Leon Ware "Why I Came To California"

[REPLAY]

I finally had a listen to this tune last week, after hearing for years how rare it is.....and I wasn't too impressed, just my opinion. I mean it was alright but for all the money that people shell out for it I could think of many records that I'd rather have... What do you guys think of this tune? Am I trippin' ? if so tell me- &quot;Yo klas your trippin! You need to listen to that tune again when you're in your right mind&quot;. &gt;:(<br />Anyway. If you can think of anyother tunes that you had heard about for a while and then when you finally heard it you were let down, go ahead and post them here.... and if I know em I'll tell you if you're trippin or not...haha ;D

[Hadrian Elephant]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I never thought it was that rare? (£30 or less for the LP)<br /><br />II really like the track myself, brings back many good soul weekender memories (even though the weather was usually terrible when it was being played)<br /><br />Still, it would be a boring world if we all liked the same stuff.....

[Belson]

It's a superb feel good track - I could maybe do without the sax mini-solo, which is what Leon has done the last few times I've seen him live.<br /><br />Go see him live, and sing a long with the whole room as this one drops. Very uplifting stuff.<br /><br />And the album isn't that rare, as Hadrian says. A 30 quidder - or if you bide your time in the States like I did, it cost me a solitary one presidential portrait on folding green.<br /><br /> ;)

[Sean P]

Replay -<br /> Don't you find a lot of records you've previously known by reputation only, dull? The Leon Ware track is very of its time, it was a pretty popular tune here at least. I maintain that I'd have loved it had I not heard it in 1982 - but had I just checked it recently like yourself, it may well be a bit too middle-of-the-road for me to get worked up about. Horses for courses, as they say...<br /><br /> Maybe we should start a thread about records whose reputations (unjustly) precede them. No doubt every record from the past 40 years would end on there.<br />

[Jolyon]

A lot of the rare Italo records are really really average when you actually hear them I find. e.g. Not Love by Trilogy. When I finally heard it after years of wanted to get it I thought it was very average...

[REPLAY]

<br />Maybe I'm wrong, but I never thought it was that rare? (£30 or less for the LP)<br /><br />II really like the track myself, brings back many good soul weekender memories (even though the weather was usually terrible when it was being played)<br /><br />Still, it would be a boring world if we all liked the same stuff.....<br /><br /><br />Haha, I had a second thought after I posted this and it looks like I'm lucky that I didn't get stoned by the soul boys up in here... ;)<br />I should have made clear that I was talking about the 12&quot; being very rare and costly... <br />Hadrian, You are very right that it would be boring if we all liked the same stuff. My thought was just, after hearing that people pay several hundreds of dollars (or punds) for the 12&quot;, I expected to be blown away... it's not that it's a bad song, living in southern cali myself I kind of like some of the lyrics, but it just dosen't do it for me.. ::)<br /><br />Sean, I do find that I am sometimes let down by tunes who's reputation proceeds them. Some of my favorite records are ones that I've discovered on my own.<br /><br />And Jolyon, I deffinately hear you on the Italo thing, a few months back I picked up Zeta Eh Ah Oh for a buck at a fair after hearing what a big Italo record it was and I was very let down... I agree alot of Italo falls in this category... I guess it all comes down to personal opinion.<br />

[nick cope]

To be fair, tracks like Why I Came to California get the bemusement and gas faces nowadays because that slick soul sound isn't in vogue right now, despite all the efforts from JT etc, but that Leon Ware tune was the shit ten years back, along with the whole 'that's a rare album' tag that came with it. I mean take a look at Steve Parks' Moving in the Right Direction - that tune blew up in years gone by, but nowadays no-one will touch it with a barge pole and the album is easily affordable - for some reason back then, it was harder to get hold of too... record dealers perhaps?

