Curtis Mayfield: Classic or Dud?

(Dave Q's comment will forever change the way I hear, etc.)

as someone else said, if you can find the demo versions of a lot of his songs on superfly and the curtis album (i got mine on a 3 cd cheapo box set love peace understanding), theyre a lot more understated than the finished versions. he didnt pretty them up with strings and extra ornamenation.

And also because the break down is great.

I completely agree with all the praise too. I'm fairly new to Curtis; started listening to him because of the high praise Robbie Robertson (among many others) gave him as both a guitar player and songwriter.

I don't have near enough of his material - Impressions or solo.

(CM is totally classic obv)

Curtis > Roots > Superfly > Short Eyes > Back To The World > Curtis Live > Got To Find A Way

-- Phil A. (spleetl...), May 8th, 2001.

and they cryout how ilm used to be better than now...

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:59d9kentgq7m

Curtis > Roots > Superfly > Short Eyes > Back To The World > Curtis Live > Got To Find A Way

Are you honestly saying There's No Place Like America Today isn't among his top SEVEN records?

There's No Place Like America Today is probably my favorite album of his, actually. And I think Back to the World is quite underrated.

Back to the World has a much better A side than B side.

I've never heard There's No Place Like America Today.

As a songwriter, guitar player, producer, and beautiful cat who brought his own funk and timeless positive message from a real place, a stone classic.

In order of preference:

There's No Place Like America Today 75
Back To the World 73
Sweet Exorcist 74
Got To Find A Way 74
Let's Do It Again 74
Give Get Take Have 76

However, I do have an early-80's album he did for the long-gone Boardwalk label, titled something like LOVE IS THE PLACE. Can't lie -it's from '81 or '82 and it sounds it, this ain't no retro project, but for what it is, it's not bad at all. The only real standout is "Just Ease My Mind," which should have been comped on that box set of black country singers that Warners released years ago. Seriously, this is Curtis gone country & western, and he OWNS it.

Track down a copy and hear it for yourself - because it was recorded well after his prime years, this album is always cheap as dirt in the used stores. "Just Ease My Mind," by itself, is worth the $1.

Tuomas being so dense itt.

hmm. I mean I'd say technically he goes out of a true falsetto a lot but I can't think of anything that wasn't in a high register.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzlCJDPjV0

This song has the lowest register vocals from him that I've heard, and he still does a semi-falsetto in the chorus.

Anyone know anything about the Rhino reissue of his first 4 solo albums that happened last year?

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Keeping-Curtis-Mayfield-1970-1974/dp/B07KLS2XDZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=curtis+mayfield&qid=1591438979&sr=8-1

This one? It is a nice set.

Yeah that one. Reading some good things

hard to beat that price tbh

Looks good, be prepared, tho, that Sweet Exorcist isn't quite as good as the first three. That and his other 1974 album Got to Find a Way are okay, then There's No Place Like America Today from 1975 raises the bar again, but that one is pretty much his last truly good album. The ones after that are still worth listening because they usually have one or two great songs, but his peak creative period as a solo artist was those five years from 1970 to 1975.

wrong, "sweet exorcist" is amazing

Oh lord that long LP version of "Move On Up" is one serious bongo jam.

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Keeping-Curtis-Mayfield-1970-1974/dp/B07KLS2XDZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=curtis+mayfield&qid=1591438979&sr=8-1🕸

This one? It is a nice set.

boooo!

Oh lord that long LP version of "Move On Up" is one serious bongo jam.

― earlnash, Friday, July 24, 2020 9:21 PM

alltime jam.

Two greatest 'wow's ever: Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, when Rod Steiger pulls the gun on him in the backseat; "If you wanna be a junkie, wow."

Wow

To be invisible
Will be my claim to fame
A man with no name
That way, I won't have to feel the pain
Indispensable
Just a plain old human being
Today, don't mean a thing
In a world that's so mean
A world that seems not for me
So privately, I'll be invisible
That way, I won't have to explain a thing, if you know what I mean
I won't even have to be here, on the scene
It's so ridiculous
But the strife and the bliss
Will go right on through, right on through me
To have missed
All the things that hurt your soul
No one would ever know
They'd never know
Life so preciously
Just don't seem to be
As free as they claim freedom to be
Things are going fast
To have found that all is in the past
To have to take what you can get
Sure can make a heart upset
Inconspicuous
I must behave myself
For somebody else
Who may have a little fame, fortune and wealth
It's so ridiculous
But the strife and the bliss
Will go right on through, right on through me
To have missed
A world that seems not for me
So privately, I'll be invisible
That way, I won't have to explain a thing, if you know what I mean
I won't even have to be here, on the scene
It's so ridiculous
But the strife and the bliss
Will go right on through, right on through me
To have missed
All the things that hurt your soul
No one would ever know
They'd never know
Life so preciously
Just don't seem to me
As free as they claim freedom to be
Things are going fast
To have found that all is in the past
To have to take what you can get
Sure can make a heart upset
So I'll be invisible
Invisible
Invisible

Wow what an amazing lyric-So heartbreaking and profound

The man had a highly rare sense of grace that was definitely captured in his music.