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Title: Billy Paul RIP Post by: Smilin Ed H on April 25, 2016, 11:41:34 AM What a voice - and what a long, rich career. Had no idea he was once on the same bill as Charlie Parker!
RIP http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/billy-paul-rip.html Title: Re: Billy Paul RIP Post by: Ron on April 27, 2016, 01:29:36 AM When I was a kid I always was into those oldies concerts they played on PBS telathons. This guy played several of those, he was the REAL DEAL, such a fantastic voice, soulful as hell. An interesting thing too that was evident on one of those shows was that one of his lifelong friends was Demond Wilson, the gentleman that played Lamont on Sanford and Son.
Title: Re: Billy Paul RIP Post by: Aum Bop Diddit on April 27, 2016, 11:11:00 AM Hearing "Me and Mrs. Jones" brings me back to being in high school in the early 70s. Along with personal memories, it reminds me what a great time it was for R&B/Soul. You could turn on what was still AM Top 40 and hear this, or "Smiling Faces," "Papa Was a Rolling Stone,:" "Shaft," Al Green, more Gamble/Huff, and so on. I also recall a great R&B FM station which played deeper cuts like Soul Makossa. And the barriers between us -- a white rock audience as it were -- were not there like it seems now. In my crowd, your car's 8 track selection might go from "Exile on Main Street" to "There's a Riot Going On" to "Al Green Gets Next to You" to Funkadelic to "Surf's Up."
Anyway, thanks for the music.... Title: Re: Billy Paul RIP Post by: Rocker on October 15, 2016, 10:45:02 AM Found this on the FECC-Forum today:
Paul's career took an unexpected turn when he was drafted into the Armed Services. He recalled: "I went in, in 1957, and I was stationed with Elvis Presley and Gary Crosby - Bing Crosby's son. We were in Germany and we said we're going to start a band, so we didn’t have to do any hard work in the service. We tried to get Elvis to join but he wanted to be a jeep driver. So me and Gary Crosby, we started it and called ourselves the Jazz Blues Symphony Band. Some famous people came out of that band; Cedar Walton, Eddie Harris and we toured all over Germany. Elvis didn’t wanna join us. I used to see him every day but he drove the jeep for the Colonel. He didn’t want to join our band. He wanted to get away from music for a while, while he was in the service you know." Paul and the other members of the 7th Army Band including Don Ellis, Leo Wright, and Ron Anthony used the service to further their musical careers as best they could—ones they knew would continue once they returned to civilian life. Paul said: "I sang in the service, I sang with a jazz band. So when I came out I sang Jazz, going to clubs and so forth." Paul also did some boxing in the Army - a sport he had grown up with as he explained in a 2012 interview: "Yeah we had a gym and all my friends from my neighborhood were boxers. Even during my army days I boxed as well as singing. Actually I still go to the gym; both me and my wife have trainers... Miles Davis would always say: 'Come to the gym! I'm gonna beat your ass!' Then one time I got hit too hard and I said no I'm going to sing!... That made my mind up." After his discharge, Paul formed a jazz trio with hard bop pianist Sam Dockery and bassist Buster Williams. |