Primarily focusing on American Soul, R&B and Funk music presented on the glorious 45 format. I'll be posting write ups of some of my favorite records along with longer mixes.

All tracks come from vinyl that's in a box somewhere in my room.

I regularly DJ here in western mass (and nearby) with my homeboy DJ Cashman and a bunch of other great folks. If you're in the area be in touch if you're interested.

If you have any questions or corrections: gwmyers@gmail.com

Feel free to share and repost. Where possible always try to support artists and record stores!

Enjoy!

George / Snack Attack
hello! theme by cissysaurus
04
01
Barbra Carr “Shake Your Head” (Chess, 1967) Holy smokes… Found this record, a one-sided promo, while on a trip to Chicago.  While all things (unusual grooves in the record, the title, the misspelling of the name and the co-production credit of Billy Davis) pointed in the right direction, I try never to hype myself up too much before hearing a new record.  It’s way too easy to start imagining the greatest record in the world only to be disappointed with a so-so cookie cutter track just looking to chart. This, my friends, was not one of those times.  I got back to the room (Two Urns Bed & Breakfast in Wicker Park!) and didn’t have a portable with me (stupid in retrospect) but I found the record on youtube and then spent the next 2.5 minutes in a hair whipping fit.  Needless to say, it’s a scorcher with all the elements. Heavy drums, horns galore, backup singers screaming for you to ‘Shake Your Head’ and a total party vibe with a beat that has just enough swing to it that you feel like freaking out but not moshing. Barbara Carr took a familiar route to end up in Chicago and recording on Chess.  From St. Louis she was performing in a local group The Petites before meeting Oliver Sain and auditioning to be in his band.  Sain’s band, like Ike Turner and the revolving cast of Ikettes, turned out a lot solo careers, some longer lasting than others.Unfortunately Chess didn’t put a whole lot of muscle behind her career (I mean, there’s no B side and the record has her name spelled wrong…) and Carr became disillusioned with recording and turned her focus on her family and in later years on music again. It’s unfortunate there wasn’t some more energy behind her career at this point because even throw away sessions of this caliber would send me into a digging frenzy.  Still, don’t want to be greedy; lets remain grateful this late 60’s romper was released into the world at all. All the best, -George / Snack Attack Ps, I once again have a computer so I hope to get back to posting weekly or thereabouts.

Barbra Carr “Shake Your Head” (Chess, 1967)

Holy smokes…

Found this record, a one-sided promo, while on a trip to Chicago.  While all things (unusual grooves in the record, the title, the misspelling of the name and the co-production credit of Billy Davis) pointed in the right direction, I try never to hype myself up too much before hearing a new record.  It’s way too easy to start imagining the greatest record in the world only to be disappointed with a so-so cookie cutter track just looking to chart.

This, my friends, was not one of those times.  I got back to the room (Two Urns Bed & Breakfast in Wicker Park!) and didn’t have a portable with me (stupid in retrospect) but I found the record on youtube and then spent the next 2.5 minutes in a hair whipping fit. 

Needless to say, it’s a scorcher with all the elements.

Heavy drums, horns galore, backup singers screaming for you to ‘Shake Your Head’ and a total party vibe with a beat that has just enough swing to it that you feel like freaking out but not moshing.

Barbara Carr took a familiar route to end up in Chicago and recording on Chess.  From St. Louis she was performing in a local group The Petites before meeting Oliver Sain and auditioning to be in his band.  Sain’s band, like Ike Turner and the revolving cast of Ikettes, turned out a lot solo careers, some longer lasting than others.

Unfortunately Chess didn’t put a whole lot of muscle behind her career (I mean, there’s no B side and the record has her name spelled wrong…) and Carr became disillusioned with recording and turned her focus on her family and in later years on music again.

It’s unfortunate there wasn’t some more energy behind her career at this point because even throw away sessions of this caliber would send me into a digging frenzy.  Still, don’t want to be greedy; lets remain grateful this late 60’s romper was released into the world at all.

All the best,

-George / Snack Attack

Ps, I once again have a computer so I hope to get back to posting weekly or thereabouts.

12
19
Harvey Scales and The Seven Sounds “Funky Football” (Chess, 1970) (Click title to download) Been meaning to post this on a Sunday before a long hard day of watching the week’s NFL drama unfold but I’m usually too busy with waking up after dj’ing and having breakfast to muster the brainpower for the all consuming task of posting a blog entry.  Other than football, things have been remarkably busy, as is usually the case this time of year, apologies if you were upset by the lack of content over the past couple weeks. To fix that I’m psyched to present today’s 45: “Funky Football” by the esteemed Harvey Scales and his hard working Seven Sounds.  Born in the south then relocated north to the cold country known as Wisconsin, Scales began putting out records as a member of the Seven Sounds but his strength and personality were much too large to be seen as just a member of the group so the names on the label changed but the music remained the same, KILLER.  Football was going through some momentous changes with the AFL-NFL merger taking place in 1970 so the idea of a dance being named after a sport doesn’t seem that outrageous (does any dance name really sound that weird?  The Ali Shuffle would be a good compliment to this post!)  Plus, the dance seems logical enough “everyone get in a huddle…wave your hands…do the quarterback.”  Man I’d love to see that Soul Train.  Interestingly, both 1970 and 1971 were pretty poor showings for both the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears both posting losing records, maybe that’s who Harvey was referring to when he warned “gonna put you on the bench.”  Scales made his way up the musical pecking order starting from the small Wisconsin Cuca label to later working with Johnny Taylor (the Seven Sounds as backing band) at Casablanca where he wrote the (first RIAA certified) platinum record “Disco Lady.”  In between there and here Scales touched down at the Stax, Cadet and Magic Touch labels making lots of great records. Scales is currently still performing and evidently without losing a step; reviews from his show in Chicago last month reported he was performing at Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers levels. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

Harvey Scales and The Seven Sounds “Funky Football” (Chess, 1970)

(Click title to download)

Been meaning to post this on a Sunday before a long hard day of watching the week’s NFL drama unfold but I’m usually too busy with waking up after dj’ing and having breakfast to muster the brainpower for the all consuming task of posting a blog entry.  Other than football, things have been remarkably busy, as is usually the case this time of year, apologies if you were upset by the lack of content over the past couple weeks.

