Manchester Soul Jukebox
Changes
by Johnnie Taylor
I Had A Dream / Changes - Stax 186 Written by Johnnie Taylor, Isaac Hayes and David Porter Two minutes and twenty seven seconds of Stax excellence driven along by Al Jackson Junior’s drumbeats. Stax recordings featured very heavily and made the Blue Note Club very distinctive as the location in Manchester for a very wide ranging playlist of Soul music, R&B and some Blues. Changes was the ‘B’ side of ‘I Had A Dream’ and Roger Eagle had a large batch of singles sent to him by the owner of Stax in Memphis, this was one of them. The ‘A’ ‘Plug Side’ side failed to make any chart impression in the USA and had no release in the UK but when Roger flipped it over and heard ‘Changes’ he knew it could be a monster sound on the Manchester Soul club scene. He was right and when he left the Twisted Wheel in late 66’ the Blue Note Club was the beneficiary of his record collection and it was here that ‘Changes’ became a huge local hit in Manchester! The DJ’s that followed Roger at the Blue Note also imported ‘Changes’ and bought the brilliant LP by the man. Almost every track was played (all the slow numbers too). “Toe Hold” became very popular and also the wonderful up tempo “Blues In The Night” All three of these tremendous 45’s from Mr Taylor electrified the dance floor at the club, it was small but unlike the Wheel it had a wooden dance floor and for a time a bar! Johnnie Taylor became very popular in the early 1970's having a major hit with, “WHO'S MAKING LOVE” and “TESTIFY ( I WANNA)” which were also heavily featured at the Blue Note. Johnnie started out when he replaced Sam Cooke as lead singer in the Soul Stirrers – he had a Gospel and Blues vocal ability. By the mid 1960's he moved to STAX and recorded “TOE HOLD”, which along with “BLUES IN THE NIGHT” (LP track) and the slow bluesy “I GOT TO LOVE SOMEBODY'S BABY”, and “Just The One I've Been Looking For.” Many folks have claimed that “Changes” was discovered at the Twisted Wheel in 1969/70 (in the book CENtral 1179 but this is incorrect. For the sake of accuracy we can confirm that it was first played in Manchester in 1966 by Roger Eagle!
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