Into The Groove (45)

Hello, it's time to get back Into The Groove with some great soul /funk acts from the seventies, thats to say that had their formative hey days then..my first band is still on the road, after all these are musicians making music for love and a living. Tower of Power, what a great name i'm sure plenty of hardrock acts would have like to take that one, but then these guys claimed it back in 68. My vinyl had become unusable, so here's the Power from a 98 concert....Slave ..another remarkable name btw was yet another funk band from Ohio that didnt emphasize the horns as much as they did the guitar and keyboards this certainly created their own funk niche...Slide has remained a favourite of mine over the years..finally Rose Royce, guided by the top producer of the decade, Norman Whitfield they were thrown in the spotlights in more ways then one with what was to be their debut album but largely became the soundtrack of the movie Carwash, a real anachronism these days as machines have taken over..anyway they werent a one hit wonder as they scored several more as Wishing on a star here proves..they faded from the spotlights by themideighties still like Tower of Power they're still around and making music....

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Tower Of Power - Live ( 99 ^ 176mb)

In the mid-1960s, 17-year-old tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Fremont, California. He started a band called 'The Gotham City Crime Fighters' which evolved into 'The Motowns', including bassist Francis 'Rocco' Prestia, specializing in soul music covers. During 1968, Castillo teamed up with baritone saxophonist Stephen Kupka (later to be dubbed 'The Funky Doctor') and trumpet/trombone player Mic Gillette, moved to Oakland, and together began writing and performing original material. One of their early influences was the now late great Soul Pioneer artist James Brown. They changed the band's name to 'Tower of Power' and began playing frequently in the Bay Area. In 1970, Tower of Power (by then including trumpeter/arranger Greg Adams, and drummer David Garibaldi) signed a recording contract and released the debut album, East Bay Grease.

Next, augmented by percussionist/conga/bongo player Brent Byars, they moved to Warner Bros. Records and 1972's Bump City and 1973's self-titled release, Tower of Power, were breakout albums for the band. The former album included "You're Still a Young Man", which peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. The latter album contained possibly their most enduring song, "What is Hip?" The latter album peaked at #15 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart in 1973 and received a gold record award for sales in excess of 500,000. 1974's Back to Oakland spawned another hit, "Don't Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)," On some of their releases in the mid-1970s, such as Urban Renewal (1974), the band moved more towards funk from soul; however, they continued recording ballads as well. After vocalist Lenny Williams moved on, the band's days of chart radio airplay declined. During the later 1970s, they briefly tried recording somewhat disco-sounding material.

ToP's horn section has become well-known as a backing unit for other artists. The ToP horn section has appeared on many artists' recordings, including Little Feat, the Monkees, Santana, Elton John, Linda Lewis, RAD. (Rose Ann Dimalanta), John Lee Hooker, Rod Stewart, Jefferson Starship, Heart, Huey Lewis and the News, Spyro Gyra, Lyle Lovett, Poison, Phish, Toto, Pharoahe Monch, and Aerosmith. Tower's early song, 'So Very Hard To Go' was featured in the soundtrack of the 2002 film City of God.

Tower of Power has remained active throughout the years, and still tours extensively and worldwide today. Inevitably, there have been personnel changes, and at least 60 musicians have been touring and/or recording members of the group through its now nearly 40 year tenure (2008) as a funk and soul institution. Tower of Power has released 18 albums over the years (Compilations and regional variations not included). The recordings on Soul Vaccination: Live were made during Tower of Power's 1998 tour. It wasn't a reunion tour, since ToP never really went away, but they nevertheless hauled such staples as "What Is Hip," along with selection from latter-day albums.



01 - Soul With A Capital S (5:04)
02 - I Like Your Style (3:43)
03 - Soul Vaccination (4:56)
04 - Down To The Night Club (Bump City) (3:14)
05 - Willin' To Learn (6:06)
06 - Souled Out (4:58)
07 - Diggin' On James Brown (4:51)
08 - To Say The Least You're The Most (4:35)
09 - You Strike My Main Nerve (3:55)
10 - Can't You See (You Doin' Wrong) (3:26)
11 - You Got To Funkifize (4:46)
12 - So Very Hard To Go (3:49)
13 - What Is Hip (6:01)
14 - You're Still A Young Man (5:59)
15 - So I Got To Groove (6:08)
16 - Way Down Low To The Ground (4:34)

diet version
Tower Of Power - Live ( 99 * 99mb)

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Slave - Slide (77 ^ 99mb)