[Sean P]

The Leon Ware tune was fairly popular when it came out. Things were a little different say, 18 years ago. I recall seeing that LP on record lists for £5 and the 12&quot; for £10 in 1985 and thinking they were a rip-off!<br />Record dealers have changed things an awful lot - before the London record fairs at least, it was pretty difficult to find indemand US material. I can recall records like '80s Ladies' 'Turned On To You' selling for £40, four years after it came out - Don Blackman changing hands for more, less than 3 years after its release. That's good money now, imagine the (comparative) expense then?<br />It was really when a lot of people cottened on to good sources like Soul Bowl in Norfolk and Soul-Utions in Grantham, Max Reese in Cambridge and of course, the record fairs, that some titles started turning up in any quantity. For me, at least, the cut-out bins and shops like Bluebird and Hitman and various second hand shops were always worth trawling for good oldies.<br />A lot of first generation &quot;rare groove&quot; cuts are big all over again to a totally new audience, which is an interesting development.

[REPLAY]

Back to Italo for a sec, someone just sent me the track Robot Is Systemic(or something like that), this is another one that I'd heard about before, but never heard and I wasn't too impressed...glad it was a gift...I hope the person who sent it isn't reading this.. ::)<br />Let me know if it's just me, but it seems to me that the Italo craze seems to be winding down...apparently alot of people got burned by bad italo records...ha..<br />The next big thing seems to me to be 80's boogie records like the ones on the site www.danceclassics.net . The french seem to have a headstart ... at least I see them here in LA scouring the fairs for this stuff.. There are definately some good tunes, but, I'm not even a dealer and I have people approaching me for this stuff and I don't think they've heard all the tunes they're asking for... so again these records are building reputations that proceed them....

[ladyboygrimsby]

Yeah, Robot Is Systematic is pretty crap. I got it for 50p here about four years ago. <br /><br />Regarding boogie, you should start up another thread for that. Sean P knows a lot about that stuff, but from what I know I'd say the people who've got a head start on it are the black DJs and dancers who were into it in the south east of England in the early 80s. There was a whole scene and culture based around it in London back then. I've always been a bit confused about what differentiated it from plain old disco. I know it's slower and a bit funkier, but then loads of disco slow and funky. I think if you asked a New York club head what it was they'd say it was club music. But, hey, what do I know? I wasn't there. As I say ask Sean. I'm pretty sure he was there.

[Jolyon]

Re: Boogie<br /><br />It doesn't seem that long ago that record shops had a 'soul and boogie' secion...even virgin.<br /><br />I've always had a slight prejudice against some of it. I've never been keen on the electronic side of 'boogie'...those drum beats sound a bit cheesy to my ears sometimes. <br /><br />I'd be interested to hear some now though. For some reason I always think of Loose Ends, wine bars, Ford Escorts and suits with shoulder pads whenever someone mentions the word 'boogie'. I don't know why.

[ladyboygrimsby]

Think Leroy Burgess and you'll be getting warmer I think.

[Sean P]

You knew I wouldn't wait for an enquiry, Bill....<br /><br />Boogie is definitely in 'the ear of the behearer' to a certain extent, though there are several virtual rules which distinguish it from straight-up disco or plain soul/R&amp;B. It's little complex to go into, but to generalise, boogie does tend to be marginally slower than disco in a lot of cases, not necessarily pounding four-to-the-floor and a little less rigid in its structure, perhaps (rhythmically at least ).<br /><br />I'm not sure what the posters here are into primarily, though for argument's sake, I've found that house people tend to dislike boogie in most cases. A lot of well-known oldies at the moment are actually rooted in the boogie scene - the aforementioned '...California' and Clyde Alexander &amp; Sanction are but two examples. I've also noticed that a few long-time boogies staples are very indemand with collectors worldwide - the Delirium label seems to be pretty hot at the moment and the big money tunes on there are pure '80s boogie. Panache's 'Sweet Jazz Music' is definitely a boogie tune to these ears, more so than plain old disco.<br /><br />The corny synthed Prelude-style sound seems to ring especially cheesy for the anti-boogie brigade, though it may take on new meaning if it's mixed by Francois K. I'm actually surprised Burgess is so big across the board, as he is indicative of a whole boogie sound. Maybe it's the power of association at play here - had there not been a 'Mainline' or 'Barely Breaking Even', would so many non-boogie people be interested? There's good and bad boogie and certainly something for everyone who's prepared to persevere with it.

