While searching for sites to get more Dub mixes I came across something else that is becoming a musical staple; Flea Market Funk.
Shout out!
These are mixes put together by DJ Prestige from vinyl. He has about 40 mixes out there and they are so good… awesome soul and funk that I am digging on. Most of the artists I have never heard before but the selections are great. The vinyl is also amazingly warm. You can hear occasional scratches and pops and one track I actually heard skip a bit. Instead of making me cringe it made me laugh and think back to my LP days. It added an organic feel to the mix. I have listened to about half of the mixes and have loved every one. I also love the “cover” pictures for the mixes. Nice touch DJ Prestige. A great cover can really complete the package. These mixes are awesome. Keep up the great work!
The 45 mixes especially made me think back.
I remember the first 45 I ever bought. I had my parents LP’s and the 45’s that my grandma bought me, but the first time I saved my money and bought my own 45 is ingrained in my memory forever. I bought it at G.L Perry Variety Store in South Bend, Indiana for 99 cents. I was probably about 10?
Perry’s was basically a tiny Walmart. They had a little of everything including pet supplies and fish and hamsters and such. At the front of the store there was a small record section, mostly Top 40 crap and I don’t recall looking much at them since I couldn’t afford them anyway, or would want any Partridge Family or Shaun Cassidy or TV Show Theme song compilations (at least at that time). They did have however a small rack of 45’s in paper sleeves. The 45 was still a big thing at that time. I would rifle through this rack and not recognize much. I don’t know if they were old stuff, or current, but my familiarity with current artists was pretty limited. I was however a child of the TV age and when I saw one particular 45, I knew it had to be mine. I bought it, they put it in a paper sack and I scurried home to put it on the giant console stereo.
My purchase was the 45 of “Sonny & Cher – Gypsy’s Tramps and Thieves”.
I’ve tried to put in perspective over the years this purchase. I was digging The Beatles and 3 Dog Night and Ray Stevens on 45’s grandma bought me and Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand from my folks and a bit of Tom Jones and Kris Kristofferson. I can only surmise that I was enamored of this song from watching the Sonny & Cher show on TV. We watched that and John Denver and Andy Williams. I had seen Cher sing this on the show and maybe it was the only thing in the bin I recognized. I can’t really recall that part. I loved my 45 though. I played it over and over.
I even recall the B-Side. It was written by Sonny Bono. It was called “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done”.
Even then I realized that it was not great. I loved my 45 though and I played it plenty.
This 45 was not funky enough to end up on any mixes at Flea Market Funk but it did make an impression on me in a big way back then.
FYI, eventually I did end up buying TV Theme songs from Perry’s eventually. It had Laverne and Shirley, Chico and The Man, Welcome Back Kotter, Happy Days and other favorites.
I am proud to say I knew enough to get the “by the original artists” version.
I had my standards after all.
The Aural Retentive 