Curtis Mayfield: Classic or Dud?

Anyway, classic for the Impressions and the solo career up to Superfly, one of my favorite R&B records, and I love the fact that he seems like an all-around good guy.

I stand corrected. 1959, you say? I had no idea he'd been recording that long. Okay, so not a hippie at all. I couldn't really come up with a suitable negative description of him. Anyway, as I said I've not really listened to much of his stuff. Could you recommend any albums to a Curtis newbie like myself?

Timeless, a true classic.

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.

Agree with Andrew and John - 'Curtis Live!' is a great place to start, one of my favourite live albums. Most of his best songs, performed beautifully in a low-key setting.

Also search 'Curtis', 'Superfly', 'Roots', 'There's no place like America today', and any Impressions albums you can get your hands on. (I've not heard a bad one yet.)

They've got the 'Soul Legacy' box set in Fopp for £20. Should I buy it even though I've got a lot of his individual albums?

Word

I also noticed a post upthread that says the following:

"despite the fact live albums suck and live soul albums (mainly) suck harder"

I totally disagree with this statement (at least the latter part). I can't think of any live soul albums that suck, and I have Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and others, and to me, they are superior to the other live albums that I own.

(Dave Q's comment will forever change the way I hear, etc.)

as someone else said, if you can find the demo versions of a lot of his songs on superfly and the curtis album (i got mine on a 3 cd cheapo box set love peace understanding), theyre a lot more understated than the finished versions. he didnt pretty them up with strings and extra ornamenation.

And also because the break down is great.

I completely agree with all the praise too. I'm fairly new to Curtis; started listening to him because of the high praise Robbie Robertson (among many others) gave him as both a guitar player and songwriter.

I don't have near enough of his material - Impressions or solo.

(CM is totally classic obv)

Curtis > Roots > Superfly > Short Eyes > Back To The World > Curtis Live > Got To Find A Way

-- Phil A. (spleetl...), May 8th, 2001.

and they cryout how ilm used to be better than now...

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:59d9kentgq7m

Curtis > Roots > Superfly > Short Eyes > Back To The World > Curtis Live > Got To Find A Way

Are you honestly saying There's No Place Like America Today isn't among his top SEVEN records?

There's No Place Like America Today is probably my favorite album of his, actually. And I think Back to the World is quite underrated.

Back to the World has a much better A side than B side.

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

(video above is not the krivit edit obv)

oh and mayfield did produce the sisters love version

Hmm, maybe what I wrote above is a bit too simple. Obviously he was able to write hits in the 60s, when he was still with the Impressionns. But during the 70s his hit potential seems to have grdually waned, either by conscious artistic decision or for other reasons. I would say, though, that not too many of his 70s tunes are as immediately catchy as "People Get Ready", "Choice of Colors", "Keep on Pushing", "We're a Winner", "This Is My Country", etc. (And I don't mean to say that his 70s output is either better or worse than the Impressions stuff, just different.)

Deej, whilst there are a long list of things that are amazing about that clip, it's not the thing I heard, which really did just sound like Crutis Mayfield himself, but longer. I do wonder though, as I can't find any reference to it. A disco version sounds great though. I will have to look for that.

x-post

The first three solo albums- Curtis/ Live! and Roots are flawless. From here Superfly was patchy and i haven't heard anything else from the 70's. Is there anything else from this era which is also good? He also wore cool clothes. He managed to be 'conscious' and 'organic' without being yukky. I think he just had the knack for writing good songs which combined with that voice made for heaven. The Impressions were just as good. I think the reason he wasn't as big as Al Green
/ Barry White/ Marvin Gaye was because he didn't sell himself as 'sex' like the others did- and he wore glasses. Not to take anything away from the Reverend and Mr Gaye.. (but maybe just to take a little away from Barry White who I thought was all husk and no song.)

all husk and no song.

all rong

Back to the World, Got to Find a Way, and Sweet Exorcist are all good albums. BTTW is probably my favorite of the 3.

but shit man if you think Superfly was patchy, who knows what you'll like.

