Big Bank Hank, Master Gee & Wonder Mike aka the Sugar Hill Gang want their royalties (though some may be Chic's, one might imagine) … Can't wait to start reading (the paperback edition of) Nile Rodgers' autobiography (or memoir) "Le freak (an upside down story of family, disco and destiny", incidentally! And re: the gang's nightmare contracts, see also Roger Paradiso's documentary "I want my name back!" (2011).
http://www.factmag.com/2012/01/04/the-sugar-hill-gang-file-against-universal-for-over-40-years-of-unpaid-royalties/
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch_trailer_for_i_want_my_name_back_exploring_identity_theft_of_members_f
http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/nile_rodgers_le_freak_music_biography_of_the_year
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201110/nile-rodgers-le-freak-book-excerpt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapper%27s_Delight#Background
http://www.docnyc.net/film/i-want-my-name-back/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sugarhill_Gang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_Rodgers
http://prince.org/msg/8/370093

What with all those dinosaur boxes, here's a track with the Pink Floyd sound still très pointu at the sky … ideal for midwinter … As for the Floyd flock's greed: careful with that axe, number 51 …

Songwriter Stephen Friedland was involved with the Tokens before he became Brute Force. His 1967 lp "I, Brute Force - Confections Of Love" has been reissued by Bar / None last year. But he's most famous for his "King of Fuh" single from 1969, one of Apple's rarest releases.
http://www.brutesforce.com/
http://www.razorfilmsla.com/#projects
http://www.wfmu.org/365/2003/038.shtml
http://www.bar-none.com/brute-force.html
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=2056
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/434/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brute_Force_(musician)
http://www.applerecords.com/#!/memorabilia/KingOfFuh_UK
http://ashbeesfragment.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-brute-force-confections-of-love.html
http://www.scrammagazine.com/brute-force-speaks-an-interview-with-stephen-friedland-by-michael-lucas
http://www.examiner.com/beatles-in-national/apple-records-recording-artist-brute-force-tells-all-gently

Mark Landsman's 83' "Thunder Soul" documentary on Houston's Kashmere Stage Band (as produced by Jamie Foxx, 2010) isn't featured on Now-Again's 2cd + 1dvd package (NA-5085, 2011). But it does feature there's a 12' making of, footage of a 3' live version of "Makin' whoopee" (1972) and a 27' documentary by Charles Porter (1973 - check the KSB on holiday in Paris, Brussels, Louvain, Waterloo, Breda and Bonn). It's a mighty package with a 40 page booklet to boot … but it has only one flaw: there's no song author credits, making it difficult to find out which tracks are KSB originals and which are cover versions. Speaking of which: expect more "Shaft" covers in a future post + find a free download of Egon's extended edit of James Brown's "Super bad" (as featured on the 2005 US - but not Jazzman's 2002 UK - edition of "Texas Funk: Black Gold From The Lone Star State 1968-1975" v/a cd) via the Now-Again site:
http://www.nowagainrecords.com/tag/kashmere-stage-band/  [5 pages!]
http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2010-03-12/977581/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5599377
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/23/140539483/thunder-soul-70s-sensation-dusts-off-its-groove
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140891879/summer-school-funk-five-tracks-out-of-1970s-houston
http://www.filmindependent.org/news-and-blog/mark-landsman-on-his-influences-and-thunder-soul/
http://edendale.typepad.com/weblog/2010/03/sxsw-2010-mark-landsmans-thunder-soul.html
http://stonesthrow.com/news/2011/06/kashmere-stage-band-thunder-soul-official-movie-trailer
http://www.indiewire.com/article/toolkit-case-study-the-long-road-of-thunder-soul
http://www.indiewire.com/article/interview_thunder_soul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmere_Stage_Band
http://funky16corners.lunarpages.net/?p=2009
http://stonesthrow.com/funky16/kash.html
http://thundersoulmovie.com/
http://kashmere.org/

"Tryin' times" - a magnificent song, written by Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson and first performed by Roberta Flack in 1969. Hathaway released his version in 1970; Hutson doesn't seem to have recorded the song. Flack's live version was recorded 1971-03-06 at the Soul to Soul festival in Accra, Ghana. (Do see the movie!) Fairground Attraction's version from 1990 is nice too.
http://www.kalamu.com/bol/2006/05/20/roberta-flack-“trying-times”/
http://dereksmusicblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/donny-hathaway-everything-is-everything-2/
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Leroy%20Hutson.html
http://www.originals.be/en/originals.php?id=6475
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_to_Soul_(film)
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairground_Attraction

Accompanying my "Danger: Diabolik" post … here's four excerpts from Ennio Morricone's soundtrack (1967 / 1968). Hey and did you know that the Beastie Boys … and that Mike Patton really digs …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Movin%27#Music_video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennio_Morricone
http://mikepatton.forumfree.it/
http://www.chimai.com/

A groovy 1969 B side version of "Daydream" by David Mahna MacKay, who'd produced the Wallace Collection's 1968 original … plus Franck Pourcel's take and Claude François' "Rêveries" remake (new lyrics by Jacques Plante, both from the same année érotique, and, finally, the Beta Band sampling it in 2001.

Piero Umiliani's classic track (1968), as made famous by David Mahna MacKay (in 1969 - more on him in the next post), Sesame Street (1969), Sesamstraße (?) and, last but not least, the Muppets (e.g. 1976) … Apparently, Jim Henson c.s. have recorded several versions, most of them by the character Bip Bippadotta ... but Sandra Bullock did her part too - see http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mahna_Mahna_(song) for more on all that!

Fritz von Runte was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's "2001 a space odyssey" motion picture to remix David Bowie's music.
http://fritz.vonrunte.com/
http://www.bowie2001.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_von_Runte
http://uzine.posterous.com/davy-jones-demo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity_(song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fame_(David_Bowie_song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changes_(David_Bowie_song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Dance_(David_Bowie_song)
http://snaporaz.posterous.com/2001-how-the-solar-system-was-won

Crazy band, very crazy movie, start of a gaming craze …
http://mubi.com/films/le-petit-amour
http://www.janebirkin.net/uk/film.html
http://demy.chez.com/87KungFu.htm
http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/20/200/
http://www.cine-tamaris.com/film.php?id=38
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung-Fu_Master
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Rita_Mitsouko
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Rita_Mitsouko
http://snaporaz.posterous.com/tag/vardaagnès
http://retro.ign.com/articles/852/852091p1.html
http://www.allocine.fr/film/saga_gen_csaga=76.html
http://www.forumdesimages.fr/Collections/notice/VDP7937
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/varda/
http://www.rfimusic.com/artist/chanson/jane-birkin/biography
http://www.ina.fr/recherche/recherche?search=Varda&vue=Video
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=950DE2D7173BF930A15755C0A96F948260
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-11-17/entertainment/8903100382_1_agnes-varda-kung-fu-master-mary-jane