The Dells

You know what? Also, The Stylistics were part of that age and era where they were doing nasty shit, like having the name of their song be You're a Big Girl Now.

Number 40, The De- The Dells.

I know them, but-

The actual real, real-

Like, the, you know, they, they weren't the, they weren't the, the buying public.

Like, you gotta, you got...

I mean, let's be honest about this, the conversation from The Dells that made it into the, uh, made it into the Five Heartbeats, you gotta cross over at some point, and you can't just have, you can't just have your, your, your, your, your faithful.

You gotta make something that someone outside of these, this small group of people are going to wanna listen to.

This one's not been touched up at all, though.

The Dells, All About the Paper.

Money.

Go get the money.

Um, he, uh, passed away at the age of 70 on Monday.

And then on Wednesday, um, Vern Allison of The Dells, which is a real shame 'cause we had The Dells as The Lore.

Uh, but, uh...

Well, just a couple of months back.

There you go, Northern Three some back next week with Mr. Phyllis.

Thank you, sir.

Um, as I said earlier, we sadly lost Vern Allison, who was one of the founding members, um, of the group The Dells.

We, we did The Dells Were the Law, um, a good few months back now.

[laughs]

The Dells, The Love We Had Stays On My Mind.

Every version of this is okay with me.

Every version of this is okay.

Big shout out to Philadelphia sound.

Yeah.

And The Dells don't get enough lo- they're so underappreciated.

The Dells don't get enough love-

And across Rotary Connection's six albums, Stepney experimented with sitars, tape distortion, and a partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and that became part of his lush trademark sound.

He actually earned his first Grammy nomination for his work with Rotary Connection, and he shaped unforgettable sonic foundations for a who's who of Chicago-based artists that included Ramsey Lewis, Howlin' Wolf, The Dells, Terry Callier, The Emotions, Little Milton, and Deniece Williams.

Stepney also teamed with blues guitarist Muddy Waters to produce Electric Mud.

And like any bold innovator, Stepney made a few missteps.

Both Stepney and Marshall Chess were actually criticized by Howlin' Wolf for their infusion of psychedelic electric rhythms into his album.

Howlin' Wolf's strong dislike for the album was noted on the album's cover.

In addition, Stepney also reportedly faced resistance from The Dells' vocalist, that's the soul group, The Dells, Chuck Barksdale, after the group's unsuccessful 1970 album, Sweet as Funk Can Be.

It's even hard for me to imagine The Dells doing funk.

And he did come from Chicago to LA with Maurice White, and he has a very distinctive vocal delivery.

He was involved before that with The Dells.

One of my favorite songs, uh, Stay in My Corner.

Uh, Louis Satterfield, who I know you have some association with, so we're gonna talk about Louis Satterfield a, a little bit later.