It's the real thing

Discovering records like this is what makes it all worthwhile. I found it interesting that Part 1 was the instrumental track, and Part 2 was the vocal track. At first i thought the labels might have been accidentally switched during the manufacturing process, but upon closer examination, they actually say instrumental for part one, and vocal for part 2. This is the way they wanted it to be...

I did a little investigative research on the ole interwebs and found a page on The Carolina Soul website, which is where the following text was stolen from, it also explains the side 1 & 2 switch up:

Perhaps the closest thing to an anthem that the people of Greensboro had in the early ‘70s was “The Real Thing,” by the Electric Express. A demo version of “The Real Thing” made its Triad debut on WQMG’s “Make It, Break It,” a call-in show where listeners determined the fate of any given record. “The station lit up that night!” recalled Hudson during a recent interview. The quartet pooled their weekend wages, and headed to local funk foundry Crescent City Sound Studios, enlisting local tastemaker and radio jock Wayman “Slack” Johnson as producer.

Although Hudson had written a set of socially conscious lyrics while serving in Vietnam, label owner Walter Grady thought “The Real Thing” may perform better as an instrumental, banishing Hudson’s political prose to the single’s B-side. “The Real Thing” would soon get picked up for distribution by Atlantic, selling over 800,000 copies. The two songs serve two entirely different purposes, and although history has favored the instrumental version, you can decide for yourself which is the realest.


One thing i personally couldn't help but hearing in the instrumental version is the similarity of the lazy meandering saxophone solo at the end to the sax solo at the end of the 'Stones 'Can't you hear me knocking.' Their Sticky Fingers album had just been released in April of 1971, and this ones from '71 as well. I don't know much, but it seems to me like the sax player was probably digging on his brand new Stones 8-track in the car on his way to the studio that day... Pay attention toward the end, at about the three minute mark he straight-up rips off one of Bobby Keys' licks. It's great.

I put Part 2 first and the instrumental Part 1 second, because i personally like the vocal version more. You, however, have the choice to listen to them in whatever order you prefer. I'd definitely recommend them both...
Enjoy!

Part 2


Part 1


part two

part one


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