Archive for the 'Vinyl Recordings' Category

Inside Out (Live)
Eska
Download Only, 2009

Inside Out
Odyssey
12″ Single, 1982
RCA Records

One of my favorite singers covered one of my favorite records of all time and she did it damn well. This cover game has rules (or at least I have rules that I judge covers by), I’m sure I’ve mentioned them before: do it different, do it better or don’t do it. Chances are if the song is good enough to cover, you aren’t going to do it better (there are exceptions, for sure). Eska completely flipped this song and extended the already lengthy 6+ minute original to 8+ minutes, all of which completely hold my attention. Instrumentally, the original is almost inappropriately peppy under fairly somber lyrics. Eska slows it down and completely changes the instrumentation to almost a campfire vibe but then builds it up in waves. My favorite part of the song is at 5:19 where, after dropping everything down to percussion, hand claps and voices for a full minute it seems like the song is going to end (it would still be a stellar song if it ended there) but instead everyone comes back in and they go into an unexpected climax (at 6:15). This is another song that puts me back in my band days because they use dynamics in such a powerful way that I can’t help but notice.

Eska’s paragraph on the song:

I loved this song from childhood when pops used to play this Odyssey album called Native NewYorker. I thought those 3 angels with bejeweled and woven hair where from another planet. They sang about ‘roots’ – things my dad would continually remind us about: I’m first generation Afropean (Born Bulawayo, Zimbabwe). There weren’t many Zims in the UK back then, not like now, since Zim suffered a catastrophic exodus over the past 5 years! I have always loved the lead singer’s vocal delivery, sincere and relaxed. The musicianship on this record is stellar. I mean, check the bass line for ‘Inside Out’. What is that?????? As a frustrated bass-player, I can only play air-bass to this tune, and even that feeeeeels gooooood…don’t you just wish you were in that band???? But as a kid, the thing that struck me was the lyrics. I didn’t know what this song was about, I couldn’t relate to it but I wanted to – you know that moment when you understand the words to every love song and you hear them completely differently when it’s accompanied with experience ‘….I wanna be inside out, oh darlin’, I wanna be so deep that you’ll be turning inside out, oh darlin’…’ Ouch! Can’t get better than that, it really can’t.

My love Eska is well documented on this site. I (and many) have been looking for an album from her for years and according to her myspace blog, she’s set a mastering date which means it really must be (almost) done.

Shout out to Jonesy for reacquainting me with this song years back and to Put Me On It for alerting me to the Eska version.

Songs are available for two weeks.

Work To Do
The Main Ingredient
Afrodisiac, 1973 (not available on iTunes)
RCA Records

Since I seem to be naming everything The Main Ingredient, I figured I should give some love to the namesake. The Main Ingredient are from Harlem and the best-known member is the original Cuba Gooding (Sr.). The group was formed in 1964 but he wasn’t part of the group until 1971 when another member died unexpectedly. The early 70′s recordings that feature him on lead vocals became their best selling material.

This is their 1973 cover of The Isley Brothers classic “Work To Do” which came out the year before (it was also covered by the Average White Band in 1974). The Isley Brothers version will always be the definitive version but I like the way Main Ingredient took it down a notch and added the classic 70′s illustrative spoken interlude:

(phone ringing)
her: hello
him: it’s me baby
her: when you you comin’ home?
him: well i ain’t tonight
her: but why? baby why?
him: because you know, i got to stay out here and take care of this business i’m doin’
her: but i had something good for you tonight baby
him: i know, i know it’s good but i just can’t make it tonight, i got to take care of business
her: but i need you, i need you now
him: i need you too but we need the rent too, listen!

Also have give them props for being a little risqué for 1973 with the art work. It’s no Ohio Players album but that is a nipple.

Shout to Nat/Busquelo for giving me this record.

Songs are available for two weeks.

Got To Change
McFadden & Whitehead
McFadden & Whitehead, 1979 (iTunes)
Philadelphia International Records (wikipedia)

This is another song from the album best known for the classic “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.” That classic is so classic that it has become mainly the province of (black) block parties, family reunions, and weddings and it’s a song I don’t listen to at home. It (and the too-smiley picture on the cover…and that it came out in 1979) had me rushing through listening to this album assuming it was going all going to be happy/corny songs that weren’t as good as “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.” Accordingly, I was very pleasantly surprised to find the somewhat darker “Got To Change” starting off the B-Side.

