Lou Ragland Understand Each Other SMH LP Is The Conveyor 1978

"Understand Each Other" is one of my favourite Lou Ragland tracks and is a 6-minute plus opus written by Sonny Lavell Cochran. Sonny was a member of the Miystic label group True Movement and who also co-incidentally wrote "I Didn't Mean To Leave You" the B-side of Lou's Warners classic "Since You
Said You'd Be Mine". It has to be a good track to live with great versions of "What Should I Do?" and "Since You Said You'd Be Mine", which are also on the album.

The song is a lilting mid-tempo one with some of the best vocals Lou ever put on vinyl as he continually twists and turns his vocals over a wonderful backing track. The arrangement is inspired with great interplay on the
backing track by alto, tenor sax and flute with Rasoul Carey going crazy towards the end on alto sax. Tony Roberson lays down some tremendous drumming which holds the whole thing together. True Movement and 3 women; Pam Hamilton, Elaine Ragland and Joyce Jenkins lay down an unusual exchange
of male and female backing vocals.

I had always been intrigued by the label name SMH; Lou told me that it had a double meaning; Seven Miles High - the name of Lou's group and it also stood for Spiritual, Motion and Harmony.

Lou told me that in the middle of making the album he broke up with his group Seven Miles High; "That was supposed to be with SMH but in the middle of it we broke up and we divided the equipment and I went on my own and finished it."

I asked Lou about Sonny Lavell's and True Movements involvement in the album; he said, "They saw me working every day and they came in early and they'd sit down and write and that's how that came about"

I was also intrigued about who Mustapha was who had production credits; he told me "that was the name that the Islamic community gave me". Lou was told the name meant spiritual truth and lightness. He also told me that Lateef Mahmoud co-produced the album and he was responsible for the Arabic writing on the sleeve, which means, "In the name of God we put this product out ". Lou also commented that it was ironic that during world tensions between Jewish and Muslim in the 70's that production was a Muslim- Jewish co-production with Arnie Rosenberg who was Jewish engineering the album at the Cleveland and Agency Studios.

Lou said they pressed up 500 copies of the album and all were sold. It is probably a better album than the Hot Chocolate one recently reissued by Soul Brother Records, which is a mixture of Meters/Chamber Brothers type funk and mid-tempo/slow sides and "Is The Conveyor" builds on these more mellow sounds.

The lyrics to "Understand Each Other" are a plea by Lou to his lover to understand each other but they are also a plea for all peoples regardless of gender, race, religion or creed to understand each other. A message that is as relevant today as when the track was first recorded.

Bobby Bland Just You, Just Me MCA LP Try Me, I'm Real 1984

This period of Bobby's recording career gets overlooked in comparison to his Duke and later Malaco outings. Though these MCA albums are not amongst his best, as Bobby tried to struggle with the disco onslaught, there are still some good things in there.

We may have criticised these albums at the time of their release for being too disco orientated but they had real instruments and had excellent musicians such as Freddy Robinson on guitar and Billy McCoy on piano for example.

These MCA recordings were ICA productions, which were produced by Monk Higgins and ex-Stax executive Al Bell. The ICA sessions were either recorded in Los Angeles or Chicago. "Just You, Just Me" was recorded at the Universal
Studios in Chicago and included another ICA recording artist L.V. Johnson on guitar.

I chose this track after re-discovering it while doing some research for an interview with Alex Brown, best remembered in the UK for her Sundi recording "I'm Not Responsible". Alex wrote "Just You, Just Me" with the producer Monk Higgins.

Alex met Monk during her time at Tangerine Records because he had an office in Ray Charles's building, which housed Tangerine. At that time, Monk was working with Wally Roker and Dee Irwin and Alex was still a Raelet. They became friends and Alex said; "He helped me a lot and I would say that Monk shaped me in how to write. He really encouraged my career and talent. I knew I could write but I wasn't really serious about it until I met him and he really encouraged me."

