Keep Your Head To The Sky: The EARTH, WIND & FIRE Track-By-Track Listening Thread

Verdine White shines; he's still a teenager at this point in the band's history I believe.

oh boy

"Moment of Truth" (Earth, Wind & Fire, 1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weZ6deRu9ck

As sampled by LL Cool J:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56GtI-WLD_s

Camaraderie sums this one up fairly well, I think. Enjoyable but doesn't strike me as remarkable on two listens. xp That was about "Help Somebody"!

Love this new one, such a groove

The groove in "Moment of Truth" does make a stronger first impression for me. xp!

Both of these sound very indebted to Sly, to me. "Moment of Truth" hits a little harder than "Help Somebody," but on the whole, these are both a nice, if unremarkable, start.

huh sounds way more "60s" than i associate w/them (though i don't know anything except a handful of hits)

i was gonna remark on the 60s vibes, surprised me too

I got a copy of this record a while back but it was totally thrashed and I ditched it, looking forward to listening

I think i prefer Help Somebody, even if it's a little generic of The J.B.'s. White's pocket is amazing and I love the way it effortlessly switches to that latin groove during the chorus

Other than Maurice and Verdine White it's a completely different band than the one that had all the hit singles.

Two great songs, imo. "Moment of Truth" is groovy as hell.

Much like Janet Jackson, their third album is the one most widely regarded as their first album.

"Love is Life" (Earth, Wind & Fire, 1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-xA3q022Qo

As sampled by Ghostface Killah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tT96T6KE8U

This song is exactly what I needed this morning.

Which one?

"Love is Life." I've liked the Ghostface track for years.

what a great song

Bookmarked. Early Earth, Wind & Fire rules.

these tracks are great, I am very much enjoying this 1st LP

This sounds like the kind of lush ballad that they would present a more refined version on later albums, but the horns are lovely.

"Fan the Fire" (Earth, Wind & Fire, 1971)

The guitars feel like an attempt to sneak into Funkadelic's territory, but the horns are too lush and slick for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IpZ0y54zZc

This is one good LP side. I'll wait to listen to it as a whole until the album is done.

apart from some brief appearances on America Eats Its Young, I don't think Funkadelic used horns ever fwiw

always been kinda taken with D'Angelo's assertion that in terms of funk fandom you were either a PFunk head or a EWF stan, and that at heart which one you preferred said a lot about you as a listener/musician/person

the guitar is totally p-funk territory tho, unperson otm, even the vocals remind me of the early funkadelic, before it goes into a brighter territory after the intro (reminds me a bit of Sing a Simple Song)

Yeah, the guitar and the weird little bit of dialogue at the very end of the track are straight from the Clinton playbook.

I know I've never heard this album, but somehow I don't even recall ever seeing the cover?! Love the opening cut.

I agree with most of what has been said about this already: the guitars have some Funkadelic abrasion not usually heard on EW&F, but when this gets rolling, its more Sly than anything else. I basically hear them still grasping for a sound here (and on the rest of the album, which I listened to once through in sequence when we started this thread).

always been kinda taken with D'Angelo's assertion that in terms of funk fandom you were either a PFunk head or a EWF stan, and that at heart which one you preferred said a lot about you as a listener/musician/person

― Οὖτις, Thursday, November 8, 2018

I don't know. Fans of one ten dto like the other.

*tend to

I like Westbound-era Funkadelic (liked them a lot more 20 years ago), have no use for Parliament, and love EWF.

Let's start Side Two!

"C'mon Children" (Earth, Wind & Fire, 1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CjkEolqNTg

As sampled by Masta Ace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKiIeLXO1ek

Maurice White was a pretty good drummer, eh

I can hear the Sly Stone influence -- an obvious point but it hadn't occurred to me.

Maurice White was a pretty good drummer, eh

From Wikipedia:

By the mid-1960s he found work as a session drummer for Chess Records. While at Chess, he played on the records of artists such as Etta James, Chuck Berry, Sonny Stitt, Muddy Waters, the Impressions, the Dells, Betty Everett, Sugar Pie DeSanto and Buddy Guy. White also played the drums on Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me", Billy Stewart's "Summertime" and Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher."

