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MIND DE-CODER 49
“My soul has become
psychedelicised!”
The Chambers Brothers
CURTIS MAYFIELD (DON’T WORRY) IF THERE’S A HELL BELOW, WE’RE ALL GOING TO GO
This fairly incendiary track was the single
taken from Curtis Mayfield’s debut solo album following his break with The
Impressions. CURTIS, released in 1970, was produced by Mayfield himself and
represents one of the most dynamic, progressive soul albums of its time,
pulling together a rich musical canvas of r’n’b, psychedelia and dance floor
grooves (this is the album that also included Move On Up, a track which, rather
embarrassingly as I approach 50, seldom fails to get me on to the dance floor
whenever I feel the need to shake what remains of my tail feather - of course, this often results in broken items of furniture and solicitous friends helping me to my feet, followed by a good lie down, so it doesn't happen very often). I think at
some point after this release he may have become a spokesperson for his
generation, which must have been tiresome.
NEW ROTARY CONNECTION I AM THE BLACK GOLD OF THE SUN
The Rotary Connection were an experimental
psychedelic soul band who, almost semi-famously, included one-time record label
receptionist Minnie Riperton sharing the vocals. The gorgeous I Am The Black
Gold Of The Sun, is the out-standing centre piece of their final album HEY,
LOVE, released 1971 as the New Rotary
Connection, an album in which they introduce a jazz fusion vibe to the mix to
produce something of a funky-assed classic. It’s often over-looked in favour of
their debut album, but any album that contains a track like I Am The Black Gold
Of The Sun is an unearthed gem that deserves some time on your record
player.
MINNIE RIPERTON LES FLEURS
Even before the demise of the Rotary Connection
singer Minnie Riperton had already released a stone-cold classic solo album in
1970’s COME TO MY GARDEN. It’s a beautifully orchestrated affair, full of
elegant arrangements and sensuous grooves that might best be described as chamber soul (should you want to).
Riperton, of course, is best known for the glass shattering Lovin’ You, but Come
To My Garden is by turns lush, intimate, unpredictable and almost criminally
ignored at the time of its release.
RARE EARTH
GET READY
Lasting a full 21 minutes, Rare Earth’s cover of
The Temptations Get Ready takes up all of the side 2 of their album GET READY,
and in doing so more or less became the precursor to the 12” single. Despite
being billed as an all-white blues rock band, the album was released on Motown
in 1969, and features something of a 10 minute drum solo and a sinuous sax improv,
neither of which, surprisingly, does the track any harm at all. Although Get
Ready was used to close their live sets, there is some debate amongst critics
as to whether this particular version of the track was actually recorded at a
live performance at all, as the audience’s cheers sound a bit canned, and I
read somewhere that the track is otherwise of
further interest to music historians as the source of the riff to the Rolling
Stones' track Bitch which appeared on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers, but I wouldn’t know about that
sort of thing. A heavily edited 3 minute
version of the track was released as a single in 1970 and was a big hit for the
band.
THE GRODECK WHIPPERJENNY EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE
UNCONSCIOUS
“…and
we shall call the band The Grodeck Whipperjenny”,
and had I been at that particular meeting, I’d have no doubt been, like: “Eh?”, but I wasn’t, not least because I
would have been five at the time and growing up on a council estate in Essex
and not Cincinnati, say, but, really, The Grodeck Whipperjenny? That being
said, and despite the band name, they were, in fact, a rather tight jazz band
who on this, their only album, display a fine aptitude for Funkadelic-style psychedelic soul and soulful
prog rock, particularly on the trippy Evidence For The Existence Of The
Unconscious, which is a fine name for a song. “Now, then, what shall we call the album?”, “How about, and I’m just
throwing this out there, THE GRODECK WHIPPERJENNY?”
FUNKADELIC
WHAT IS SOUL?
Heavily lysergic funk vibes from George
Clinton’s Funkadelic thang – possibly alien in nature, but, on the whole,
largely harmless, apparently. Combining wah-wah guitars with crooning soul and
mind-bending jams, Clinton takes the listener to the heart of the p-funk
groove. "What is Soul?” he asks.
“Soul is a joint rolled in toilet
paper". So now you know.
THE TEMPTATIONS TAKE A STROLL THRU YOUR MIND
By 1970, The Temptations, or at least Norman Whitfield, their lyricist,
producer and composer, had almost entirely embraced psychedelia, much to the
consternation of the group themselves. Stylistically, the group sound had
abandoned the traditional Motown sound and were adopting hard rock guitars, Synthesiser sound-effects, multi-tracked drums,sampling, and stereo-shifting vocals into the
mix to, it must be said (regardless of the groups own misgivings), outstanding
effect. Take a Stroll Thru Your Mind is a
totally tripped out eight minute ode to marijuana usage
taken from the tellingly titled PSYCHEDELIC SHACK – My Girl it ain’t, but the
band sure do sound like they be having sunshine on a rainy day.
