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Armen Boladian\u2019s Westbound Records was an important force in the funk and r&b scene of the late \u201860s and early 1970s. With Funkadelic as its anchor artist, the label turned out some compelling and memorable albums and singles. Some of the best from among those are collected on this new Record Store Day release.<\/p>\n
The album opens with the stomping \u201cI Bet You,\u201d a Funkadelic single written by George Clinton and (my good friend) Sidney Barnes<\/a>. The deep groove and hypnotic vibe make it one of the era\u2019s great funk tracks.<\/p>\n While they\u2019re noted on this LP as The Counts, when the single \u201cRhythm Changes\u201d was released in 1971, it was credited to The Fabulous Counts. And they are<\/em> pretty damn fabulous, with more grooves, a soulful horn chart and (as the title suggests) a rhythm section that slays. That distorted B3 is ace, too.<\/p>\n Multigenre vocalist Denise LaSalle released \u201cHung Up, Strung Out\u201d as the b-side of her single \u201cHeartbreak of the Year.\u201d Here she and her backing players unmistakably nail the Stax vibe, and in fact the recording was cut in Memphis and arranged by Willie Mitchell.<\/p>\n The Detroit Emeralds aren\u2019t among the most well-known acts of the era, but the tune that represents them on this set, \u201cDo Me Right\u201d has a great arrangement, solid vocals and some very nice string sweetening. The track made it to #7 on Billboard<\/i>\u2019s soul singles chart.<\/p>\n Guitarist Donald Austin also cut that tune for his 1973 Crazy Legs<\/em> LP, but it\u2019s another track from that platter that appears on The Westbound Sound<\/i>. \u201cHot Rooster\u201d is a one-chord funkster with layers of tasty guitar.<\/p>\n Those ubiquitous Shaft<\/i>-y wah-wah rhythm guitars show up on the discofied \u201cAlvin Stone (The Birth of a Gangster)\u201d by the Fantastic Four. This 1975 single sounds like the theme song to a blaxploitation flick of the era, but it doesn\u2019t seem to actually be one. Either way, it\u2019s solid and cinematic, and at nearly seven minutes, definitely designed for dancing.<\/p>\n Anyone who spent time in record stores of the \u201870s will know The Ohio Players. They might not know the music, but those sexy album covers\u2026 oh, yeah. In any event, the group\u2019s \u201cFunky Worm (Single Mix)\u201d has some weird \u2018n\u2019 wiggly synth work and a stomping groove to recommend it, but the lead vocal is intrusive and annoying. An instrumental remix would have been more welcome.<\/p>\n \u201cTangarine Green\u201d (sic) from Parliament-Funkadelic co-founder Fuzzy Haskins has a lot going on, with great chorus vocals and some ace clavinet work. It was the leadoff track on Haskins\u2019 solo debut, A Whole Nother Thang<\/i>.<\/p>\n Top-notch strings and beefy horns lay down a superb musical bed for Spanky Wilson\u2019s \u201cShake Your Head.\u201d The tune should have been a highlight of her sole album for Westbound, 1975\u2019s Specialty of the House<\/i>, but apparently it was released only as a promo single (on associated label Eastbound). It deserved a higher profile; here, belatedly, it gets one.<\/p>\n Dennis Coffey<\/a> is a legend all his own. Funk Brother, superb and innovative guitarist and top-notch producer, Coffey made a lot of great records that remain out of print<\/a>. \u201cLive Wire\u201d is a repetitive chorus vocal disco number in the vein of Silver Convention (or Herbie Mann\u2019s \u201cHijack\u201d), and as such not among his greatest works. But his guitar playing is \u2013 as always \u2013 a must-hear.<\/p>\n The album wraps with \u201cDevil\u2019s Gun\u201d an atmospheric number from C.J. & Co. Who are they, you may ask? Well, they\u2019re a project led by Coffey and collaborator Mike Theodore. The tune is more disco, but it\u2019s pretty thrilling stuff, with sweeping strings, ooooh-aaah vocals and some thunderous guitar licks slipped in. \u201cDevil\u2019s Gun\u201d made it to #12 on the r&b chart and #36 on the pop singles chart.<\/p>\n As a sampler of Westbound\u2019s singles and deep-cut tracks, The Westbound Sound<\/i> is a must-hear. And unless you\u2019re an ardent aficionado of the label, most of this music will be new to you (or at least long-forgotten). Dig if you will, and you should.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Armen Boladian\u2019s Westbound Records was an important force in the funk and r&b scene of the late \u201860s and early 1970s. With Funkadelic as its anchor artist, the label turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,2614,31,49,60,65,73],"tags":[3580,1801,5408],"class_list":["post-27446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-disco","category-funk","category-new-release","category-rb","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-org-music","tag-record-store-day","tag-westbound-records","cat-19-id","cat-2614-id","cat-31-id","cat-49-id","cat-60-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27458,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27446\/revisions\/27458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}