THE DIRTY DIG is an excavation of pop, soul, avant-garde, soundtrack, electronic, mood, worldwide, spicy sounds culled from archives past and present. It’s a space where, for example, Julie London can chanteuse all over a Zdeněk Liška’s panorama that leads right into Rick Hall’s Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, while Wally Badarou lays a beat on a dusty thrift store copy of Jack Fascinato’s “Palm Spring Suite.”

Programme # 1: Soul Party Nontooth (04.03.12)
Program notes by Gustavo Turner

Exuma – “Exuma the Obeah Man”
Bahamian musician Macfarlane Mackey moved to NYC in 1959 to study architecture, but soon dropped out and joined the beatnik/folkie scene as Tony McKay. In 1970, after a decade toiling on the coffeehouse circuit, Tony McKay decided that if Mac Rebennak could be reborn as Dr. John the Nightripper, surely he could reinvent himself as island wizard Exuma the Obeah Man. His own theme song is a bizarro psychedelic relative to both Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” and Led Zeppelin’s “Trampled Underfoot.”

Nina Simone – “Save Me”
Nina got funky only every once in a while, but when she went, she went laaaarge. Witness the mighty “Sinnerman” or else this rarer revamp of a relatively obscure Aretha Franklin workout. Compiled on the consistently excellent “Flying Funk: Ultra Heavy Funk and Rare Grooves from Flying Dutchman, Bluejay and RCA.”

The Temptations – “Law of the Land”
Like the Exuma track, this was a favorite at early gay disco The Gallery, and it’s also compiled on the Nicky Siano collection for Soul Jazz. Of course, it’s Whitfield-era Tempts, so there’s nothing wrong with it, at all.

Etta James – “Leave Your Hat On”
Kim Basinger and “9 ½ Weeks” elevated the Joe Cocker version to ‘80s sleaze cult status, but the much earlier, much, much raunchier Etta James version doesn’t deserve its relative obscurity. A solid late-period Chess single, as good as anything from the classic era.

Wilson Pickett – “Born to Be Wild”
The Mars Bonfire classic, covered by Pickett at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, AL, for genius producer Rick Hall.

Bobbie Gentry – “He Made a Woman Out of Me”
Another Rick Hall masterpiece, taking the sound pioneered by Atlantic for Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” and pushing it into the stratosphere of country soul.

Mac Davis – “A Little Less Conversation”
Rick Hall favorite Mac Davis reprising the tune he wrote for Elvis. Sounds like a classic southern soul production but was actually recorded in New York with some session cats. Still sublime.

The Fame Gang – “What Does It Take”
The FAME Studios’ own Wrecking Crew on their only LP. Worth tracking down.

The Miracles – “Ain’t Nobody Straight in LA”
The most amazing part of The Miracles’ “City of Angels”–a concept album along the same lines as Guns N Roses’ “Appetite for Destruction” but a decade and a half earlier and way on the soul tip. Featuring one amazingly open-minded line after another, from the revelation that “most everyone is AC/DC” in LA, to the final confirmation that “gay people are alright.” Both way ahead and completely of its time

Sylvester – “Southern Man”
If Lynyrd Skynyrd had a problem with Neil Young’s indictment of racist Southern nostalgia, who knows what they would have made of the same sentiment voiced by the fiercest black androgyne ever, the one and only Sylvester.

Gus Brendel Group – “Take a Shake”
Sleazy Euro-instrumental from obscure French compilation “Nymphomanie #2.” Don’t know much about this one. The French have been on some really weird sexual trip since at least the 1700s, though.

The Contortions – “Contort Yourself”
James Chance couldn’t figure out if he wanted to be the New Wave Chet Baker or the New Wave James Brown. While he sorted himself out, he made this, the apotheosis of something that shouldn’t have worked on paper, but somehow, for a brief while between latest Carter and earliest Reagan NYC, it did.

