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Sunday 22 January 2023

Aaron Frazer [2023] - Heart Full of Love - Live From Easy Eye [Dead Oceans] (Full EP)


Durand Jones & The Indications' singer/drummer Aaron Frazer released a five track live EP "Heart Full of Love - Live From Easy Eye" last Friday (13 Jan '23).

It consists of two original songs and three covers. The first cover is Curtis Mayfield's 1970 Curtom single "The Makings Of You" which has been covered a dozen or more times, first in 1974 by Gladys Knight & The Pips but also by Aretha Franklin (1994), Renee Geyer (who died this week) (2003), as well as Syl Johnson's daughter Syleena Johnson (2017). 

The first track "Heart Full Of Love" was recorded by The Invincibles in 1965 on Warner Bros. Thanks to whoever left the anonymous comment as I missed that one. They were a trio from L.A. active between 1964-70 consisting of Clifton Knight, Dave Richardson and Lester Johnson (who went on to join Ebony Rhythm Band (Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign)) who are all credited as writing the song. They released an updated version in 1970 and Richardson also recorded it himself in 1988, both on their own label Stardom.

The other cover, which I was quite surprised to see, is a song written by Patrick Adams and Fay Hauser played on Northern Soul dancefloors in the mid 70s originally recorded by The Eight Minutes "Looking For A Brand New Game" in 1973.

Why am I surprised, well The Eight Minutes was a short-lived teen group from Chicago who lasted only two years between 1972-73. The group consisted of eight members, six of them from two families plus another two: Ricky, Hank and Ronald Goggins and Hedda, David and Wendel Suddut along with Juwanna Glover and Carl Monroe. They released six singles, four on Jay Pee (owned by Jim Porter (i.e. hence Jay Pee) who was their manager) and two singles and an album, "An American Family" on Perception but this track wasn't included on the album. Another single was released earlier on S.I.M. as The Soul Impacts circa 1968 which was written by Doris I. Jones.

There is another group from Alabama that used the same name, albeit in a different format (i.e. The (soul) IMPACTS) who also recorded a single in 1968 but obviously it is not the same group. 

Interestingly (to Northern Soulies at least, so skip if you're not interested) Jones is also credited for writing an instrumental song "Festivo" for The Checkerboard Squares (who's "Double Cookin' is probably one of the best ever NS instrumentals originally covered-up as Bob Wilson Sounds "Strings A GoGo" on a Simon Soussan bootleg label Soul Galore) on the same label (i.e. S.I.M.). It seems a bit unusual as their only other two (listed) singles are on San Francisco's Villa label. 

Jones, you may recall, is a singer who recorded several of Ian Levine's tailor-made Northern Soul songs in the mid/late 70s (i.e. "He's So Irreplaceable", "Stranded In The Wilderness", "No Way Out" and a few others). Levine discovered her via Herb Rooney of The Exciters who he had already worked with on "Reaching For The Best". Rooney had worked with Jones and her sister Lumishia who formed the trio Black Stash with a third member Karen Young (who went on to have a big disco hit with "Hot Shot" in 1978) on their 1974 single "Mighty Love Man". That single was released in the US on John Abbey's (Blues & Soul) Contempo label and in UK on Seville in 1975.

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Details
Rating: 8
Explicit: N
Genre/Style: Retro Soul
Format: EP
Media: Digital
Label: Dead Oceans
Cat No: None
Date: 13/01/2023
Price: £4.95
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

3 covers at least! the title track "heart full of love" was first done by The Invincibles from L.A. in 1965. it was written by members Clifton Knight, Dave Richardson, Lester Johnson and has been covered several times on record to my knowledge