I knew “G. McFadden & J. Whitehead” had done a fair amount of songwriting for Philadelphia International by seeing there names on album credits over the years but I thought it was usually on the same albums with bigger hits written by Gamble & Huff. I didn’t realize until reading their wikipedia entry that they wrote as many hits as they did during their pre-recording-artist days.

From wikipedia:

The duo later joined Philly International Records, where they wrote hit after hit, the first being “Back Stabbers” in 1972 for the O’Jays. It became No. 1 across the board in one week.

McFadden and Whitehead also wrote hits such as ” I’ll Always Love My Momma,” “Bad Luck,” “Wake Up Everybody,” “Where Are All My Friends,” “The More I Get, The More I Want”, and “Cold, Cold World”. The production team also worked with Melba Moore, Freddie Jackson and Gloria Gaynor, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Gladys Knight, The Jackson 5, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Lou Rawls, Archie Bell & the Drells and The Intruders, just to name a few.

Songs are available for two weeks.

What You Don’t Know
The Jackson 5
Dancing Machine, 1974 (iTunes)
Motown Records

I’ve always avoided listening to this album because I disliked the title and cover art so much. It looked like a such a post-prime, we’re-out-of-ideas, made-for-tv album. Yeah…that was my bad.

First, my friend Maggie played me the epic two-part 7 1/2 minute, “I Am Love,” which didn’t fit my misguided description at all. Still I resisted. Then I heard “The Mirrors of My Mind” as the opening track on a DJ Argyle Mix CD. I pulled out the record, recorded that track (and gave it 5 stars in iTunes) and then put the record away. I finally listened to entire album the other week and the jewels just keep coming.

“What You Don’t Know”, like a lot of songs on this album having really surprising mixes of instrumentation. It’s hard to separate it all out but there’s definitely more traditional Motown elements like tamborine and a full horn section (with prominent baritone sax – so lovely) but there’s also prominent electric guitar (:20) and some synthesizers flitting around in the background (3:15). And it comes together lovely.

This is track is definitely going to be in my set at tomorrow’s I Love Vinyl party. Come on down!

This album also contains “If I Don’t Love You This Way”, the track sampled on Mos Def’s “U R the One.”

Songs are available for two weeks.

Oh Darlin’…Life Goes On
Minnie Riperton
Stay In Love, 1977 (not available on iTunes)
Epic/CBS Records

I ranted about the Minnie Riperton compilation I have before (and soul/funk single artist compilations in general). I’ve since picked up two more Minnie compilations (1,2) that are much more comprehensive. I have 5 of her 6 albums on vinyl and comparing them to the different Best Of’s I would estimate that about 75% of her songs are represented. I love Minnie but there are some real snoozers on these comps and the one stellar track that isn’t on any of them is “Oh Darlin’…Life Goes On.”

This track feels so true to life for me. It captures that moment some time after a painful breakup that, although the pain hasn’t gone away, the relationship steps back and assumes it’s appropriate amount of mental space. She presents both sides; that she misses him and regrets being with him but she does it from such a place of convincing tenderness that I feel myself cheering her on (meanwhile it’s not her life, she didn’t write the song).

I wake alone at night
I ache to hold you tight
Oh darlin’, it’s just not right
The damage has been done
I’ve got to have some fun
Forget you, i wish i never met you
Oh darlin’
I know you’ve done me wrong
I need you darlin’
But life goes on, life goes on
I’ll get along…

The tone reminds me of “Heartbreak Road” by Bill Withers where he says “wonder who’ll be waiting for me at the end of heartbreak road. I hope that she’ll be tender, someone I can know.” I thought I had posted that song already but I haven’t. Maybe I’ll post that next week, I love themes…

Songs are available for two weeks.

Sea of Tranquility
Kool & The Gang
Kool Jazz, 1973 (iTunes)
De-Lite Records

This track may have minimal impact if you aren’t a D’Angelo fan but…who isn’t a D’Angelo fan? I might be late to the party on this one but I was listening to my “K” records late last night and my jaw dropped when this song started. It took me about ten seconds to place what it was because it was so out of context for me. Aside from the track that DJ Premier produced, I didn’t realize that there were any samples (or interpolations) on D’Angelo’s Voodoo album; especially one as big as this, he basically edited out some parts and added lyrics to this song. I was hoping the sample wouldn’t be credited but, of course, I’m not that cool, it is.

Am I wrong to be let down that he didn’t write the (whole) song? I always loved that it was one of his only songs that was in 3/4 (the other being “Untitled/How Does It Feel?” / as regular readers know, I’m a sucker for any good song not in 4/4).