James Brown – “That’s Life”
While James Chance wanted to be James Brown, James Brown wanted to be Sinatra. Again, this shouldn’t have worked on paper, but somehow, for a brief while between latest LBJ and earliest Nixon America, it did.

Elvis Presley – “Steamroller Blues”
A late-ish Elvis single, from “Aloha Hawaii” of all places, that can be held alongside the ‘50s stuff without any embarrassment whatsoever. Adult, bluesy and as much a Nixon-era artifact as the Napalm it oh so casually namedrops.

Ike & Tina Turner – “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”
The absolutely best thing in the movie “Gimme Shelter” has nothing to do with the Rolling Stones or the Hell’s Angels, but with the one, the only Ms. Anna Mae Bullock giving a handjob to a mic stand while singing the blues like someone whose dues were duly paid over and over. This monster track was first officially issued on the “Get Yet Ya-Yas Out” ABKCO box a few years ago.

Rare Earth – “Ma”
More Whitfield Soul from Motown’s second Golden Age. The flip story to “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” and another product originally conceived for the Temptations psychosoul assembly line.

Scott Walker – “Use Me”
Scott has disowned everything between “Til’ The Band Comes In” and “Climate of the Hunter,” but his staunchest fans (and aren’t we all) don’t care. His mid-’70s cover of Bill Withers’ poor-sap lament is the funkiest thing he’s ever done.

Blossom Dearie – “I Like London In The Rain”
This Blossom Dearie track, with the ready-made breakbeat, singlehandedly made the “That’s Just the Way I Want to Be” album a rare collector’s item. Pity, cause it’s all great and I doubt the beatheads ever play any of the other tracks.

InI – “What You Say”
One tiny detour into hip-hop, with a Pete Rock production that samples the Isley Brother’s cover of Bob Dylan’s romantic ballad “Lay Lady Lay.”

James Last – “Bolero ’75”
German discoification of Ravel’s greatest hit, one of a handful of James Last tracks worth collecting.

Kink Curtis – “Memphis Soul Stew”
File under “Songs the Blues Brothers Taught Us.” I rarely play any Belushi-Ackroyd-Stax tracks anymore, but I surely think of the fat Albanian and his cohorts everytime I play one of the originals they introduced me and many others to.

Lee “Scratch” Perry – “Iron Man”
Scratch does Sabbath. With Adrian Sherwood facilitating.

Bob Dylan – “Watching the River Flow”
One of Dylan’s great lost singles. It’s fantastic and most people only know it as part of the best-selling (though not most-played) “Greatest Hits II.” I haven’t the foggiest idea whether the 45 I played is in fact a different edit from the album version, but in my mind the single has a special sauce on it. Shoulda been a contender, but people were listening to far sludgier stuff back in ‘71.

Solomon Burke – “Got to Get You Off My Mind”
File under “Songs Nick Hornby Taught Us.” This single is pivotal in the “High Fidelity” book and I thank Nick for hipping me to it.

The Drifters – “Ruby Baby”
File under “Songs the Beach Boys Taught Us,” an outtake of the criminally underrated “Party!” album. Every major band should record a “Party!” album in their prime, for posterity.

The Contours – “Do You Love Me”
Also file under “Songs the Blues Brothers Taught Us.” Belushi’s version of the spoken intro is a classic.

Booker T & The MGs – “Soul Limbo”
There’s no such thing as a weak “Booker T & the MGs on Atlantic” track. Ever.

Otis Redding – “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”
Nobody’s gonna pick this version over James Brown come Desert Island time, but luckily we’re not in a Desert Island and this is Total Musical Information Awareness time, so the Big O gets his brand new bag too.

Clarence Carter – “Making Love at the Dark End of the Street”
Closing with another gem from Rick Hall’s FAME studios. Apparently Clarence Carter preceded his version of “Dark End of the Street” with an epic vamp about how everybody needs somebody to freak (even mosquitos). Leave it to Carter and Hall to make the vamp into an actual single, which only gets to the actual song at the very end, for only one verse.

Hope you enjoyed the program. See you next week with another Dirty Dig.