This time it’s gone all 1976. In the UK, this was the year of the Punk explosion and the pre-global warming long, hot summer. Over on the other side of the pond, the Godfather of Funk had one of his smaller hits appropriately entitled ‘Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)’ (reaching No. 31 in the US R&B charts).

So while Mr. Brown is arguably the most sampled performer of all time, sample spotters will note the mash up used here is by Brixton’s blue/green eyed wonder boy in his ‘Golden Years’ period (also 1976).

This track is off the album Station To Station, which, by coincidence, got a mention in the Dwight Trible interview as, like Dwight’s album, they both contain cover versions of Nina Simone’s, ‘Wild Is The Wind’ [Respect to Simon S for that one].

In the mid 70s, Bowie was at his soul boy peak. All of a sudden it was cool to like dance music, albeit the rock/pop fans dropped Bowie as fast as you could say “disco”. So whilst the links between Punk and Reggae where clearly evident there was a punk-disco crossover (or Punco as NovaMute A&R man called it durng a recent interview, better than Pisco?). Of course, Bowie went onto even greater commercial success in his ‘Lets Dance’ Nile Rodgers production period of the early eighties.

So if you’ve forgotten how good the originals were or even if you’re new to these tunes, you know you can’t help yourself joining in with the doo-wop. I hear R.E.-Edits 3 is not far behind this one. Can’t wait to see what they mash up next.

Reviewed: James Brown / David Bowie - R.E.-Edits Volume Two Cat. No. REEDIT02
Tracklisting:
A. James Brown - ‘Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)’ (Re-Edit)
B. David Bowie - ‘Golden Years’ (Re-Edit)

Luther Vandross: It’s sad to note the loss of the soul singer who was the man in the early eighties as he passed away on 1st July, 2005 aged 54. Back in 1976, Bowie’s Station To Station and the previous year’s Young Americans featured guitarist Carlos Alomar and his schoolfriend Luther Vandross. After Luther’s Bowie period, he did backing vocals for Bette Midler and Donna Summer and worked in the advertising jingle business for KFC and 7UP. He finally broke big in 1981, with ‘Never Too Much’. I seem to recall Greg Edwards on Capital actually played one of his American jingles on his show as part of an interview with Luther [I remember thinking, US Radio must be good on the strength of that]. The stand out for me was ‘House Is Not a Home’ previously done by his favourite singer, Dionne Warwick. Luther had his problems and was all but forgotten until 2003 when ‘Dance with My Father’ achieved US No.1 success. By the time he received the Grammy for best vocal performance, he was in a home recovering from a stroke. Gilles Peterson mentioned a tribute show would be in order on his show recently and I, for one, would go along with that.

Links:
James Brown
The James Brown Story: 1956-1976
Summer 1976 - “Even over a quarter of a century later, whenever there is a period of hot weather it is not long before the year of 1976 comes up in conversation”.
Nina Simone
Luther Vandross
Love Unlimited Orchestra / Dwele - Midnight Groove (Re-Edit) / Affinity (Re-Edit) “Quality (hip hop style) edit of Love Unlimited Orchestra’s slow dangerous disco goodie ”Midnight Groove” and a re-edit of Dwele’s ”Affinity” for maximum club use”.