DynoVoice and Lavalamp sounds

I bought a double cd set with the unwieldy title of Bob Crewe Presents...The DynoVoice Story...The Label That Had To Happen!!! 1965-1968 [WestSide Records WESD226]. The album looked great with 56 tracks of mid-sixties pop, soul and rock in addition to an informative 12 page booklet.

I'd been a fan of Crewe's productions for some time based on The Bob Crewe Generation's Music to Watch Girls By LP and the (of course) the Barbarella soundtrack. Granted that those two albums are cheesy fun in a space age bachelor pad way, but that certainly wasn't the sum of Crewe's skills as the DynoVoice Story demonstrates. Just open your ears to the rock 'n' soul of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, the R & B girl-group sounds of The Toys (8 and 10 tracks respectively) in addition to fine 45's from Dianne Renay, Norma Tanega, The Invitations, Duff Thurmond (his "If You Loved Me Baby" is a show stopper) and my personal favourites The Sky's "I'm Not A Fool" and Peter Antell's suave "Warm Smoke". I know that I sound like one of those cranky old guys, who, when not yelling at the kids to stay the hell out of my yard, will go on for ages about how pop music used to be better. But it did.

Also purchased is the Dennis Coffey compilation Big City Funk: Original old school breaks and heavy guitar soul [Vampisoul Records]. Coffey is a a funk legend for several good reasons, being a member of Motown's Funk Brothers during the late sixties and early seventies not the least of them.

This set compiles choice cuts from his seventies Sussex albums. So the lucky consumer gets 15 tracks including his most famous tune "Scorpio" as well as two covers: Schifin's "Theme from Enter the Dragon" and Led Zep's "Whole Lot of Love". The sound is very seventies which is telegraphed by the numerous tracks with zodiac-related titles, and I can tell you that the disc sounds truly great under the warm glow of the lavalamp.

Coffey collaborated with Luchi De Jesus on the score for Black Belt Jones, and here are the opening credits courtesy of YouTube.