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This Show Is A Monster

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Show:
Sitting in the Park
Station:
WHPK 88.5 FM, Chicago
Date:
2007-10-28
Guests:
None
Genre:

This Show Is A Monster

2007-10-28
Host: Bob Abrahamian

In this October broadcast of Sitting in the Park on WHPK 88.5 FM, Bob Abrahamian offers a quintessential mix of obscure soul cuts spanning Chicago, Detroit, Philly, and Baltimore. Opening with Johnny Sayles’ spooky groove My Love’s a Monster, the show flows into deep soul obscurities from groups like The Soulful Twins, The Living Us, Opus One, and Spirits Touch. Bob’s curiosity and crate-digger instincts guide listeners through a sonic map of lesser-known artists, revealing hidden histories and inviting audience participation to fill in the blanks of soul’s overlooked corners.

Setlist

Commentary

Transcript

Johnny Sayles - My love's a monster - Chitown Celebrity Four - Honey tell me - Tangerine Fads - Just like a woman - Mercury George Jackson and the Vanlons - Won't nobody cha cha with me - Prann Furys - The good old days - Mack IV Soulful Twins - I can't let you go - Sable Voltaires - Movin moving on - Bacone Only Three - Dee Jay Ball - Walana Technics - Hey girl don't leave me - Chex Implements - Look over your shoulder - Phillips The Living Us - Understand - Nomad Soul Agents - Soul Bag - Double Check Emperors Soul 69 - Sad Girl - Futura Mike Pearson and the Temples - You got to live - Summit Joe Bataan - The Prayer - Uptite Opus 1 - Smiles - Dean Mark-kays - Heavenly Thing - TCB Dynamic Concepts - Now that you've left me - Dynamic Sounds Depths of Love - I just can't find a love - Sage Devilles - Something's got to be wrong - Rina Spirit's Touch - Expressions of my love - ATI Solar Flare - Don't play with fire - RCA
In an era when soul music is often defined by the major label heavyweights—Motown, Stax, Atlantic—it takes a digger like Bob Abrahamian to remind us that beneath the polished surface lies a deeper, dustier bedrock of sound: forgotten 45s from mom-and-pop labels, basement recordings on acetate, and soulful voices that rarely made it beyond their neighborhood pressings. This October edition of Sitting in the Park on WHPK 88.5 FM is a perfect case study in Bob’s quiet crusade: bringing Chicago’s obscure soul groups back into the light. He kicks off with a fitting Halloween favorite, My Love’s a Monster by Johnny Sayles—a gritty, theatrical number that taps into both the holiday’s eerie vibe and Sayles’ powerful vocal presence. Sayles, a Mississippi native who moved to Chicago, never reached the national fame his voice merited, but cuts like this cement his place in the canon of hard-hitting Chicago soul. From there, Bob leads his audience on a soulful tour that stretches from the city’s South and West Sides to the backyards of Detroit, Philly, and even Texas. Many of the records he spins come with a disclaimer: “I don’t know anything about this group.” This isn’t a shortcoming—it’s a call to arms. The Fads, The Soulful Twins, Spirits Touch—Bob’s delivery is as much about the joy of discovery as it is about preservation. He invites listeners to help connect the dots, crowd-sourcing oral history before it’s lost to time. Take The Soulful Twins’ I Can’t Let You Go, which Bob speculates might be a brother-sister act. The track oozes the kind of tender, homespun production that typifies Chicago’s sweet soul movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. These were groups often formed in high school hallways, rehearsing in basements and recording in storefront studios. Their music was heartfelt and immediate—designed not for mass consumption, but for spinning on turntables at block parties and community centers. Then there’s The Only Three’s DJ Ball, an anomaly in Bob’s rotation—a track that’s more novelty than slow jam, built around shout-outs to regional radio DJs. It’s a sonic time capsule, documenting a moment when local DJs were kings of the culture, tastemakers with the power to launch careers or bury them. Bob doesn’t confine his playlist to Chicago alone. He weaves in acts like The Living Us from Texas—whom he describes as potentially white or Hispanic, but definitely soulful. Their track Understand is a poignant reminder that the soul sound traveled far beyond the major cities, finding resonance in unlikely places. Groups like The Dynamic Concepts (Baltimore) and The DeVilles (Detroit) follow, underscoring the widespread reach of this deeply personal genre. Perhaps the most powerful theme running through the show is the raw beauty of imperfection. The crackle of Opus One’s Smiles, which Bob guesses was “recorded in a basement somewhere,” isn’t a flaw—it’s a feature. The hiss, hum, and lo-fi ambiance of these recordings are the fingerprints of working-class creativity, unfiltered by major label gloss. And yet, despite the obscurity of these acts, their emotional weight is undeniable. Tracks like Joe Bataan’s The Prayer ground the set with spiritual depth, while Mike Pearson and The Temples’ You Got to Live carries a cryptic story: Pearson’s name appeared on the label, but he wasn’t in the group. These nuances matter. They speak to the way records were made, marketed, and sometimes misattributed in the soul underground. Through it all, Bob’s voice is steady, reverent, curious. He isn’t just a DJ—he’s an archivist in real-time, flipping the script on what constitutes musical heritage. Each record played is a fragment of a larger story, a piece of the Chicago soul mosaic that he’s painstakingly trying to reconstruct. More than a radio show, Sitting in the Park is a living archive—a space where the forgotten voices of soul music breathe again, however briefly, through dusty grooves and warm analog air.

