a r t i s t : VA
t i t l e : Home Schooled The Abcs of Kid Soul
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Numero
c a t : NUM016
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Soul
r l s. d a t e : nov./2007
t r a c k s : 17
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 62,4 MB
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In 1969, Berry Gordy gave an instrumental track that had
originally been intended for Gladys Knight & the Pips to the
Jackson 5. His new writing team of Alphonso Mizell, Deke
Richards, Freddie Perren, and Gordy himself, officially
christened The CorporationTM, wrote "I Want You Back" for the
Jackson brothers to sing over the track. It was the first of
four straight number one hits for the group and is pretty
easily the greatest kid soul tune ever recorded. The sight of
those four straight number ones set off light bulbs in the
heads of controlling fathers, gangsters, housewives, DJs, and
opportunists across the country, who were convinced that they
had the next Jackson 5 playing hopscotch down the block.
There are thousands of records out there featuring soul kids,
from the somewhat obscure, like Foster Sylvers, to the totally
unknown, which is where this compilation comes in. This is a
tough compilation to judge relative to other soul anthologies,
or even other kids' music anthologies. For one thing, though
these songs are sung by children ranging from pre-K all the
way through high school, they are in no way intended for
children. It's a bizarre world where kids who still believe in
cooties are handed songs by adult composers who think nothing
of projecting their romantic troubles and the sexual tension
of their relationships onto their pintsize scions.
The tension between childhood navet and sexual awakening is
what makes this music compelling. In terms of technique and
listening enjoyment, these tracks are all over the place, but
they all have a special, even faintly tragic sense of
misplaced hope and hijacked innocence that makes them
affecting. There are a couple of minor masterpieces here. "I'm
Not Ready For Love", by a quartet of teenaged Maryland girls
named Promise by their producer, is a tightly arranged number
with a stellar vocal arrangement, a captivating melody and
amazing lyrics like, "I'm not ready to fuss and fight/ I'm not
ready to cry all night/ Waiting by the phone," certainly not a
glass-half-full view of adult love.
Tampa's Triads appear
with an astounding track called "If You're Looking For Love"
that features great close harmonies and a walloping funk
backing-- the vocalists sound reasonably mature, and this
could have been a small hit if it had received any
distribution at all. Cindy & the Playmates look forward to
summer vacation on "Now That School Is Through", but the
backing vocals have an initially incongruous noir vibe that
takes the song to another level. The conversation that pops up
over the fade is priceless: "What are you doing this summer?"
Cindy asks her boyfriend. "I'm just gonna lay around and take
it easy," he replies, and naturally, she asks, "Can I come
too?"
Some of the material is less directly grabbing, and more
interesting from an intellectual standpoint. The 3 Stars'
"Jersey Slide, Pt. 1" is a would-be dance craze track
ambitiously written so that the three extremely young singers
trade off rapid-fire lines, but for all their effort, the kids
can't pull it off with authority. Altyrone Deno Brown,
previously heard on the second volume of Numero Group's
Eccentric Soul series, sounds like he has a head cold, and
while nine-year-old Jack of Jack & the Mods has incredible
control over his voice, he still doesn't sound like he knows
what he's singing about on "One Is Enough For One".
The Atons' "Yellow Ribbon" is just bizarre, opening with a
teenaged guy chatting with his friends over a funk
instrumental and kicking into a high-tempo, slightly keyless
cover of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" that
defies the imagination. Even odder is Jr. & the Soulettes'
instrumental "2009 Cherry Soul Sound", not because it features
an eleven-year-old shredding through a wah-wah pedal, but
because almost no child groups made instrumentals-- the market
for the music was built around voices. Patrizia & Jimmy open
the compilation with an astonishing track from 1974 that is
essentially hip-hop. "Trust Your Child, pt. 1" rides a sharp
mid-tempo funk beat while Patrizia authoritatively raps out a
lecture to parents admonishing them to respect their children.
Different people will listen to this music for different
reasons. Some are voyeurs looking for the garish train wreck,
some are drawn to the fragile hope and sense of possibility in
the recordings, others are just looking for a good drum break
or even something genuinely great. You get a little of all of
that here. The eclectic range of the material is remarkable,
but the big draw is the confluence of innocence and experience
we've all lived through. Think about it another way: when the
Beatles got all starry-eyed about holding hands, they were
faking or remembering innocence to a degree. These kids
actually have it.
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01-Patrizia & Jimmy - Trust Your Child [02:33]
02-Promise - I'm Not Ready For Love [02:45]
03-Eight Minutes - Here's Some Dances [02:49]
04-Jack & the Mods - One is Enough for One [02:30]
05-Little Murray & the Mantics - Don't Leave Me Mama [04:31]
06-3 Simmons - You Are My Dream (School Time) [01:56]
07-3 Stars - Jersey Slide Pt. 1 [02:10]
08-Cindy & the Playmates - Now That School's Is Thru [03:32]
09-Manchild Singers - Right On [03:01]
10-Altyrone Deno Brown - Sweet Pea [02:24]
11-Atons - Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree [03:13]
12-Triads - If You're Looking For Love [02:44]
13-Quantrells - Can't Let You Break My Heart [03:03]
14-Jr. & His Soulettes - 2009 Cherry Soul Sound [03:03]
15-Michael Washington - Little Girl [02:34]
16-Otis The 3rd - Time [03:47]
17-Step By Step - Time After Time [04:54]
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51:29 min