This is recorded from The Kool Jazz compilation that came out in 1973 but the original version is from the collectable Kool & the Gang self-titled debut from 1969. This is one of my scratchier vinyl recordings, sorry. The song is available on iTunes.

Songs are available for two weeks.

Was That All It Was (Album Version & 12″ Version)
Jean Carn
When I Find You Love, 1979 (Amazon, not available on iTunes)
Philadelphia International Records (wikipedia)

Keeping with the 1979 disco-laser-gun-sound theme, this is a sultry understated disco track from Jean Carn. The “I gave it up and you don’t care…do you?” theme of the song isn’t uncommon but there is something different about this one. There’s a decided lack of pride; it sounds like something she would be thinking before she sat down to write the lyrics to a the song that would revise history enough to give her a little more power in the situation. Maybe it’s just that “would you recall my name?” and “is this how it’s gonna end?” don’t really belong in the same song. In fairness, she didn’t write the song and I wonder if the fact that it was written by a group that was majority male (Linda Conlon, John L. Usry, Jr., and Jerry Butler) has something to do with it.

I didn’t realize until reading her wikipedia entry just now that she was featured on Earth Wind & Fire’s first two (lesser known) albums on Warner Brothers (“Earth Wind And Fire” and “The Need Of Love”) in between her early work with her husband at the time, Doug Carn (check it out if you haven’t heard it!) and her solo albums.

‘a’ section
was that all it was?
a way to pass the time?
a momentary thing
not worth rememering
in the morning?

must it be so cold?
like something bought and sold?
was it just a game?
would you recall my name
if you saw me?

‘b’ section
how would it be i wonder?
if we ever meet again
now that i’ve been your love
is this how it’s gonna end?
will we ever be just friends?
(intimately?) now and then

was that all it was?
night out on the town?
an exercise of will
a want you needed filled
did you use me?

(repeat ‘b’ section)

was that all it was?
when you close the door
passion left behind
out of sight and out of mind
gone forever

(repeat ‘b’ section)

(repeat last ‘a’ section)

Songs are available for two weeks.

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.

You Need A Change Of Mind
Brooklyn Express
12″ Single, 1982
BC Records

This is one of those mysterious New York club classics. I had always thought it was just a re-edited version of Eddie Kendrick’s “Girl You Need A Change Of Mind” (that came out 10 years earlier) under a different name but it appears that I was wrong.

I’m just researching this for the first time right now and apparently a Yugoslavian guy named Began Cekic was behind Brooklyn Express and BC Records. He worked with Tee Scott and there is one short interview with Scott that seems to be everyone’s reference point on the web. Scott indicates the records were of dubious legality but says “Of course he did cover records, really because he didn’t sample anybody else’s records – it wasn’t possible then, he just did things that sounded close to them.” As discussed in this post, I’m pretty sure re-edits were happening at that point but it sounds like Cekic wasn’t doing them.

“You Need A Change of Mind” is the B-Side of this 12 inch. The A-Side is “Back In Time” which is a starts out sounding just like the B-Side but eventually morphs into what sounds like The Fatback Band’s “Do The Bus Stop” and then into some combination of the two with the bass line from “Bra” by Cymande. That side is definitely re-played and not just a reconstruction of pre-existing records, supporting what Scott said.

That leaves me to wonder who his musicians were and who’s singing on this record. Does anyone know more about this?

Songs are available for two weeks.

You’ve Got The Right To Know
The Emotions
Flowers, 1976
Kalimba/Columbia

(This album isn’t available on iTunes and Amazon has two used copies of the CD starting at, um…$88).

This is a “classic” album (at least among record collectors) but I could never really understand why. I just listened to it for the third time (with about two years between each listening) and two good songs finally emerged. I remember seeing this album cover photoshopped into a flyer for the 718 Sessions party and I suppose that planted the seed that it was supposed to be more of a party oriented album or something. It’s definitely more subtle but I’m surprised I missed this song, no matter what my expectation was.

This may sound a little crazy but does this song have a slight western (cowboy movie) vibe to it? The guitar and hi-hat/snare-drum combination during the verses has this mosey-ing “chic-uh-boom, chic-uh-boom, chic-uh-boom” thing that sounds like riding a horse. Maybe the album cover could have looked more like this:

Don’t miss the sexiest part of the song when the lead sings “you got a right to know” (@2:04) and it sounds she like she hardly opens her mouth.

Songs are available for two weeks.