I'm a SOUL man. RFI.

Hey I bet James Brown has some "looooooooooooooooooooord" shouts to rival Iggy and the Stooges.

Yes, get that James Brown thing. 'Live At the Apollo Vol. II' deluxe edition. It might help you understand the Aphex Twin.

Actually ignore that last bit, just buy the CD!

yeah that last bit would put me off.

Innervision by Stevie Wonder. I did this wicked Nokia ringtone with the "He's a man, with a plan, got a counterfeit dollar in his hand" bit from Misstra Know it all. I would love you all to hear it but alas, I know not how.

For a live soul album, you could do no better than the Stax/Volt Revue in Paris and London LP's with Booker T & The MG's, Sam and Dave, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.
Other suggestions:
Otis Redding - Love Man, Tell The Truth (fuck it, all of 'em)
Al Green - anything on Hi records, up to Belle
Lee Dorsey - Greatest Hits
Bar-Kays - Soul Finger
Booker T and The MG's - Greatest Hits
Various Artists - Deep Soul Vols. 1 & 2
Ann Peebles - anything on Hi records before '75
James Brown - all of the Live at the Appollo records & a greatest hits
The JB's - Escape-ism
Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Staple Singers - Greatest Hits
Aretha Franklin - I never loved a man the way I love you
The Sweet Inspirations - Sweet Inspiration
Ike and Tina Turner - almost all of it
Gino Washington - Out of this World (Norton Records)
Box Sets:
Rhino: Beg, Scream and Shout
Stax Singles: Vols. 1 & 2
Comps: There are usually good Stax and Motown comps always around, also look for Chess, Hi, Jewel, Sue and Okeh records.
Rhino's box set is culled from a series of LP's from the 80's that are mostly great, and often in the used bins.
Sat. Night Fish Fry, New Orleans Funk & Philadelphia Roots (all on Soul Jazz) are good recent ones.
There are also a lot of Pebbles- style bootlegged comps of more obscure stuff floating around these days, a couple of extra-strength editions are Pow City and Whip It On 'Em. Another great one is Talkin' Trash/Lookey Dookey, but it's more bluesy r&b than soul.You might want to ask to listen to these before shelling out for them, some are a little dodgy.
For a contemporary take on this stuff, check out The Detroit Cobras' "Mink Rabbit or Rat" or "On Life, Love, and Leaving", both on Sympathy for The Record Industry. At least see them live if you get a chance.
for some blues stuff that was proto-R&B, check out:
Slim Harpo
Little Willie John
Elmore James
Arthur Alexander
John Lee Hooker (esp. on Vee Jay records)
Bo Diddley on Chess

Wow.....thanks. I'm printing that off I think. and taking trip to record store on the way home.

That list is mostly stomping midsixties stuff, for more introspective and/or straight-ahead funk try:

Sly and The Family Stone - There's a Riot Going On, Fresh
Donny Hathaway - Live
Stevie Wonder - Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale (?)
War - Greatest Hits
The Temptations, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Dionne Warwick - Greatest Hits
Kool & The Gang - Wild & Peaceful
Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear, What's Goin' On

ISAAC HAYES - HOT BUTTERED SOUL

I'm going to end up buying the cheapest one. Sad but true, and oh so necessary.

If you want something smoother but no less swift and danceable than otis / brown, the kent soul series of LPs invariably have 2 or 3 stormers on them (and 2 or 3 pieces of shit), particularly "Shoes" and "Torture", but the best comp in my opinion is "Up All Night" tho' may be hard to find these days. TOUCH ME HOLD ME KISS ME (aka Goose Pimples) - by The Inspirations is the Temptations redone UTTERLY DIRTY. Plus the weary, heartbroken dignity of Don Varner's "tear stained face" has guided my feet through many a traumatic disco in the past ;-)

If you want LPs by just one bloke / woman / band I'd go for the Impressions ("the young mod's forgotten story" - this is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard), Roberta Flack, Arthur Alexander, Lee Dorsey, Darrell Banks. But it does sound like you're after something rather more hoarse - which of course is no bad thing.

um... I mean the Supremes done UTTERLY DIRTY. Which probably sounds a bit more interesting.

For 70's stuff just get those Blaxploitation compilations. You can get them in Tower pretty cheap. There's 3 in the series. The third one "The Payback" is the best. You'll be well souled out after a few listens to these.

I reckon as far as compilations go, you can't get much better than The Best Northern Soul All-Nighter...Ever double CD.

There are some amazing exceptions but I'm wary of any comp with the words "Northern Soul" and "Wigan" or "Casino" or "All-nighter".

Northern Soul sounds like it was a cool sub-culture in its day but the emphasis on playing hard-to-find stuff resulted in the canonization of mostly third rate shrill sound-alike phony motown stuff chosen for its rarity - and the ubiquitousness of these comps have even robbed these songs of that appeal.

Maybe I just haven't heard the right collection yet. Kent does have a few cool ones.

I've actually just been reading Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, which among other things makes a good case for Northern Soul's heyday as the blueprint for the acid house explosion of the late eighties. The authors do agree that ultimately it was a musical cul-de-sac because of its emphasis on obsessive collecting and self-imposed musical vision.

