By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 06:45 am:

WHO MADE UP WE THE PEOPLE?

THEY HAD A COUPLE OF SINGLES IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES. LANDY McNEAL HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS GROUP. WHERE DO THEY CALL HOME?

By medusa9e (66.73.9.51) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 08:32 am:

Was it Curtis Mayfield??.....(oops, probably wrong again).

By Eli (151.197.113.4) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 10:30 am:

It was Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers on Sussex.

By Scratcher (65.132.76.98) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 12:28 pm:

SoulPuss are you referring to the We The People vocal group that recorded for Map City, Verve and Lion Records? If so, the members were Robert Taylor, Shabi Weems, Billy McEachern and Terri Gonzales.

What city was Map City Records located?

By Sly fan (67.115.73.113) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 04:10 pm:

The Staple Singers had a hit with that same name also..but Chuck Brown did hit my mind first too..I love that record!!

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 11:21 am:

Billy McEachern later turned up as a member of
Odyssey - the "Native New Yorker" outfit.

Where was Map City based ? - hard to say. It was
distributed by Bell and quite a few of the releases look like New York recordings. The label's most successful act , the Mardi Gras, were
from a licensing deal with a European label,
Belgian, I think.


Davie

By RD (63.188.32.18) on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 11:42 am:

Purple Image, a Cleveland based acid-soul band, had an LP released on Map City.

By Mark Speck (65.56.63.157) on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 11:44 pm:

I came across a single on Map City entitled "If We Can Fly to the Moon", which I think is by We the People.

The address on the label was a New York City address. When I first heard of the label, I thought it was a Detroit label.

So this label was distributed by A/M/B, Davie? Looks like another label for our A/M/B distributed labels list.

Best,

Mark

By TonyRussi (68.18.50.144) on Monday, April 14, 2003 - 08:41 am:

There was a Florida garage band in the mid-late 60's called We The People who had a few singles out that I thought were distributed nationally.I was never a fan 'cause I did not like that type of music.

By Scratcher (65.132.79.40) on Monday, April 14, 2003 - 10:09 am:

Didn't know that Billy McEachern later joined Odyssey Davie, never connected the two; another piece to a never ending jigsaw puzzle. I found out that McEachern replaced Lillian Lopez in Odyssey.

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Monday, April 14, 2003 - 03:27 pm:

Tony,

I really like the (Florida) We The People -
they had 3 singles on Challenge then another 3
on RCA in addition to some locally issued singles. One of Florida's finest sixties bands.

Mark,

Did I miss it out from the AMB list ? - damn :-)
That means the running total of A/M/B distributed
labels must be approaching sixty.

Scratcher,

Re Billy McEachern - I don't think I've seen the
connection mentioned before but it's unlikely
there's two singers of that name. As you say it's
a never ending jigsaw but I love it when you can
manage to make the connections.

Davie

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 03:47 pm:

All six of their singles were written / produced
by Landy McNeal. The matrrix numbers for the Lion
singles indicate that they're New York recordings
so it looks as if NY was their home base.

Found out a bit about member Robert Taylor. He's
from NY and sang lead with a group called the
Del Roys who were a re-formed version of an earlier group called the Delroys who'd recorded
for Apollo in '57 ("Bermuda Shorts, Apollo 514).
Taylor replaced the original lead singer (Joe
Blount) but only stayed with the group for one
single ("Wise Old Owl"/"Strange Land", Sparkell
102, 1959). He apparently moved to Chicago in
the eighties and was last reported working at Sears. Thanks to Jay Warner's "The Billboard
Book Of Singing Groups" for ther info. - a great
book whose only drawback is the lack of an index.

For completenes sake here's the list of We The People singles

Map City 301 11/69
We Can Fly To The Moon / Only One Of A Kind

MAp City 305 1970
We Can Survive / Cat and Mouse

Verve 10655 11/71
Right Now / We Done Threw It Away

Lion 122 09/72
You MAde Me A Brand New World / Right Now
(arr. Joe Falsia)

Lion 148 03/73
Forgotten Man / Left In The Lost And Found
(arr. Johnny Pate)

Lion 164 05/74
Making My Daydream Real / Whatcha Done For Me, I'm
Gonna Do For You

I was interested in seeing Joe Falsia's name as
arranger, he also worked on the Satisfactions'
singles on Lionel which were also produced by
Landy McNeal. Falsia's possibly better known
for his work on Tim Buckley's great seventies
albums like "Greetings From LA".

One curious Landy McNeal factoid's turned up
- he had song "Love Me" published by Trianon
Music which was Fortune's publishing arm.
Is he possibly originally from Detroit ?
His legal name seems to be Londell McNeal.

By TonyRussi (68.18.33.86) on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 04:29 pm:

Hey Davie, thats cool that you are familiar with the Fla. band We The People.They use to play all the teen clubs around here in the mid to late 60's.I was a "Soul" Man so I didn't listen to alot of the rock bands besides the Stones.

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 08:54 pm:

Hey Gang thanks for the detailed info.
I have a single by a Robert Taylor on Sonic (orange colour)"Good times" / "God bless our love". The "Good times" is the one done by Sam Cooke". The flip is the Al Green/O.V. Wright beauty.
Robert is backed by the Soul Exciters.
Could this be the Robert Taylor from We The People?

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 12:15 pm:

I think that's a different Robert Taylor - there
was a singer of that name who had a few singles
in the late sixties / early seventies on Chicago
labels like Sonic.

My guess is that the We The People RT was still
in the group when these Robert Taylor singles were issued.

Who produced the Sonic single ?

Davie

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 07:29 pm:

Hi Davie: There is no arranger or producer listed on either side of this 45.
The matrix#s are P3KN-7420A "Good times"
102977-B for "God bless our love". These same #s are release #s on the label.