where is the love for Maze featuring Frankie Beverly

this thread does not constitute love. neither do the rest of the sad ass excuses for maze threads I could find searching. Anyway, S: "Family"

i just heard "happy feelin's" for the first time recently and that song is the shit. it's the only thing i'd heard by them until like an hour ago when i listened to the full tracks that last.fm has. i think i'm going to check out their debut or joy & pain next.

'Joy and Pain' (the track) is the ultimate London '80s soulboy anthem, especially the live version. It would get played to death by the likes of Robbie Vincent and Greg Edwards. Back in those days Maze sold out a series of concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon and everyone else (ie non-soul/funk fans) was like 'who?'. (I think I actually prefer the studio version of that song, although I never seem to hear it, only the live version, so I could be wrong about that .. I'm just not keen on the audience noises and the sound of the drums on the live version - which may actually have been recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, I'm not sure).

this band has saved my goddamn life about four times

There's so much going on it's crazy.
Trouble all around.
I'll tell you something, I'm not gonna let it get me down.
I been going through some funky changes.
Change is all the same:
We like the joy, but we can't really stand the pain.
--

I'll take Frankie Beverly as a lyricist over lots of people who get called good lyricists

twiiilight

we are one!

happy feelin's is awesome.

"Before I Let Go" is great too. Their arrangements typically rub down the edges off the funk giving Beverly's voice more space to work but even still it swings hard. I also like the punched up version of the bass riff producers tend to employ for rap productions.

i have like 20 Maze f/Frankie Bev 45s

i have been rocking a lot of maze lately.

can anyone hook me up with an mp3 of "you"?

Is there anything more perfect to listen to, windows down, on the first warm day of spring? No, no there is not.

yeah, i think i'm just trying to hold on to the last days of summer

John D otm about the greatness of "Back In Stride"'s lyrics

twiiilight

― deej, Monday, March 24, 2008 9:27 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

twilight is funky but i like their live-r sound better

hits

the bridge of "before I let go" is so beautiful

God bless Frankie Beverly

always always always great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWKZSYq5DxQ

I'm talking about the days we used to blaze, and bump the Frankie Beverly Maze and Marvin Gayez...

Maze/Frankie Beverly was always just a name I recognized from record store browsing or from some reading of this or that, but I am listening to them for the FIRST TIME today and it is divine.

One of the best bands never to be known by white folk.

Happy Feelins OMG

if you don't own their live in new orleans record then I feel bad about yr life tbrr. one of the best live acts of their era

I'll be listening to that asap.

here is the love.

live in new orleans is i think the finest live album i've ever heard.

JF if you have not heard "Back in Stride Again", here's me telling you to listen to "Back in Stride Again".

great fucking song

Yesterday and last night, I listened to the s/t, Joy and Pain, Live in New Orleans and Anthology. I wasn't looking at titles while listening, though, instead just absorbing what I was hearing. I'll go hunt down "Back in Stride Again" in particular.

so i've never heard the second album, golden time of day, except for "workin' together" which i love. but i always assumed that "workin' together" was like a pre-debut LP single, it's so much more rough & raw than the Maze sound that they had together even on the first record.

fuckin, jeez.. so psyched to have remedied my blind spot on this stuff. 2012 looking good now

oh man

i am scared to listen to this live record

i remember the first time i ever heard a maze song, 'the golden time of day'. it was like the first time for me hearing 'free' by niecey,.. where can i get more of this?? why does this exist?

but for years i put off buying more frankie beverly and maze records. i guess i was off-put by the corny album artwork (is that marvin gaye's fault somehow?). and also i think i harbored retroactive tween-resentment regarding "joy and pain" cutting into lady b's hip hop show on sunday afternoons

then ironically tonight i was listening to joy and pain and fucking happy feelings, which the latter of i especially was always like, 'whatever'. but now i am like, frankie beverly, wtf? how can someone possibly be so cool?

so aero, and additionally bear, bear, bear and others on this thread so otm. forget about it... love is paramount and stops you in your tracks. and the other thing is, so many songs make me feel good in my heart when i listen to them. but some of fb&m's songs, like the aforementioned ones, just affirm life in a way that has never been affirmed for me. everything is good. the entire process of taking in nourishment, digesting, and even eventually rotting from cancer's over-specificity. life is good. post-gwb i didn't think i would ever be able to say that again. post-birth, even. so life-affirming!!!!!! recognition of the power of simple happiness and the implicit acknowledgment that it's our nature. so surrender to the grace that enriches us all effortlessly. or something

it doesn't hurt that he is a philly guy who became bay area person

WHAT?!

