One of my favourite radio shows is the Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on BBC 6 Music. 2 hours of the best soul music - the sort of stuff that makes you wish you had the knowledge, time and style to be able to track down this stuff in second hand vinyl shops yourself. In an interview a few years ago Craig Charles was asked what record would he save if his house was on fire and he chose this one. I'd never heard of it but I liked the show enough to make sure I got hold of it.
The cover got me straight away - not a cover I was particularly comfortable with lining up in my rack. Unfortunately the cover is a fairly accurate reflection of what is inside - over the top love/sex smooth-soul-jazz-funk (that was deliberate) wandering tunes. Lots of horns, a little bit of evidence of Johnny's previous incarnation as a mean guitar player - he was more Chuck Berry style (I have a best of CD of his from that period and it is much better than this), now he's more George Benson. There is also a lot, I mean a lot, of Johnny either serenading "the laydeez" or telling us how good he is at serenading them.
This is probably the first time I've seriously tried to get through the whole thing ... skippable (and should be deleted) naffness.
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