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Thursday 4 August 2022

Joe Tex [1973/1975] - All The Heaven A Man Really Needs / Under Your Powerful Love [Dial #D-1021 / D-1154]


A couple of things triggered the idea for this post, first Little Royal's version of "Jealous Kind Of Fella" where he raps much of the song and also the hip-hop track by NONDO which samples James Brown. 

It got me thinking when did rapping start. It seems that it is attributed to the late 70s / early 80s with the likes of The Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & co when it was first commercially available but was going on in the Bronx long before in the 70s. Little Royal's single was released in 1972 and a couple of tracks here by Joe Tex, the first 1972/73 and the next 1975 all contain what would be termed as 'rapping'. Millie Jackson was also rapping in the early 70s.

Gil Scott-Heron is regarded as the Godfather of Hip-Hop and his debut solo single released in 1971 (but taken from his 1970 album "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox") "The Television Will Not Be Televised" is considered a major influence on hip-hop music. Before him were The Last Poets who rose out the the civil rights movement in the late 60s with their spoken word albums.

I've chosen a couple of Joe Tex recordings that have been popular on the Northern/Modern Soul scene which contain what could loosely be described as rap: "All The Heaven A Man Really Needs" / "Under Your Powerful Love". 

As Bill Buckley (SoulAndJazzAndFunk) has just reminded me, the title of his 1972 album was "From The Roots Came The Rapper" if we needed further evidence!

Sadly the only UK chart hit Joe Tex had in UK was "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)", can you imagine that ever getting playlisted in these politically correct days? In fact on the official UK chart site they have 'conveniently' removed the last part and named it "Ain't Gonna Bump No More"! Cancel culture in action, as in the song he recorded in 1989 on "Different Strokes", "It's Ridiculous". 

Joe Tex died of a heart attack aged just 47 in 1982.

Details
Rating: 8.6
Explicit: N
Genre/Style: Northern Soul
Format: Single
Media: 7"
Label:Dial
Cat No: D-1021 / D-1154
Date: 03/1973 / 06/1975
Key/BPM: 8B/115 / 1B/128
Price: £15-£25 / £20-£30 approx.
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2 comments:

USMAN47 said...

It's still amazing that Joe Tex only had one hit in the UK among the huge amount of recordings!!! And there have been some very good ones though.

Yves

SoulStrutter said...

... and the one he did have is not a particularly good one! A novelty record!