Clarence Paul – Baby Don’t You Leave Poor Me
You’d be hard pressed to find a more respected Soul DJ, in the US, than WFMU’s Mr. Fine Wine. For roughly 20 years he’s hosted Downtown Soulville on WFMU and turned on people to countless Soul & R&B tunes. Since 2010, Mr. Fine Wine has been curating the R&B Hipshakers series for Vampi Soul, and these collections never disappoint. Clarence Paul’s “Baby Don’t You Leave Poor Me” really jumped out of the speakers for me, with a very ska-esque beat that makes me wonder if Paul and gang actually heard some Ska records or if it’s just a happy coincidence (after all, most of that early Ska sound was highly influenced by American R&B, Jump Blues and Boogie Woogie). This is just one of the 20 exceptional songs on the collection, maybe my favorite of the bunch.
very cool. Reminds me of a record I had w/ Billy Stewart doing some tracks for Chess Records (Bo Diddley is a sessions Man), which featured "Billy's Heartache", "Baby You're My Only Love " w/ the Marquees, and of course Billy's Blues Part 1 & 2. Listening to that record was the first time I'd heard those jams and I have to say I loved them! Hard to believe Chess passed on Billy.
History is littered with similar head scratching decisions…hope you check out the whole set, it's really great and deep.