For decades, foreigners’ love of American music has kept royalties and concert dates rolling in for plenty creators in domestically ignored and discarded genres. In the U.K., one manifestation of fanatical obeisance to artistry from the former colonies came from the subculture of the mid-1960s mods. The Lambretta scooter-riding youth also loved dancing to U.S. soul.
Modernity, the third in a series of revelatory anthologies (Modernists and Modernism precede it), collects the sort of R&B and danceable jazz that could have fueled the dancefloor in Quadrophenia. Aficionados of Wisconsin-related music should be interested in the collection's first track—the first CD appearance of a track by Birdlegs & Pauline, the married couple from Rockford, IL who recorded at the studio of Sauk City's Cuca Records and got a national Top 20 soul hit out of the sessions. Their frantic, guitar-fueled rave-up contrasts to the less excitable exuberance of The Teen Queens and a practically quaint, previously unissued turn from Ike & Tina Turner.
Even The Kingsmen of “Louie Louie” fame are included on Modernity with number saluting one of their animal-inspired dances. Far more obscure contributors shine at least as bright in a setting that posits an imaginary past both for rug-cutting mods and soul radio station program directors during the JFK and LBJ administrations. Per Kent Records’ usual standards, liner notes provide plenty of context and historical detail.
