The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls

This is the POLL POST for the Black Pop History round in the League Of Tracks. Want to actually hear the songs? (And you frankly should) Go to the Playlist Post.

As usual the rules are simple.

You can vote for UP TO FOUR of these eleven tracks.
You can only vote for tracks you DIDN’T KNOW before the poll.

You are strongly recommended to vote on a desktop if you can – there are issues with the mobile plug-in that makes it crash the post.

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The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 78-81 – Playlists

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Jeff Worrell

9 March 2024 23:43

No comments yet? Right-o, I’ll start. This was difficult for a reason I haven’t faced before: finding four tracks I was allowed to and also wanted to vote for!
Ruled out:
“Shoot The Pump”; a masterpiece which I own the 12″ single of, albeit the Island Records repress for the UK market; I’d considered nominating this for a PPP myself, and it was on the longlist for Favourite Songs Hidden Gems. Hope it does well here.
Melba Moore; didn’t know I knew it until I listened, and it must be been many a year since I last heard it, but definitely remembered the chorus as it played. Nice song.
Odyssey; we discussed the disparity between US and European awareness of various Odyssey songs in the PPP comments recently. I expect this one will be familiar to many, but I see it’s had two votes already…
Best discovery:
Godmoma. Not sure where this record has been hiding from me for 40 years but it’s right up my street – startlingly good. No qualms about voting for both tracks.
I was tempted to stop there, but hate the thought of not using my allowance in full. So…
Francis Bebey. I bought on CD quite recently the comp of his work that Born Bad Records put out a decade or so ago, and I think he’s a good thing in general. But I prefer the weirder mid 70s songs to this one. Gave it a vote anyway.
Ranking Joe. I do question if he’d ever heard a Lennon solo record before making this song. Still, compared to some of the more po-faced tributes we got at the time, this is refreshingly silly and (maybe unintentionally?) hits upon some hard truths. Reluctant vote.
The rest…
Paulinho Da Costa and Jimmy Ross: both of these are decent tracks, but I can’t get excited about either. Romantic Noise: idk, a bit icky? Despite attempts not to be. Bennie Maupin: got bored of this about half way through, sounds a bit dated even for ’78, but props for not going disco I guess.

rabbitfun

10 March 2024 20:32

KNOWN QUANTITIES (or are they?)
# Odyssey • Use It Up And Wear It Out (I’m very happy we’ve now established how awesome they were)
# Melba Moore • Pick Me Up, I’ll Dance (some beautiful things happening in the 12” version)
# J Walter Negro & Loose Jointz • Shoot The Pump (I have to assume I heard this one at the time, was certainly familiar with its title and its reputation – especially love the instrumental vamp (the organ bit!) here)
NEW-TO-ME TRACKS:
THOSE THAT DIDN’T WOW ME SUFFICIENTLY (or not at all)
# Romantic Noise • I Fell In Love With A Baby (yeah, no)
# Ranking Joe • Tribute to John Lennon (imagine this winning, is it easy if you try?)
# Godmoma • Godmoma Here + Hands Up (Punk Funk) (good stuff, but the main poll has primed me for other moods and vibes)
THE MOODS AND VIBES THE MAIN POLL HAD PRIMED ME FOR:
# Paulinho da Costa • Deja Vu (first notes: Off The Wall! vocals come in: EWF!! and yes, it’s Philip Bailey – déjà vu indeed, in the best possible way)
# Bennie Maupin • Anua (ooh, I looooove this!!) (another Off The Wall triggering: “I Can’t Help It” this time)
# Jimmy Ross • Fall Into A Trance (knew the Larry Levan remix of his “First True Love Affair” from a previous poll, that one is better, but this is a scorcher too)
# Francis Bebey • Libreville (been a while since I listened him. didn’t know this low-key and lovely track. (listening to some of his pygmy flute stuff now again, and it sort of makes me feel embarrassed for Tune-Yards)

Steffen Rayburn-Maarup ?

11 March 2024 10:00

The only track I had heard before was the previously polled one (which otherwise I would have voted for). Yet again, an impressively high standard in this round.

Edward Still

12 March 2024 13:29

Well this is awkward. I must have listened to the playlists double digit times by now and am still nowhere nearer knowing what to vote for. Heck I can’t even decide on 0,1 or 2 of the Bootsty ones.
The only 2 I have ruled out are my own nom and one of my favourite dance records of all time, a song which has its own article on this site no less!

Last edited 9 months ago by Edward Still

vinnycrackers

12 March 2024 16:03

I’ll own the Romantic Noise!
Willie Phoenix is a Columbus, OH legend, who’s been playing for 50 years – even got a street named after him. He’s literally played all genres, but these Romantic Noise records were like new wave/power pop which felt unique to me amongst the more common genres you’d get from this time period.
So I was so excited to find a decent copy, that I didn’t think about the lyrics. Twas a time indeed.
More on Willie Phoenix. He’s still playing! I worked at Bernie’s Bagels through the ’80s (his heyday) and he’s a good guy to boot. https://www.columbus.gov/Templates/Detail.aspx?id=2147517204

koganbot

12 March 2024 17:03

Reply to vinnycrackers

I’ll own that its one and only vote so far is mine, though the comment containing my description of what I was hearing is currently lost in WordPress limbo.

koganbot

14 March 2024 08:40

[Sigh… Apologies if these end up as double posts. WordPress killed my original attempt to post so now I’m dividing these up to see if they’ll go through separately.]

