The Dave Godin Column
(from Blues and Soul 78, Feb 18th, 1972)

I have to open the column on a very sad note ... this time in recording the passing of Big Maybelle. What a great Soul Sister she was and what a great, crazy and loveable character. When she did a short tour of Britain some years ago and we had the "Soul City" store in Deptford, she and her manager paid us a courtesy call, and it was a meeting that David Nathan, Rob Blackmore and myself were hardly ever likely to forget!

We played her record Do Not Pass Me By, and she sang along with it right there in the middle of the shop! The passing traffic outside almost stopped. It should have. Her days with Rojac were her peak in my opinion. and it was there that she recorded such classics as Do Not Pass Me By, Quittin' Time and the liturgical Old Love Never Dies. Although she had in her time been with many different labels in the States which were poorly represented over here, she always managed to bring that extra something to her work. It was a depth and sincerity that many strive for and seldom achieve, and yet real lasting fame seemed always to elude this fantastic performer. The purists were never too happy about her commercial stabs, and in any case there was a Soul charisma about her that seemed to stop them becoming substantial hits for her. In addition to this bad luck dogged her at every turn. She was a loser and she was a hopeless addict. And this is a hell of a misery for anyone who has gone that route. It is possible that drugs helped contribute towards her early end.

Now compare this my brothers and sisters, to a little tale that reached my astounded ears a short time ago. It seems that one of the more blatant ego-trippers of the self-styled Soul Experts of our fair land, (who has had the last of any free publicity he's ever going to get off my back, since I reach 20,000 readers each fortnight, and he's lucky to get to a quarter of that many), was concerned that he was fading from the public eye. His readers' letters were falling off, (his very outlet might fall right off sooner than he thinks, and I expect that'll be Dave Godin's fault too!) and I was letting the mother slag me all he wants and not answering him any more, so this he sought to remedy by putting around the pathetic rumour that he'd been "busted" for drugs Planted, of course! There wasn't a shred of truth in it, but what a deliciously trendy crown of thorns to wear!

Now this same person in a fit of pique wrote that there was blatant drug abuse at the Blackpool Mecca because he was refused admission there some time ago. Since he never got in he could only have based what he wrote on what he'd heard, not what he'd seen, and a couple of weeks afterwards young Des was "busted" (as he so quaintly puts it), at the Mecca, for drug abuse. Nothing to be proud of certainly, but if he'd not written that and alerted police attention to that particular spot. Maybe Des wouldn't now he locked away in a prison And it's not just the misery of imprisonment either. It's trying to get a job again afterwards, the near impossibility of getting a visa for the USA if you've had a drug conviction, and so on. Thinking I'd been responsible for preventing their trip to the Mecca, someone wrote about me "not every brother is a brother". Of course not pettikins, there are lots of evil people in this world one would never want to be "brothers" with, and I would certainly include pompous moralists and people whose personalities are so shallow and pathetic that they do things which cause an awful lot of misery and heartache for others. For every day Des is locked up let's remember indeed that "every brother ain't a brother".

Des now knows what it's like to be "busted" for drugs, and this other one thought such a charge would sharpen his "image". Ain't that pathetic? So judge for yourself while we all will miss Des whilst he's away, and how we'll all welcome him back like a long, lost brother when he comes back to our scene. Their definition of Soul isn't ours, and no more is that kind of life style. And to tell you the truth, I'm always a little discomforted by "Soul" fans who listen, but never, never dance! You know it's a bit like ... well, talking it but never actually doing it! What strange fringes the Soul scene produces over here.

I mention all the foregoing trivia to show how we must always be careful when we shout our mouths off. Those who take the mickey out of me because I'm vegetarian often would be the first to swoon if taken to an abattoir (whereas I'd probably see it all through because I've looked on the face of the unspeakable many times in my life), and in writing such hysterical (and not altogether accurate) prose regardless of what it is going to cost other people is, like Verdelle Smith warned us, playing a dangerous game. Drugs are not to be fooled with, but getting people locked up isn't an answer to the problem either, so I hope Tony Cummings is satisfied with his doings and will in future think twice before making irresponsible and hysterical statements in print. Such tantrums have resulted in enough action to feed even his over-inflated ego I should imagine. Whilst our Des repents at leisure.

ANYWAY, to happier things. Harvey Fuqua phoned me out of the blue the other week and told me that he hopes very much to make a private holiday trip to Britain in the very near future. Now severed totally from the Motown monolith, he's working for the RCA monolith, but doing some things that he's been wanting to do for a long, long time, and working solid all the time. He's also reforming the legendary Moonglows; a move that is long overdue since they must have served as inspiration for many of the groups like The Moments that are making it right now, and their style certainly would seem to be set for a whole new lease of life with present US chart trends as they are. Anyway, we'll be doing a real in-depth interview with him when he arrives, and he hopes to see places like the Blackpool Mecca etc., first hand so that he can see what's happening outside of the merely academic Soul scene of Britain.

Roy Simonds was kind enough to send me the first four copies of his super-colossal "Raunchy Records" which is a cumulative listing of every Soul LP ever issued in the States! A really ambitious undertaking, but judging from these editions, one that is in very capable hands. Each artiste's name is followed by all the known Lp's that he, she or they have recorded, together with the American label and number. My only criticism is of the somewhat individual method of alphabetical arrangement which is by order of the artist's first name rather than by surname, but it is a minor point, and one you soon get used to. It also means that we won't have to wait five years to come to Howlin' Wolf as that fate presumably has now landed on Z. Z Hill! Each copy is about 20 pages long, and costs 15p (post free). The address to write to is 75 District Road, Sudbury Town, Wembley, Middlesex. If you are at all into the LP scene then this really is indispensable, and at the time of writing all back copies from number one onwards are still available. Did you know for instance that Chubby Checker had no less than 20 LP's issued under Cameo-Parkway? Well neither did 1, so that's something I learnt from these excellent listings which shows how valuable they are.

