In 1967 the legendary Leonard Chess began to hand over the reins of his groundbreaking label (Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley,Chuck Berry,etc,etc)to his son Marshall. Some of the things the younger Chess did would have Blues fans and music fans up in arms. First it was all those albums where Muddy and Wolf would play with their "heirs" (Clapton,Richards,et al) and secondly, Marshall tried to invigorate Chess with new blood and his own entries into the psych/rock/folk market. One such experiment was Rotary Connection. Their self titled LP, released in '67 was a strange attempt at crossover; take current rock songs and soulfolkbaroque 'em. It helped that they had Minnie Ripperton doing some singing, but I'll let these covers speak for themseves.
Here's the Connection taking on Cream and you'll see a serious baroque-ification of Ruby Tuesday in comments. I'll also stick in my favorite original of theirs, I am The Blackgold of the Sun, so you get a full picture of what happened when the Hair generation met up at the home of the Blues.
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"what happened when the Hair generation met up at the home of the Blues" Nice line.
I never heard the original of Blackgold, probably my favorite also. Here's a version off Giles Peterson's Incredible Mix. There is a great transition at about 3 minutes.
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I found out about the song from the Nuyorican project..which was to my mind the most complete album as far as covering the influnces that make up modern dance music. The 12"'s associated with the NuYorican project are numerous and many of the mixes including this one are done with a lot of care. I think all the producers who worked on the project did an incredible job. Of course, because it's aim was so high it sold very little. What that sez I'm not sure, but it is an all time fave. Thanks D
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Great post. I too have never heard the original but I love the Giles Peterson remix. He also released a live version of it(with full choir and strings) though I'm blanking on which cd its on.
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I've never heard the original by Cream but I'm sure Rotary Connection will not be daunted by the comparison.
Thanks for the post, it was most exquisite. (4 Hero are great at shedding another light on the tracks they choose to remix - thanks Dzendvokh)
Nominated for Cosy Sunday Covers
(of the week)
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Interesting what happens to songs when you soulfolkbaroque ‘em. Not my cup of tea, but great post anyway.
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ive never heard of the rotary connection before. this is great stuff. i need to locate this album.
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Awww yeah!!!
RoCo is in the house.
I, too, was pleasantly surprised when Nuyorican Soul covered "Black Gold" on their debut album; I wasn't too sure that folks in the 'hood/barrio even knew about RoCo. (Heck, most folks in the 'hood/barrio don't know the wonder that is Minnie Riperton. Such a shame.)
Great post. You beat me to it.
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Honestly, I can't believe Danny hadn't heard of them. Makes him appear almost human ;)
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That is the weirdest thing when you follow music that you weren't really around for when it came out..Even if you look hard sometimes you only get an echo..I'm always into hearing how records were received when they were out and trying to simulate the conditions that these records came from..When you know some history a lot makes sense..The book I'm reading now, Boogaloo-Arthur Kempton takes a long look back at the continuum that is Aframerican (his word) music. The book starts with this cat who came out of Delta Blues and became the premier Modern Gospel writer in the 20's and 30's (Thomas Dorsey)and traces a line to Sam Cooke To Motown/Stax to George Clinton to 2 Pac, with all the spaces filled in. The key to me is the continuum..I love that stuff.
Also related was this release I read about in the NYTimes
I am babbling..yes.
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Hey, don't let me hear you say that b-word again.
You are thinking aloud. I'm sipping it up (is that even a word???) Of course I'm going to head over to amazon and get hold of that book as soon as this window is closed. Or maybe you should put up one of them links that give you a cent when I buy it... if you know how it's done... (I badly need to line up some Xmas reading, will be at mother's/sister's for a full 2 weeks... with no broadband internet and not even a modem in my macbook :P)
Anyway, yeah, it's weird because when you're into older music, you'll always have holes in your radar. Damn, even when you're around! For example, it's unbelievable for me that I had never heard of Fishbone when I was in my teens, because I listened to a lot of ska, and do did my better-informed friends (tastemakers). Same as I couldn't believe Crash hadn't heard of the Wipers, they seemed so up his alley. We were both thrilled by our respective discoveries.
And making discoveries is so lovely... a bit like falling in love if the music is right. So you made Danny a happy boy with your post :)