Champale N Wide Lapels: a mix

1. Ain't Got Time- Lindel Hill (St. Louis, MO)

2. Hard To Handle- Dick Jensen (Hawaii)

3. 1000 People- Boyd McCoy (Rochester,NY)

4. What You Want From My Life?- Natural Gas (Toronto, Canada)

5. Forever Gone- The Mauds (Chicago, IL)

6. I'm Coming To Get Ya- Central Nervous System (Halifax, Canada)

7. Nowhere To Run- The Messengers (Winona, MN)

8. Give It To Me- The Mob (Chicago, IL)

9. Funky- ST4 (Long Island, NY)

10. Did You See Her Eyes?- The Illusion (Long Island, NY)

11. You Could Have Been A Lady- April Wine (Montreal, Canada)

12. I've Cried A Million Tears- Steam (New York, NY)

13. Dance A Little Step- Mashmakhan (Montreal, Canada)

14. Break The Ice- Atomic Rooster (London, UK)

15. Ma Vie- L'Artimis (Montreal, Canada)

16. Hey Mama (What'cha Got Good For Daddy)- Flaming Embers (Detroit, MI)

17. Tout Ecartille- Robert Charlebois (Montreal, Canada)

18. Theme From Ravenwood Burne- Michel Pagliaro (Montreal, Canada)

Hopefully the above picture helps you visualize the vibe I was going for in this mix, because I'm not quite sure how to describe it. There is definitely a lot of what some people call "horn rock" in there. For those not up on their obscure record jargon, it just means bands that sound like Chicago. Though, the horn in this type of rock could also mean this:

I guess the point of the mix was to highlight funky records from people who have no  firsthand contact with what "funky" is.  All of the songs have singers who are going for some aspect of "soul" in the vocals, with varying levels of success.  Now obviously there are some songs on here by groups who actually performed for black audiences on occasion (Flaming Ember for one), but the majority of these bands played in suburban white clubs, frat houses,  high schools, etc.  As funky as this stuff can get, there is an essential level of unhipness. I mean, The Mob eventually became a Las Vegas/cruise ship show band! 

Compare ST4's version of the tune "Funky" with the original by the Chambers Brothers and you have this mix distilled in it's purest form.  The singer from ST4's voice conjures images of feathered blow-dried hair, polyester shirts, gold chains, and swinging singles. 

And surprisingly, a large number of Canadian bands ended up on here. I actually had no idea Central Nervous System or Natural Gas were Canadian, but after a while it was almost like a pattern emerged.  Putting music from Montreal on there was a no-brainer, because Montreal and its music is a summation of the swinging 70's.  I am in no way slandering Pag or Charlebois, but sometimes if the shoe fits...  I felt like there was enough Quebecois stuff on there to justify posting the mix on here, so here goes...

Enjoy!

Champale n Wide Lapels- a mix of horn rock and white guy soul from the US and Canada by Peter Gunn on Mixcloud