Despite being one of the most sampled artists of his era, singer, percussionist, saxophonist and bandleader Jimmy Castor isn’t the household name some of his contemporaries are. He’s a veritable legend amongst DJs, beatmakers, record diggers and music lovers, particularly those with a jones for Funk, Soul and breaks. And his most timeless hits, “It’s Just Begun,” “Troglodyte (Cave Man),” and “Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Calling You,” are instantly recognizable, not just for their sample-fueled ubiquity, memorable film-appearances (”It’s Just Begun” was featured in the classic street-dancing scene in ’80s chestnut Flashdance), or as dancefloor fodder. But casual listeners would doubtlessly be hard-pressed to identify him by name.
A former Doo-Wop singer who served a short-lived stint as Frankie Lymon’s replacement in The Teenagers, the Harlem-bred Castor cut his teeth as a studio musician, and scored his first hit as a solo artist with the Latin Soul classic “Hey Leroy.” Shortly thereafter he formed his longtime band, The Jimmy Castor Bunch, and forged his own hard Funk sound that retained much of the Latin influence of his earlier hit while embracing Rock, Soul, Jazz and psychedelic influences as well. Their music was heavy and hazy, with definite “flower-child” overtones, but it was also humorous and cheeky, standing up musically and thematically against that of both Kool & the Gang and the Ohio Players, two of the big-name Funk outfits of the time who’s output bears more than a passing similarity to that of the Bunch.
By the time they released 1974’s Butt of Course… the band had it’s formula — a mix of raw Funk grooves, fuzzy psychedelia, novelty humor, social commentary, syrupy Soul ballads, and covers (of varying quality) of popular hit songs — all figured out. And the album’s a-side benefits greatly from the groundwork laid by the band’s previous releases. This is most evident on “Bertha Butt Boogie,” a churning Funk number with fuzz bass wah-wah guitar, a menacingly goofy vocal refrain and a hippie-Funk chorus, which is essentially a sequel to the groups hit “Troglodyte.” Picking up the story of that song’s titular cave man and the Butt sisters, it also makes reference to other Castor characters like Leroy of “Hey Leroy” fame and Luther the Anthropoid.
The uptempo “E-Man Boogie,” a Kool & the Gang-esque jam, and “Hallucinations,” an airy psychedelic Soul tune featuring proto-rap spoken word vocals that invites listeners to join their musical “freak out” before an impending apocalypse kills us all, round out the a-side. But other than “Potential,” a Disco-Jazz tune with a rubbery bassline, exaggerated vocals and an extended section where Jimmy questions his band-members over the groove a-la James Brown, and a solid (if superfluous) cover of The Stylistics‘ “You Make Me Feel Brand New” with a defiantly lengthy instrumental intro, the b-side is sort of a let-down.
I own Ohio Players albums that are just as uneven as Butt of Course… though. And Kool & the Gang made “Celebration” for Pete’s sake! So there’s really no reason The Jimmy Castor Bunch shouldn’t enjoy as prominent a place in the annals of Funk.
-El Keter
