Northern Soul Sheep and Goats

I went to a Northern Soul gig last night. I won't say where, but its a venue I have been to three or four times, now. Last night was pretty dire, and reminded me of a problem that the genre has faced since the 1970's, of distinguishing the sheep from the goats, of unearthing hidden gems, or just unearthing records that had been buried for good reason, not to mention of distinguishing between northern soul as against what amounts to just pop music that may or may not be danceable. The two things, pop music and just bad music are also combined, but, rather like the Emperor's New Clothes, DJ's get away with it, on occasion, as some people – both other DJ's and dancers – follow the DJ's lead.

In the late 1970's, and into the 80's, as Northern DJ's competed for who could find the latest unheard of records, consideration of whether the records they unearthed were any good or not, declined in importance, and rarity took its place. When Northern Soul CD compilations started to appear, large parts of them amounted to such dross – not so much floor fillers as simply CD fillers, packing out a handful of decent tracks.

Even before that, there was the specific production of what came to be termed “plastic pop” vinyl records that were passed off as “Northern Soul”, by some DJ's, and others who saw an opening. Some of them even found their way into the charts, being issued as “Disco Demand”, and other similar lines. They were a sort of forerunner of the DJ mixes, some of which have also sneaked their way into the genre, more lately.

I have literally thousands of records on old cassette tape, and, now, in digital form that I have recorded from original vinyl, and then from CD's. In the 90's, you could get CD's from the library, and by looking through their catalogues find, and order in, almost any record, or compilation you wanted. The easiest thing, originally, was simply to copy CD's to cassette, before the age of computer CD drives, and ability to burn your own copies. Besides, in the early 90's, cars only had cassette decks, not even, yet, CD players. I remember going on a drive down to the NEC, in my car, with some work colleagues, one day, and playing such a tape, during which they commented in respect of several of the records how awful they were. I couldn't disagree, which made me wonder why I'd bothered to record them, just because they were on the CD. As my son sometimes says, just because you have the ability to speak doesn't mean you are compelled to, and just because you can copy tracks from a CD for free, doesn't mean you have to either.

Similarly, just because you can find records no one has heard before and play them, as a DJ, doesn't mean you have to or should do. Many of those records were buried for good reason, and should have been left to rest in peace. My son often refers to this track by Marion Sodd, as epitomising that. After all, there are thousands of good Northern Soul records to play, and, no doubt, others yet still to be found, so why dilute and demean the genre by playing records that are bland, or just simply bad, for the sake of playing something different, let alone that are not soul music of any kind? There are hundreds of good Northern Soul tracks I haven't heard played at venues or online for years.

In the weekly Northern Soul Classics tracks I have tried to do that. Some years ago, I started the Friday Night Disco series, specifically because of trying to distinguish between Northern Soul tracks, and other music played at events that was popular and or/danceable. I have also tried, over the years to put in context the development of Northern Soul, particularly from my own experience of it, during the 1960's, at the Torch. So, I have noted the roots in the Mod Clubs, and music. At the Torch, in the later 1960's, you could, indeed, see all of the skinheads with their ox blooded Doc Martens, white butcher's trousers, blinding under the fluorescent violet lights, and their braces, and Ben Sherman's dancing to Reggie. I have also mentioned that, during that time, Keith Minshull could be found playing records as diverse as Jailhouse Rock, to Spirit In The Sky. Its why, in the Friday Night Disco series, I have included such records, as well as those from Spencer Davis et al. But, in that, I'm trying to present a history, a context and a development, I'm not doing a DJ set, at a Northern gig! If I was, I wouldn't be playing Reggie, or any of that other stuff.

The point is that that was part of the development, past history, and not a feature of Northern Soul in its maturity in the early 1970's. As I've said that doesn't mean that other music wasn't played, and it was, because it fitted with the demands of dancers like me at the time. That is we wanted something with as fast a tempo as possible that we could also add in all of the back-drops, and other acrobatics. It didn't matter whether it was Nutrocker, Red River Rock or The Who Who Song. Nevertheless, its only the last of these that is Northern Soul. It, is, however, what also fed into the later introduction of other up tempo records, such as Hawaii 5-0, not to mention specifically produced records such as Footsee, which might be great to dance to, but do not constitute Northern, or any other kind of soul music.

Of course, the dancing consists of more than just the acrobatics or the spinning, yet, again, it became all about them, with dancers doing little actual dancing in between. As one legendary dancer commented to me some months ago, at the Twisted Wheel, there was never enough room on the floor for people to be doing back-drops and anything too elaborate. The spinners spend most of their time just spinning, not like the spins that used to be done, based on the use of torque, but really just turning around, which is why they need the talc on the floor, to be able to keep propelling themselves, whilst risking others slipping and breaking something on the treacherous surface.

Of course, it can be argued that the music has to evolve. I disagree. There is a difference between evolving and expanding. If what is meant is that new, Northern Soul records have to be found, or even produced, that is true. With the development of AI that might even be facilitated. But, evolving means changing, and the process of evolution, means changing into something else, just like wolves into domesticated dogs. But dogs are not wolves, just as goats are not sheep. In the 1970's, it could be argued that Northern Soul evolved into Funk or into Disco, and if I wanted to listen to funk or disco I could do so so. But its not Northern Soul, its a separate genre.

It can also be said that Northern Soul always included records from artists who were associated with other genres. For example, Charlie Rich and Roy Hamilton were country singers, Bill Black's Combo was the backing band for Elvis Presley, Mickey Lee Lane was a rockabilly singer. That is true, but misses the point that its not about the labelling of the artist, but the nature of the record, the sound produced. Its the nature of “Love Is After Me”, “Crackin' Up Over You”, “My Girl Josephine” and “Little Queenie”, or “Hey Sah Loh Ney” that makes them Northern Soul sounds.

Similarly, Everlasting Love, is a pop song, recorded by various artists, including Robert Knight, Carl Carlton and Love Affair. Of all these variants, I think the last is undoubtedly superior. But, give Love Affair Carl Carlton's Northern Soul classic, “Competition Ain't Nothing”, and I think they would be lost. That brings me to those records that are not soul, Northern or otherwise. The most egregious of those currently is Ella Fitzgerald's version of “These Boots Are made For Walking”. Ella Fitzgerald was a great jazz singer, if you like that sort of thing. That doesn't make her a good soul or Northern Soul singer. But, “These Boots Are Made For Walking” is just an awful record, full stop! The original Nancy Sinatra version of what is a terrible pop record, is bad but better than the Ella Fitzgerald version, which reminds me of the “In the style of a club singer” segment of Vic and Bob's show from the 1990's. Its pop music not Northern Soul, but worse, its even bad pop music! You could have Edwin Starr sing it, and it would still be a terrible record.  Yet, DJ's have been playing this dross at Northern Soul gigs.

My wife noted that some of the people sitting behind us had commented that the records being played last night were like listening to Top of The Pops, actually, many of them were not even that good.