Far sweeter than funky.

If you sat down and had a conversation with someone about funk, it seems unlikely that you'd start talking about Chicago sweet soul harmony group the Dells. Thus, the fact that the Dells album Sweet As Funk Can Be isn't some rare, hard-to-find, one-off Dells funk outing. I'm sure somewhere there's documentation about where the record title came from, and undoubtedly it has something to do with the ample segues between each full-length track, but it honestly doesn't matter. What matters is that this is a great Dells album, certainly not the easiest of their catalog to find, but a gem all the same. Honestly, it's the freaking Dells and it's on Cadet (for those of you familiar with my musical tastes, you know I enjoy using the term Cadetitis to refer to how much I want to listen to damn near anything released on the Cadet label).

So, the story behind my acquisition of the record. On one of many trips to Chicago, I happened to stumble into one of the many record shops in a trendier part of town. Most of the shops have a fair amount of moderately hard-to-find stuff, an occasional rare 45 or two, and a lot of things that one might want to fill in gaps in their library. Such is the case here. My favorite Dells albums, hands down, are Freedom Means and Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation, so finding the record that was released between the two was a real treat (note, also released between the two was The Dells Sing Dionne Warwick's Greatest Hits). I thought maybe there would be something really different about Sweet As Funk Can Be and those other two records, but there really wasn't (and that's ok). More importantly, I saw the album was produced by Charles Stepney, which made me realize that the $15 price tag was likely by some young kid who didn't know how to price records (because this thing was in perfect condition).

Just like the majority of the Dells early 70s output, the album is solid throughout. Some tracks are certainly weaker than others, and one can arguably pull out the tracks considered "filler" by the label, but overwhelmingly it's a beautiful sweet soul harmony LP. Unique to this album, however, are the segues spoken/sung by the members of the Dells. They're kind of strange...and I'd be lying to say I totally understand the point or purpose of them, but that being said they are kind of fun. The track for your aural enjoyment today is a little Soul Shower special medley. I went ahead and took the sixth segue from the album, and combined it with my favorite full-length song "Windy City Soul." The name of the segue tacked on to the beginning of the track is "Fonky Thang/Diamon' Rang." Like I said, kind of weird, but no less enjoyable.

The Dells still suffer the same fate as so many 70s groups--some big company owns their back catalog and all we get to show are some crap compilations instead of 2 for 1 CDs or reissues with bonus material The best (or at least most complete) collection seems to be this, and if you head over to Dusty Groove you can usually find a few used LPs for sale (including the one featuring today's selections). I hope you enjoy the "sweet funk" of the Dells.

The Dells - Fonky Thang/Diamon' Rang/Windy City Soul (1972)

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