Sealed LP: Dennis Coffey: Finger Lickin' Good

$

42

Dennis Coffey: Finger Lickin' Good

FACTORY SEALED LP

• “If You Can’t Dance To This You Goo Business Havin-Feet”
• Finger Lickin Good
• I’ve Got A Real Good Feeling
• Honky Tonk
• El Tigre
• Live Wire
• Some Like It Hot
• Fame (David Bowie Cover Song)
• Wild Child

• Joel Brodsky: Photography
• Dennis Coffey: Guitar, Main Performer

• Dennis Coffey's Westbound debut heralds the tectonic shift away from the synapse-scorching psychedelic funk of his previous records toward a slicker, more commercial approach that anticipates the full-blown disco sensibility of his subsequent outings. Although cuts like the climactic "Wild Child" (yet another variation on Coffey's smash "Scorpio") retain the jazz-rock ferocity of the guitarist's best work, the majority of cuts (most egregiously the juvenile "If You Can't Dance to This, You Got No Business Havin' Feet") fall back on banal string arrangements and tepid beats. Fantastic cover art, though. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

• Dennis Coffey remains an unsung hero from the halcyon era of Detroit soul, contributing guitar to landmark records issued on the Motown, Ric-Tic, and Revilot labels in addition to cutting a series of efforts under his own name, most notably the cult classic blaxploitation soundtrack Black Belt Jones. Born and raised in the Motor City, Coffey learned to play guitar at age 13 while visiting relatives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Though a fan of country music throughout adolescence, while attending Detroit's McKenzie High he also immersed himself in rock & roll, jazz, and blues, drawing inspiration from guitarists from Chuck Berry to Scotty Moore to Wes Montgomery. Coffey made his studio debut backing little-known rockabilly cat Vic Gallon on "I'm Gone," issued on the singer's own Gondola label. From there he played in a rockabilly duo with vocalist Durwood Hutto, eventually signing a recording contract with Jackie Wilson's manager, Nat Tarnopol. Through Tarnopol, Coffey met Motown owner Berry Gordy, Jr., but he nevertheless established his reputation as a session player under the aegis of Ed Wingate's Ric Tic label, contributing to records including Edwin Starr's "S.O.S. (Stop Her on Sight)," J.J. Barnes' "Real Humdinger," and the San Remo Strings' "Hungry for Love."
• From the mid-to-late '60s, Coffey was a Detroit session fixture, appearing on such mainstream hits and cult classics as Darrell Banks' monumental "Open the Door to Your Heart," Carl Carlton's "Competition Ain't Nothing," and Tobi Lark's "Happiness Is Here." His inventive playing is the tissue that connects an untold number of crowd favorites within Britain's Northern soul club culture. Around 1968 Coffey also began working steadily at Motown, beginning with the Temptations' gritty "I Wish It Would Rain." He went on to appear on the group's landmark efforts "Cloud Nine" and "Ball of Confusion," pushing the Motown sound into increasingly funky territory with his ingenious use of a wah-wah pedal, one of several technological innovations he introduced to tweak The Sound of Young America. Beginning with Jack Montgomery's Scepter release "Dearly Beloved," Coffey concurrently added arranging and producing to his slate, teaming with local session drummer Mike Theodore to found their own production firm, Theo-Coff. The duo quickly hit paydirt helming a demo tape for the blue-eyed psych-soul combo the Sunliners, landing a production deal with MGM's Maverick subsidiary. Six months later, Maverick also signed Coffey to a solo contract, releasing his psych-funk classic Hair & Thangs and scoring a Midwestern smash in 1969 with his fuzz-laden instrumental reading of the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing."
• MGM shut down Maverick in late 1969. While the Sunliners renamed themselves Rare Earth, signing to Motown for a series of hits, Coffey resumed his session career, appearing on classics including Edwin Starr's "War" and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold." In 1971 he landed with former Maverick head Clarence Avant's new Sussex label as an artist and as a staff producer, scoring a Top Ten hit with the single "Scorpio," a now-classic funk effort renowned for its much-sampled drum breaks. Its follow-up, "Taurus," was also a commercial success, while LPs including Evolution and Goin' for Myself generated familiar samples for acts spanning from Public Enemy to the Beastie Boys to LL Cool J. As a producer, Coffey is probably best remembered for Gallery's 1972 soft rock smash "Nice to Be with You." In collaboration with Theodore, he also helmed a series of disco hits after jumping to the Westbound label in 1974, most notably CJ and Co.'s "We Got Our Own Thing" and the Tempest Trio's "Love Machine." For Westbound Coffey scored the 1974 blaxploitation film Black Belt Jones, although his solo records from the label have aged poorly in comparison to his Sussex efforts. After the label dissolved in 1980, he again returned to session work before resurfacing in 1989 with the lite-jazz outing Under the Moonlight. In 2004 Coffey published the memoir Guitars, Bars and Motown Superstars.

FINE PRINT

• All pictures are of the exact item being sold.
• This record came from a record store called "Phantasmagoria" which was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Phantasmagoria went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their leftover inventory some years later when I owned a new & used record store in Catasauqua called "Music Madness".
• Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of the albums. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of the albums. Most of the albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the records have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for the record in 1978 if you would have bought it at Phantasmagoria. Please don't confuse these prices with their current value.
• Your item(s) will be shipped within two business days after I receive your payment.
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