You’ve heard her for those who’ve heard any late 80s hip-hop, although she wasn’t a hip-hop artist. You’ve heard her for those who had been into the funky soul of the early 70s. You might even have heard her for those who had been accumulating uncommon 60s woman group information. She had the funk. She might scream – even when she didn’t actually wish to. Lyn Collins made two nice albums and managed to chart within the US, although the percentages had been stacked in opposition to her. She was one hundred pc genuine Texas soul.
Lyn Collins was born on June 12, 1948, in Lexington, Texas, and by the age of 14 was an honest singer, a standing proved by a single with Charles Pikes And The Students, “Unlucky In Love,” a proto-soul document now considered having a lady group sound. Within the late 60s she despatched a demo tape to James Brown, who promised her a spot on his revue, although she was a way down the pecking order in Brown’s hierarchy and needed to watch for her probability whereas Marva Whitney and Vicki Anderson got here and went.
A hanging girl with a strong, interesting voice, Lyn caught Brown’s eye. Her alternative got here when Anderson left Brown for a second time, and Lyn grew to become the highest feminine singer in JB’s touring get together, which was one of many greatest attracts in Black music within the early 70s.
Being excessive up in James Brown’s revue meant you bought to launch information, and Collins grabbed the prospect with each arms. Her recordings are essentially the most characterful of any singer James Brown produced throughout that period, but Lyn had loads of competitors. She lower two albums in three years, and a slew of singles. She accrued nicknames, awarded by Brown: she was Mama Feelgood, based on a 1973 single, and, extra typically, The Feminine Preacher, an apt epithet as a result of she had an arresting presence on document and on stage. Like a fantastic non secular determine delivering a sermon in church, you simply needed to pay attention. Collins came to visit as sassy and sensual, but additionally highly effective, elegant, and composed.
Collins’ first credited single, the chugging “Wheel Of Life,” was launched on King in 1971, however when Brown deserted the Cincinnati, Ohio, label he’d labored with for 15 years, she shifted to the label he arrange by way of Polydor, Individuals, and that first single was shortly put within the shade by her newer, more durable information.
“Think (About It)” opened with a strong assertion – by 1972 requirements at the least – instantly inserting Collins within the firm of Laura Lee and Jean Knight. The document made No.66 on the Billboard pop charts and was High 10 within the R&B listings, the place she grew to become one thing of a daily, with 9 additional information charting.
Obtained a very good factor going
“Me And My Baby Got A Good Thing Going” maintained her hoarse, spiky shouted intro fashion earlier than turning into an “I got a good man” commonplace funky soul quantity. “Things Got To Get Better” was her revision of a tune beforehand sung by one other of JB’s soul sisters, Marva Whitney, dealt with with rather less bombast, although the backing observe was just like Whitney’s – if not solely equivalent. The flip, an attractive ballad, was “Women’s Lib,” and Collins left every part within the studio in certainly one of her best performances: “The time is here,” she states. Nevertheless it’s the exact same observe that factors out the difficulties this supremely gifted singer confronted.
Lyn Collins was a robust, proud, and highly effective girl. However she wanted to be. The author of “Women’s Lib,” based on the credit, was James Brown, and it does sound like a JB composition. Once you had been on Brown’s revue, being produced by him, singing songs he wrote, you by no means fairly escaped his shadow. Few who labored with him ever made it in their very own proper afterwards, and the feminine singer who did, Tammy Montgomery, needed to change her title and work with one of many few soul music organizations with extra energy than Brown had: she signed to Motown, the place she grew to become the irresistible Tammi Terrell. On a number of of Lyn Collins’ information, you possibly can hear James Brown singing loud assist, as for those who might hear who was pulling the strings. Her greatest pop hit, “What My Baby Needs Now Is A Little More Lovin’,” was a duet with the self-styled Soul Brother No.1.
Brown had songs he favored and typically his artists could be strolling of their predecessors’ footwear when it got here to materials, even every now and then being given the identical backing tracks. This was maybe inevitable when Brown’s Individuals label had numerous artists and classes had been organized on a hit-and-run foundation whereas on tour. When Collins ultimately left Brown within the mid-70s, she lower no extra albums and relatively few singles, and her solely additional hit was a red-hot revision of “Think (About It)” with the dancehall artist Patra in 1993, by which era Brown’s grip had slipped. By working for The Godfather Of Soul, Collins gained alternatives she would maybe by no means have discovered elsewhere, nevertheless it was his manner or the freeway. Ladies’s liberation? Lyn Collins certainly meant it, however couldn’t have felt it below Brown’s regime.