As promised a couple of columns ago, and in response to the many letters l've received asking for this information, I am reprinting herewith my Top 20 choices for previous years which I hope will now stand me in good stead (since I've not looked at them since they were published. I too might be in for a few shocks and embarrassments as I copy them out!). No matter, I'm prepared to stand by them. I'll print one a week until we come up to 1970.

1967

1. I Still Love You - Jean Stanbeck (Peacock)
2. I'm Undecided - Toussaint McCall (Ronn)
3. Have A Little Mercy - Jean Wells (Calla)
4. Different Strokes - Syl Johnson (Twinight)
5. Nothing Takes The Place Of You - Toussaint McCall (Ronn)
6. This Is The Thanks I Get - Barbara Lynn (Atlantic)
7. Lights Out - Zerben R. Hicks (RCA)
8. Love Reputation - Denise LaSalle (Chess)
9. I Just Don't Believe It - Ruby Andrews (Zodiac)
10. It's Not That Easy - Reuben Bell & The Casanovas (Murco)
11. Can't Last Much Longer - Betty Harris (Sansu)
12. I Gave You Everything - Irma Thomas (Chess)
13. The Glory of Love - Jackie Lee (Keymen)
14. I Made It Over - Jimmy Robins (Jerhart)
15. Oh What A Fool l've Been - Sweet Inspirations (Atlantic)
16. Make Me Yours - Bettye Swann (Money)
    (oh the shame of only putting this at 16 when it has since become my favourite record of all time! )
17. Am I Grooving You - Freddie Scott (Shout)
18. I Can't Make It Without You - Bessie Banks (Verve)
19. That's How Strong My Love Is - Mattie Moultrie (Columbia)
20. I Never Loved A Man - Aretha Franklin ( Atlantic)

On the current releases scene I must mention a record put out by Jay-Boy Only You Know And I Know by Lou & Laura Poole, which you'll never believe was recorded right here in Britain, and is one of the finest home-grown sounds I've ever heard. It moves and has a feverish urgency and some great vocal working from Lou and Laura, and employs a similar riff to that used in Ike & Tina Turner's So Fine. Laura particularly cuts the mustard, and a groovy organ gives great background support. As Jay Boy have issued such a wealth of licensed repertoire in the past and really do deserve a big, big commercial chart hit, I think it would be most ironic if this was the one to do it for them! And it has got a chance given the airplay, so listen out for it and see what you think. IF you'd not been told, I don't think many would have said that it wasn't American produced and recorded. Could it be given a higher compliment? And don't forget the one by The Young Folk on President that I mentioned last time. Stocks, I hear, are getting low.

I have sung the praises of Holland-Dozier-Holland to the point of boring my readers over the years, but I must mention their production of The 8th Day on Invictus of You've Got To Crawl (Before You Walk) which is a future in-demand sound if ever I heard one! Why EMI refuse to issue such brilliant sounds for this market I shall never understand (since they were rumoured to have paid I million dollars in advance royalties for the Invictus catalogue you'd think the Government would even demand they release more sides from this label source!), but no doubt in about three years when astute DJ's have built it into a sure-fire hit through the countries discos, they'll release it and give all the credit to some tired trendy who heard it and thought it rather nice and was in a position to speak to the powers that be to get it out. How jolly super! But since most Soul fans resent lining the pockets of EMI, try getting it on import now and thus by-pass their cash till. It would never surprise me to see EMI lose Tamla-Motown when their contract is up for renewal in the not too distant future. Three releases on Stateside in 1971 is really shocking, so maybe they'd better stop wasting money on their monumental disaster Harvest logo and start re-entering the Soul stakes again. Or let others release their Soul stuff!

Anyway, flip it and you've got It's Instrumental To Be Free written by HDH, and one of the finest sounds I've heard in ages. I don't know what it is, but Holland, Dozier and Holland seem to have a positive genius for putting their fingers exactly on the pulse of young people at any given time. This is such a NOW sound - infinitely preferable to the tiresome Shaft, and one only wishes that someone of the calibre of Gillo Pontecorvo would use it in a film ... hear it. Get it. In the next column I shall start the series of Face To Face interviews with prominent Soul people that I spoke about last time. First one will be with Clive Richardson of "Shout" magazine, and if you have any suggestions or nominations of people you'd like to read about then let me know. I must of course decline to interview the criminally blabber mouthed.

This week's lyric turn-on has been printed in my column before. I make no apology for using it again this time as it is a perfect tribute to the exquisite talents of the late, and really, truly great, Big Maybelle. Keep the faith - right on now. And if you meet a clockwork orange, suck it and see.

Lyric Turn-On of The Fortnight

I saw my old love for the first time today.
   Since we've been apart.
That old flame still burns.
   In my heart.
I thought it all had ended,
   When we said goodbye,
Then I saw him today.
   It made me wanna cry.
I found that old love.
   Never, never dies.
Old love, don't never. never die.
   (Ain't that the truth)
I found myself a new love.
   He's so sweet and kind.
I thought I had the past.
   Out of my mind.
When I saw my used to be baby,
   I can't tell a lie.
Memories of the past.
   Made me want to cry.
I found that old love.
   Don't never die.
Old love ... never dies.