SIXTIES

Soon after producing a top ten hit on JJ Barnes with 'Baby please come back home', Don Davis found himself being lured to Memphis giant, Stax Records. It was to be the start an illustrious career at the home of Southern Soul.

One of his earliest deals was to lease some Darrell Banks material to Stax subsidiary Volt. Two of the songs came from the pen of Fred and his partners.

"We first met Darrell at United Sound Systems on Second Avenue. He was a good guy and we became close friends through our travels to Chicago.

Richard taught Darrell how to sing our songs and if you listen closely you will notice there is a likeness in their voices.

Much of the ground work was done in The Place and we would always be playing back the tunes to Darrell on the phone as things unravelled.

The 'A' side became 'Beautiful feeling' and it was one of the best songs we ever wrote. I'm sure Don would agree."

Lots of great songs were being released by Volt at that time but mysteriously they all failed. Several were by Detroit acts, JJ Barnes, Reggie Milner, Roz Ryan and of course Darrell Banks.

Volt would also release another BKE song called 'Since I fell for you', but that didn't do much either. This time the artist was Mavis Staples whom Fred remembers as an awesome talent.

On the main Stax label, Fred recalls the group providing backgrounds for Johnnie Taylor on 'Who's making love' and 'Cheaper to keep her', and on Mavis Staples with 'Since you became a part of my life' which BKE had also written.

Continued