[Jolyon]

Ta Mr P.

[ladyboygrimsby]

In which case, Sean, what would you recommend for a boogie beginner to check out? What's most representative of the boogie sound?

[Hadrian Elephant]

<br />It was really when a lot of people cottened on to good sources like Soul Bowl in Norfolk and Soul-Utions in Grantham, Max Reese in Cambridge <br /><br /><br />Good to see my local dealer Max getting a mention.<br /><br />Although he's never been the biggest soul dealer, (unless you measure it by waist size) he's still had his fair share of good tunes to sell over the years, including being the first dealer to find quantities of 'I Don't Want To See Myself Without You' thus enabling it to turn it into a massive sound on the soul scene.<br />

[Sean P]

<br />In which case, Sean, what would you recommend for a boogie beginner to check out? What's most representative of the boogie sound?<br /><br /><br />Funny how your mind goes blank in such situations, Bill..<br /><br />I'll try to be open-minded with this off-the-top list:<br /><br />Inner Life 'I've Got To Find Somebody' (Salsoul)<br />One On One 'Body Music' (Bonus)<br />Zalmac 'Dreamin'' (The Sound Of Brooklyn)<br />Logg 'Dancing Into The Stars' (Salsoul)<br />Lisa Hill 'I Am On The Real Side' (Cherry Hill)<br />Spirit Band 'Keep Your Love Alive' re-mix (Rare Season Productions)<br />Kenny Delt &amp; Prana 'Conquer All' (Mercury)<br />Carole Sylvan 'Think' (Sound Of New York)<br />W.A.G.B. Band 'I Can Get You Over' (Street Sound)<br />Carol Williams 'Can't Get Away (From Your Love)' (Vanguard)<br />Lee Prentiss 'Love This Way' (I.Y.W.T.D./MSB)<br />Colors 'Am I Gonna Be The One' (First Take)<br />Tia Monae 'Don't Keep Me Waiting' (First Take)<br />JSB-Pentration 'On The Money' (Penco)<br />Starshine 'All I Need Is You' (Prelude)<br />Sparque 'Music Turns Me On' (West End)<br />Gene Dunlap 'Party In Me' (Capitol)<br />Wish 'Nice And Soft' (Perspective)<br />Sandy Mercer 'Give Me Youe Love' (Helva)<br />Eastside Connection 'You're So Right For Me' (Rampart)<br /><br />...this is a completely random selection of not particularly hard to find tunes, with no hidden agenda. They're not here because they're the greatest or rarest records ever - they're not all things I still like, but I thnk there's a well rounded choice of varying tempi and degrees of funkiness, jazziness or what have you. I never went to Crackers, so this isn't sbout Crackers classics either. The emphasis here is more on the early '80s side of things, but this is what I think is relevant in this case. There's many, many more which I've left out but remember, this is just a sampler.<br />

[Andrew@6MS]

Here's an interesting one......... how would you class Gwen Guthrie??<br /><br />Stuff like &quot;Should Have Been You&quot;, &quot;Padlock&quot; and &quot;Seventh Heaven&quot; kinda sit on the fence of boogie, disco &amp; funk without falling discinctly into any particular category. <br /><br />By the way, nice website Bill. :)<br /><br />Peace.<br /><br />Andrew<br />

[Sean P]

<br />Here's an interesting one......... how would you class Gwen Guthrie??<br /><br />Stuff like &quot;Should Have Been You&quot;, &quot;Padlock&quot; and &quot;Seventh Heaven&quot; kinda sit on the fence of boogie, disco &amp; funk without falling discinctly into any particular category. <br /><br />Andrew<br /><br /><br /><br />Pretty much boogie to me. No doubt some would disagree. It's all quite personal... :)