Monk helped Alex open her first publishing company called Little Mama and showed her how to survive in the music business. She told me that; "He was also taking a lot of my publishing and I didn't know he was doing it" but she burst out laughing as she told me so I think she must have forgiven him!!

Monk and Alex lived quite close together and they started writing in her mother's garage. She told me that she always looked forward to getting back off the road and writing. "I would write 10 songs and put them down on a tape recorder and that's how it started." She would then take them to Monk and she remembers that though Monk's instrument was a saxophone he could chord them out on a piano and they would put them together.

"Just You, Just Me" is a fully orchestrated slow number, which is not bluesy at all but similar to a Walter Jackson type song from his UA days. Bobby brings his rich deep tones to a love song about how his love life is turned upside down and how he would never change the way things are. There are some marvellous backing vocals from Sweet Spirit, a 4 -piece girl group and some tasty guitar runs from either LV Johnson or Freddie Robinson. This song is one of the highlights from his MCA period.

Rance Allen God Can Do The Impossible Stax LP I Feel Like Going On 1980

This track is from Rance Allen's third album for the reactivated mauve Stax label, which was resurrected in the late 70's. From the moment, the clip clop beat starts on this powerful Ronnie McNeir written song you know it's going to be a tour de force.

Rance and Ronnie produced the track together at the Sound Suite Recording Studios in Detroit. It just builds up and up with great backing vocals from Rance's brothers and Brandye. There are some great bass runs from Billy Sumler in there and terrific swirling string arrangements from Johnny Allen.

When I spoke to Rance in August of this year, I had earmarked this track as one I wanted to ask him about. Rance told me the following about the song; "Oh man that was a fantastic tune. Early this year I was sitting up in a restaurant in Kalamazoo, Michigan and a young guy came up to the table - a young guy and he said I don't believe it's you and he stopped and shook my hand and this guy almost came to tears and he told me " I want you to know that you got me through college with one song" and I asked him what song was and it was "God Can Do The Impossible". This guy hugged me and took my bill for my food and told me to never stop singing."

Ronnie wrote the song especially for Rance and he had brought the song to him as a demo. He then cut the backing track before he gave Rance and his brothers individual parts. Rance remembered "We had fun doing it but I never did sing it live". Rance then laughed at the thought that he would have to re-learn the song for any future show in the UK, which was a possibility when I spoke to him.

This is a song that is totally uplifting which sinks into your consciousness and you are left with the feeling that Rance might just be right!!!

William Bell Easy Comin' Out (Hard Goin' In) Mercury LP "It's Time You Took Another Listen" 1977

This track comes from William Bell's second LP for Mercury and follows on the success of Coming Back For More his first Mercury album, which was his first recording after the demise of Stax.

The release of the album came at a difficult time for William at Mercury. He had already realised that the powers that be were not sympathetic to what he was trying to do with his music. There were also changes in the management. William told me; "When I saw that transition happening I thought hey this is like another Stax thing".

William wanted out but they were not happy because he was contracted for another 2 albums. William told them that he would honour the contract. William said; "I cut the second LP and presented it to them and they released "Easy Coming Out" and it went onto the charts at No. 60 something and was a real big disco hit in New York and some other places but I was getting no bread and butter spots - no promotion at radio stations."

The recording of this album was the first time that William had worked in Memphis since he had left Stax. He recorded the album partly at the Ardent Studios in Memphis using musicians such as William Brown III, James Mitchell, Ben Cauley and Michael Toles and the backing singers included Lee Hatim the ex-Masqueraders lead singer.

William co-wrote "Easy" with Paul Mitchell who he had met at a club called Dantes in Atlanta when he moved to the city in the mid-70's. William had seen Paul playing in a jazz combo and he liked his "flow" and when the opportunity came to record the first Mercury album he immediately contacted Paul. Paul worked at William's Wilbe productions for several years and was involved in other Wilbe recordings such as Jackie Moore's "Personally" for Columbia.

"Easy" is a very catchy tune and it is not surprising it charted but don't let the fact that it was a disco hit put you off. Again, it is a well-crafted song with real instruments which today makes it sound like a breath of fresh air.