Not on the outside
Good news! Here's another post from no-often-enough contributor Jim C.:
I found an old album a few weeks back while at the thrift store. It's by the Moments, the old streetcorner harmony group, and it's called NOT ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT ON THE INSIDE, STRONG!, which may qualify as the best r&b album title since THE YOUNG MOD'S FORGOTTEN STORY by the Impressions. It's a terrific album on several levels. For one thing, it represents two different lineups of the Moments: an earlier, somewhat rougher-edged group fronted by one Johnny Morgan, and the more famous soft-soul trio that usually featured falsetto lead Billy Brown. The reasons for the personnel change are unclear but somehow the album hangs together quite well in spite of the behind-the-scenes turmoil. It also stands as a sort of missing link in the history of black streetcorner harmony, with some cuts looking backward by emulating earlier songwriting and production styles ("You Make Me Feel Good" could be a Temptations song, while "Understanding" sounds positively archaic, like Nolan Strong & The Diablos circa 1956), some rooted securely in their own late '60s milieu ("Somebody Loves You, Baby" and the big hit "Love On A Two-Way Street" clearly had Thom Bell's work with the Delfonics as inspiration, or maybe I have that backwards...), and one with a rather innovative production touch ("I Won't Do Anything" has a flattop acoustic rhythm guitar, something almost unheard of on black radio until years later).
It was issued on the Stang label, a subsidiary of Sylvia and Joe Robinson's mini-empire All-Platinum. Sylvia was the saucy kitten on 1956's "Love Is Strange", by Mickey & Sylvia; she went on to coo "Pillow Talk" on her own in '73 before serving as midwife to hip hop when she put out the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" in '79. Anything with her name on the credits is worth springing for.
As for the Moments, they went on to more soft-soul smashes through the mid '70s (my favorite is 1975's "Look At Me, I'm In Love") before switching to the Polydor label and having to shed their name (Sylvia owned it, and since they weren't the original lineup it was payback time anyway) and becoming Ray, Goodman & Brown, a name they could keep. They had an immediate smash, the great "Special Lady", in 1980, with a shimmering production around a tremolo guitar that sounded for all the world like it belonged on Not On The Outside.... They had more r&b hits, but "Special Lady" stands as streetcorner harmony's last kiss on the pop charts. They're still out there today, keeping faith with the sound they made their mark with back in the late '60s.
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Anybody got a copy of the Moment's LIVE AT THE NEW YORK STATE WOMEN'S PRISON album? Any good? Does the record live up to it's title?
I found an old album a few weeks back while at the thrift store. It's by the Moments, the old streetcorner harmony group, and it's called NOT ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT ON THE INSIDE, STRONG!, which may qualify as the best r&b album title since THE YOUNG MOD'S FORGOTTEN STORY by the Impressions. It's a terrific album on several levels. For one thing, it represents two different lineups of the Moments: an earlier, somewhat rougher-edged group fronted by one Johnny Morgan, and the more famous soft-soul trio that usually featured falsetto lead Billy Brown. The reasons for the personnel change are unclear but somehow the album hangs together quite well in spite of the behind-the-scenes turmoil. It also stands as a sort of missing link in the history of black streetcorner harmony, with some cuts looking backward by emulating earlier songwriting and production styles ("You Make Me Feel Good" could be a Temptations song, while "Understanding" sounds positively archaic, like Nolan Strong & The Diablos circa 1956), some rooted securely in their own late '60s milieu ("Somebody Loves You, Baby" and the big hit "Love On A Two-Way Street" clearly had Thom Bell's work with the Delfonics as inspiration, or maybe I have that backwards...), and one with a rather innovative production touch ("I Won't Do Anything" has a flattop acoustic rhythm guitar, something almost unheard of on black radio until years later).
It was issued on the Stang label, a subsidiary of Sylvia and Joe Robinson's mini-empire All-Platinum. Sylvia was the saucy kitten on 1956's "Love Is Strange", by Mickey & Sylvia; she went on to coo "Pillow Talk" on her own in '73 before serving as midwife to hip hop when she put out the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" in '79. Anything with her name on the credits is worth springing for.
As for the Moments, they went on to more soft-soul smashes through the mid '70s (my favorite is 1975's "Look At Me, I'm In Love") before switching to the Polydor label and having to shed their name (Sylvia owned it, and since they weren't the original lineup it was payback time anyway) and becoming Ray, Goodman & Brown, a name they could keep. They had an immediate smash, the great "Special Lady", in 1980, with a shimmering production around a tremolo guitar that sounded for all the world like it belonged on Not On The Outside.... They had more r&b hits, but "Special Lady" stands as streetcorner harmony's last kiss on the pop charts. They're still out there today, keeping faith with the sound they made their mark with back in the late '60s.
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Anybody got a copy of the Moment's LIVE AT THE NEW YORK STATE WOMEN'S PRISON album? Any good? Does the record live up to it's title?
posted by KS at 2/21/2007 07:24:00 PM
1 Comments:
Hey! Been lookin for that joint for ages - any chance of a re-upload? The links ain't workin'... can return the favour by uploading some other Moments /ray-g-browns
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