I know you got (northern) soul

Back then it was all about the badges

Sue Lynne - Don't Pity Me

The Metros - Since I Found My Baby

Sorry, this isn't about Eric B and Rakim's legendary track, we will return to hip hop later in the week (got some quality J-Live and, just possibly, some quality British 80's hip hop) but I thought I'd turn back the clock today to visit the world of northern soul.

Just before I get into it I must offer an apology to Freemotion who I've only just noticed actually did an excellent post about Pharcyde at the weekend including the original version of Soulflower - well worth checking out.

Northern soul is really a collective term for a wide wide range of music. The term came into being to group together the Detroit style sixties soul music that limey's used to dance to in club nights set up in the north of the country in the seventies. You can read a more accurate summary of this tradition here.

Very basically, the music tended to be fast, energetic and extremely soulful. In fact, I was inspired to do this post after hearing the Ikettes song at Soul Sides which would have knocked the crowd dead at a northern soul night.

The actual two tracks I have for you today I know extremely little about. The Metros Since I Found My Baby is a real brooding track with superb lead vocals and the perfect haunting backing vocals that sixties soul does so very well. The second track, Don't Pity Me by Sue Lynne is a more upbeat track and I'm more than a little bit convinced that the stonking trumpet into wasn't sampled by Go!Team on their excellent recent album.

Both songs are lyrically predictable but you don't listen to this music for the lyrics. Funnily enough you can get both songs on the same cheap compilation which is available HERE

Anyway, back to the hip hop tomorrow, let me know if you fancy hearing some MC Tunes tracks (trust me, they're not all like The Only Rhyme That Bites).