Eugene Blacknell and the New Breed: Gettin’ Down
From 7″ (Seaside, 196?)
It’s Beat Week here at Soul Sides, where every day for the next seven, we’ll be posting up a song that’s all about smacking you in the head with a percussive blast that rips through your frame and leaves you panting for just one more (snare) hit. In honor of the fact that Soul Sides is probably about to get a ton of traffic courtesy Rolling Stone, I figured I might as well do something special for the occassion.
I have to start local, with a slice of down home Oakland funk, courtesy Eugene Blacknell and the New Breed. His “Gettin’ Down” used to be one of those singles that funk fiends would shell out a few Franklins to procure but in more recent times, enough copies have turned up so that the 7″ is now “only” around $75-100 (that’s a lot cheaper than what it used to go for, believe me). It’s easy to believe the hype – to call the intro drum solo “explosive” is an understatement – I’d love to know who the drummer on this joint is (let me get back to ya’ll about that). The remainder of the song rocks out just a lil’ too much for my taste but that’s what the rewind button is for.
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