Black Music - Funk / R & B / Soul / LP Reviews & Interviews 1973-1980

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BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973: - VOL. 1 / ISSUE 1

**THE O`JAYS - "Ship Ahoy" (Philadelphia International).**

Put Your Hands Together / Ship Ahoy / This Air I Breathe / You Got Your Hooks In Me / For The Love Of Money / Now That We Found Love / Don`t Call Me Brother / People Keep Tellin` Me: -

Power to the O`Jays for a daring album concept. A slave ship packed with misery is a heavy sleeve design for any group to surround their album in. The title track has a crashing waves intro and then the group wail . . . Slavery has been pushed to the backs of the minds of most people and if some might argue that a stylised comment on 100`s of years of torment by three slick suited soulsters is cynically phoney I found the track pretty moving. But peoples, "Put Your Hands Together", your feet on the floor and parrty!. There`s nothing explosively joyful as Leon Huff roaring away on electric piano while the O`Jays wail quasi-social consciousness--Gamble/Huff even take a chance when the tempo slows for a "come on everybody" middle eight--it works, a dancing delight. "You`ve Got Your Hooks" is a vintage piece of Philly--all bubble and bop--but it`s the sobber "Hooks" with an intro: "Just can`t understand for the life of me what I see in you" which will tremble your kneecaps. And now folks--the piece-de-resistance--"For The Love Of Money". A phased, synthesised intro of pure magic and the vocal drives with demoniacal passion. If that`s not enough (sigh) there`s a wry `don`t chase bread` message in the lyric. Almost as good is a mood piece "Don`t You Call Me Brother", old style soul with a euphoric climax. An album likely to sell a million.
Tony Cummings:

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973.

peace

[stepping razor]

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973: - VOL. 1 / ISSUE 1

**FATBACK BAND - "People Music" (Perception 43).**

Njira Walk (Street Walk) / Gotta Have You (Day By Day) / Fatbackin` / Baby Doll / Clap Your Hands / Soul March / Soul Man / To Be With You / Kiba: -

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen we would like to welcome you to a studio discotheque with the Fatback Band. We want you to sit back and relax your mind." That`s the spoken intro . . . and that`s ridiculous. How could anyone SIT while the band put you through such mean and dirty DANCE changes. "Njira Walk (Street Walk)" is a zonker, as good as their "Street Dance" hit. Street funk is an acquired taste, and this band is funk at its baddest and nastiest. "Njira Walk" possesses a crunching beat guaranteed to get you off your ass. It`s almost completely lacking tune and about as subtle as Red Foxx. Then there`s "Soul March" another funkicised item with lovely brass. When they go soft and mellow they tend to get sloppy, "To Be With You" is dire with a simpering vocal from Johnny "J,W." King. He should know better. No, they`re best gettin` down with funk and more funk.--"Kiba" is an instrumental with a sax shrieking like a stuck pig. Shame there`s a few dross slow sides, still it`s a disc to lift many a languished spirit. If you get this album (it`ll have to be as an import) also buy a whistle.
Tony Cummings:

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973.

peace

[stepping razor]

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973: - VOL. 1 / ISSUE 1

**GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS - "Imagination" (Buddah).**

Midnight Train To Georgia / I`ve Got To Use My Imagination / Storms Of Troubled Times / Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me / One In A Lifetime Thing / Where Peaceful Waters Flow / I Can See Clearly Now / Perfect Love / Window Rasin` Granny: -

After 15 years or so of dues-paying, no-one could begrudge Gladys and the boys their current success. And sheer gratitude for what they`ve given us in the past obliges me to say that this is a nice, tasteful album which will probably please most of their recently-acquired fans. But honesty forces me to say that measured against the searing, spine-tingling standards of their best work, "Imagination" is nowhere. This is the new, gilt-edged, up-market Gladys, guaranteed free from any embarrassing emotional excesses and designed for maximum airplay. OK, so Jim Weatherly (he did one of Gladys`s final Motown hits, "Neither One Of Us" and has written five songs on this album) writes melodic, well-constructed, lyrically articulate songs. But God, they`re so bland. Fire in his belly is one thing he ain`t got!
There`s simply nothing here to match the intensity of her work at Motown with Norman Whitfield, Johnny Bristol, Clay McMurray and others. And certainly nothing that approaches the scorching Van McCoy epics she did in her pre-Motown days. Vocally, Gladys still gets in on--but her fire is dampened by the gutless material and arrangements. Side two is particularly weak, with the Pips featured on mediocre versions of "I Can See Clearly Now" and "Perfect Love" and a silly, twee, yeuk-making song called "Window Raisin` Granny". Play that last song and then play anything from the "Feelin` Bleusy" album and then tell me if I`ve judged this album too harshly.
Alan Lewis:

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973.

peace

[stepping razor]

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973: - VOL. 1 / ISSUE 1

**ISLEY BROTHERS - "3+3" (T-Neck/Epic).**

That Lady / Don`t Let Me Be Lonely Tonightn / If You Were There / You Walk Your Way / Listen To The Music / What It Comes Down To / Sunshine (Go Away Today) / Summer Breeze / The Highways Of My Life: -

Yep, here`s one folks. A `classic` is claimed by some publicist somewhere everytime a disc is a hit. But "That Lady" is the genuine article, a quite stupendous fusion of everything the Isleys have been into over the years, a lead vocal less uninhibited than some discs but with grits galore, a latin feel, and that guitar. Hell, it`s Hendrix`s ghost! Ernie Isley must have sat at the master`s feet and learnt those licks when Jimi was an Isley back up boy. It`s gonna be boogied to in twenty years` time so why not give in now and admit how good "That Lady" is. There`s some lovely slow SOUL as well. "Don`t Let" (Yeah, the James Taylor song) sounds like it was written in Harlem the way Rudolph wails it. And "You Walk Your Way" is a fine, lilting piece of stay-in-your-head with nice back up from Rudolph and Kelly. Or what about "Listen To The Music", with a mighty thick bit of keyboard work by Chris Jasper sounding like he`s playing from the Stevie Wonder play-in-a-day book? Side two has "What It Comes Down To", a mid-tempo bubbler with more Hendrix-ish guitar. Or there`s a really mellow one "Sunshine" a bluesy thing, with a threatening feel "How much does it cost I`ll buy it" goes a hookline of instant memorability. There`s no other song on the album which sounds like a huge single, just a collection of gutsy music put down with confidence and subtlety.
Tony Cummings:

BLACK MUSIC DECEMBER 1973.

peace