Get it From the Bottom

Check this link out to a discography of records that Pittsburgher Bob Babbitt played bass on: You'll see all the hits he's well known for, like the Temp's "Ball of Confusion" and "Masterpiece," Marvin's "Inner City Blues," and the Spinners "Rubber Band Man."

But check out the '60s part of the list - before Babbitt was a Funk Brother, he was basically hard at work recording Soulcialism's Greatest Hits. Edwin Starr's "SOS" and "Agent 00 Soul," Little Carl Carlton's "Competition Ain't Nothin'", Platters' "With This Ring," Eddie Holland's "Leavin Here," Freda Payne's "Band of Gold," Chairmen's "Give Me Just a Little More Time,"all get regular spins when we break out the crowd-pleasers - he's even on the biggest Eagle hit of 'em all, Stevie Wonder's "We Can Work It Out."

Steel it Steelers

Big thanks to everyone who came out and made Friday perhaps the most packed Soulcialism so far - judging purely from the absurd beer consumption.

Des Parker and Johnny Beggs played a storming hour-plus of hits and oddities (everything they brought with 'em), and were duly impressed with the crowd's size and capacity for drunken dancing - we were duly impressed with their ability to knock 'em back, too.

In fact, this weekend was good enough to require a Soulcialism top-ten list.

10) "Big Bad Wolf" by Johnny Watson, on Johnny Beggs' "Northern Cowboys" mixtape. Storming R&B from Mr. Gee-tar. I'll never own it, so this dub will have to last me a lifetime - a new all-time favorite.

9) "Countdown Here I Come" by The Tempos. One of my fave's ever, and an occasional Soulcialism play, but doesn't it sound THAT much better when you don't know it's comin'?

8) Johnny Beggs' late-night recounting of dodging razor-sharp soup-can lids hurled by Burnley fans in his youthful Stoke City days.

7) Troy Polamalu. 'Nuff said.

6) Panang Curry with seafood at 3am. Clears the sinuses, rocks the mouth. Up to 11. Thai is America's Indian.

5) "Baby Don't Weep" by Wilson Pickett. Going back over some of his stuff, this thing's the killer, f'sure. Bless 'im.

4) Austin Shifrin's sweat-soaked smash-n-grab dance to Bob Seger's "Heavy Music." Dude must do laundry every day.

3) Big Ben. 'Nuff said.

2) "R 'n' B Time" by E Rodney Jones tied with "Too Late" by Williams 'n' Watson for dancefloor-slaying supremacy.

1) Pittsburgh Steelers and Northern Soul - the new/old steeltown tradition. The rousing 'here we go' at the end of the night at the Eagle Friday was enough to bring a wee tear to the eye. Sniff!

Soulcialist Goings-On

The new year has rung in bright and bubbly in Soulcialist Party Workers headquarters here in the capitol of Appalachia and the Rust Belt. For one thing, there was the blustery and brain-clouded manner of the end of '05 - SOULCIALISM at the White Eagle on 12/30, which proved to be one of the odder evenings of our brief history: With the holidaze came a largely newcomer crowd to the Iggle, lots of new faces and some truly bad drunken dancing. Loved it. Pure outta hand.

Then there came confirmation of the next big thing in Pittsburgh's northern soul continuum: On January 20, 2006, we're proud to welcome back to the decks Mr. DES PARKER, current big-dog in the U.K.'s explosive newies scene, bringing sounds you've probably never heard before, as well as first-time visitor and guest of honor (I s'pose), Mr. JOHNNY BEGGS, a veteran of the U.K. northern scene going back to the days when Sir used to spin at the Golden Torch in Stoke, one of the founding-father clubs of northern soul. Today, Beggs runs the popular STEAM all-niter in Crewe, at the forefront of introducing newly discovered '60s soul to the northern crowd.

Finally, '06 is starting out great because Johnno recently pointed out to me that February will mark THREE YEARS of Soulcialism, from our premature start at Zythos (yikes!) to our almost-but-not-quite mature present at the Iggle.

Hope to have some more fotos for you soon from last time, and some other news and info coming up. And with a li'l luck, I'll remember to update this a wee bit more often. Thanks for the patience!