Blue Beat and Stax 45's

If the title of this post doesn't grab you, bummer. It's 2 of the most crucial record labels in their respective styles of music, and both 45's are fairly rare and feature female singers doing their damn thang. This one's for the ladies.

First up is a Stax 45 featuring the beautiful, soulful voice of Mable John, truly an unsung queen of blues and soul. The songs are "You're Taking Up Another Man's Place" and "If You Give Up What You Got." One is a great mid-tempo song that's very danceable and has a typical Stax sound for 1966, or so....which is of course awesome. The other side is a slow blues that's just gut-wrenching and gorgeous. Her voice is just dead on and super expressive. I love it, you will, too. This is powerful stuff.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ymdnwgydnjo

The Blue Beat 45 was a great find, considering what I payed for it at a record show some time ago and what it sells for online now. It's Brigitte Bond (who?) and the Blue Beats doing "Blue Beat Baby" and "Oh Yeah Baby." I have no clue who Brigitte Bond actually was, and can't find any real info on her, but have seen mention of this 45 on the net. It's super British early Ska that's way more rooted in the jump blues that ska was sort of born from than the ska that was coming out of Studio 1 or Treasure Isle at the time. It's really almost a perfect defining record for what really was the "blue beat" sound in England around 1964, in my very humble and barely educated opinion. There is mention of Mods tapping their feet in "Blue Beat Baby", which really adds the perfect amount of kitsch to make this record worth owning for me. I just found this in a stack in my room and had to rip and upload it, because I'm stoked to own it. Download it:

http://www.mediafire.com/?eyunynytymw