The Roberta Flack Thread

yeah i guess first time ever i saw your face is overused but it's way beautiful

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway doesn't get enough love on ILM

Everybody NEEDS to hear her 13 minute aquatic bedroom funktasia "I Can See The Sun in Late December" . . . with arrangements credited to "Rubina Flake". So good.

― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Thursday, December 11, 2008 10:26 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously anybody who doesn't know this jam and the whole album, you're missing out. it is such a great immersive listen.

Okay, fair enough, will have a listen. But what's your take on First Take?

I think it's really good - her voice is just incredible, the clarity of her tone - but I like Roberta Flack best when she gets a little poppier. Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, Feel Like Makin Love and Blue Light in the Basement, those are peak RF for me

I've loved First Take since I first got it 30 odd years ago. It seems pretty natural, organic etc. Chapter Two always struck me as more formulaic though I haven't heard it in quite a while. It certainly seemed more forced when I first heard it.

I quite like Quiet Fire. Need to get a physical copy.

I know there was an Original Artist series or equivalent box set but not sure what's in it.

It has five of her first six albums, but for some inexplicable reason it omits Chapter Two (which is indeed in the same mold as First Take, but since FT is awesome, this should be taken as a praise!). Still, you can get it for cheaper than the CD reissue of Quiet Fire alone.

And Joan Crawford is so right about "Late December". When talking about quiet storms soul epics, it's on the same level as Minnie Riperton's best - and that's a high level indeed.

It drove me crazy every time I heard the Flack track but I finally just this moment realized that the synthline in T.I.'s 'What You Know' is the same as the bassline in Roberta's 'Gone Away'. It's like the heavens just split open. Mind blowed.

I'm kind of glad taht the box omits Chapter Two cos i think it's a pale retread of the sublime First Take.
I should have grabbed the box while i was in FOPP cos i think it was among the sets they had in there reasonably cheaply and it is one taht I have meant to pick up for years. Well, think it's back on my to get list along with the Mike Nesmith First National band one.

"I can see the sun in late December"is absolute perfection.. an extremely beautiful and intoxicating sound world

feel like makin' love is one of my favorite albums ever. every song is made of clouds

Blue Light in the Basement is great, most especially the first song, "Why Don't You Move In With Me," which is completely incredible

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, September 8, 2006 6:27 PM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

yep

Marvelous: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/804370981/roberta-flack-the-virtuoso

Great overview. Was just talking with a DC musician who had Roberta Flack as a school teacher here in DC and later played music with her at Mr Henry’s on Capitol Hill in DC, which still has music years later.

He says she is tough but fair as a bandleader and teacher

Was trying to recall how Movin' Out goes while cleaning, but it keeps turning into Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly in my head - something about that turnaround in the chorus is v similar

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, August 29, 2017 6:57 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

strumming my pain with his fingers, is that all you get for your money

GAH Cannot un-hear that now, thanks a lot.

who needs a house out in Hackensack, singing my life with his words

― Tone-Locrian (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, August 29, 2017 7:10 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

roberta flack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, August 29, 2017 7:24 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

got a full scholarship to go to Howard...at age 15 whaaaaaaaaaat

There's a 1970 video turned up on Dime yesterday. Not got a chance to watch it yet,
I think its several tracks played live as a trio.

Wish I could post Steve Hurley's House Remix of "Uh-uh Ooh-ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)" (it's referenced upthread) because it pops up in my head every now and then and it came up in a DJ mix I was listening to last week, but it seems to have been erased from YouTube. Hurley's sort-of-dub House of Trix Mix is all there's left.

Roberta Flack to Host Live Charity Listening Party
On Rhino's YouTube Channel
To Benefit Feed The Children's COVID-19 Relief Efforts

Flack's First Take Celebrates 50 Years With Deluxe Reissue Out This Summer
Featuring 12 Recordings Never Heard Before

Broadcast Host And Singer Santita Jackson to Introduce the Set List
For Streaming Event on May 16 at 3:00pm Eastern

details etc. here:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1103923394056&ca=db998055-a3dd-4a2d-87f3-061a42690e75

1970 show mentioned a few posts ago by me is Flack on Boboquivari so about 1/2 hour of her around teh time of Chapter two. Her on piano with a rhythm section.
Seems quite good. Hadn't realised there was more of a series than the Tim Buckley set . Hadn't realised it was a series.
So would like to know what else is in it if the rest is as good as the 2 I've seen.
Looks like it must be being repeated on some channel since there is on screen text happening , recommendations to listen to shows. thankfully didn't seem to be much in the way of clips across the bottom of the screen

THis was the one clip I could see on youtube from it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlZihXbU91Q

Almost wholly because of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"--one of '70s greatest singles, I'd say, though it actually came out in '69--there's an American Masters on her airing next week.

Meant to attach this link:

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/masters/roberta-flack/#

let's not forget the supposedly-don-mclean-inspired "killing me softly."

speaking of which, there's a new lori leiberman record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_r5V1oknPI

lieberman rather

American Masters special on her is on PBS now (here in DC area and maybe elsewhere)

I PVR'd it to watch later.

It was superb.

86 today!

She has ALS :(

Sorry to hear that.

I fluffed up that post of mine above--what I meant to say was that my interest in the American Masters episode was almost wholly because of "The First Time." Obviously, Flack had many other hits, including two other #1s. If anything, "Killing Me Softly" has become her signature song--it's the one that made a couple of the Rolling Stone Top 500s. I markedly prefer "The First Time," and "The Closer I Get to You" would be next.