Back to the World has a brilliant A side, but the B side is kinda weak compared to that.

"Back to the World" is great, so much so that the guy i gave a loan of it to ten years ago still hasn't given me it back!

http://www.discogs.com/release/800885

Would you think getting this collection is a good choice? I already have more than third of the songs on various albums, but it's on sale for 25 euros, which doesn't sound that expensive for a 4 CD collection, and I'm not sure if I want to buy all of Mayfield's late 70s and 80s albums just because they may contain one or two great songs.

http://www.discogs.com/release/507590

Also, has anyone heard this remix album? Is it any good?

Usually I'm not at all puritanical about this things, but it does seem kinda blasphemous to do a Club Remix of "People Get Ready".

but shit man if you think Superfly was patchy, who knows what you'll like.

There's No Place Like America Today is my (as well as a few friends') favorite Mayfield album. "So in Love"!!!

Curtis, Curtis Live, Roots & Superfly is a heck of a run of albums. I spent the weekend listening to all four a few times and they are just perfect. Curtis Mayfield had just about the perfect sound, it was funky, fuzzy and driving yet laid back, lovely and melodic at the same time. That is not an easy combination to pull off.

Curtis Live is probably one of the top ten live albums ever -- so good.

The Impressions, "The Young Mod's Forgotten Story" is CLASSIC.

Mods'

Does he deserve the "god-like" status attributed to him

Curtis does (he's up there with Ellington as far as I'm concerned), and so does his bassist, who I've gathered was Joseph "Lucky" Scott, no?

This thread made me very happy.

Can't understand how anyone could diss Curtis Mayfield. I even like his 80s stuff, like Dirty Laundry

Good lord, who could dislike Curtis Mayfield??

Me, I love most of it - but Curtis and '75's There's No Place Like America Today are my favorites.

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

Curtis, Curtis Live, Roots & Superfly is a heck of a run of albums. I spent the weekend listening to all four a few times and they are just perfect. Curtis Mayfield had just about the perfect sound, it was funky, fuzzy and driving yet laid back, lovely and melodic at the same time. That is not an easy combination to pull off.

― earlnash, Sunday, June 13, 2010 10:24 PM (1 year ago)

Is there a concert length video of him from the early 70s anywhere? I've only come across isolated single tracks from OGWT and a couple of US various artists shows.

Plus Curtis Live is the only live audio full length that I've come across from the 70s. think a couple of 90s shows have appeared but I prefer the original era.

To add to comment earlier in the thread I thought he was in the middle of a major comeback when a lighting rig fell on him. The Wag Club type crowd of 80s/90s hipster/mod types (I'm thinking Acid Jazz-type folks) seemed to really like him and I think it was crossing over a bit more mainstream if I remember rightly.

There is a pretty good bio dvd on him called Movin On Up which is interspersed with performance videos. Must rewatch it. But from what I can recall of looking at it before you can't isolate the performances from the narrative and I don't think they're full performances. Hope rewatching proves that wrong though.

I could be wrong but I think many of the performances are lip synchs fromn memory - hence disappointing.

I liked him live when I saw him in the old 930 Club on F St in DC, in hmmm, the 80s or 90s.

are those Impressions albums worth picking up, or should I just stick with a comp? there are so many of them and I imagine many of them are just vehicles for the singles. but, maybe I'll be surprised?

The Young Mods' Forgotten Story is beautiful. Get it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_9Xy2JF1vo

if you're not doing anything else today you might listen to There's No Place Like America Today and groove the fuck out to a genius piece of music

So in Love is incredible.

Yeah that whole album is perfect, my second of his favourite after the debut.

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

if you're not doing anything else today you might listen to There's No Place Like America Today and groove the fuck out to a genius piece of music

― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, May 25, 2012 2:28 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes! been doing this a lot lately

Curtis, Curtis Live, Roots & Superfly is a heck of a run of albums. I spent the weekend listening to all four a few times and they are just perfect. Curtis Mayfield had just about the perfect sound, it was funky, fuzzy and driving yet laid back, lovely and melodic at the same time. That is not an easy combination to pull off.

