Mixer: John Soss

Mix Title: Album Covers (Volume III)

John Soss has been promoting concerts in Chicago for over 25 years at Jam Productions. He is a gentleman and a scholar. Below is his liner notes to his mix which sets up nicely what to expect from cd:

For a wide assortment of reasons, I’ve come to view 1972 as a watershed year for me, and it all started with my 12^th birthday party on March 1^st. 

Along with Johnny Lungaro and Mario & Michael Alberico, my best friends from our block, I hopped in Dad’s car and he drove us north into the city to attend the annual Chicago Auto Show.  Back then, Dad only drove Buicks, so we weren’t going there to shop.  We were there to look, wander, and hope that one day we could drive cars like these.

Ford was featuring its new Pinto Squire wagon, NASA had the Lunar Rover on display, and tipping its hat to the distant future, Chevy was pushing its new “truck-like passenger vehicles,” which we now know as the ubiquitous SUV.  For us kids though, mostly we walked around the massive exhibition hall, collecting brochures, checking out the models, and staring at the fancy new cars.

Back home, Mom had prepared an experimental cake which she called “pudding cake.”  It could best be described as moist, or more accurately, damp.  I knew Mom made a special effort so we gulped it down, although no one asked for seconds.  Then it was time for gifts.  I don’t remember what Lungaro gave me, since it was so long ago, but I’ll never forget what Mario and Michael got me, since I still own it to this day.  It was my very first long-playing record album.

We’ve since lost track of Lungaro, but I still manage to get together with Mario and Michael, and within the last year I brought this occasion up to them, wondering why they picked that particular record as my gift.  The answer: because I went to school with the brothers, a fond reference to the integrated school I attended, the classmates who influenced my youth, and the music I listened to as a kid.

While the other kids on my block attended St. Jude Catholic School, I spent most of grade school in Public School District 151.  Starting with the third grade, the influx of African American kids into my school and our subsequent reverse commute on the bus to their school proved to be a life-altering course for me and everyone else in the system.  Joining the kids together in school helped bridge the gulf between our suburb and theirs, and ultimately shattered the lines between our music and theirs.

This brings me back to that first record album.  It was the soundtrack from the movie Shaft.  Or so it seemed.  The jacket cover had the word Shaft in big block letters on the top and below that was a photo of two African American men fighting over a loaded handgun in a dark warehouse, all of which would lead you to believe that it was indeed from the smash Blaxploitation flick.  But it was not the Academy Award winning record from Isaac Hayes.  It was not the million-seller from Memphis’ Stax Records.  It did not even feature any vocals.  It was a knock-off album from Pickwick Records, a company primarily known for producing sound-alike records of the era’s top hits.  They ingeniously took the concept of a cover song and expanded into a full length record.

This is not to say that it’s an inferior product, nor does it imply that the Alberico boys even knew they were purchasing a fake.  It’s actually a solid instrumental soul record, in spite of the fact that it was mostly white session players who comprised the band.  The credited arranger was a veteran studio whiz named Sy Mann, which explains why they created the fake band name of Soul Mann and the Brothers as the credited musicians.  Amongst the anonymous musicians who did the actual performing was Will Lee, the longtime bass player in David Letterman’s TV show house band.

None of this mattered at the time, and hopefully I had the good sense not to say anything to my friends.  After all, it was my first album.  I do remember playing the hell out of it, wearing out the cardboard jacket and eventually affixing a piece of Dad’s electrical tape to the bottom seam to keep the album from slipping through the jacket.  It would be another 20 years before I’d acquire the real Shaft album, but as a youth it was the version by Soul Mann and the Brothers that blared from my turntable.  It was good enough for me, and soon it shared space in my record cabinet with Stevie Wonder and Billy Preston and Herbie Hancock albums.

As I reflect back to that birthday, a common theme emerges.  Although there were new cars for sale, our old Buick would do just fine; and although there were fancier cakes at the store, we ate homemade pudding cake and liked it; and although it wasn’t the genuine Shaft album, it was music that made a difference to me and still has a place in my record collection.  I dug the old Shaft LP out of a box, where all of my LPs and CDs currently reside (hence the photo on this CD cover).  We recently moved and I have yet to complete the transition from cardboard boxes to record shelves. 

The title track from Shaft runs a cool four-and-a-half minutes long, and the guitar player works the wah-wah pedal the whole time.  That tune leads off this mix CD and is followed by 10 other cover songs, mostly well-known cuts from the 60s and 70s performed by artists other than the original hit maker.  To experience the “enhanced” version of this CD, stop by your local grocery and pick up a box of instant chocolate pudding.  Add milk, stir, eat.  Then you can listen just like I did back in ’72.

THERE ARE NO ADVANCE TICKET SALES FOR THE MUSIC MIXER. $5 Suggested donation at the door.

Call 312.255.9454 if you can not attend the party and wish to fax in a bid on a mix. All faxed bids must be received by midnight CST on Tuesday, September 21st, 2004.

If you can not attend and you wish to make a donation, you can do so HERE.