Out of time

Anything over four minutes was stretching it

Before 12" singles and extended mixes the seven inch 45 was, to use current speak, the only platform to support artists' single releases. And if the piece of music lasted longer than four minutes your choices were limited. Release a truncated radio edit and leave the long version for the follow up album. Or, continue the party on the B side: that's what many soul artists did in the 70s. Fade out, turn over, and fade back in again. As with a lot of things from the period, this quaint way of going on seemed perfectly acceptable at the time.

It certainly did to The Detroit Spinners. In my head I still hear the clunky fade out half way through The Rubberband Man; but of course Youtube is oblivious to how it would have sounded on a Jukebox nearly 40 years ago. And the same goes for the sublime Soul Train instrumental by The Ramrods.