Ann Sexton – You’re Losing Me

You may have noticed that I’m a little bit earlier with my update this week. I’ve a lot of things happening over the coming days so I thought it’s better to be early rather than late! I do hope to go back to the traditional slot of a Monday for my posts in the not too distant future – I find that nothing perks you up better than a lovely slice of soul & funk when the inevitable depression of being back to work on a Monday reigns supreme.

Ann Sexton was born in South Carolina in 1950 and like many other soul songstresses she first started singing in the local church choir. At a young age she entered (and won) a number of talent contests before her first foray into the music industry where she performed backing vocals on a track by Elijah & The Ebonies.

Sexton’s first solo single was released in 1971 – entitled “You’re Letting Me Down”. A number of other singles were to follow but none of them achieved any commercial success. Her biggest “hit”which was released in 1973 was to be “You’re Gonna Miss Me” (which incidentally is the flip side of today’s selection). Despite the lack of commercial success in the U.S. she was to gain large popularity amongst the Northern Soul scene in the U.K. (unfortunately this was quite common for a large number of soul artists in the U.S.)

The track “You’ve Been Gone Too Long” has been comped on numerous occasions and became the song that she was most known for, which is understandable given that it’s as good a piece of smooth soul as you are ever likely to hear. The track I bring you today sees Sexton in full-on Sister Funk mode – gone is the slower, summery feel of “You’ve Been Gone Too Long” and in its place is the raw attitude of a sistah who know’s she’s been done wrong.