dave godin
b. David Edward Godin, 21st June 1936, Lambeth, South London, United Kingdom
d. 15th October 2004, Rotherham, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
with marvin gaye
with marvin gaye, janis gaye (hunter) & dave
Dave Godin had been in touch with me for a while now. I learned of his passing from his close friend Chris Hill, who kindly let me know that Dave had died.
I knew Dave was ill and he asked me, if I called him, could I call him at certain times of the day, which I did. If I got the moment right, we would talk for a while.
Most of the conversations I used to have with Dave concerned politics, however, when we got onto the subject of music, we spoke for hours. He discussed tracks I had never heard of (being a Southerner...even though my family roots are in Hull. LOL). I spoke about one's he had never heard of (him being a North...sorry, another Southerner!). What a team! LOL. If you could bottle Dave's musical knowledge and post it here, I would have my website hosts demanding more money for webspace!
Dave attended a Dartford Grammar School in his teens. His main claim to fame arrived via his fine columns in the Blues and Soul Publication. Dave contributed to that magazine for nearly 30 years. He was also the creator of the term 'Northern Soul'.
That term came about whilst Dave was running the Soul City store in London. Many of the store's visitors came from the North of the U.K. Dave noticed that the styles of records the people were asking for varied from those requested by Southern buyers, so Dave placed them in certain cases. When someone asked for a record, who happened to come from the North of the U.K., Dave would ask his assistant to 'dig out the Northern Soul'. Thus the term was born.
Dave was passionate about his 4 CD series entitled 'Deep Soul Treasures'. Dave called them his 'babies'.
deep soul treasures 4
His final 'baby', I was lucky enough to play a small part in, which was a thrill as Dave is one person on this scene I really admired.
At the time of Dave's passing, his CD was on the front page of this site. I will keep it there for a period of a month as a tribute to this fine human being.
A very caring, loving, softly spoken and articulate man. He will always have a place here.
toby walker
dave @ soul city 1968
Here is a recent article and interview with Dave from the U.K.'s Manifesto magazine, June 2003 issue. Dave asked me to post this at the site for his friends overseas to read. Click on the article pages for something readable:
...manifesto june 2003...
...the first three 'soul treasures' cd series...
...dave's blues and soul column 1975....and 1977...
...dave with maxine brown and dean parrish at a recent soul weekender at cleethorpes in the u.k....
tribute to Randy Cozens written by Dave
dave godin
If you want to send a card of condolence, here is the address. Below there is a charity that Dave thought you might wish to donate some money to.
Dave Godin in memorium, 27 Clifton Crescent South, Rotherham, South Yorks, S65 2AR, United Kingdom.
Dave wished any donations you might want to contribute to, to be sent to:
Dr Elizabeth Svendsen, The Donkey Sanctuary, Sidmouth, Devon, EX10 0NU, United Kingdom.
Cheques payable to 'the Donkey Sanctuary'.
http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/site/1/About_Us.html
...here are two very nice obituary columns from the Guardian and Independent Newspapers in the U.K., dated the 20th October 2004. (Click on the images for a larger version).
...Dave's funeral programme...
...and here are the songs that were played at the party for Dave after the service...
Dave Godin's Farewell Doo
Significant Sides
Thursday 28th October 2004
6.00 pm - 9.00 pm - "Deep Soul" - Sean Hampsey & Kev Briscoe
Ad Libs Nothings Worse Than Being Alone
Ronnie McNeir Wendy Is Gone
Jean Stanback I Still Love You
Loretta Williams I'm Missing You
Garnet Mimms Cry Baby
Barbara Lynn You'll Lose A Good Thing
Jackie Shane Any Other Way
Garnet Mimms It Was Easier To Hurt Her
Irma Thomas Anyone Who Knows What Love Is
Ujima Still Hooked On You
James Carr These Ain't Raindrops
Bob & Earl Don't Ever Leave Me
