Kays And London

It doesn't get any funkier than FUNK, 2 CDs 38 tracks by the original artists such as Kool & The Gang, Maceo And The Macks, Ohio Players, James Brown, Cameo, Parliament, The Bar-Kays, Rick James.

Mod brings together 4CDs containing 100 tracks that encapsulate the spirit of a sub cultural youth movement that began in London in 1958 focusing on music and fashion.

Jon Savage follows up last year’s “1966” set with a similarly packaged 2CD anthology of hits and rarities from 1967. There is no accompanying book this time – so you’ll have to buy this to read all about it in his sleeve notes. In a nutshell: Now typified as the year of flower power, 1967 was the year the 60s divided. During those 12 months, the revenues from LP sales in Britain finally overtook those from 45s. It’s also the year when the British singles charts suddenly revealed a vacuum that, in March 1967, was filled by a Top 10 that included Englebert Humperdinck, Petula Clark, Harry Secombe, Vince Hill, the Seekers and other mums and dads records that you will not be hearing on this compilation.

This 1974 release has King using his upside-down Flying V to slash a blues path through the Memphis Horns, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and the dawn-of-disco funk rhythm players. He half-sings with one eye on B. B. King and Bobby Bland and the other fixed on hot-buttered soul crooner Isaac Hayes. "Crosscut Saw" best captures the album title, with the leader and astounding drummer, Al Jackson, charbroiling a song the two had soul basted back in the mid 1960s with Booker T. Jones.