Bob Abrahamian 00:00
Okay, you’re tuned to WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago. You are now tuned in to the Sitting in the Park show. My name is Bob. I’ve already been on the radio for about an hour and a half, but now I’m starting my regular show where I play soul records from Chicago and elsewhere.
If you want to call me, the number here is 773-702-8424.
Gonna start off the show with my Halloween song—this is Johnny Sayles with My Love’s a Monster.

Bob Abrahamian 03:15
Okay, you’re tuned to WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago. You are listening to the Sitting in the Park show. My name is Bob, and this show happens every Sunday night from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Started off the show with my Halloween record—that was Johnny Sayles with My Love’s a Monster.
After that, a group called The Celebrity Four with Honey, Tell Me. Then we went back to Chicago with The Fads and Just Like a Woman. I don’t know anything about that group—if anyone out there has any info about The Fads, you should call me up. After that, George Jackson and the Van Lons with Won’t Nobody Cha-Cha with Me. And the last cut was The Furies with The Good Old Days. Okay, the show is just getting started. If you want to call me up, the number here is 773-702-8424. This next record is another group from Chicago—I think a duo, but I don’t know much about them. Sounds like a male/female duo. This is The Soulful Twins with I Can’t Let You Go.

Bob Abrahamian 07:45
Okay, you’re tuned to WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago. You are listening to the Sitting in the Park show. My name is Bob, and this show happens every Sunday night from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. So in that last set, we started off in Chicago with The Soulful Twins and I Can’t Let You Go. I don’t know—maybe they were like a brother-sister duo? I don’t know anything about them. After that, The Voltaires with Movin’, Movin’ On. Then The Only Three with DJ Ball. That was a unique sort of song—if you listen closely, it’s basically a track where they just shout out the names of radio DJs in a bunch of cities. I was listening for Chicago DJs, but the only one I caught was Rodney Jones. Maybe I wasn’t listening close enough. After that, from Detroit, The Techniques with Hey Girl, Don’t Leave Me. And the last cut was The Implements with a nice version of Look Over Your Shoulder. Okay, we got about an hour left in the show. If you want to call me up, the number here is 773-702-8424.
This next record is really nice—I’ve been playing it all week. I think it’s a duo, just two guys singing. Might even be white guys, maybe Hispanic—I’m not sure. The group is called The Living Us. They’re from Texas, and this stuff is really good. This is Understand.

Bob Abrahamian 15:10
Okay, you’re tuned to WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago. You are listening to the Sitting in the Park show. My name is Bob, and this show happens every Sunday night from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. That last set started off with a really nice ballad from Texas—a group called The Living Us with Understand. After that, The Soul Agents with Soul Bag. Then from Philly, The Emperor Soul 69 with Sad Girl. Next, back to Chicago—Mike Pearson and The Temples with You Got to Live. They were actually from Harvey, and Mike Pearson told me that he wasn’t a member of The Temples—they were just a group he knew, but they put his name on the record. And the last cut was by Joe Bataan—that was The Prayer.

Bob Abrahamian 18:20
Okay, we are about halfway through the show. If you want to call me up, the number here is 773-702-8424. This next record is a very obscure but really good sweet soul record from Chicago. Sounds like it was recorded in a basement somewhere—it’s got a crackly sound, I’m sorry about that—but it’s a good song. This is Opus One, and the track is called Smiles.

Bob Abrahamian 21:55
Okay, you’re tuned to WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago. You are tuned to the Sitting in the Park show. My name is Bob, and this show happens every Sunday night from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Started off that last set with a group from Chicago called Opus One with Smiles. Definitely interested in finding out anything about that group—they might’ve been from the West Side of Chicago. After that, from Detroit, The Marques with Heavenly Thing. Then from Baltimore, The Dynamic Concepts with Now That You’ve Left Me. An obscure group called The Depths of Love with I Just Can’t Find the Love. And the last group was from Detroit—that was The DeVilles with Something’s Got to Be Wrong. Okay, we got about 20 minutes of the show left. You can call me up here with any requests, questions, or comments. The number again is 773-702-8424. This next record is another obscure group from Chicago that I don’t know anything about. This is a group called Spirits Touch, and this track is called Expressions of My Love.

Bob Abrahamian 26:40
Okay, this next one—we’re going to send it out to Tony. This is a group called Solar Flare, and this track is called Don’t Play with Fire.

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