The Dapps Featuring Alfred Ellis - "There Was A Time" b/w "The Rabbit Got The Gun" 1968

The Dapps Featuring Alfred Ellis - "There Was A Time" b/w "The Rabbit Got The Gun" King 1968

Oh no! It's Elmer Fudd's worst nightmare! Man this is a fantastically funky fillet of soul instros! As previously stated in other posts, sometimes I'm unable to upload both sides of a single, so while I'm presenting the whole single for your listening consideration, I'm only able to provide the audio for one of the tunes. This is one of those times. It's really just poor time management on my part, more than anything.

The Dapps were a Cincinnati-based band that worked with James Brown briefly in the mid 1960s, putting out singles as James Brown And The Dapps. And this Alfred Ellis featured on this single–well that's Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, James Brown's one-time bandleader. Since I have only one side to share this time around, I chose the B-side, because while the A-side is a great jazzy soul tune, "The Rabbit Got The Gun" is the cream in the bismark, a far as I'm concerned.

The way the tune kicks off with the great drum break, followed into flow by the jogging bassline and the greasy guitar is kind of everything great about everything. Add those late '60s soul horns and that smokey room organ over the top and POW! This song was re-released in the early '70s with a fun picture sleeve with a cartoon rabbit bandito.

This isn't a group of white dudes from Brooklyn, sporting scruffy three-day beards between fedoras and western wear, making neo-retro soul music for hip folks to listen to while sifting through Tarantino interviews to see if there are name-dropped films they haven't sourced yet; this is the real deal!

No affront to James, but these guys cranked out a string of exceptional singles in their own right, and even worked with Hank Ballard and Lonnie Mack!

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