ECCENTRIC SOUL: THE BANDIT LABEL
VARIOUS - CD

UPC: 656605980720
Label: NUMERO GROUP
Format: CD
Release Date: March 1, 2005
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The Bandit Records legend could almost be fiction. The house passing as a home, the harem passing as a family, the rising star brutally murdered in his prime, the dream, the con: The end. Arrow Brown inhabited the same south-side Chicago landscape as Afro-Noir author Iceberg Slim’s ghetto characters, taking inspiration from the same sources that shaded Airtight Willie, White Folks, and Blue Howard. Drawn to the underground and fancying himself a rogue entrepreneur, Brown and his Bandit label operated somewhere in the space between money laundering outfit and sex cult. Brown poured proceeds from straight jobs held by his many “daughters” into sumptuously rendered, forward-looking soul records by the egotistically named Arrows and the Majestic Arrows, as well his seven-year-old son Altyrone Deno Brown, whose father hoped to push to Jackson-style child-fame heights. Putting beauty and genius in front of commercial viability, Arrow laid down lush, sweeping strings to lure the listener into a hipster fantasy world, sharply incongruent with the sometimes-criminal reality of the city that dreamt it. Our triple-LP unabridged edition brings 40 tracks to the CD’s 20, and the 14,000-word accompanying book, crackling with odd and dazzling imagery, makes our original notes read like a Babysitter’s Club entry. In 2005, novelist and essayist Jonathan Lethem called the entirety of the Bandit Records tale “Haunting… haunted… Like a little novel.” In its darker corners, 003 Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label may more closely resemble true crime.

Track List

1. The Arrows We Have Love
2. The Arrows The Love I See Now
3. The Arrows Boogedy Boogedy
4. The Arrows Bring Back The One I Love
5. Johnny Davis You've Got To Crawl To Me
6. Sandy Cleveland My Heart Will Never Lie To Me
7. Sandy Cleveland We Love Together
8. Linda Ballentine You're A Habit Hard To Break
9. Linda Ballentine Glad About That
10. Altyrone Deno Brown Sweet Pea
11. Altyrone Deno Brown If You Love Me
12. Chosen Few Lift This Hurt
13. Chosen Few You've Been Unfair
14. Hassan Ghetto King
15. The Majestic Arrows One More Time Around
16. The Majestic Arrows Love Is All I Need
17. The Majestic Arrows Doing It For Us
18. The Majestic Arrows Going To Make A Time Machine
19. The Majestic Arrows Ladies And Wonderful Girls
20. The Majestic Arrows I'll Never Cry For Another Boy
21. The Majestic Arrows We Love Together
22. The Majestic Arrows Another Day
23. The Majestic Arrows The Magic Of Your Love
24. The Majestic Arrows Going To Make A Time Machine (Inst.)
25. M.A.S.O. Poon Tang Thump
26. Altyrone Deno Brown I Will Find You
27. Altyrone Deno Brown The Eclipse Of Love
28. Wind Don't Let Them Tell You
29. Wind People
30. The Majestic Arrows One More Time Around (Rehearsal)
31. The Majestic Arrows Love Is All I Need (Rehearsal)
32. The Majestic Arrows If I Had A Little Love (Rehearsal)
33. The Majestic Arrows Make Yourself Over (Rehearsal)
34. The Majestic Arrows I'll Never Cry For Another Boy (Rehearsal)
35. Altyrone Deno Brown Thought I Was A Playboy
36. Unknown Artist Come Back Home