Tommi Young She Don't Have To See You
John Hamilton Take This Hurt Off Me
Barbara Hall Drop My Heart Off At The Door
Eddie & Ernie Thanks For Yesterday
Larry Banks I'm Not The One
Emotions Flowers
Emotions Somebody New
Arthur Conley I'm A Lonely Stranger
Mary Wells The Doctor
Dee Clark In These Very Tender Moments
Rick James Ebony Eyes
Debbie Taylor I Don't Want To Leave You
Ad Libs Giving Up
Maxine Brown All In My Mind
Maxine Brown It Seems You've Forsaken My Love
Doris Duke Feet Start Walking
Bessie Banks Do It Now
Johnny Baker Accept Me As I Am
Barbara Carr Think About It Baby
Irma Thomas Full Time Woman
Bettye LaVette Your Turn To Cry
Bessie Banks Try To Leave Me If You Can
Kenny Carter Showdown
Toussaint McCall Nothing Takes The Place Of You
Bessie Banks Go Now
Barbara Lewis Baby I'm Yours
Bettye LaVette Let Me Down Easy
Esther Phillips Home Is Where The Hatred Is
Latimore Let's Straighten Out
Freddie Hughes Sarah Mae
Bobby Bland Too Far Gone To Turn Around
Eddie Holman I'm Not Gonna Give Up
Jimmy Robins I Made It Over
Jaibi You Got Me
9.00 pm 'Greetings To The Tamla Motown Appreciation Society' single introduced by Ady CrosdellFollowed by Tamla Motown - Sean Hampsey & Kev Briscoe
Velvelettes These Things Will Keep Me Loving You
Elgins Heaven Must Have Sent You
Four Tops I Can't Help Myself
Four Tops Reach Out I'll Be There
Miracles Going To A Go-Go
Marvin Gaye I'll Be Doggone
Kim Weston Helpless
Edwin Starr Stop Her On Sight
Contours Just A Little Misunderstanding
9.30 pm - 10.30 pm Classic Northern Soul - John Vincent
Frankie Beverly If That’s What You Wanted
Duke Browner Crying Over You
Four Perfections I'm Not Strong Enough
Fidels Try A Little Harder
Stanley Mitchell Get It Baby
Chandlers Your Love Makes Me Lonely
Mel Britt She'll Come Running Back
Nolan Porter If I Could Only Be Sure
Geri Granger I Go To Pieces
Ann Sexton You've Been Gone Too Long
Jackie Edwards I Feel So Bad
Magic Night If You And I Had Never Met
Ivories Please Stay
Sam Moultrie I'll Always Love You
Silky Hargreaves Keep Loving me Like You Do
Peoples Choice Savin' My Lovin' For You
Bobby Taylor I've Been Blessed
Linda Jones I Just Can't Live My Life
Lee Roy Tears
Yvonne Baker I Can't Change
Fantastic Johnny C Don't Depend On Me
Doni Burdick I Have Faith In You
Raymond Smith Seven Day Lover
Boogie Man Orchestra Lady Lady Lady
Marvin Holmes You Better Keep Her
Dobie Gray Honey You Can't Take It Back
10.30 pm - 00.20 am Classic Soul, Northern & Motown Sean Hampsey & Kev Briscoe
Temptations Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Joy Lovejoy In Orbit
Bobby Hebb Love Love Love
Babara Lynn Take Your Love And Run
Roy Hamilton Cracking Up Over You
Sandi Sheldon You're Gonna Make Me Love You
Moses Smith Girl Across The Street
Gene Chandler Nothing Can Stop Me
Barbara Randolph I Got A Feelin
Maurice Chestnut Too Darn Soulful
Barbara Acklin Love Makes A Woman
Bettye Swann Make Me Yours
Jackie Wilson I Get The Sweetest Feeling
Jerry Butler Moody Woman
Aretha Franklin I Say A Little Prayer
Carstairs It Really Hurts Me Girl
Ruby Andrews Just Loving You
James Fountain Seven Day Lover
Barbara Lynn Your Losing Me
Mary Lover Dear Lover
Dobie Gray The In Crowd
O Jays I Dig Your Act
Spellbinders Help Me
Doris Troy I'll Do Anything
Velvelettes These Things Will Keep Me Loving You
Jr. Walker Road Runner
Marvin Gaye Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
Jeff Perry Love Don't Come No Stronger
Fantastic Puzzles Come Back
Jerry Williams If You Ask Me
Billy Butler Right Track
Major Lance The Beat
Incredibles There Is Nothing Else To Say
Jackie Lee Oh My Darling
Bud Harper Mr Soul
Bobby Bland Call On Me
Darrell Banks Open The Door To Your Heart
Artistics I'm Gonna Miss You
Bettye Swann Make Me Yours
Note: All records played on old fashioned 7" vinylThanks to John Benson for help in compiling the list.
Kev Briscoe November 2004
...thanks for the listings Kev...and a lovely comment from Peter Young at Jazz FM in London...
'The playlist from Dave's funeral was stunning. I'm sure he would have approved. I'm amazed anyone was able to write it all down, very impressive indeed.'
