RIP Ron Banks of the Dramatics

[RGMike]

Damn.

http://www.billboard.com/news/dramatics-founder-ron-banks-dies-1004073213.story?tag=hpfeed#/news/dramatics-founder-ron-banks-dies-1004073213.story?tag=hpfeed

JJ on KPOO just played their cover of H&O's "Do What You Want, Be Who You Are" which I'd never heard before and which is as fab as you'd expect it to be.

ETA: he was only 58 -- I'd've guessed older. That means when they recorded "Whatcha See..." and "In the Rain", he was barely 19.

[Wayback]

Video from 1973 film "Wattstax" which uses "Whatcha See..."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/afterword/2010/03/ron-banks-and-the-dramatics-with-an-la-twist.html

[RGMike]

JJ is playing a LOT of Dramatics tonite. I just bought 2 best-ofs on Amazon -- one Stax/Volt, the other the ABC years -- for less than 4 bucks each.  The Hall & Oates cover mentioned above is quite a lost gem; only got to #58 R&B and didn't even chart Pop.

ETA: here's "The Devil Is Dope", an anti-drug number that's a LOT more fun by far than JB's "King Heroin"

ETA2: and here's that fab H&O cover. Hot cars, leather bars and movie stars!