Floyd Butler (June 5, 1937 – April 29, 1990) – Down I Go (1971)
This superb meditation on life's twists and turns was co-written by the Friends of Distinction co-founder, along with producer Jerry Peters.
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Floyd Butler was a singer/songwriter and one of the co-founders of the 1960s and 70s soul vocal group the Friends of Distinction.
The Friends of Distinction were originally formed by Butler and singer Harry Elston in 1968. They had previously been in the Hi-Fi’s together, alongside future 5th Dimension members LaMonte McLemore and Marilyn McCoo. Butler and Elston first met when they were both working as ad salesmen in the early sixties for McLemore’s Los Angeles fashion magazine Elegant.
See our earlier posts on other original FoD members Harry Elston, Barbara Jean Love, and Jessica Cleaves for more on the group’s history.
For their fourth album Whatever, released in 1971, Butler and Jeffrey Osborne’s brother Billy co-wrote the stellar slow jam “Check It Out.” Like the rest of the LP, it featured Crusaders Wilton Felder on electric bass and Joe Sample on keyboards.
Later that same year, their fifth studio album Friends & People came out. By this time, Love had taken time off for maternity leave, then returned, only to leave the group again. Elston, Butler, and Cleaves remained. Butler and co-producer Jerry Peters co-wrote the LP’s superb meditation on life's twists and turns "Down I Go.”
For their final album Reviviscence: “Live to Light Again” (1975), Butler sang lead on the stellar slow jam “I Don't Wanna Be Late (To Say I Love You),” written by producer Carl L. Maults.
Happy Heavenly Birthday to the great Floyd Butler.
Further info:
“Friends Of Distinction – 1975 – Reviviscence ‘Live To Light Again’,” review, FunkMySoul.com.
“The Story Behind: The Friends of Distinction, 'Grazing in the Grass',” by Rick Simmons, Rebeat Magazine, 2017.
”Truth In Rhythm 81: Harry Elston Reacquaints Us With The Friends of Distinction,” interview by Scott Goldfine, Funknstuff.net, January 2019.
#soul #funk #TheFriendsofDistinction #FloydButler