...

By 1966, he joined the Ramsey Lewis Trio, replacing Isaac "Red" Holt as the drummer. Holt and bassist Eldee Young left to form Young-Holt Unlimited with pianist Hysear Don Walker. Young was replaced by Cleveland Eaton. As a member of the Trio, Maurice played on several of their albums. One of these was 1966's Wade in the Water. The album track "Hold It Right There" went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Group . With the Trio White also played on 1966's The Movie Album and Goin' Latin of 1967. He also performed on The Trio's 1968 LPs Dancing in the Street, Up Pops Ramsey Lewis and Maiden Voyage. While in the group White was introduced in a Chicago drum store to the African thumb piano or kalimba. With this so the track "Uhuru" upon the Trio's 1969 LP Another Voyage featured the first recording of White playing the kalimba.

I need to check out some of those Ramsey Lewis albums.

(reminds me a bit of Sing a Simple Song)

should've saved that comment for this one!

For an album that wears its influences on its (non-literal) sleeve, here's where the James Brown groove finally makes its appearance. Otherwise, another clearly Sly-indebted track.

this sounds like a Sly track from 1967 except not as interesting

I took the weekend off, but I'm back, so let's finish this first album up. First, the relatively weak soul track "This World Today":

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

And finally, "Bad Tune":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFP0K8RirR8

As sampled by Brand Nubian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBM52Hd-KAQ

"This World Today" is filler, but "Bad Tune" is an enjoyable instrumental trip.

Earth, Wind & Fire's second album, The Need of Love, came out seven months after their debut (the first was released in February 1971, the second in November of that year). There were no singles, and it opens with a 10-minute track that transitions from BYG free jazz circa 1969 (seriously, compare those first two-three minutes with Archie Shepp's "Blasé") to Westbound-Funkadelic-with-horns, then goes into hardcore jazz-funk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VjcfhLJJNI

As sampled by DJ Shadow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDom9eXLUdI

this world today isn't bad, seems like it would serve well as soundtrack music. but there's not so much going on except those hilarious louis armstrong-esque background vocals at the end.

Wow, who's playing sax on this? I caught up with the rest of the first album this morning, and there are some nice tunes that I might come back to, but this is far more ambitious and exciting to me, and sounds fantastic.

beginning of "Bad Tune" almost recalls Konono No. 1

“Energy”: They’re still searching for their sound, but what an ambitious way to do it!

Loving The sample feature, btw.

"Energy" is amazing to me. I only own their Columbia albums (I bought the big box set with all of them), but there's a UK CD that has remastered versions of these first two on a single disc, and I'm gonna be buying it for sure.

lol this is the one I thought was the debut that I have a trashed copy of, it was also just reissued on vinyl

Blase comparisons are scarily otm

did they sign to Columbia after this one?

"Beauty" (The Need of Love, 1971)

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

Surprisingly not a single...or a sample source!

Really get glimmers of what was about to happen in that one.

The vocals on this remind me more of The Stylistics than EWF. Not a bad thing.

Yeah, they were definitely doing a Philly soul thing at this point.

"Power" (Last Days and Time, 1972)

This track feels like EWF coming into their own. It's an eight-minute instrumental that starts with a spacy kalimba-keyboard intro before the guitar comes in, and when the beat really drops at 2:15, it's saxophone solo time!

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

As sampled by Organized Konfusion:

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

now this cooks

Hell yeah.

"Remember the Children" (Last Days and Time, 1972)

Is it OK if I forget this song, though?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4t-m1OqpNw

As sampled by DJ Quik:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXHeOL7_krg

Belatedly, "Power" is their first fully awesome track.

(Though I kind of like the Gratitude interpolation with "Africano" better.)

Belatedly, "Power" is their first fully awesome track.

perhaps not coincidentally, also the first one that's caught my ear and feels less derivative than other stuff (even though it definitely slots right in with similar stuff by Kool & The Gang, Cymande, Mandrill etc.) but it just sounds better thought out and composed, and the sax solo is appropriately freewheeling. Maybe I just don't like their vocals idk.