For essentially the most half, Collins was required to sock-it-to ’em, and she or he did it nicely because the very definition of a Southern soul sister. However her vocal fashion additionally suited subtler materials, as her interpretation of Bacharach-David’s “Don’t Make Me Over” (1974), a gloriously downbeat lower of “Ain’t No Sunshine” (1972), and a model of Bob Crewe’s “Wide Awake In A Dream” (1974) made clear. Although Collins had a tough time coping with the demanding Brown, based on a few of her fellows in his make use of, one of many few complaints she voiced was having to scream a lot on her information when she would have most well-liked to point out a few of her delicate energy.
Her first album, Assume (About It), noticed launch within the US, Germany, and the UK in 1972, and was filled with tunes launched as singles, plus a few of Brown’s ‟most well-liked songs.” These included “Just Won’t Do Right,” which Brown had recorded in 1956, and the swing chestnut “Fly Me To The Moon,” which one way or the other works nicely in an unlikely funky association.
Rock me time and again and time and again and time and again
Lyn Collins’ second album arrived three years later. Test Me Out If You Don’t Know Me By Now was, for essentially the most half, a reasonably extra refined affair, and once more the music picks had been curious at occasions, although super-soulful. A model of the Gershwins’ “Foggy Day” opened the album for no obvious cause, however Collins dealt with it nicely; “To Each His Own” was heart-warming and spirited; and there was a predictable “Mr. Big Stuff,” which has a vocal that maybe betrays a contact of going by way of the motions. You could possibly by no means say that a few riveting lower of “Try A Little Tenderness,” nonetheless, by which Collins substitutes the phrases “young girl” for the extra conscious “women,” whereas “Backstabbers,” the Philly traditional James Brown appreciated sufficient to mess with a few occasions, works brilliantly, with Brown and Collins on an equal vocal footing for as soon as over a cultured backing observe. The title music, initially one other Philly groove, is stately and dealt with fantastically by Collins.
Collins, as was typically the way in which with members of Brown’s revue, would ship a few of these acquainted hits alongside her personal releases to heat up crowds for the principle attraction. Better of all is among the singles she’s greatest remembered for: “Rock Me Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again (6 Times),” a no-messing groove unafraid to drive its phonky message into your physique and thoughts. Sadly, its B-side, the excellent slinky groove of “You Can’t Love Me, If You Don’t Respect Me,” was left off the LP. She co-wrote the music, and you’ll’t assist however surprise if the lyric was thought up together with her co-writer, The Godfather, in thoughts. Anyway, Collins’ second studio album proved to be her final, regardless of its excellence. Curiously, contemplating when it was launched, Test Me Out… supplied no concessions to the fast-rising disco sound, a uncommon factor in a cool soul LP of its time.
Don’t make me over
Not a member of Brown’s posse after 1975, Collins sang backgrounds for the likes of Rod Stewart and Dionne Warwick. She was feted throughout Britain’s rare-groove period and, because of this, delivered a killer set at a 1987 gig within the UK as a part of James Brown’s Funky Individuals, which featured The Godfather’s band and singers with out the principle man. There was, ultimately, a solo tour of Europe. Her vocals graced quite a few hip-hop and home information, with Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock constructing their 1988 “It Takes Two” smash virtually solely on Collins’ samples, and her screams on “Think (About It)” had been used actually scores of occasions. Her 1993 duet with Patra confirmed she had misplaced none of her vocal brilliance – if something, she appeared much more like a robust, highly effective girl on the promotional clip.
Gloria Lavern “Lyn” Collins died on March 13, 2005, from a seizure after coronary heart issues. She was 56. As was all the time the case throughout her years with James Brown, a fellow feminine former member of James Brown’s revue was readily available to assist her by way of these ultimate powerful days: the fantastic, sweet-voiced vocalist Martha Excessive.
Collins had dared to sing of a liberation she wouldn’t have loved on the time, hoping to encourage her sisters in spirit. Looking back, now we all know how troublesome it will need to have been to be one thing of a star, but not free. These fantastic information which spoke of a freedom she didn’t take pleasure in revealed simply how sturdy she actually was.
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