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I think you know what I mean, the Millie Jackson , Betty Wright kind of stuff being released in the seventies. Is there a term for this type of record? I defer to anyone who wants to give the genre its proper title ....:confused:
Anyway, fifty years ago this one made the Top Forty in the summer of 1970:
MAYBE Three Degrees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1GHhDJ8uHI
Is it the first ???
I've been evil as a wet hen ever sense ....lol!
I think it's definitely up there as one of the first. Think Isaac Hayes was doing similar that same year [[I Stand Accused).
It didn't really get going until Millie though but you're right, Maybe precedes it.
It wasn't a genre at all earlier in the history of American popular music. Talking, speaking
i.e. "rapping" was a common technique in a lot of music decades before hip hop was born.
It often occurred in jazz and blues, especially in live performance, but was not out of place
in country music either. Johnny Cash's I've Been Everywhere a prime example. But as far
as that spoken dish type stuff I think a few folks had the Three Degrees beat by a few years. Big Maybelle for one....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-en80qeJo
The Ink Spots had a speaking part in almost all their records. It was sort of their signature just as the intro to all their songs was exactly the same .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC_VzbtRGr0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7KJCns5v3g
Most of their songs have the same into and spoken word in middle of song. I did not discover the Ink Spots until I realized that the Platters were doing remakes of some the Ink Spots songs. While the Ink Spots are fine, I much more prefer the Platters [[featuring Tony Williams on lead)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDlcqhlzDqQ
Margie Joseph did something around 1970 on an LP that had a very long spoken introduction to a song which was Stop In The Name of Love. It was later released as a 45 and the spoken intro was drastically shortened. This is the 45 version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yWk24guro
This genre never really had a proper title. As other posters have mentioned, monologues had always been a fixture in R&B/Soul Music. However, the extended spoken segments used by Isaac Hayes on "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" & "I Stand Accused" definitely made an impact on '70s Soul and records like "Maybe".Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogiedown
PS: I Love the monologue on The Three Degrees' version of "Maybe" & it was the first time I heard of the group that would do "When Will I See You Again" a few years later.
Good info provided here !!
I'm thinking this genre , so no, not a genre , call it a style, "girl talk"?, was less prevalent in the seventies than I at first was thinking it actually was .. ....:confused:
That Margie Joseph example is exactly what I was thinking of though .... most fitting here at SD that it's using a Supremes song ....! :cool:
Years later, Isaac Hayes and Millie Jackson would eventually go one on one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRSPzCfbDg4
In 1974 , Shirley Brown had her one big hit [[#1 Soul for two weeks) with WOMAN TO WOMAN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsyJvn9FiA
Interesting that Isaac Hayes , Margie Joseph, and Shirley Brown were all issued through STAX. WOMAN TO WOMAN would be STAX last successful single before folding.
here's another one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L7IFkRaGhY
Of all the "getting real" female rap's, this one by Betty Wright on Richard 'Dimples' Fields' "She's Got Papers On Me" is my favorite. It starts at around the 4:25 mark in the song.
https://youtu.be/sqZvimE4kUs
And as we remember Edna Wright who passed away on Saturday, here's a song by The Honey Cone that starts off with a "gettin' real about it" monologue; "The Day I Found Myself".
https://youtu.be/2k0rCEaon2o
https://youtu.be/2k0rCEaon2oQuote:
Originally Posted by Motown Eddie
Ah yes, thank you for remembering that one Eddie! :cool:
Natalie Cole :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaEVIYGPWtM
I'm his wife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6TXZOqfRzI
and girl,
you're just a friend
Denise LaSalle with the support of Motown's esteemed David Van De Pitte:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe3cHWk_nyU
New Birth/ Love Peace And Happiness
I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZwNhoY35Fc