How is that book, Ned? I've been meaning to pick it up.

Those who more actively know their dance/DJ history than I will have more to say, I suspect, but I find it a most informative read. Plenty of stories I certainly hadn't heard about, reasonably wide scope given the range of the book. Right now the focus has almost exclusively been on English-language scenes, though -- Britain, the US, Jamaica -- which makes me wonder more about the history/prehistory of DJing around the world. Not to say that said three countries weren't ground zero for a hell of a lot, I should note!

James Brown-wise: that 1967 "Live at the Apollo" double-CD is actually fairly skippable (he can't decide if he wants to be a funk guy or a Vegas guy). "Live at the Apollo 1962," on the other hand, is just unbelievably great and intense. (There are two other JB Apollo albums: _Revolution of the Mind_, from '72, which is uneven but intermittently fab, and a dreadful one from '95 or so.)

Relatedly, the _James Brown's Original Funky Divas_ compilation is fantastic--all singles by the various women who sang in the JB revue (Lyn Collins, Vicki Anderson, the remarkable Marva Whitney, etc.).

And for a general soul introduction, you really can't do much better than _Beg, Scream & Shout!_ It's six CDs, but it's ALL REALLY GOOD.

I'm seconding Fritz on the Beg, Scream, Shout boxset. I'm not sure how much it is, but it is quite wonderful.

hiya great site, read a few of the threads on it, have seen that your quite a fan of techno etc. Ronan, so maybe you should try something altogether more upbeat than Anne Peebles et al. I recently invested in two cds by the legendary Minnie Ripperton, a favourite down here in the sunny south. Her anthology was released to acclaim a few months back (and waS much hyped after the J.J. Smoothie remix of 2 people) and is brilliant. Her other album I can't remeber the name is also a classy cut featuring a duet with Stevie Wonder and a few more sleek seventies grooves - great stuff and an absolute bargain. When I was up in Dublin recently I managed to pick it up alongside Michael Jacksons "off the wall" and the best of Labi Siffre for just twenty four irish pounds collectively in some music store along the quays towards the train station... Also check out the compilations on sale in Urban Outfitters especially " Kind of Groove" track 13 feat. Miss Ripperton ( baby I've got to tell you) is mind blowing... Has anyone any info on Kenny Burkae and the original groove?

I got the James Brown-Live at the Apollo 1967 deluxe edition.

I have to say it's what I'd imagine it to be and I love it. But if what Douglas says is true I may buy the other one soon.

What about "I feel all right" on the second CD. God I want to jump out of this library chair and shake or something.

The Stax Story 4CD box set, and then selected 'classic' Motown LPs, Marvin, Stevie (Songs In The Key Of Life), etcetera, Sly And The Family Stone's Stand! and Whole New Thing, Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul, Dusty In Memphis by Dusty Springfield, anything that has I Want You Back by The Jackson 5 on it, Jackie Wilson doing Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher And Higher...

There's so much...

(Revived as a result of the META soul thread)

Some of my personal faves would be:

The Dave Godin 'Deep Soul Treasures' compilations

Curtis Mayfield - anything pre-about 1976, in particular 'Curtis Live', 'Curtis', 'There's no place like America today', 'Superfly' and several Impresssions albums

Marvin Gaye - 'Love Starved Heart', 'Super Hits', 'What's Going On', 'Let's get it on'
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - 'The Complete Duets'

Stevie Wonder - anything from '70 to '76

Al Green - anything from '69 to '77

James Brown - Where do you start? I particularly like the '68 to '74 or so funk stuff. The compilations 'In the Jungle Groove', 'Doin' it to death' and 'Ain't that a groove'.

Ann Peebles - 'I can't stand the rain'

Sam Cooke - Soul Stirrers stuff and 'Live at the Harlem Square Club'

Any good comp of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs

Aretha Franklin - first few Atlantic albums

James Carr - The Essential James Carr

Solomon Burke - the 'Home in you heart' comp, 'Soul Alive' and the much-maligned (but great) 'Don't give up on me'

Bobby Womack - there are some good comps around, also 'The Womack Live' and 'BW goes C&W/I'm lookin for a love' (which is available as a criminally cheap twoferin Fopp at the moment - £3!)

Isley Brothers - '3+3'

Ray Charles - 'Live', 'The best of the Atlantic Years'

And you would certainly need decent comps for the Temptations, the Four Tops, Percy Sledge, the Staple Singers.

I'm probably forgetting loads, but that'll do for now.

I knew I'd forgotten someone. That Smokey Robinson was pretty good too.

Fritz and James Ball are OTM.

Those Soul Jazz comps (the two New Orleans ones esp) are nice.

Life will *never* be complete until you own "There's A Riot Goin' On."

The same could be said of Curtis Mayfield's "Live" (the one recorded at the Bitter End that begins with "Mighty Mighty (Spade and Whitey.)" I think there's more than one 'Curtis Live.')

The latter two are both (I think) cheap...at least in the States they are, and I imagine away as well.