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

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.

(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