Mickey & The Soul Generation

Mickey And The Soul Generation: "We Got To Make A Change and "Give Everybody Some"
From: Iron Leg

So, after all that fuss I kicked up over having no time to post anymore, here I am just a couple of days later posting again and with a couple of absolute funk stormers, and not only that, I think this may be their first time on a music blog, though don't quote me on that.

DJ Shadow has named these boys his "favorite funk band" and while I would always take a self confessed fanboy's praise of an obscure band with a pinch of salt they do ooze funk from every single pore.

I've searched long and wide to find you any sort of background details on the group and have come up with absolutely ziltch. I can tell you that they were from Texas and were most prolific in the early 70's, registering one hit record with the classic Iron Leg. Apart from that you'll have to fill in the gaps yourself and if you do, please let me know as I'm dying to find out more.

The tracks I've selected for you are both on Jazzman 45 records and are both killers. The first track, We Got To Make A Change, starts with a superb wah wah guitar riff before coming in with the ultimate in funky organ grooves. Now if it has just continued in this vein for 3 minutes I would have been quite happy but they add a horn section to the mix which ups the funk level even higher. By the time the breakdown comes with vocals thrown in this is about as great a headnodding track as you can get. I would love to find out if there's a 10 minute mix of this somewhere.

The second track I have for you, Give Everybody Some, is more of a standard jam with the organ work once again supplying the perfect riff to their funky noodlings. However the track suddenly goes into stellar level when the organ breaks out of the riff 3 minutes in and the keyboardist goes crazy for all he's worth. Once again they really could have kept on going for at least another five minutes. Fantastic.