Various - Loving On The Flip Side (Double vinyl LP)

The long-overlooked ballads from the flipsides of the funk 45s in the Now-Again and Truth & Soul vaults … 21 rare and unreleased sweet funk and soul tracks from 1969-1977. Now-Again unearthed so much information about the bands that recorded the definitive disco and modern soul contained in their recently launched Soul Cal anthology that they decided to release an album and a book at the same time. Following that precedent, the music contained on ‘Loving On The Flip Side’is just too damn good to be anonymously relaunched, decades after musical visionaries blended the best of heavy funk and sweet soul into a unified whole. And simply telling the stories of these vocalists and bands without allowing their lovelorn pleas to be heard again wasn’t an option. Thus, ‘Loving On The Flip Side’ again offers the enthused a chance to listen to, read about and reflect on another great burst of black American inspiration : the creation of the sublime genre called Sweet Funk. It seems laughable to skip past Thomas East’s ‘Slipping Around’ 7” for the cheesy funk of ‘Just A Trip’, or to listen obsessively to Lou Ragland’s instrumental funk on the Hot Chocolate LP and ignore his indolent-yet-stirring ‘We Had True Love’. Yet the archivists at Now-Again did just that, until they first heard the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s beautiful two-sider nearly 10 years back. This was the record that set ‘Loving On The Flip Side’ in motion, as the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s two songs precipitated the Sweet Funk genre: the dichotomy of Funky Heavy’s skull snapping rhythm section and the teenage Dears’ angelic harmonies didn’t sound like anything they’d heard before. That discovery set off a decade long search for the band and culminated in their discovery, the documenting of their stories, the emergence of their master tapes and the inclusion of their songs on ‘Loving On The Flip Side’. Going back into the field in search of other Sweet Funk swooners and beat-heavy ballads to round out this anthology, the opportunity to present anew such wondrous soul music made the exhaustive process that produced ‘Loving On The Flip Side’ worthwhile, collecting many other rare one-offs that escaped prior investigations into the deep funk and sweet soul genres. Double LP in gatefold sleeve with 80-page book filled with full annotation, unpublished photos, and each band’s story.

TRACKLIST:

A1. Darling Dears - I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Love Another   A2. Eddie Finley & The Cincinnati Show Band - Treat Me Right Or Leave Me Alone   A3. Thomas East - Slippin’ Around   A4. Hot Chocolate - We Had True Love   B1. The Equatics - Merry Go Around   B2. Black Conspirators – Love   B3. Jazzie Cazzie And The Eight Sounds - Young Girl   B4. Rhythm Machine - Whatcha Gonna Do?   B5. Ed. Nelson - I’ll Give You A Ring (When I Come, If I Come)   B6. Darling Dears - And I Love You   C1. Symphonic Four - Who Do You Think You’re Fooling (Part I)   C2. Lee Bonds - I’ll Find A True Love   C3. Black Exotics - What Am I Waiting For   C4. Black Velvet - Is It Me You Really Love   C5. The Conspiracy - I Believe (Our Love Has Gone Away)   D1. Little Janice - Since You’ve Been Gone   D2. Primitive -You Are Everything To Me   D3. Eunice Collins - At The Hotel   D4. Hunts Determination Band - Are We Through   D5. Disciples Of Soul – Together   D6. Symphonic Four - Who Do You Think You’re Fooling (Part II)

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