CYMANDE
DOVE
Cymande, of course, is the calypso word for dove
(he notes, authoritatively) so straight away you can see where the band are
coming from. Cymande were (or possibly are,
because a version of the band seems to have recently reformed) a British
funk group (inasmuch that a group that includes members from Guyana, Jamaica
and Saint Vincent can be said to be British) who played complex, invigorating
head music in a deep funk stylee,
influenced by calypso rhythms, jazz, African music
and American soul.
By this point I was beginning to wonder about the difference between funk and soul (no doubt you were, too) and after a little research I came to the following conclusion - Funk is inclusive; it takes on the blues, and jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll and soul (and is not above stealin' a little latin, reggae and gospel when it needs to) and mixes them all up in an outward, loud, unbridled expression of freedom, possibly beginning with James Brown’s Outta Sight and then taken up by more or less anything released by Sly And The Family Stone, but that was just something I read somewhere. Soul, on the other hand, has more of an inward, quiet, passive desire for freedom with more focus on the lyrics. Psychedelic soul, therefore, seems to have occupied the unspoken transitory period between the two, soul and funk, that happened at some point between 1968 and 1972, more or less, but, admittedly, I’m no authority. What I am pretty sure about is that Dove is taken from their self-titled debut album, CYMANDE, released in 1972 and woefully over-looked at the time, although several of their tracks have since been sampled by the likes of De La Soul, The Fugees and DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash and has become something of a lost classic.
By this point I was beginning to wonder about the difference between funk and soul (no doubt you were, too) and after a little research I came to the following conclusion - Funk is inclusive; it takes on the blues, and jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll and soul (and is not above stealin' a little latin, reggae and gospel when it needs to) and mixes them all up in an outward, loud, unbridled expression of freedom, possibly beginning with James Brown’s Outta Sight and then taken up by more or less anything released by Sly And The Family Stone, but that was just something I read somewhere. Soul, on the other hand, has more of an inward, quiet, passive desire for freedom with more focus on the lyrics. Psychedelic soul, therefore, seems to have occupied the unspoken transitory period between the two, soul and funk, that happened at some point between 1968 and 1972, more or less, but, admittedly, I’m no authority. What I am pretty sure about is that Dove is taken from their self-titled debut album, CYMANDE, released in 1972 and woefully over-looked at the time, although several of their tracks have since been sampled by the likes of De La Soul, The Fugees and DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash and has become something of a lost classic.
BABY HUEY
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME
An absolutely spell-binding classic from Baby
Huey (James Ramsey to his mum) whose only album, THE BABY HUEY STORY: THE
LIVING LEGEND, released posthumously in 1971 following his death from a
drug-related heart attack at the age of twenty-six in a Chicago motel room, is
mostly comprised of a few tracks that had been already been recorded and a few
instrumental tracks gathered up by his manager and Curtis Mayfield. Sounds
unpromising, I know, but his cover of Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come – on
which Huey recalls his introduction to the demon weed amongst other things - is
a masterpiece that manages to be both bonkers and jaw-droppingly epic at the
same; possibly the greatest cover version of all time.
BOOTSY’S RUBBER BAND MUNCHIES FOR YOUR LOVE
Mind-blowingly funky grooves from Bootsy
Collins, who’s Munchies For Your Love pretty much steals the show in terms of
tripped-out lysergic starchild vibes. Produced by Collins and George Clinton,
with most of the Parliament line-up on board, Bootsy’s 1977 album AAH…THE NAME
IS BOOTSY, BABY is a sublime listen; stone-cold expansiveness raised to the
level of p-funk cosmic consciousness. Absolutely essential.
ISAAC HAYES
IKE’S MOOD
I’ve cheated here – Ike’s Mood, from Hayes’ 1971
release …TO BE CONTINUED, segues beautifully into the album’s highlight, a
gorgeous cover of the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
which, whilst being the apex of the album and absolutely deserving of your
time, isn’t, in the context of the show, in any way psychedelic, so I allow the
track to drift off into the conclusion of Richard Pryor’s riff on acid. What
you do get instead is a quintessential Hayes track with upfront horns, piano
and soulful orchestration that definitely has some goings on going on. This,
presumably was long before his scientology days, because I understand that they
can’t be doing with goings on at all.
THE SUPREMES
BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER
I’ve never been a fan of Simon and Garfunkel’s
Bridge Over Troubled Water – it always sounded a bit too bombastic and full of its
own self-importance for my delicate tastes – but, quite simply, this version by
The Supremes sounds as if it was arranged and produced by the Spacemen 3 with
some of Spiritualized’s gospel inflections thrown in for good measure. NEW WAYS
BUT LOVE STAYS was one of three albums the Supremes released in 1970 following
the departure of superstar diva Ms Ross, an unprecedented response that saw
them move on from the Holland-Dozier-Holland song book into experimental,
uncharted waters. Also on the album is
perhaps one of their greatest releases, Stoned Love, not to mention one of the
most far-out covers of The Beatle’s Come Together I’ve ever heard, which may
well make it on to next week’s show. However, I thought this show needed to
finish on a note, bombastic or otherwise, so here it is, complete with sound
effects, foghorn blasts, a crash of thunder, great reverbed guitar licks and a
cathartic third verse that is very nearly transcendent. Epic, but in a good
way.
