Baby Lloyd

Lloyd Eugene Stallworth is best known as a key member of the Famous Flames for many years. He got the “Baby” tag as a sign of his age, only 15, when he first joined Brown’s troupe of singers and dancers in 1957/8. His emotional singing was always a treat to listen to and his amazing dancing which you can see here rivalled the Hardest Working Man In Show Business himself. He co-wrote the great ballad “Lost Someone” and featured on a great many of Brown’s 45s and albums in the late 50s and early 60s. He often had a featured spot on the JB Show but only managed to get three records under his own name.

The earliest two were the ones on Dade / Atco and Wolfie. The former included a rocking piece of R & B called “I Need Love” which obviously had the other Flames in the background. The flip was a fine blues ballad Wait And See on which Lloyd showed just how much of Brown’s phrasing he’d managed to pick up over a couple of years. Not much of a surprise. The Wolfie led with a thumping piece of R & B “I Refuse To Cry” coupled with a similarly paced “Precious One”.

But undoubtedly his finest moment came on the Loma 45. His version of Big Jay McNeely’s evergreen There's Something On Your Mind is easily my favourite. Brown and Baby turn this superb tune into a great bluesy deep soul item, hugely atmospheric thanks to the doomy guitar/bass combination and those unexpected horn blasts. Part 2 is more of the same but the emphasis is on Brown’s organ figures rather than Stallworth’s melancholy tones.

As with everybody else who spent a long time on JB’s payroll, Lloyd quarrelled with him over money on several occasions, finally leaving the Famous Flames in 1966. Stallworth passed away in 2002, ten years before the Flames were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

You can read more about Stallworth and the Famous Flames here.  

 

 

© Copyright Sir Shambling 2020 | Home