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LP
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VAMPI 291LP
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It is perhaps apropos that Queenie Marie Lyons's best known song is titled "See And Don't See." For all the acclaim that song has accrued, and all the times it has been compiled, reissued and bootlegged, Queenie herself has somehow remained unseen. How did a singer from Ashtabula, Ohio record one of the great female-led soul albums and then simply fall off the map, never to record or perform again? While on tour with James Brown for only a month or so, when the group reached Cincinnati in mid-'68 she entered the King Records studio there to record what would become Soul Fever. The songs were a combination of covers, some of which she'd been doing in her live shows, like "Fever" and "Try Me," and originals written by producer Henry Glover and pianist Don Pullen, who was the bandleader on the session. The album opener, "See And Don't See," was also recorded by the veteran R&B singer Maxine Brown, but Queenie's version blows hers away. Soul Fever is a supremely funky and soulful affair, with Queenie's powerful and captivating voice magnetically attractive, with an urgency that is impossible to ignore. "Your Thing Ain't No Good Without My Thing," "Your Key Don't Fit It Anymore," and "I Don't Want Nobody To Have It But You" are as funky and soulful as the best of Tina Turner and Aretha -- a statement not to be made lightly! The album was critically acclaimed -- the October 10, 1970, issue of Billboard listed it as their sole "four star" pick in the soul category -- but perhaps due to the tumult at Starday-King, whose stewardship had turned over several times in only a few years, it never seemed to be able to break through to a larger audience.
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