1969
7'' Orange Records 45-1002
Composers: Red Rose, T. Warner (possibly pseudonyms)
Some other roots of Munich Disco?
Over years this single has been a mystery to me. When I first listened to it, I was really happy as I seemed to have grabbed some real "Northern Soul" single or something of that kind. But certain things were weird.
I couldn't find no info about the singer or the label. "Orange Records" by name and design obviously was obviously inspired by the Beatles' "Apple Records". It seems to be an European label. This could have been a licensor.
But the composers credits were kind of weird: Red Rose, T. Warner, Kid Olav and ... the last name sounded familiar: L. Meid. Could this be Lothar Meid of Amon Düül II performing on a soul record? (I must admit I wasn't really familiar with Doldinger's Passport line-ups.)
Could it be that a German productions sounded like straight out from the suburbs of LA? So it is "not the real thing" at least?
Years later, with some more data on the internet my suspicions appear to be true: This is Lothar Meid on bass along with saxophone veteran Olaf Kübler (the notorious Kid Olav who would become the producer of Amon Düül II) and other session people.
The Singer Don Adams is a British guy. He later would spend three years with the Gospel/Hair-Musical inspired and highly successful Les Humphries Singers, record a couple of furthe solo albums. In the mid 70ies he appeared in another Munich-bases R&B-unit, the relatively obscure disco/funk unit Mandrake (also featured in this compilation).
The short lived Orange labels was based in Munich and run by Hans Wewerka's Edition Modern. The project was picked up by the Munich based branch office of Imperial records. On the budget Sunset subsidiary appeared an LP whose title and jacket suggested some authentic social awareness west-coast-soul: "Watts Happening"
You get the pun? Hardly anyone would in Germany of 1969, if not GIs!
So, was there even something like a German Soul Scene? An interview with co-founder of Embryo and later member of Amon Düül II and passport unveils the background (read the intro or click to see the video):