― earlnash, Sunday, June 13, 2010 10:24 PM (1 year ago)

This is totally otm.

― Only the RONG Survive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, February 12, 2012

Was listening to these on a long car ride this weekend. Great stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi6DDa5cVMU

'Back to the World,' 'Got to Find a Way,' 'There's No Place Like America Today,' 'Sweet Exorcist' and 'Short Eyes' never get enough props. Somebody needs to make those albums easily available. Mayfield is definitely my favorite soul artist.

^this.
I picked up vinyl of 'Let's Do it Again' OST, produced by Curtis with Staple Singers on at least one track. Also recommended.

How did I previously miss "There's No Place Like America Today"? Had seen it, but never listened till last night on Spotify.

I think it may have been one of the first of his lps I heard about since it was on the mid 80s NME best 100 lps of all time list if I remember rightly. Took me a lot longer to get my hands on it and I really need to give it another ear soon.
Iconic cover.

I have most of the solo lps up to about '75. Really need to grab the 2fer cd of Sweet Exorcist/Got to Find a Way and could do with a new copy of the s/t lp Curtis. Think my last copy is in pretty naff state.

Still wish there was more performance footage of him around.

How had I never heard this before?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy56BvFDgEE

this is the shit

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

"Do Do Wap" was a common pick of mine when I dj'd out. Love that song. I had never heard the Patti Jo one, really diggin' my first listen.

Doo Doo Wap is one of my favourite Curtis songs. Short Eyes is his most underrated album.

He did his own version of Make Me Believe In You on Sweet Exorcist but I think the first version I heard of it was Amerie's cover in 2007.

Never heard short eyes. Title always weirded me out a bit

I assume he meant something else besides pedophile

the first version I heard of it was Amerie's cover in 2007

same tbh

mayfield's records are pretty damn strong until the end of the 1970s, then they start getting soporific pretty quick.

XP - Cusrtis' Short Eyes album is a soundtrack to a prison flick which details how child molesters are treated in prison.

So, yes, it is a pedo reference.

*Curtis'

75th Birthday Tribute event in Washington DC

*Curtis Mayfield tribute with Professor Aaron Cohen and DJ Jahsonic at 11 am Sunday December 17th at the National Gallery of Art East wing Theatre for free followed by movie Urban Soul at 1:30pm

https://www.nga.gov/calendar/lectures/lectures-signings/curtis-mayfield-tribute.html

An interesting presentation. Professor mentioned Mayfield's use of f sharp, and how Hendrix learned some from Mayfield when Jimi opened for him. He played a demo from when Mayfield was 15 and showed a video clip of Mayfield acting in a movie

Looking forward to Cohen’s book, although I also need to read that one by Mayfield’s son

Over the years, I've become to really love "Here but I'm Gone". That tune is so lovely, sad and true. It even takes a whole other trip when you consider the circumstances that Curtis wrote and sung it. It is a rare piece of music that if considered, makes you check yourself.

Future Song (Love a Woman) slays

https://open.spotify.com/track/3hi078NgfqTvFj98hbECFR?si=tzu63FwrQ6-jDkJX5p824A

Shit is tight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpJtb3rL2SU

HAWTT uncut '72 set from Beat Club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk4n52qwwlI

Soundcheck from same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF1uF-28MZE

absolute perfection.

damn, curtis is so good

inner city blues, holy shit!

yeah this set is radical. whole band smokes.

XP IKR Silly me never realized until now how much of a Curtis song it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSoULq1pOsE
The Notations - Superpeople

Heard this and thought wow that's the most Curtis Mayfield-y thing I've ever heard. Turns out they were on the Curtom label. Dope song.

So classic. I'm no expert or completist, but did Curtis ever sing in anything other than his falsetto?

