eek: (when I ran into the Wigan " Casino " phrase before) I thought that it reflected a more British English shading of the phrase, where it didn"t have to mean a place that offered gambling...I suppose that isn't the case:nauga:*°.
    As far as the " Northern Soul " phrase not being widely being known in the US, I will mention that I recall, several years back in Santa Cruz, seeing a promo for a soul-revival band (white male musicians, black femme vocalist) listing " Northern Soul " as one of the styles they played:yikes:!!!!!!!
    *-I recall at least one 70s re-recording by Ms. Jones of " Tainted Love ". I believe the NS scene's digging up of " TL " led her to relocate to Britain (leading to her relationship with Marc Bolan)?????
    **-Likewise, that Brit phrase of " the cabaret circuit "/" working-men's cabaretss in The Norf ":D - that doesn"t /didn't have much U.S. parallel, at least for pop music then...I'm aware:confused:?? that that " cabaret circuit " in Blighty is basically a thing of the past...For theater, I suppose the now-essentially gone dinner theater circuit in the USA, or the sub-Las Vegas casino circuit that exists in the USA NOW might be sorta parallel-worlds similar:confused:?? " Cabaret ", in the US, tended to applied to that " sophisticated " Bobby Short/Mabel Mercer/Blossom Dearie " sing Cole Porter and Gershwins songs that got dropped in their out-of-town tryouts to a piano " thing that a number of writers for upscale media outlets liked though it was never I suppose all that mass-appeal...and changing times and rising rents and AIDS pretty much knocked in out in the later 20th Century...Either that or Tanks referencing " cabaret " would say " like a modern-day version of Weimar Republic cabaret " or whatever...However, I suppose " cabaret " a root simply means " a place that offers entertainment along with alchohol so it's all good:wave::goodie:...Though American popular songs of the pre-television era appear to use (" Pistol-Packin' Mama ", " Sleepy-Time Gal ") the phrase in that " not exactly Michael Feinstein at the Algonquin " sense;) as well..
     
  23. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    The term Northern Soul was not yet adopted in the 70s. So there is not way to say that some of the NS sides could chart at all really. Until later when the term was adopted. There are but a few NS type hits that went very far up the charts. Martha Reeve and the Vandellas "Heat Wave" would be one I can say with a bit of certainty, charted high world-wide I believe. If it's a screechy mono R&B scorcher, Tamla type early 60s hit it has a chance to be considered NS.

    But, yeah, a really great Supremes track w/o Diana Ross, non-charting, but impassioned, and you can dance to it - is about right. Like if there is a (unknown) song as strong as "Stoned Love" it would fit the bill.
     
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  24. MGSeveral

    MGSeveral Augm

    "Northern Soul" was definitely adopted as a description in the seventies.
     
  25. jamo spingal

    jamo spingal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    It was.
     
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