Slave ~ Slide 1977 Funky Purrfection Version

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The Dayton, OH based band Slave had a lot in common with the Ohio Players in sound and blood as founder Steve Washington was the nephew of Ralph "Pee Wee" Middlebrook. Born in East Orange, NJ, Washington moved in with his famous uncle in Dayton to finish high school in 1975.



The first thing he did was to form a band called Black Satin Soul and recruited Mark Hicks and Tim Dozier. Another local group called the Mystics broke up and Washington welcomed three of those members Mark Adams, Thomas Lockett and Floyd Miller to his new band that fall. Soon, the band expanded to nine members with the addition of Danny Webster, Carter Bradley and Orion Wihoite.



After jamming together, they felt strong enough to approach Jeff Dixon, a NJ radio program director who took them into the studio to record, letting them produce themselves. Needing one more song to complete the album, Washington, Hicks and Adams created a special bass groove that lit the fire and completed the recording of the instrumental demo at 3AM. The next day they assembled the band and completed the song with Hicks writing the lyrics and the first take was the keeper.



That track was taken to Henry Allen who was head of Atlantic Records Cotillion label who immediately signed them and released "Slide", which went to #1 R&B and #32 on the Hot100. As usual with large bands, there was a revolving membership and in 1978 Steve Arrington and Starleana Young joined the band which led to "Just A Touch Of Love" in 1979.
Category
Funky