Athens Of The North has remastered and reissued a 1976 self-titled album
from Bobby Boyd last Friday.
Boyd formed Bobby Boyd Congress in 1970 who released an album in 1971.
The group was the predecessor to Lafayette Afro Rock Band changing their
name when they relocated from New York to Paris in 1971. Boyd left the
group and returned to New York with the group staying in Paris and
renaming themselves Ice. They had several other identities including, for
those who have the misfortune of remembering it, Crispy & Co with a
cheesy disco single "Brazil" which was a disco-fied version of a 50s samba
recording by Ary Barroso "Aquarela Do Brasil." This was a bit of a trend
in the mid/late 70s with every man and his dog jumping on the disco
bandwagon with disco versions of many standards wasting vinyl!
Anyway, we digress. Boyd released a solitary, self-titled, solo album on
tax scam label Tiger Lily in 1976 having previously released two singles
in 1965 on Veep and 1968 on Bang. Boyd was introduced to George Benson via
Benson's manager Jimmy Boyd, and Benson produced the album. With it being
released on a tax scam label, deliberately set up as a tax loss offset,
the album was doomed from the start with no promotion and has remained in
obscurity. Only one original is listed on Discogs with an asking price of
£1,170 (and it's only VG) and none have sold there except for a promo copy
in Dec 2020 for what looks like a bargain price of £387!
The opening track "Why Are We Crying" has long been admired on the UK rare soul scene and was reissued by
Cambridge DJ Andy Davies on his Street Soul label in 2012 along with a
later previously unreleased recording "I Went Along With Your Program" from 1991.
The album has been previously reissued twice in 2011 on CD and vinyl and
again in 2012 on CD and AOTN reissued it digitally in May 2018 via
Bandcamp, but, presumably, this latest release is a better quality remastered
edition, or has just been made more widely available? Although we note
that the new edition contains an extra track not on any of the other
releases i.e. track 5 "'Cause I Love You".
The album is available digitally and on vinyl via
Bandcamp.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
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| Rating: | 8.3 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | 70s Soul / Funk |
| Format: | Album / Reissue |
| Media: | Digital / Vinyl |
| Label: | Athens Of The North |
| Cat No: | None |
| Date: | 21/07/2023 |
| Price: | £6.49 / £22.99 |
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