I’ve been writing about jazz and blues for nearly 30 years, but when this 3 CD box of 70s soul landed on my desk, everything just stopped.
From the mod graphics of the box to the very cool photo of Ali Muhammad and Marvin Gaye engaged in apparently profound conversation found in the wonderful enclosed booklet, this is all about capturing the mood of the era. Sure the 70s was the disco era, but it was much more than a one-horse decade. In the black community there was a steady stream of great soul and R&B that ignored the trend and set its own agenda. This was all about dancing, but less about the big sparkling multi-mirrored globe of John Travolta. Having been a DJ in a Detroit club that catered to a mix of black and white, male and female, young and old and a wide spectrum of social and economic backgrounds, this stuff is in my core. I can still get completely blown away by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals, ripping into “The Love I Lost,” or the O’Jays doing it to “Love Train” or “For the Love of Money.” If you were there, Marvin Gaye (“Got To Give It Up”), the Temptation (“Ball of Confusion”) and Stevie Wonder (“Signed Sealed Delivered”) would have been as exciting as Donna Summer (“Bad Girls”), LTD (Back In Love Again”) and Chic (“Good Times”) would become. The Emotions’ “Best of My Love” is one of the baddest dance floor tunes of all time, and I defy you to sit still for Natalie Cole’s “This Will Be.” I’m not crazy about every one of the 60 tunes here, but at least 50 of them are amazing: Curtis Mayfield (“Superfly,” “Freddy’s Dead”), Rufus (“Tell Me Something Good”), JB (“Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine“), A Taste of Honey (“Boogie Oogie Oogie”), The Jackson 5 (“The Love You Save”), EW&F ( “Shining Star” and “Boogie Wonderland”), LaBelle (“Lady Marmalade”), The Isley Bros (“That Lady” with that smoking Ernie Isley guitar), Aretha (“Rock Steady”), Al Green (“I’m Still In Love With You”), The Staple Singers (“I’ll Take You There”) … This is, you’ll pardon the cliché, the soundtrack of an era. If you were there, this will remind you. If you wonder what was so cool about it, this will explain. Cool stuff.
Buy this CD NOW:
Your purchase through the Amazon.com links at the end of each review, or by simply clicking on this banner (below) to order this or many other products from Amazon, helps to support this website as well as the featured blues artist.
"This review is copyright © 2004 by Mark E. Gallo, and Blues On Stage at: www.mnblues.com, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without permission."
Copyright reuse notice: If you would like to reprint or use this review please include the above copyright notice, contained within the quotation marks, PLUS this statement: "Used with permission." Then send an email to Ray at: mnblues@aol.com indicating how you are using the review or the website page address it will be appearing on. Thanks!
Your purchase through the Amazon.com links at the end of each review, or by simply clicking on this banner (below) to order this or many other products from Amazon, helps to support this website as well as the featured blues artist.
Click on this banner to get you new low percent credit card:
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! You can help support this blues website by making a contribution (click on the banner below for details).
Or mail a donation to: Ray Stiles % Blues On Stage, PO Box 582983, Mpls, MN 55458. Thanks!
Web Hosting & Design:
CLICK HERE for Web Design SPECIAL, get your own website for just $75.
The most affordable web hosting and design services available. Click Here
to find out how you can host your current site at Blues On Stage, or how I can help you design your own website!
If you would like your CD reviewed, please send TWO (2) copies, along with promotional material to:
Blues On Stage
PO Box 582983
Minneapolis, MN 55458-2983
E-mail Ray Stiles @ mnblues@aol.com with any questions.
|