Here is a lovely message from Bessie Banks that was read out at Dave's funeral service:
From: Bessie Banks:
'I remember 1963 Kennedy was Assassinated. It was announced over the radio. At the time, I was rehearsing in the office of Leiver and Stoller. We called it a day. Everyone was in tears. “Come back next week and we will be ready to record Go Now”, and we did so. I was happy and excited that maybe this time I’ll make it. Go Now was released and right away it was chosen Pick Hit of the Week on W.I.N.S. Radio. That means your record is played for 7 days. 4 Days went by, I was so thrilled. On day 5, when I heard the first line, I thought it was me but all of a sudden, I realized it wasn’t. At the end of the song it was announced, The Moody Blues singing Go Now. I was too out-done. This was the time of the English Invasion and the end of Bessie Banks’ career, so it thought. Americas D.J. had stopped promoting American artist. Several months passed, all of a sudden I Started getting letters of encouragement from these English Gentleman by the name of Dave Godin who really knew how to express himself. I was very impressed. He really believed that what was happening with American Artist was wrong. Dave started making things happen. He found records that I recorded even before Go Now. I remember 1968 was the beginning of a real friendship. We wrote to each other about everything. All of a sudden, their was hope because Dave believed in me and my late husband Larry. He started his company, Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures. We were always on these C.D.s along with other Artist that he admired. Dave even put me on the cover of “Deep Soul” Magazine with a beautiful write up inside. I use to tell him how great he was with words, “ Why don’t you write a song? I use to say to him. He would laugh. Through him, I started receiving fan mail from England which made me feel wonderful. I couldn’t believe how fast things happened because of Dave. I remember in the 90’s this old lady was still on the scene with “Go Now” being used in a Movie entitled what else “Go Now” Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. (blows my mind). I remember every Christmas I always got a beautiful card from him, Every birthday a long distance call for over 36 years.
I believe that God has a plan and purpose for all of us and he places people in our lives to bring about His Will.
Dave Godin has been a blessing from God, full of love and compassion, and to me, he’s not gone. I’ll always remember and treasure the love and friendship, which will always remain here in my heart.'
bessie banks
...and this was published in the Sydney Morning Herald. Thanks to Jim Merrigan for sending this to me:
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - GOOD WEEKEND MAGAZINE
SATURDAY 22ND JANUARY 2005
“VIEW FROM THE COUCH” by MR PHILIP JOHNSON
Black American music has a long and honourable tradition of screaming queens (Little Richard, Sylvester) and pastel-pink balladeers (Johnny Mathis, Luther Vandross) but when it comes to going public in jazz, hip-hop, or R&B, homosexuality remains the love that dare not sing its name. Performers who are black and gay almost never come out, no matter how open their secret love affair appears to be. Perhaps as a result of this self-repression, a camp sensibility pervades most African-American showbusiness.
Look at hip-hop; all that bling-bling, butch posturing and crotch-tugging wouldn’t seem out of place in a production of Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers, yet we’re expected to read the cartoon macho images as some kind of social documentary. Yep, this is life “in the hood” all right, as directed by Robert Mapplethorpe.
Similarly, this histrionic emotionalism of classic soul music from the 1960’s and 70’s is usually explained away as a secular emulation of gospel (surely the campest musical form of the lot - I mean, just look at those gowns) rather than men trying to sound like women, and women trying to sound like me, which seems much more obvious.
What might be called a camp aesthetic can be applied to soul very easily. One could even replace the musical text of that famous scene from the film Philadelphia – when the gay Tom Hanks character attempts to explain the expressive power of a Maria Callas aria from Bellini’s Norma to the straight and uncomprehending Denzel Washington – with Aretha Franklin’s divine version of I Say A Little Prayer.
You can experience the undeniable campness of classic soul – and in the process hear what I think is some of the best music ever produced – on a remarkable series of albums who’s compiler died of cancer late last year, just after the fourth and final instalment of his masterwork was released. Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures (vols 1-4) on the Kent label (an imprint of the UK’s ACE Records), brings together neglected tracks by obscure but sometimes strikingly powerful artists such as Larry Banks, Irma Thomas, Eddie and Ernie, Doris Duke and the Knight Brothers.
Godin, an English journalist, coined the term Deep Soul to describe the intense, lovelorn and lachrymose, usually slow-tempo tunes that he would find on small US labels while running Europe’s first specialist black music record store, Soul City, in London in the late 60’s. In his compilations, he favours tracks with a rich orchestral palette (what many would call over-produced or corny) and vocalists who act out the song in a self consciously dramatic manner rather than simply singing the words.
“Deep Soul occupies precisely the same role as Greek tragedy did in those far off days,” he wrote in a sleeve-note to the first volume. “It is cathartic; a form of therapy through art.” Godin also compared Deep Soul to grand opera, the only other form of Western Music he thought capable of generating the same emotional intensity. Camp or not Maria Callas and Aretha Franklin might have more in common than we think.
I guess Dave's legacy lives on, and quite rightly so....
