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

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.

Obv a more straightforward tune than "Energy" but it makes a more indelible impression than most of the first album for me. Dreamy layered vocals and horns.

did they sign to Columbia after this one?

Yeah, the band actually broke up after this album, and re-formed with a whole new lineup and signed to Columbia.

I don't love it, but probably the most EWF sounding thing so far. The horns are nice.

The first two EW+F albums are their best.

Thank you for that. Looking forward to your thoughts on the first half of I Am in a few months' time.

"I Can Feel It In My Bones" (The Need of Love, 1971)

Another Sly Stone/George Clinton knockoff...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8kk4V6DkM

"I Think About Lovin' You" (The Need of Love, 1971)

A plush ballad. Not a single, but it landed on Billboard's Hot Soul Songs chart anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PyUfKNdCuk

As sampled by the Fugees:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8sNnNRhQ2g

Who's doing vocals on this?

I got a little ahead of myself and am listening to Open Our Eyes.

"Everything is Everything" (The Need of Love, 1971)

Yes, it's a cover of the Donny Hathaway song "Voices Inside (Everything is Everything)", released the previous summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hw_GtTLZs4

That's it for album #2; tomorrow, we start their Columbia Records debut, Last Days and Time. Note: that album contains three very short interludes, which we won't be bothering with.

I'm afraid I don't have much to say about the first two albums on the whole, but there are definitely rough draft sketches of "Shining Star" in that last tune.

"I Think About Lovin' You" stands out most from the last three for me. I can see why the Fugees sampled it. Other two are not bad.

hammond tone on everything is everything is A+

no Salty Peppers at the top? for shame

kidding. great thread!!

xp The vocalist and songwriter for I Think About Lovin' You was Sherry Scott. She and the rest of the band quit after The Need of Love leaving Maurice and Verdine White. They also got dropped by Warner Bros.

"Time Is On Your Side" (Last Days and Time, 1972)

They've switched labels, from Warner Bros. to Columbia, and assembled an almost entirely new lineup as discussed above, including Philip Bailey on vocals for the first time (accompanied by female singer Jessica Cleaves, who would leave after 1973's Head to the Sky). Smooth jazz saxophonist Ronnie Laws was also a member at this time. The music is still very Sly Stone-ish, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7gdjhox3vs

One other note: the cover painting is by Mati Klarwein, who did Miles Davis's Bitches Brew and Live-Evil, Herbie Hancock's Sextant and Santana's Abraxas, among others.

Yeah, this is def my fave EWF record cover. I so wish I'd picked up the coffee table book on Klarwein's album art before it hit the collector's market.

Surprised those horns haven't been sampled!

Skipping a 23-second interlued brings us to...

"They Don't See" (Last Days and Time, 1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rxb4IP0vg4

Slick Philly-style soul. Their trademark style is starting to come together, but this is still pretty derivative of others' work.

Nice tune

"Energy" is definitely my favourite so far, with "Beauty" next.

"Make It With You" (Last Days and Time, 1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoU_iT3Q48

Jessica Cleaves

is this the only overlapping personnel between EW&F and P-Funk?

does anything interesting ever happen in this catalog, asking for a friend

Prove it.

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.

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