Slave was an Ohio funk band popular in the 1970s and early 1980s. Trumpeter Steve Washington and Mark Hicks (Drac) formed the group in Dayton, Ohio in 1975. Trombonist Floyd Miller teamed with Tom Lockett Jr. (sax, keyboards), Carter Bradley (keyboards), Mark Adams (bass), Mark Hicks (lead and rhythm guitar, lead and background vocals), Danny Webster (rhythm guitar, lead and background vocals), Orion Wilhoite (sax), and Tim Dozier (drums). Vocalists Steve Arrington, Starleana Young, then Curt Jones came aboard in 1978, with Arrington ultimately becoming lead vocalist. Their first big hit was the single "Slide" in 1977 for Cotillion Records, where they remained until 1984. Their best work was usually based on bass licks and the band's general arrangements emphasis on the rhythm section and soaring lead vocals.

Other Top Ten R&B hits were "Just a Touch of Love" in 1979, "Watching You" in 1980, and "Snap Shot" in 1981. They added Charles Carter on sax and brother William P Carter on keyboards. Young, Washington, Jones and Lockett departed to form Aurra in 1981. Slave added Roger Parker, Sam Carter, Delburt Taylor, and Kevin Johnson as replacements. Arrington himself left in 1982 after the Showtime album. They continued on, though much less successfully, into the late 1980s. They moved to Atlantic Records for one LP in 1984, then switched to the Atlanta-based Ichiban Records in 1986. Their most recent release was The Funk Strikes Back in 1992. Rhino issued Stellar Fungk: The Best of Slave Featuring Steve Arrington, an anthology of their finest cuts, in 1994.



01 - Slide (6:50)
02 - Screw Your Wig On Tite (5:25)
03 - Party Hardy (3:44)
04 - Son Of Slide (5:24)

05 - You And Me (6:41)
06 - Love Me (4:37)
07 - The Happiest Days (5:17)
08 - Separated (5:30)

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Rose Royce - Wishing on a Star ( ^ 152mb)

Formed by trumpeter/vocalist Kenny Copeland, drummer Henry Garner, trumpeter Freddie Dunn and saxman Michael Moore in the early 70s, the group first served as a backup band for Edwin Starr, who introduced them to his "War" producer, Whitfield. This led to regular work with many of Whitfield's other Motown acts, including the Undisputed Truth. In 1977 Whitfield helped the band, which had swelled to nine members (including featured vocalist Gwen Dickey), to get a gig as the lead act on the Whitfield-produced MCA soundtrack to the Richard Pryor movie Car Wash. Whitfield convinced the MCA executives that Rosw Roycw was more than competent for the job. So the material that Whitfield had assembled for the group's debut album became the soundtrack's material. The movie Car Wash and the soundtrack title song with its hand-clapping, funky intro, Dickey's exciting lead vocals and the band's great performance, the title track became one of the biggest dance songs ever, leaping to #1 on the pop and soul charts and taking Rose Royce with it.

To offset any negative rhetoric regarding their legitimacy, the group released its follow-up album, Rose Royce II: In Full Bloom, and bloom it did. The group returned to the Top Ten with "Do Your Dance" and "Ooh Boy," silencing all critics. In 1978, they released their third album, entitled Rose Royce III: Strikes Again!, and it featued "I'm in Love (And I Love the Feeling)" and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore." Both singles cracked the Billboard R&B Top Five. The group followed with a string of hits that roamed the charts, but never gained the chart status that their previous songs did. Unfortunately, Rose Royce's descent on the charts was as quick as its rise, and while the group continued to record, it never again had a substantial hit album or single, despite a 1982 move to Epic Records and subsequent releases on a series of smaller labels. Rose Royce experienced a number of personnel changes over the next two decades, but continues to this day with the foundation of Copeland, Garner and Dunn, who self-released the album Live In Hollywood in 2003.



01 - Wishing on a star (4:01)
02 - R. R. express (12:04)
03 - Do you dance (5:24)
04 - Tell me that i'm dreaming (4:24)
05 - Do it, do it (4:13)
06 - Help yourself (4:01)
07 - Is it love you're after (3:50)
08 - It makes you feel like dancin (4:27)
09 - Help (3:55)
10 - Ooh Boy (3:51)
11 - I wonder where you are tonight (3:40)
12 - I'm in love (3:44)
13 - Love is in the air (3:37)
14 - Love don't live here anymore (3:55)

diet version
Rose Royce - Wishing on a Star (* 99mb)

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