To fix that I’m psyched to present today’s 45: “Funky Football” by the esteemed Harvey Scales and his hard working Seven Sounds.  Born in the south then relocated north to the cold country known as Wisconsin, Scales began putting out records as a member of the Seven Sounds but his strength and personality were much too large to be seen as just a member of the group so the names on the label changed but the music remained the same, KILLER. 

Football was going through some momentous changes with the AFL-NFL merger taking place in 1970 so the idea of a dance being named after a sport doesn’t seem that outrageous (does any dance name really sound that weird?  The Ali Shuffle would be a good compliment to this post!)  Plus, the dance seems logical enough “everyone get in a huddle…wave your hands…do the quarterback.”  Man I’d love to see that Soul Train.  Interestingly, both 1970 and 1971 were pretty poor showings for both the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears both posting losing records, maybe that’s who Harvey was referring to when he warned “gonna put you on the bench.” 

Scales made his way up the musical pecking order starting from the small Wisconsin Cuca label to later working with Johnny Taylor (the Seven Sounds as backing band) at Casablanca where he wrote the (first RIAA certified) platinum record “Disco Lady.”  In between there and here Scales touched down at the Stax, Cadet and Magic Touch labels making lots of great records.

Scales is currently still performing and evidently without losing a step; reviews from his show in Chicago last month reported he was performing at Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers levels.

Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

12
02
Tony Morgan & Muscle Power “Racial Segregation (Vocal)” (Chess, 1973) (Click title to download) What wonders the world holds for us, it’s into December and the only blizzard of the season is a month behind us and we’re otherwise enjoying a string of moderate days.  (Maybe though, it’s less of a wonder and more of a direct byproduct of global warming turning New England into a more temperate zone as the Earth is put into our hand made tanning booth.) Today’s 45, and what a 45 it is, by Tony Morgan & Muscle Power is appropriately world travelling, bringing the some amazing afro-cuban (nearly west african) rhythm to us via the Chicago blues label founded by Polish Jew Leonard Chess. Released on Chess in 1973 “Racial Segregation” was written, arranged and produced by Eddy Grant, who you may know from his gigantic 80’s hit Electric Avenue or if you dig below that his massive 60’s hit with The Equals “Baby, Come Back” or my personal favorite “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boy.”  After a medical issue in 1971 Eddy left his adopted home in the UK to return to his native Guyana to run his Ice label, where he produced this and a cover of “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boy” along with a few others for Tony Morgan & Muscle Power (alternately spelled ‘Mussel Power’, not sure if that’s a food pun or failed translation, but it shows up regularly). This record was released on a number of labels internationally, but for American distribution Chess, now run by the much more psychedelically inclined son Marshall Chess, got the nod.  My copy is a DJ Promo so I’m not sure how much noise this made on the charts (nothing according to what I can tell by the silences in Billboard/Cash Box etc) but since when did chart action equate to the quality of a record? This record is an absolute shaker with every part of the arrangement- voice, clean guitar, horns, percussion- heavy and locked in enough to carry the whole song.  It’s worth noting the flip is an instrumental version that hits just as hard but I prefer the fearless politicizing of the vocal.  A pretty unique record on most accounts and without a doubt worth dropping the coin on if you come across it in your travels. Till next time, health and happiness, -George / Snack Attack

Tony Morgan & Muscle Power “Racial Segregation (Vocal)” (Chess, 1973)

(Click title to download)

What wonders the world holds for us, it’s into December and the only blizzard of the season is a month behind us and we’re otherwise enjoying a string of moderate days.  (Maybe though, it’s less of a wonder and more of a direct byproduct of global warming turning New England into a more temperate zone as the Earth is put into our hand made tanning booth.)

Today’s 45, and what a 45 it is, by Tony Morgan & Muscle Power is appropriately world travelling, bringing the some amazing afro-cuban (nearly west african) rhythm to us via the Chicago blues label founded by Polish Jew Leonard Chess.

Released on Chess in 1973 “Racial Segregation” was written, arranged and produced by Eddy Grant, who you may know from his gigantic 80’s hit Electric Avenue or if you dig below that his massive 60’s hit with The Equals “Baby, Come Back” or my personal favorite “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boy.”  After a medical issue in 1971 Eddy left his adopted home in the UK to return to his native Guyana to run his Ice label, where he produced this and a cover of “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boy” along with a few others for Tony Morgan & Muscle Power (alternately spelled ‘Mussel Power’, not sure if that’s a food pun or failed translation, but it shows up regularly).

This record was released on a number of labels internationally, but for American distribution Chess, now run by the much more psychedelically inclined son Marshall Chess, got the nod.  My copy is a DJ Promo so I’m not sure how much noise this made on the charts (nothing according to what I can tell by the silences in Billboard/Cash Box etc) but since when did chart action equate to the quality of a record?

This record is an absolute shaker with every part of the arrangement- voice, clean guitar, horns, percussion- heavy and locked in enough to carry the whole song.  It’s worth noting the flip is an instrumental version that hits just as hard but I prefer the fearless politicizing of the vocal.  A pretty unique record on most accounts and without a doubt worth dropping the coin on if you come across it in your travels.

Till next time, health and happiness,

-George / Snack Attack