On Friday we noticed that Essential Media Group digitally reissued a
'modern' Northern Soul gem "I Need You" (vocal and instrumental) by Diane Jenkins. The version released is the 'standard' version as there is
another, rarer, version which has a short spoken intro and also a
different arrangement that many prefer, so we've included a YouTube clip posted by Ted
Massey below.
A little anecdote, the song was written by Sam Culley who was a member of The Diplomats who morphed into Skull Snaps whose self-titled GSF album is a collectors item (that's been reissued multiple times and we are proud owners of an original acquired from John Anderson's Soul Bowl back in the day still in it's shrink warp) and had several tracks played on the scene.
The flip side to her first single "Anniversary" was "Tow-A-Way Zone" which was popular enough in the mid 70s to gain a UK issue by President imprint Crystal in
1975.
A bit of further investigation on the artist uncovered this statement by Ian
Levine who discovered "Tow-A-Way Zone" and gave it exposure at the Blackpool
Mecca in the early 70s which was posted on Soul Source
in 2012 from an older post on a forum ANS.
"I tracked down Creative Funk label owner Deke DeBerry. He's now living in
Carolina. His brother Gary DeBerry still lives in New York, and was the
bass player in Creative Funk.
Back in 1976, Sheila Hart and I went with them all to an open air
concert upstate New York for radio station WLIB. Diane Jenkins performed
with Creative Funk, and I got introduced to the audience. It was what
was called a "Picnic In The Park". We'd made "Tow Away Zone" such an
underground hit at Blackpool Mecca and the Northern Soul scene, that
they'd asked me to explain what sound we were into, and so "I Need You"
was born, as an attempt to create something that the Northern Soul Scene
would also like. Anyway, forward to 1999. We were desperately trying to
find Diane for the "Strange World Of Northern Soul".
Gary DeBerry tracked her down to a block of flats in Brooklyn and got
her phone number. But she wouldn't return any messages. He said he'd
heard she was a bit of a junkie, but didn't know if this was true or
not. In the end, he went over to Brooklyn twice, but couldn't get her to
even answer the door. I left many pleading messages on her answer phone,
but to no avail. As I said...... The STRANGE world of Northern Soul."
Creative Funk was an Albany, NY, based label (distributed by Bell) owned by brothers Gary
Lamont De Berry Sr. and Deek DeBerry who were also both members of the
band Creative Funk and Jenkins was their lead singer.
The label released 8 singles between 1973-75 before the band Creative Funk
split in 1975. Bassist Gary went on to play with Bobbie Humphrey,
Norman Connors, Jean Carne and Stanley Turrentine. Deek died in 2007. The
label seems to have been reactivated in the mid 80s
We discovered that also on Friday (and some earlier) Essential Media Group has actually
reissued all of the Creative Funk label's 70s output digitally so
rather than just posting "I Need You" we thought it well worth
posting all of them and have ordered them chronologically by
original release in the playlist below.
In addition we've included a later recording by Creative Funk which
we believe was released in the 80s (not dated on Discogs and
not listed on 45Cat) which is an in-demand deep funk recording which
featured Veedette Williams on the vocal B side and is allegedly the
hardest one to find in the label.
NB we've included Funk Machine "Soul Santa" for completeness as, if
you overlook the festive title, then it's a tight funky
number.
Creative Funk Discography
Creative Funk
1972-09 - Ready Made Family / Funk Power [#12,000] (NB A side
feat. Diane Jenkins)
1973-?? - Moving World / Breezie's [#12001]
Diane Jenkins
1973-?? - Anniversary /Tow-A-Way Zone [#12002]
1973-?? - Gee Baby, What About You / Recycle [#12003]
Funk Machine
1973-?? - Soul Santa - Part I / Soul Santa - Part II
[#12004]
Diane Jenkins
1974-02 - I'm A Woman / Sweet Wine, Music, And My Imagination
[#12005]
1975-?? - I Need You / I Need You [Instrumental] [#12005]
The Limelites / Creative Funk Orchestra
1975 - Before The Next Teardrop Falls / Theme: Before The Next
Teardrop Falls [#12008]
Creative Funk
198?-?? - The Whole Groove / The Whole Thing [#CF-1201]
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1 comment:
Magnificent analysis on this group and label which would have deserved another outcome than relative anonymity. Just listen to realize the quality of the whole.
Yves
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