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (Last Days and Time, 1972)

Yes, the Pete Seeger song. Meh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC3VH-aAfyU

The most hysterical cut in their entire catalogue.

The vocal arrangement doesn't fit for the song. Just a bad idea all around.

Yeah, this feels like an arrangement you'd write for a college music degree assignment. Apparently Clive Davis, The head of their new label, suggested they cut this and "Make It With You". I guess you don't tell your new boss where to stick his bad ideas.

My apologies for killing this thread everybody

look if you guys can't keep this going I'm just going to start my BEE GEES thread

so this won the poll but nobody actually wanted to do it eh

Ultimately they don't have the delicate balance of ridiculousness/embarrassment/actual great material it takes to be a successful thread

yeah judging from this initial run there's a lot of middling material that is neither entertainingly and egregiously bad nor particularly deep or great

so

did you guys get to "evil"? That might be my favorite of theirs. I'm a sucker for a rainy intro.. and then when the rest of the band blasts in and simmers... oh what a beginning. loaded with hooks, incredible atmosphere and mellow low key 70s sound... ahhhh. just an absolutely superb production, performance, and song all around.

Judging EW&F from this initial run is idiotic.

yeah well that's where the thread stopped ennit

I'm not saying they aren't great, I'm saying they aren't dumb/goofy enough!

they just seem like...a really good band that had good songs, which these threads need the really weird bad/cringey moments

yeah I agree w that

well tbf I don't actually think they're that great, I think they're fine but yeah they are lacking in the dumb/goofy/terrible dept that has made these kind of threads enjoyable in the past

so this won the poll but nobody actually wanted to do it eh

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 13, 2018 9:57 AM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which poll?

what dedicated listening thread should we do next (the poll)

There are bad/cringey moments throughout the mid-80s and beyond, but basically the next 10 albums in line here are monolithically uniform -- whether that means, to you, middling or superior.

And the latter camp (to which I belong) hardly needs a listening thread, especially when it'll be filled with people who can't comprehend the majesty of "Be Ever Wonderful," "Fantasy," "Reasons," "Getaway," et al.

thx shakey

right, so on to the Bee Gees then right

xp

You had a good run, EW&F listening thread, but sad to say you did not meet down to the standards of badness.

listening to "Evil" now this is awesome

it's ok - that descending 4-note riff kinda wears out its welcome imo

I meant to keep this thread going but I've literally been on planes half of the last two weeks (3 days in Oslo followed by 3 days in Stockholm) - my life is a tidal wave of chaos right now and getting it together to do a daily post kinda slid down the ladder of priorities. My apologies.

no worries, do you want to just put this on hold for awhile or...?

Honestly, response has been fairly minimal, and once we got a little deeper into the Columbia albums it really would become one awesome song after another with no goofy weirdness or anything - it'd be really hard to just say "Yeah, this song is amazing" over and over again. If folks wanna move on to the Bee Gees, I'm fine with it. Especially since the chaos I just described has in no way abated and will probably get even worse in early 2019.

I'm fine for now just saying that Open Our Eyes through Powerlight is one banger after another and I can think of no other band that managed to sustain a longer run of pure pleasure, and leave it at that.

^^^

Pretty much, yeah. Also that Gratitude is one of the great live albums of the 1970s (the golden era for live albums).

I only know the singles and a couple of albums, but I can see now that EW&F might have been better served by an artist poll than a listening thread.

Let's fast track that, please.

Glad you mentioned Powerlight because the singles at least rule.

I even stan for parts of Electric Universe but I realize that's probably taking it a step too far.

I love that thin slinky post-disco sound of Raise!-Powerlight

I just went through a EWF binge after reading Maurice White's book, and as much as I like them I think it would be a hard slog, because there are none of the obvious missteps or just plain crap songs that made the Eagles or Rod Stewart or Billy Joel fun to comment on. You need the good and the bad. How about Marvin Gaye post WGO, or Aretha?

― Ρεμπετολογια, Tuesday, October 30, 2018 8:16 AM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Don't say I didn't warn you