About a year ago, I made a pilgrimage out to the Barden Family Orchard in northwestern Rhode Island, a spot from my childhood memories. And on the way back, late in the afternoon, found a nearby yard sale in full swing. It was Scituate Art Festival weekend, so there was a ton of traffic going by their house, and these cats had been slinging stuff all day. When I asked them if they had any records, they took me around the side of the house to reveal boxes and boxes of them. And more in an outside storage shed. I didn't ask any questions right then, just started digging.
Later, after I'd been there for a couple hours, I got the back story. One of the dudes who lived there had recently cleaned out a building in Pawtucket where somebody had been trying to start a resale business, but it hadn't panned out, so they left all the used furniture, books, records, everything just sitting there, destined for the dumpsters. This guy salvaged as much as he could and trucked it back to his house. So who knows where all the vinyl came from originally.
All I knew was that there was a whole bunch of crazy stuff, and I ended up with at least a hundred pieces. Probably more. And there were a ton of 12" promos in great shape, circa '79 and '80. Which I promptly shelved and forgot about for a while. Until this morning, when I pulled this one outta the stacks.
Only 500 copies originally pressed, and immediately blew up in Italy, so the promo was subsequently counterfeited. But this is an original U.S. promo copy. What a great track. Roller disco friendly and very Chic-esque. Produced by Morrie Brown for Mighty M Productions, the partnership formed in 1979 by Brown, Paul Lawrence Jones III (aka Paul Laurence) and Kashif Saleem, who was previously the keyboardist for B.T. Express. In 1981, Mighty M would helm Evelyn King's classic LP I'm In Love. Later in the 80s, Saleem and Laurence would play key roles in creating the so-called HUSH Sound through their work on many HUSH/Orpheus productions released by Orpheus Music. In 1999, "Does It Feel Good" was re-worked by British duo Phats and Small as "Feel Good," which was a #7 hit for them in the U.K.
Even if Randy Muller had long since moved on from his involvement with B.T. Express to leading Brass Construction and producing Skyy and Cameron, this track shows the late-era Express were still funksters to be reckoned with.
- Dyn-O-Mite
