I've been recording a lot of LPs over the last 6 months, and
the most pleasurable part has been revisiting (and
sometimes--embarrassingly--discovering) songs that I
tended to skip over in favor of hits. In that spirit, here are a few songs that I had forgotten about until today:
Betty Wright - I Love The Way You Love
Yes, the album and song share a name. Yes, this seems to indicate just how much promise somebody thought the song had. Yes, there was even a 45 on Alston--you know, just in case folks like me missed the cues offered by the album title.Still, I managed to miss it. I mean, I missed it good, so good, in fact, that I would not have even been able to have told you what album it was from before today. So, yeah, I missed it good. Though, perhaps, this missing is not so good, since it's so good. The song I mean. So, uh, yeah, I missed it bad. But I do. . . no, really, I do have a good excuse for missing it so bad . . . if, you know, that helps. Here it goes. . .
It was "Clean Up Woman's" fault. The supernatural force that is "Clean Up Woman" made " I Love the Way You Love" disappear into the sonic ether . . .
. . . and its presence here is my attempt to make amends.
Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway - I Who Have Nothing
Whether you think of the dentist-office classic "Where
is The Love" or the funky, sample-driven sounds of "Be Real Black For
Me," the opening track on Hathaway and Flack's first collaboration was
unjustifiably forced to warm the bench in my house.
War - Flying Machine
I owe thanks to Doug Smith from 95 North for hipping me to War's "Flying Machine." I had owned the Youngblood soundtrack for maybe ten years before Doug lent a much needed assist. Prior to that, I automatically played the Brand Nubian sample.
Here's a Bop FM Link In lieu of an available YouTube link (Main Ingredient)
Main Ingredient - No Tears
From their 1972 release, Bitter Sweet, "No Tears"
was lost to "Everybody Plays The Fool." Nevertheless, the writing
talents of percussionist Ralph MacDonald and bassist Bill Salter and the
introduction of Cuba Gooding, who provided a voice strong enough to clamp down
on orchestration that would have drowned out previous lead Don McPherson, take
the group's sweet and sometimes saccharine sound into much deeper territory on
this one.
The Police - Hole In My Life
While I am still as committed as ever to
"Roxanne," "Hole in My Life" may be the real masterpiece on the album. The way the bass so assuredly carries both the guitar and
Sting's vocal on its back make it one of those songs
that ends up on repeat whenever I put on Outlandos D'Amour. Add the subtle dub
effects toward the bridge, and it's a wrap.
Willie Colon - Junio 73
Like so many of Colon and Lavoe's records, Lo Mato includes
more than one classic. "Calle Luna Calle Sol," without question, does
the bad man trope better than just about any salsa song before or since.
Similarly, "El Dia De Suerte" takes the lament, so common in Latin
music, and manages to infuse it with a depth not often reached. From Colon's
opening notes, which uncharacteristically play in total isolation, to Lavoe's
lyrics (Y la gente decían al verme llorar/No llores nene que tu suerte
cambiará/Y ¿cuándo será?), the sense of loneliness is total.
Less popular is "Junio '73," which closes the
first side of the LP. Its lack of popularity, however, shouldn't be taken as a
reflection of its quality. Taking advantage of both Colon's loose, jazz-infused
arrangement and the way Joe Torres' piano ticks along with the precision of a
clock, Louie Romero constructs a timbales solo worthy of the pantheon. Romero's
timbales are tuned so tight that one can't be sure whether it is the stick or
the drum that is doing the hitting. And while the solo is neither as full as
Tito Puente's solos nor as funky as Roberto Roena's playing, there is a tension
created in which the percussion sounds as if it's trying to escape the piano.
Incredible stuff.
The Sylvers - We Can Make It If We Try
I'm pretty sure we can assign all the Pride albums as
records overshadowed by the Jackson 5. Nevertheless, Leon Sylvers
arrangements are on some other shit. I listen to the first three Sylvers' LPs and am ruined
for anything else for at least an hour. At least.
The way Sylvers lays the horns deep into the mix while keeping
the guitar, drums and vocal upfront is incredible.
Carrie Lucas - Show Me Where You're Coming From
However, Leon Sylver’s post-75 output, what we might call
the disco turn, cannot be dismissed. His work with Carrie Lucas ranks with the
best of the era!
Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven & Get Thy Bearings
For these two, I had to stretch the parameters a bit past
the point of recovery. Neither of the songs are on albums that include
Donovan's hits. Yet, the reach of songs like "Mellow Yellow" and
"Sunshine Superman" loom over his catalog in ways that, I think,
justify looking beyond the album format and to the larger catalog. Aside from
"Wear Your Love Like Heaven" being one of the more beautiful
evocations of how love can be physically felt, the song's chorus manages to
move slightly to the left of the then ubiquitous pop structures developed by
the Beatles without losing the sweetness that the Beatles' domination mandated.
In contrast, "Get Thy Bearings" strips itself of all sweetness and
leaves only the barest scaffolding on which Donovan's vocal and Harold McNair's
sax can utter their respective laments. Indeed, if "Wear Your Love Like
Heaven" signifies the whimsy of early romance, "Get Thy
Bearings" signals the search for one's self after its been separated from
its other.
-L
-L
