Gary Byrd: Soul Travelin’ (Horny Unity Edit)
From 7″ (RCA, 1973)
I’ve known about this single for years; just never bothered to track one down until recently and I’m glad I did. I always thought of it, first and foremost, as “that song with those great horns” but when I actually listened to the whole thing, I was very much tickled by its gimmick: Byrd traveling around the country to different soul cities and having the band interpolate a series of classics, including Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” the Jackson 5’s “ABC” and even the Jimmy Castor Bunch’s “Troglodytes” (it helps that Bunch’s band is apparently the one backing Byrd!)
For the edit, I simply stitched together parts 1 and 2 of the song from both side of the 7″, lengthened the horn intro by a bar and then repeated it between the two halves. Enjoy!