The Female Preacher RIP

Damn. This story was just a rumour on Soul Sides yesterday but sadly it's now been confirmed that Lyn Collins died on Sunday at the age of 56. If you're thinking "Lyn who?" you surely must know the line "It takes two to make a thing go right, it takes two to make it out of sight" from "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock. Well that's her, the vocal was stolen... sorry, sampled from her 1972 funk classic "Think (About It)" which she wrote and was produced by James Brown.

Collins joined the James Brown Revue in 1971 after those other Funky Divas Marva Whitney and Vicki Anderson had left. She recorded a bunch of great singles with Brown at the controls but only the two albums, "Think (About It)" and "Check Me Out if You Don't Know Me by Now" both of which seem to only be available as very expensive Japanese imports. Brown gave her the nickname "The Female Preacher" and if you want to know why just check out her roof-raising performance on this heavy live version of Isaac Hayes' "Do Your Thing." This is from the compilation James Brown's Funky People, Part 2 and you can get more funky Lyn goodness on Part One in the series and there's a motherlode of stuff on James Brown's Original Funky Divas. It's all good. Super Good in fact.

[Download]
Do Your Thing - Lyn Collins