Unluckiest band in pop
QUESTION The Amen Break is supposedly the most sampled piece of music in history. Who created it? Did they receive royalties for it? THE Winstons were a Washington DCbased soul group led by Richard Spencer, similar in sound to The Impressions, but unlucky in that they signed a poor record deal and broke up in 1970.
In 1969, they had a Top Ten R&B hit with the song Color Him Father, and on its Bside was an instrumental of the gospel standard Amen, Brother.
Virtually unrecognised at the time, it went on to reach legendary status thanks to a six or seven-second drum solo known today as The Amen Break, played by Gregory Coleman.
The Amen Break’s emergence began in the Eighties with the advent of the electronic sampler, which enabled DJs to create new soundscapes from old records. Something about its syncopated beat made it particularly conducive to speed variation, chopping and rearranging.
It worked its way onto the first official release of a compilation for rap DJs called Ultimate Breaks And Beats, a series that collected rhythm tracks of rock, funk, and pop songs stripped of their vocals and found expression on various hip-hop tracks. For example, it can be heard on Salt-N-Pepa’s I Desire (1986) and on NWA’s Straight Outta Compton (1989).
In the early Nineties, the Amen Break featured heavily on the British rave scene. It was on Primal Scream’s 1991 Slip Inside The House and in 1997 went mainstream. Oasis used it in the song D’You Know What I Mean and David Bowie used it on Little Wonder the same year.
It l ater f eatured on the Futurama soundtrack and various corporate ads. According to whosampled.com, the Break is the most sampled beat of all time, used an astonishing 2,057 times.
Unfortunately, Spencer — who wrote the song’s arrangement and owned the copyright on the track — and Coleman never received any royalties. Because of a statute of limitations on the recording in the U.S., where a suit must be filed within three years, they couldn’t claim a cent.
Spencer wasn’t even aware of his song’s second life until 1996 when a British record label contacted him, seeking to buy the master tapes. ‘I was still in Washington DC. I was attending university and working in the transit system,’ he recalled. ‘I felt as if I had been touched somewhere no one is supposed to touch. I felt invaded, like my privacy had been taken for granted.’
Drummer Coleman died homeless in Atlanta, Georgia in 2006, but last year, Spencer received compensation in the form of a cheque for £24,000 from a crowdfunding page set up by British DJs Martyn Webster and Steve Theobald.
Alistair Murray, Glasgow. QUESTION I was told that for every 87 single births, there is a set of twins, and for every 87 sets of twins there is a set of triplets. Is this true? HISTORICALLY, this wasn’t far off the mark. In 1984, out of 726,295 total maternities, there were 7,255 sets of twins (1/100) and 93 triplets (1/78 twins). Since that time, the ratios have declined markedly so that in 2012 out of 812,970 maternities there were 12,449 twins (1/65) and 221 triplets (1/56 of twins)
The rise in multiple births is mostly due to women using fertility drugs and assisted reproductive technology such as IVF to help them conceive. It is also partly due to women waiting longer to have a baby. Hormonal changes as you age make it more likely that your body will release more than one egg at a time.
Ellen Simmonds, London SE1. QUESTION Is there still a 3.10 to Yuma (from anywhere?) THE gritty western 3:10 To Yuma (1957) starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin, was directed by Delmer Daves and was based on a 1953 short story by Elmore Leonard. It tells the story of a drought-impoverished rancher who takes on the dangerous job of escorting notorious outlaw Ben Wade to justice by getting him to Contention City (now a ghost town in south-west Arizona), where he will be put on the 3:10pm train to Yuma Territorial Prison. Yuma is a town just over the state border in Eastern California. A passenger rail service is provided three times a week.
Two services, the Texas Eagle and the Sunset Limited, coming from Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana, combine at San Antonio, Texas, then run through to Los Angeles and back again, passing through Yuma along the way. They once again split at San Antonio on their westbound passage.
Given the distances involved, the Texas Eagle line uses three locomotives: two run a daily service between Chicago, Illinois and San Antonio, Texas — a journey of 1,305 miles — while a third connects with the Sunset Limited and makes the 2,728mile journey to Los Angeles.
The Chicago to San Antonio leg takes 32 hours and ten minutes. The full Chicago to Los Angeles route takes 68 hours and 45 minutes, including a five-hour stopover at San Antonio.
A look at the schedule shows there is indeed a 3.10 to Yuma, but you have to be up early to catch it. The Texas Eagle departs Little Rock, Arkansas, at 3.10 am daily. Catch it on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and you can travel directly through to Yuma, though the journey will take you the best part of two days. You’ll arrive in Yuma at 11.49 pm the following evening, having travelled 1,843 miles.
David Whiteman, Silloth, Cumberland. QUESTION In the early days of TV, I recall a comedy duo on BBC children’s TV by the name of Mick and Montmorency, one of whom was a young Charlie Drake. Who was the other member of the duo and what became of him? FURTHER to the earlier answer, in 1956, I was very ill with tuberculosis in a side ward at Lambeth Hospital. My family were fans of Mick and Montmorency. My brother worked in the old Covent Garden and knew Charlie Drake’s brother, Eddie.
Eddie was told of my situation and asked if he could persuade Charlie to write to me — which he did. I believe this was the precursor to the show’s Hospital Club, where viewers were invited to nominate sick children to whom Charlie might write. I still have the letter.
Yes, Charlie did have an ego — but he also had time to bring more than a little light into the lives of sick children.
Rev Maurice Slattery, Arundel, W. Sussex.
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