Wednesday, May 07, 2014

On the turntable: Ernestine Andersson - You Can't Buy Love.


One of the best things about being into soulmusic is that no matter how much you listen, dig, read and learn, there is still always going to be records and songs you've never heard of before left to find out about. During the heydays of soulmusic the amount of artists that got to record a single was enormous - and a lot of them never made it big. Not necessarily due to them not being as good as the household names (actually quite the opposite in a lot of cases) but more due to a lack of funds, bad luck or simply life getting in the way.

This one, at least for me, is one of those records I had not heard about before stumbling across it one of my local used record-stores. I don't really know what made me give it a chance at the testlistening player (this store is one of the few in town that actually have a turntable so you can listen to the records before you buy them) since Mercury is a rather big label that does not exactly scream "great soul!!!". I did not really know Ernestine Anderson or the song either. Or well, I kind of thought I recognized her name but couldn't place it and for some reason I was sort of expecting to hear a rock'n roll backbeat when dropping the needle.

How wrong was I not? As soon as I heard the first few bars, a fuzzy, almost kind of psych, guitar and the drums and organheavy rhythmsection kicked in I knew that I had stumbled upon something good. And when Ernestines vocals came on I realised that this was right up my alley and even a potential new favourite track. The song, released in 1966, has a almost rhythm 'n bluesy kind of feel to it, yet it is still distinctively soul. It is basically what I would describe as a pure mod-stomper and apparently, it has been getting some plays on the northern soul scene. This was indeed one of those times when taking a chance turned out to be the right thing to do. The flipside, a track called Jerk & Twine, is quite a dancer too.

Who is this Ernestine then? Well, she was born in 1928 and as far as I've been able to find out she is still an active musician (or well - as active as you can be at the age of 86 at least). Apparently she used to be a pretty big name in jazz- and bluescircuits in the 50's and 60's, singing with acts such as Lionel Hampton and Johnny Otis. She even spent quite some time touring sweden and actually recorded her debut album here.

This track however is neither jazz nor blues in my opinon. It is pure classic soul - and great such too.


Song of the day:
Ernestine Anderson - You Can't Buy Love

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