Digging Easter

Easter Friday, and all the shops are closed! Oh the horror. Hang on, Real Groovy Records is open. Off to dig for records then. Today's finds - 6 records for $6 each. Score!

Billy Preston - The kids and me. Funky as Billy on the keys, from 1974. Best track is this mad synth jam called Struttin'. That's Billy miming up a storm on Soul Train, with a cool Don Cornelius intro.




Princess - Say I'm your number one. My wife asked me recently "Do you have any Princess?" When I said no, she asked "Why not?" Situation rectified. Released in NZ by Stimulant, a label run by Simon Grigg, Peter Urlich and Mark Phillips. Charted at no 2.

Diana Ross - Diana. Classic album produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edward for the Chic Organisation. Motown hated the mixes they handed in and Berry Gordy had them remixed inhouse, much to the horror of Rodgers and Edwards. This was reissued on CD with the final mixes plus the unreleased Chic mixes.

Sheila E  - Romance 1600. Prince protegee, features album version of Love Bizarre, all 12 minutes and 18 seconds of it. Needed this ever since I was reminded of it after seeing the live clip of Prince jamming this last year with Sharon Jones and the Dapkings guesting with him and his band.

Shirley Murdock - Shirley Murdock! Murray Cammick put me onto her a few years back at one of the Record Fairs, hipping me to the fact that her producer was usually Roger Troutman (Zapp).




Shannon - Do you wanna get away. Most well known for the hit Let the music play, this one has a mean 80s Dub Version on the flip.

You know what most of those records have in common? All of them, apart from Billy Preston, were released in 1985. Anyone who tells you that the 80s was the decade good taste forgot clearly didn't like black music in that decade. EDIT: so, that Diana Ross album was 1980, not 85. Four outta six albums from 1985, then.