In light of his passing away last month, I thought that in
\naddition to this web site’s brief “In Memoriam” statement, it was
\nonly appropriate that we review one of Curtis Mayfield’s albums.
\nFirst instincts told me to go with
\nSuperfly<\/i>, easily his best-known work and certainly an album
\nno soul afficionado should be without, but upon further reflection,
\nsince “The Daily Vault” is all about musically digging deeper than
\nthe obvious, I decided to take a crack at the preceding 1970
\nrelease, simply titled
\nCurtis<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Though not as immediately appealing and groove-filled as
\nSuperfly<\/i>,
\nCurtis<\/i> is important because it was one of the first soul \/
\nR&B recordings to go beyond the collection-of-songs concept
\ninto an album concept. It did take the public a little time to
\naccept this idea, sadly but most likely due to ingrained racial
\nprejudices; Isaac Hayes had done his darnedest to break down that
\nbarrier a year before with his classic
\nHot Buttered Soul<\/i> LP, containing four lengthy opuses that
\nwere some of the first musical glimmers of the ambitious ’70s. But
\nMayfield followed closely after with this album, which left almost
\nall of his ’60s work with the Impressions in the dust, and also
\nforeshadowed
\nSuperfly<\/i> and nearly all ’70s funk, years ahead of its
\ntime.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, though most of its tracks are available on various
\ngreatest hits-type anthologies or box sets,
\nCurtis<\/i> still hasn’t been reissued on a major label yet,
\nmaking it a bit of a challenge to find. Inexcusable. But let’s get
\nto the songs.<\/p>\n
The opening “(Don’t Worry) If There’s Hell Below We’re All Going
\nto Go” begins with an echoey call to arms – “Niggas! Whiteys!
\nJews!” – like much “message music” that was going on at the time,
\nbut when the irresistible fuzz bass line pipes in, and then
\nsuddenly an aural feast of strings, horns and pulsating polyrhythms
\njoins the bass, you know that Mayfield is onto something new. What
\nfollows is message music to end all message music; an ominous
\nreality check on the state of the world, where no one is innocent.
\nNext, and in stark contrast, is “The Other Side Of Town,” an eerie
\nslow jam from the ghetto that begins with a lush harp and some of
\nthe scariest drumrolls ever. No gangsta rap can top this.<\/p>\n
But after that one-two punch,
\nCurtis<\/i> is actually an optimstic album for the most part. The
\ncenterpiece is the fairly well-known “Move On Up,” which offers
\nsome unusual messages, at least for 1970, about parents being able
\nto understand children, and also one-ups “If There’s Hell Below”
\nwith an even more grandiose multi-layered production.<\/p>\n
Remember how extended dance songs used to be given “Part 1” and
\n“Part 2” titles, where part 1 would be the actual song and part 2
\nwould be the long, repetitive instrumental coda? Well, this is
\nwhere it all started. There was no such thing as a 12 inch single
\nin 1970, but all the elements of one are here – except that the
\nequivalent of “Part 2” on “Move On Up” is actually an excellent
\nhorn solo, which envelops your attention so much that you simply
\ndon’t realize you’ve been hearing the same set of two chords for
\neight minutes.<\/p>\n
Let us not forget the ballads. “The Makings Of You,” in addition
\nto being an excellent choice for any Valentine’s Day mix, is
\nextremely complex for a simple love song, sung with such feeling
\nyou’re almost moved to tears, and never really resolving on one
\nchord, adding a jazz sensibility you don’t often see in modern
\nR&B. “Give It Up” is less ambitious but almost as gripping, a
\ntimeless torch song. And the
\nwhisper-to-a-scream-and-back-to-a-whisper “We People Who Are Darker
\nThan Blue” is like nothing else recorded before or since, a moving
\nplea for racial unity and awareness.<\/p>\n
If there’s one quibble I have with this album, and this really
\nis nitpicking, it’s that there’s almost too much going on. It’s as
\nif Mayfield was so fascinated with all these new sounds and
\ncombinations of sounds he was creating that he had to cram as many
\nof them onto the record as he could. It works fine on the
\nfaster-paced numbers like “Move On Up,” similar to most of what
\nwould later come on
\nSuperfly<\/i>, but on “Give It Up” and “The Other Side Of Town”
\nfor example, one wishes that the dozen or so musicians could just
\ntone it down a bit and let Curtis’s falsetto, the most mesmerizing
\nof its kind, take center stage. Only “The Makings Of You” shows the
\nproper restraint, and that’s why it’s so good.<\/p>\n
But the amazing thing is that in spite of the
\neverything-but-the-kitchen-sink production that graces much of this
\nalbum, it’s really the singing that stands out. Mayfield is often
\noverlooked when it comes to naming the great voices of R&B, but
\nhis ability to create such varying moods and sound so wrapped up in
\nhis songs was duplicated by very few – Marvin Gaye definitely,
\nStevie Wonder maybe, Al Green perhaps, and that’s mighty good
\ncompany. Add that to the wild, adventurous music, and you’ve got
\nyourself one heck of an album. May he live forever in our CD
\nplayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":25246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6238],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36451","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-curtis-mayfield","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36451"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36451"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}