Side 1:

Listen: Take This Hammer / Leadbelly
Take

Listen: Ella Speed / Leadbelly
Ella

Side 2:

Listen: Back Water Blues / Leadbelly
Back

Listen: Sweet Mary Blues / Leadbelly
Sweet

Like jazz or gospel singles, blues 7′s are pretty irresistable. For years, fairly abundant, it was a non stop 50¢ field day. I ended up with stacks, and occasionally spend several hours having a proper sift through them. ‘Take This Hammer’, like so many, found it’s way to me via a white 60′s English band, The Spencer Davis Group. Stevie Winwood unquestionably had the voice to pull off any of these standards, which was the case for ‘This Hammer’, as it was titled on their US GIMME SOME LOVIN’ album.

Good news. This stuff is still around if you look. I only just bought Leadbelly’s UK EP, HUDIE LEADBETTER while in London last month, for a few pounds. Lovingly played, I do believe original records like these would sound a bit naked without the surface noise.

Listen: I Can’t Stand It / The Spencer Davis Group
I

Imagine my thrill in ’75, stumbling on one of those big tubs full of 10 for $1.00 singles in JM Fields, the massive department store, somewhat a forerunner to Wal-Mart. They were few and far between then, and my memory has zero recollection of it ever happening again.

This was the outskirts of Syracuse and the result of a completely unplanned stop to buy God knows what. No wonder I turned to drugs soon after, it was the only way to replicate the high. I systematically dug through this pile a few times, insuring not one was overlooked. I shudder to imagine what I may have left behind, but regardless, the gem of the day was The Spencer Davis Group ‘I Can’t Stand It’. Rare even then, extinct now.

‘I Can’t Stand It’ was the band’s second UK single, but first in the US, and only release on Fontana. Tame by comparison to later A sides, still Steve Winwood’s undeniable Ray Charles styled vocal surely must have been the envy of every other white singer in England, all desperate to sound black.

Listen: Incense / The Anglos
Incense

Who doesn’t love a mystery?

For decades, speculation has surrounded the origins of The Anglos’ lead singer on ‘Incense’, many claiming it to be Stevie Winwood. The single was eventually released on UK Island proper in ’65. Having previously been issued a number of smaller UK and US labels, the confusion is most likely clouded by the Jimmy Miller production. He was working for Chris Blackwell and Island, involved with The Spencer Davis Group, having produced both ‘Gimme Some Lovin” and the ultimate ‘I’m A Man’ masterpiece.

But in fact, the voice here belongs to Joe Webster, from Virginia, as were The Anglos. Frankly, if you listen closely, it’s quite obviously not Stevie Winwood, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he wished it were him.

On a late night trip from London to his country house in Theale, where Chris Blackwell had invited Corinne and I for a weekend, conversation turned to The Anglos. Chris, driving his Rolls and playing the then unreleased Womack & Womack album for us, revealed in no uncertain terms it was absolutely not Stevie Winwood, but instead said fellow, Joe Webster.

We soon pulled up to the Theale cottage, whereby Chris apologized that Jim Capaldi had lazily left his clothes and shoes all round the guest room, assuring us the sheets were clean.