Tuomas being so dense itt.

hmm. I mean I'd say technically he goes out of a true falsetto a lot but I can't think of anything that wasn't in a high register.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzlCJDPjV0

This song has the lowest register vocals from him that I've heard, and he still does a semi-falsetto in the chorus.

Anyone know anything about the Rhino reissue of his first 4 solo albums that happened last year?

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Keeping-Curtis-Mayfield-1970-1974/dp/B07KLS2XDZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=curtis+mayfield&qid=1591438979&sr=8-1

This one? It is a nice set.

Yeah that one. Reading some good things

hard to beat that price tbh

Looks good, be prepared, tho, that Sweet Exorcist isn't quite as good as the first three. That and his other 1974 album Got to Find a Way are okay, then There's No Place Like America Today from 1975 raises the bar again, but that one is pretty much his last truly good album. The ones after that are still worth listening because they usually have one or two great songs, but his peak creative period as a solo artist was those five years from 1970 to 1975.

wrong, "sweet exorcist" is amazing

Oh lord that long LP version of "Move On Up" is one serious bongo jam.

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Keeping-Curtis-Mayfield-1970-1974/dp/B07KLS2XDZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=curtis+mayfield&qid=1591438979&sr=8-1🕸

This one? It is a nice set.

boooo!

Oh lord that long LP version of "Move On Up" is one serious bongo jam.

― earlnash, Friday, July 24, 2020 9:21 PM

alltime jam.

Two greatest 'wow's ever: Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, when Rod Steiger pulls the gun on him in the backseat; "If you wanna be a junkie, wow."

Wow

To be invisible
Will be my claim to fame
A man with no name
That way, I won't have to feel the pain
Indispensable
Just a plain old human being
Today, don't mean a thing
In a world that's so mean
A world that seems not for me
So privately, I'll be invisible
That way, I won't have to explain a thing, if you know what I mean
I won't even have to be here, on the scene
It's so ridiculous
But the strife and the bliss
Will go right on through, right on through me
To have missed
All the things that hurt your soul
No one would ever know
They'd never know
Life so preciously
Just don't seem to be
As free as they claim freedom to be
Things are going fast
To have found that all is in the past
To have to take what you can get
Sure can make a heart upset
Inconspicuous
I must behave myself
For somebody else
Who may have a little fame, fortune and wealth
It's so ridiculous
But the strife and the bliss
Will go right on through, right on through me
To have missed
A world that seems not for me
So privately, I'll be invisible
That way, I won't have to explain a thing, if you know what I mean
I won't even have to be here, on the scene
It's so ridiculous
But the strife and the bliss
Will go right on through, right on through me
To have missed
All the things that hurt your soul
No one would ever know
They'd never know
Life so preciously
Just don't seem to me
As free as they claim freedom to be
Things are going fast
To have found that all is in the past
To have to take what you can get
Sure can make a heart upset
So I'll be invisible
Invisible
Invisible

Wow what an amazing lyric-So heartbreaking and profound

The man had a highly rare sense of grace that was definitely captured in his music.

love "short eyes" so much

autumn evenings are good for taking a walk with "there's no place like america today" in your headphones

Yes, yes

The Young Mods' Forgotten Story is beautiful. Get it.

― Turangalila, Thursday, March 22, 2012 3:09 PM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

^

incredibly beautiful record, so much attention to detail. 1969, their 12th album in 6 years! in certain ways, "Young Mods" feels like the blueprint for what Curtis would do in the early and mid '70s as a solo artist but it still has those sweet harmony Impressions vocals. kind of an awesome, sweet, even somewhat sad juncture. the album is moody, reflective, joyous, sometimes airy, sometimes right to the point (a good mix of psych-funk flourishes and syrupy soul), room to breathe and room to grieve, AKA exactly what you'd expect from Curtis at his best

definitely appreciate that shout. in hindsight, the last 2 or 3 albums he did with the group are the staging area for curtis' solo albums. that one (young mod) has songs that curtis kept in his solo sets for years afterwards.

The Doo Doo Wop is soo fucking strong in here

otm