Friday Fix: Eccentric Soul from East St. Louis to Dimona, Israel

If you’re looking for something different to spend your money on this Record Store Day, the Numero comps are as good a place as any to start. Here are a few that I’ve been digging on:

The Young Disciples Co. – “Girls Girls Girls”

Bobby McNutt – “Country Loving Country Style”
(from Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples)

Looking past all the seedy skin clubs that litter the East St. Louis landscape today, there’s no denying that our neighbors across the Big Muddy are also home to a rich musical tradition. There are the obvious ones — Miles Davis, Ike Turner, Uncle Tupelo, to name a few — but last October the Numero Group unearthed a small treasure trove of rare East St. Louis funk and soul. In the late 1960s, producer Allan Merry brought together around 80 youths off the streets to the South End Community Center to teach, perform, and record popular music. The label he created was called the Young Disciples, or YoDi, taken from a notorious gang of toughs in the area, and while the influence of Motown, Stax soul, and Muscle Shoals is undeniable, there are truly some fantastic tracks scattered throughout this compilation.

“Girls Girls Girls,” by The Young Disciples Co., opens with a dramatic brass salvo before it locks into a lean Doc Pomus groove that’s somewhere between doo-wop and traditional R&B, but full of teenage yearning. Bobby McNutt’s “Country Loving Country Style,” meanwhile, dips into the hard funk popularized by the likes of Wicked Pickett and Eddie Floyd. The track’s packed with quick-snap guitar fills, horns that punch and kick, and gritty vocals that drip with country-fried sweat. And with a starpower name like McNutt behind it, it’s a shame this never became a hit.

Annette Poindexter – “Mama”

Pieces of Peace – “Pass It On”
(from Eccentric Soul: Twinight Lunar’s Rotation)

Annette Poindexter’s “Mama” is far and away the brightest spot on Eccentric Soul: Twinight Lunar’s Rotation. There’s so much hope and ardor in her voice that you can’t help but feel moved to forgive her youthful discretion with a man who, as she plainly makes clear, is no good.

The musicians on the Poindexter track, Chicago’s Pieces of Peace, lay down a funky space jam of their own with “Pass It On,” which seems to preconfigure disco as much as Yoda: “To live, is up to you / I’m not trying to run your life / What good, for me, would that do?” Indeed.

Soul Messengers – “Our Lord and Savior”

The Spirit of Israel & Soul Messengers – “Daniel”
(from Soul Messages From Dimona)

Soul Messages From Dimona is the most uneven comp of the bunch, but the origins behind it are incredibly fascinating: a group of expatriates from Detroit and Chicago left the Midwest between 1975-81 to join the Black Hebrew movement in the deserts of Israel and, in the process, managed to produce outstanding psychedelic gospel music like the Spirit of Israel’s “Daniel” or Jesus Christ Superstar-funk like the Soul Messengers’ “Our Lord and Savior,” which borrows liberally from one-hit-wonders Steam’s lone 1969 hit, “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).” What the hell else would you do on a desert spiritual quest, amiright?

Head on over to Fone Culture for even more Eccentric Soul picks.

Also, hat tip to KDHX’s Steve Pick, who first brought the YoDi comp to my attention on an episode of Sound Salvation several months ago.