Curtis Mayfield: Classic or Dud?

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.

i cant get used to his singing but the music is v nice.

Shameless Pharrell biter, amirite?

not the best singer, sounding like he had the smallest pair of lungs ever, but he made some of the best records of the 70s.

Personal favourite song: People Get Ready - Mayfield said it straight: there's a train a-comin'...you don't need no baggage, you just get on board.

-- Tim Roxborogh, Tuesday, July 24, 2001 12:00 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Link
Dunno, I'd be suspicious if a train conductor insisted I didn't need any baggage. Like, where are we going, Belsen?

-- dave q, Tuesday, July 24, 2001 12:00 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Link

omg hahahahah

way classic. I've been listening to the Impressions non-stop recently.

his voice is amazing you herbs

for srs

LOLOL @ daveq!!

was he just a high-voiced hippie?

o_0

i do think the train lyric is a bit crap, really. he drags the train metaphor on a bit too long. if there was a video for it, he probably would have dressed up as a conductor.

i cant believe titchy has reached the point of meaningless pedantry that he's arguing 'people get ready' drags the train metaphor on 'a bit too long'

i eagerly await your critique of beethoven's overlong 7th symphony

His "influence" on reggae singers cannot be overestimated

Huh?

Sorry?

What "influence"?

On their singing styles! Case in point

But Curtis's singing style isn't in any substantial way different from other soul/r'n'b singers of the era, so why trace the lineage to hím?

I assume you're joking? No-one but Geir could get something that wrong, surely?

Well what are his unique, original traits then?

So you can't recognise Curtis Mayfield when you hear him?

You can't tell him apart from "other soul/r'n'b singers of the era"?

Of course I can tell him apart, but that doesn't mean he had such an original style that his influence on reggae singers "can't be overestimated". What do you think is that original in his singing?

So how can you tell him apart? What unique and original traits does he have that allow you to distinguish him from "other soul/r'n'b singers of the era"?

I mean, the falsetto singing was done by other soul singers (like Marvin Gaye) as well, and his particular sort of phrasing can be traced to people like Sam Cooke (and other gospel singers before him).

(x-post)

Well obviously I recognize his voice, but there isn't anything revolutionary in his singing technique.

Where did I say there was?

You didn't, but when you claimed "his influence on reggae singers cannot be overestimated", I interpreted it as saying that he was the originator or the popularizer of certain singing technique(s), and I don't think he was either. What were you trying to claim with that sentence then?

Kind of simple, a lot of reggae singers HAVE TRIED TO SOUND LIKE CURTIS MAYFIELD... duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

and his particular sort of phrasing can be traced to people like Sam Cooke (and other gospel singers before him).

Wrong. His phrasing is one of the most distinctive features of his singing, and it's one that singers who like Curtis Mayfield's voice and are trying to sound a bit like Curtis Mayfield will try to approximate

"i cant believe titchy has reached the point of meaningless pedantry that he's arguing 'people get ready' drags the train metaphor on 'a bit too long'"

it does though.

um, CLASSIC, at least until Short Eyes, which was about 1977-78. his entire oeuvre up to then is better (IMO) than the better-known 70s heavyweights like stevie wonder or marvin gaye or donny hathaway. i don't buy a lot of soul albums on vinyl because they're always to spotty, but anything by curtis from that period is just amazing wherever you drop the needle.

his albums after short eyes are all pretty rough though, with only a few standout tracks in total. hard to believe someone so strong fell off so fast as the decades changed.

check out "love me, love me now" from "Something to Believe In": it's an amazingly deep soul-cum-disco burner. moodymann drops this in his sets all the time and it just goes off something nice...

super classic -- my fave is "Curtis Live!" which may well be my fave live album ever. A great, warm vibe. Still a lot I haven't heard, but I love everything I've gotten my hands on.

He's my favorite male vocalist, one of my favorite guitar players, and obviously one of the best, if not the best, songwriter in the realm of funk/soul. So obviously he's classic, and yes I do think he deserves godlike status. "There's No Place Like America Today" is so brilliant!

It always upsets me when I think about how those stage lights fell on and paralyzed him.

Tom D is right; three-man reggae harmony group singing--including virtually all roots reggae ever recorded--would have been inconceivable without the Impressions' influence. Try listening to a classic well-known example like the Wailers' Burnin', for instance.

I still don't understand why Marvin Gaye and Barry White are still more popular in the collective subconcious.

uh way more hits?

hey tuomas: http://www.jr.com/product/music/pm/_357438/

JA singers idolized Mayfield more than any other singer. There's a preponderance of Mayfield covers that is out of proportion to Mayfield's popularity in other locales, including America.

extra classic for all the weird low-key extra-curricular curtom stuff, writing songs for the fascinations (girls are out to get you &c) and stuff.

The Honesty album is pretty good from the 80s. Dirty Laundry and What you Gawn Do are nice picks.
70s stuff classic of course

JA singers idolized Mayfield more than any other singer. There's a preponderance of Mayfield covers that is out of proportion to Mayfield's popularity in other locales, including America.

Thanks for the info, I guess I was being way too dismissive upthread.

As for Mayfield vs. White or Gaye, I think the quality Mayfield's recorded output started to become quite uneven in the mid-70s (despite singular gems hidden in almost all of his albums), and he never managed to make a proper comeback later on, like Gaye and White did. Also - and in no way am I dismissing Gay or White here - I think Mayfield was less interested or less capable of composing obvious hit material. If you listen to his 70s solo albums, most of the tunes on them are rather complex both musically and lyrically, with not that many clear hit tunes on them. I guess he did try a more populist approach in the late 70s and early 80s, but by then he was pretty much behind his time already.

In a cafe in Glasgow recently, I heard a long version of Crutis Mayfield's "Give me your love", which was great, but I don't know where it comes from. Does anyone have any idea?

i know that danny krivit did a long edit of sisters love doing 'give me your love'

barbara mason did a version too that was probably disco-length