Classic Compilation – Different Strokes (1971)

Most compilation albums are built on a theme – a genre of music, or a specific year – but that wasn’t the case with Different Strokes.

Released in 1971, with the incredibly long full title Different Strokes (19 Contemporary Artists Perform Music Of Our Time), the 19 songs collected on the album have very little in common … except for every artist being on Columbia/Epic.

According to a comment left by someone on Discogs, the LP was originally priced at .99 cents in an effort to get people to pick it up, and sample the 19 artists Columbia/Epic placed on it (this also means I paid quite the markup when I pulled it out of the $1.99 bin at Generation Records in NYC! LOL!). The ultimate goal was to generate more interest in the albums from the artists featured on the compilation.

It also seemed to be an introduction to an idea Columbia/Epic was kicking off – their “Playback” program.

An ad on the record sleeve promoted the program, saying that for just $3 they’d send you no less than 10 LP samplers over the course of a year, each with a newsletter, and a postcard requesting feedback on the songs.

Yes, this was an A&R department that seemed to actually want input from listeners (or they at least put forth a great effort to pretend to). A radical concept!

As an aside, I’d love to find someone who took part in this, because it would be fun to find out what the year of giving feedback to album samplers was like for them.

Getting back to Different Strokes, the lineup of artists was really diverse, and included a plethora of genres of music, from blues rock, to funk, to jazz, to singer-songwriter, to rock n roll, to Miles Davis at his most sci-fi (not my favorite version of Miles, but I’m sure plenty dug it).

A nice bonus was that the sleeve featured a short write-up on each artist. This was over a quarter century before Google existed, so having that info at your fingertips was pretty big!

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens when single LP compilations start overstuffing their tracklist, there are some unusually early fade outs for some of the songs. I guess, as a super inexpensive sampler, that’s understandable, but it’s still a bit of a bummer.

The music of Different Strokes is a bit of a mixed bag, which is to be expected when there’s no real thread connecting the songs other than the record label the artists are on. That said, the good is very good.

The following six songs are highlights from the album, and they include one song that will make you want to bust a move.

Johnny Winter And – Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo

The first song on the Different Strokes, as soon as I saw the name Johnny Winter I knew I’d be picking up this compilation. Whenever you can add something from a blues legend to your collection, you should.

Written by Rick Derringer, who was Winter’s sideman at the time, “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” went on to become a classic.

Oh, and for those wondering, the “And” in the band’s name isn’t a typo. Johnny Winter And was the name of his band from 1970 to 1971.

Tom Rush – Merrimack County

To illustrate how wildly diverse Different Strokes is as a compilation, whoever put it together followed the blues rock of Johnny Winter, with singer-songwriter Tom Rush’s “Merrimack County” (they forgot the k in Merrimack on the album).

So there was little, if any, flow to the album, but back-to-back gems leading things off at least set the tone that a lot of good tunes could be on this.

Laura Nyro – Blackpatch

One of the most underrated singer-songwriters of all-time, Laura Nyro closed out side one of Different Strokes with “Blackpatch.” It’s a fantastic song, and if you aren’t familiar with Nyro, it’s a great introduction to both her songwriting, and vocal skills.

She was an artist’s artist, and the only reason she isn’t more widely known is because she refused to play the music industry game. 

Ballin’ Jack – Found a Child

Side two of Different Strokes opens with this incredibly funky good time. What happens at around the 1:45 mark of the song, however, is the jaw dropping moment ... at least for anyone who was listening to Top 40 radio in 1989, because that’s where you’ll hear the sample that was used for the Young MC classic “Bust a Move.”

Everything about “Found a Child” makes me want to dive deeper into the Ballin’ Jack catalog, and you know I love a good dig! 

The Elvin Bishop Group – Don’t Fight It (Feel It)

Speaking of songs that are a good time, you definitely shouldn’t fight the feeling to move your body when “Don’t Fight It (Feel It)” from The Elvin Bishop Group comes on.

The blues legend ratchets up the energy on this one, and there is legitimately no resisting it.

Much like with the previous selection, this song makes me want to dig into the artist’s catalog, because … WOW!

Fraser & DeBolt – All This Paradise

A Canadian folk duo that was revered by critics, but never really made it, Fraser & DeBolt are one of those acts you buy compilations like this to discover. You’ll never hear them on the radio, they’ll never be in any streaming playlist, but even just this incredibly short example of their music (I cued it up on YouTube to skip the full minute of nearly silent lead-up) definitely makes you wonder what could have been, and potentially want to hear more.

While I didn’t like every song on Different Strokes, I liked quite a few, and it gave me the desire to do even more digging. Who could ask for anything more from a find in the $1.99 bin?