Dig Deep: Rastus – Rastus – GRT (1971)

Rastus – Sailin’ Easy
Rastus – Black Cat (live)
Rastus – Multi-Colored Taxicab

As I’ve mentioned here before, one of the things I look for when I’m digging for new sounds in the rock aisle are bands with horn sections. When I saw this record that boasted a 5 piece horn section, I was pretty much sold, but held back just to see if I could find any info about the band and their sound. A single youtube clip for “Sailin’ Easy” was all I needed to swing back around and pick up this double LP, the debut for the band Rastus.

Rastus were a 9 piece band out of the Cleveland area that had a very Tower of Power meets Chicago kind of vibe. They appear to have released a second LP after this, but I can only vouch for this one. “Sailin’ Easy” was one of my favorite discoveries diggin’ in the crates last year, with it’s punchy horns and cymbal crashes during the marching band meets b-boy styled opening and breakdowns.  In addition to the sound I just love the sentiment as the lead singer and the band rap about “Livin’ Life Without a Care.”  “Rap” is a pretty appropriate term here, because a lot of the delivery and the braggadocio of the lyrics has more than just a bit of proto-Hip-Hop in it.  I have no idea if it would go over well, but I’d love to drop the needle on this song at Funky Sole or some place where B-boys & B-girls really get down.

Of the group’s two versions of Brian Auger’s “Black Cat” I’ve chosen to post the live one, since this one includes a pretty tasty and clean live drum break (though it does go a bit too long, but hey drummers…what can you do?) the final selection is a strange number called “Multi-Colored Taxicab” that seems like it’s a metaphor for something else, but at the same time could be just a straight up (and rather rare) ode to taxicabs. Though it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years it appears there’s a website that fills in the blanks on Rastus and is worth a check out if you dig the sounds.

Cheers,

Michael