| Soon after producing a top
ten hit on JJ Barnes with 'Baby please come back home',
Don Davis found himself being lured to Memphis giant, Stax
Records. It was to be the start an illustrious career
at the home of Southern Soul.
One of his earliest deals was to lease some Darrell Banks
material to Stax subsidiary Volt. Two of the songs
came from the pen of Fred and his partners.
"We first met Darrell at United Sound Systems
on Second Avenue. He was a good guy and we became close
friends through our travels to Chicago.
Richard taught Darrell how to sing our songs and if
you listen closely you will notice there is a likeness
in their voices.
Much of the ground work was done in The Place and
we would always be playing back the tunes to Darrell
on the phone as things unravelled.
The 'A' side became 'Beautiful feeling' and it was
one of the best songs we ever wrote. I'm sure Don would agree."
Lots of great songs were being released by Volt at
that time but mysteriously they all failed. Several
were by Detroit acts, JJ Barnes, Reggie Milner, Roz
Ryan and of course Darrell Banks.
Volt would also release another BKE song called
'Since I fell for you', but that didn't do much
either. This time the artist was Mavis Staples whom
Fred remembers as an awesome talent.
On the main Stax label, Fred recalls the group providing
backgrounds for Johnnie Taylor on 'Who's making love'
and 'Cheaper to keep her', and on Mavis Staples with
'Since you became a part of my life' which BKE had
also written.
Johnnie Taylor was a frequent visitor to Detroit in the
late sixties
Around this time a change had taken place within the
Brothers of Soul when Richard Knight was replaced by
former Imperial Ben Knight (no relation). "Ben
took Richard's place when Richard was detained in New York
on a minor charge." says Fred. "Ben was on backgrounds on most of the Johnnie Taylor stuff."
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