Odyssey “Use It Up and Wear It Out”: The one song I knew by Odyssey prior to People’s Pop was “Native New Yorker,” a disco-showbiz-amalgam that said STYLE in big letters but never clicked for me. “Use It Up and Wear It Out” shares with “Native” its co-producer/co-songwriter Sandy Linzer and has some similar gizmos in the sound but a beautifully different feel, nothing big-letter about it, really, more like a gentle insistence, the horns and call-and-response quiet enough to pull me in rather than to overwhelm. This seems consistent with the few other tracks of Odyssey I’ve heard through People’s Pop and fortunately for the nominator I hadn’t gotten around to exploring further.

*Other Linzer credits include co-writing “Working My Way Back To You” and co-producing “Cherchez La Femme.”

rabbitfun

19 March 2024 20:57

Reply to koganbot

Never realised Linzer produced “Cherchez La Femme” (and the whole first Dr. Buzzard album in fact), but it makes total sense, because “Native New Yorker” sounds like it was made under the assumption that this was going to be the new sound of disco/soul.
To be clear, he wrote “Working My Way Back To You” (and other tracks) for the Four Seasons in the 1960s – he wasn’t involved in the Spinners version. He also co-wrote “Fresh” with/for Kool & The Gang as late as 1984!

koganbot

12 November 2024 18:16

Reply to rabbitfun

Also relevant: Bob Crewe, who co-wrote a bunch of hits for the Four Seasons, including “Let’s Hang On” with Linzer and with Denny Randell, was the producer for Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes and he and Denny Randell wrote and arranged their music. Randell himself was a co-writer on “Working My Way Back To You” and “Native New Yorker,” which he co-wrote with Linzer. Crewe and Kenny Nolan wrote “Lady Marmalade” for Labelle, that song of course sharing the same 1890sish showbiz chorus-line (etc.) feel as the Sex-O-Lettes and The Original Savannah Band, “Native New Yorker” not quite that feel but also a harkening back to a century of showbiz style. And both Nolan and Randell were part of the Sex-O-Lettes, who were actually mixed gender!

koganbot

14 March 2024 08:44

The Romantic Noise “I Fell In Love With A Baby”: Hard Rocking Shit from the early Seventies that somehow has ended up in a late Seventies/early Eighties Black history poll – Hard Rocking Shit being the term my friends Phil Dellio and Scott Woods* call the early Seventies rock that wasn’t metal or glam or glam metal or art rock or soft rock, just kinda dogged rock, and it rocked, or at least plodded along like it wanted to rock, Foghat and Bachman Turner Overdrive and “All Right Now,” and now “I Fell In Love With A Baby,” out-of-time and eternal and I never heard of it or bandleader Willie Phoenix, it digs in and does indeed rock!

*in their book I Wanna Be Sedated

koganbot

14 March 2024 08:49

Ranking Joe “Tribute to John Lennon”: “Good thing John Lennon never killed by a black man” jumps out as dead-on social commentary in the midst of what otherwise is verbalized as Lennon’s popularity and not much else. But as a vocalizer, Ranking Joe does a fine job with visceral toasting syllables and excitement.

Fourth vote goes to J Walter Negro & The Loose Joints “Shoot The Pump,” which has so much and I’m barely fathoming so far.

HM: Bennie Maupin, Melba Moore, Jimmy Ross

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The Discourse

koganbot on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls12 November 2024
Also relevant: Bob Crewe, who co-wrote a bunch of hits for the Four Seasons, including "Let's Hang On" with Linzer…
koganbot on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 78-81 – Playlists20 March 2024
That's actually good! Would've loved being on that dancefloor, surrounded by all those colors.
rabbitfun on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls19 March 2024
Never realised Linzer produced "Cherchez La Femme" (and the whole first Dr. Buzzard album in fact), but it makes total…
koganbot on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls14 March 2024
Ranking Joe "Tribute to John Lennon": "Good thing John Lennon never killed by a black man" jumps out as dead-on…
koganbot on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls14 March 2024
The Romantic Noise "I Fell In Love With A Baby": Hard Rocking Shit from the early Seventies that somehow has…
koganbot on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls14 March 2024
[Sigh... Apologies if these end up as double posts. WordPress killed my original attempt to post so now I'm dividing…
koganbot on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls12 March 2024
I'll own that its one and only vote so far is mine, though the comment containing my description of what…
vinnycrackers on The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls12 March 2024
I'll own the Romantic Noise! Willie Phoenix is a Columbus, OH legend, who's been playing for 50 years - even…

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The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls

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