What Is My Woman For?
Curtis Mayfield
Heartbeat, 1979 (iTunes)
RSO Records
This is a little gem I found on this late career Curtis Mayfield album. I think this song is fascinating. It shows huge signs of Curtis trying to stay up with the times – he goes heavy on that disco-laser-gun sound (what is that?) and yet it has all of the elements of a classic, well-orchestrated Curtis composition. He comes out of the gate strong with punchy horns countered by smooth strings and big crescendos leading up to the end of each section.
(*Music nerd warning*) He actually uses a surprisingly non-traditional structure for a song from this era (any american pop era really). A standard intro is 8 bars; the intro here is 7 bars, repeated three times followed by 4 bars. What’s more surprising about the intro is that he doesn’t repeat that structure for the rest of the song; he proceeds mostly to standard 8 bar sections after that. To build tension he stretches the chorus that ends at 3:41 to 10 bars and repeats the horn crescendo a few extra times. He returns to the 7 bar phrases at the end.
Songs are available for two weeks.