"Golden Time of Day" is one bubbalicious groove.

man del that was beautiful - it really is true that fb&maze hit a special groove that's so restorative of something bedrock & basic - the most human music

it's like walking in rhythm.

i also love how in their music there is this adamic injunction, again so life-affirming, be the happiness and so forth that you would want in this world. you are in fact the world.

xpost cheers aero. yeah, i was also thinking how i am basically too old to take serious drugs at this point, But if i were ever having a bad trip then i think their music would so steer me back to a good place.

I've been listening to the 2004 comp all afternoon. shit shit shit

as in: I am in love.

they're huge in DC and about once a week the old folks R&B station there plays some Frankie/Maze song i haven't heard before that sounds amazing.

I've heard a jam here and there for years without owning anything but that changed yesterday upon hearing Before I Let You Go on thje quiet storm station

"Before I Let Go" is like top 10 songs of all time imo

I've picked up 6 or 7 LPs by them in dollar bins over the past few years. Have yet to hear one I didn't connect with -- one of my favorite bands these days. Wrote about them as part of this, just last month:

http://www.spin.com/articles/sonic-taxonomy-unsung-80s-rb-bands-fatback-kleeer-skyyy

i just heard "happy feelin's" for the first time recently and that song is the shit.

Maze/Frankie Beverly was always just a name I recognized from record store browsing or from some reading of this or that, but I am listening to them for the FIRST TIME today and it is divine.

Why isn't this the only band I ever listen to?

I got into them just this year, and yeah, pretty nice stuff. I love it when "Golden Time of Day" comes during my commute back home.

the best band ever

they play jazzfest every year and their set is always against something else i want to see, but i caught them last year and it's hard to describe what a pure thrill it is to see and hear frankie beverly sing. also the entire crowd was sort of caught in this unconscious, trancelike sway.

The We are One Tribute X-Perience Band honors Frankie Beverly & Maze

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

I've never seen him at Jazzfest either, in all my years of attending. They play there so much I always assumed they were NOLA locals.

Hugely popular in W. DC, hence that tribute cover band I mentioned x-post

Maze/Frankie Beverly was always just a name I recognized from record store browsing or from some reading of this or that, but I am listening to them for the FIRST TIME today and it is divine.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, July 12, 2012

This just happened to me the other day. I'm working my way through their albums and they're all brilliant so far. No idea why it's taken me so long to give them a listen.

Last summer, late in the afternoon/early evening, someone was having a bbq + birthday party on the next street over in my neighborhood and the ideal way to hear "Joy and Pain" is wafting through the evening air knowing it came from a place where people are having a good time.

That's lovely and makes a lot of sense. I feel really grateful that I've just discovered them at this time of year. I think they're going to be a big part of my soundtrack for spring and summer this year. Joy & Pain is probably my favourite of the albums I've heard so far. The title track is incredible.

Donna Allen did a pretty good version of that in the late 80s which was a top 10 hit in the UK iirc

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

every maze song should be the national anthem

^ fair

cosign

hell yeah

i put on "Time Is On My Side" and wish i could immediately have a bbq with 20 old friends i don't have.

He's trending on Twitter and not dead!

Anyway, my jam:

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

f you don't know who Frankie Beverly is, it's probably because he's 'Blackfamous'

https://twitter.com/i/events/1205847771342704640

you guys are all over Beyonce's live cover of Before I Let Go, right? Good just checking

yeah I thought SOMEONE would have revived the thread last summer

i don't think her version is live? it's a bonus track on her live album tho. v nice version tho

listening to live in new orleans. manna from heaven

"Joy and Pain"!

"Before I Let Go"!!

peak of the album format is "live r&b album + new studio tracks at the end," cf. this and rufus stompin' at the savoy

brad otm, per usual

"happy feelins" kinda sorta theme music these days.

BREAKING NEWS: Several longtime band members of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly, including co-founder Roame, have formed their own group, "The Formerly Of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly," and will go on tour this summer with @HamiltonAnthony. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/29jX9BB5ot

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) May 8, 2023