70s soul (symphonic or otherwise): tell me stuff

also, n.e.r.d. = earth, wind and fire of 2001?

70's soul is a womderful, wonderful thing. You have no excuse for not picking up the following records: Stevie Wonder - "Innervisions", "Talking Book", "Music of My Mind" Staple Singers - "Be Altitude: Respect Yourself", "Be What You Are" Donny Hathaway - "Everything Is Everything", "Extension of a Man" Allen Toussaint - "Toussaint", "Life, Love, & Faith" Marvin Gaye - "What's Going On", "Let's Get It On"

I'm sure other people will steer you in the right direction as well.

The Delfonics! absolutely essential symphonic soul, and tear-inducing stuff (for me at least, but then it reminds me of a particular time). lovely full arrangements with lots of French horns. (and the original of the Fugees 'Ready or Not'). Just get the greatest hits unless you fancy tracking down the original LPs, since i don't think the albums have been issued on CD. producer (Thom Bell) later worked on the earlier Stylistics albums

also Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Stevie Wonder... will think of more when am back with records not family.
funk needs a separate thread, really

Major Lance.

Major Lance is an interesting one (i thought he was more 60s?) - relatively obscure name, but highly revered in the Northern Soul scene.

Isaac Hayes - stick to the earlier stuff, if you like drawn out arrangements of the late 60s/early 70s pop standards like By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Walk On By etc, then you'll love him. he gets bad IMO around 75 if I remember.

Bill Withers - a name rarely mentioned (except for 'Lovely Day') but his first three albums (Just As I Am, Still Bill, +Justments) are awesome, with several oft covered tracks (Ain't No Sunshine, Who is He and What is He To You, Use Me, Lean On Me etc). I don't think they're on CD unfortunately

Great call on Bill Withers. "Ain't No Sunshine" may be the most perfect folk-soul single ever!

Yes yes yes, this is most definitely an avenue worth exploring, Jess! Most of my favorite early 70s singles were soul records.

I'm partial to the gals: The Honeycone were awesome--their biggest hits were like sassier, more feminist takes on the Supremes storytelling songs: "Stick Up", "Want Ads", "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show", "The Day I Found Myself". Really dynamic arrangements: swirling strings, stacatto guitars, blaring horns, sirens, whistles, you name it. I think there's a recently released 2 cd compilation with everything they ever recorded. Other sassy favorites: Betty Wright-"Clean Up Woman", Jean Knight-"Mr. Big Stuff", Laura Lee-"Woman's Love Rights". First Choice were from Philadelphia and part of that crowd, their first big hit was in the Honey Cone vein-"Armed and Extremely Dangerous". They later went very disco with "Dr. Love" and "No Man Put Asunder". The latter I heard at gay clubs all throughout the nineties, I think it's been remixed and sampled a lot. Other chicks I'm crazy about: Ann Peebles-"I Can't Stand the Rain" and "Tear Your Playhouse Down, Brenda & the Tabulations-"One Girl Too Late", and the early Pointer Sisters, especially "Yes We Can Can" (produced and written by Allen Toussaint, it's a lot funkier than their 80s stuff.) Sylvia comes on like the female Barry White in "Pillow Talk", what a gal! And Labelle, no one can take away the awesome power of the original "Lady Marmalade", no one! Can't forget Freda Payne's "Band of Gold" (never really sure about the lyrics to this one-she's definitely abandoned on her wedding night--but did she marry a gay guy? Or is he just impotent?)and "Bring the Boys Home".

Other favorites: Philly Soul Philly Soul Philly Soul! Virtually everything Thom Bell or Gamble & Huff produced is magnificent. I was so disappointed when Young Americans came out because I'd heard Bowie recorded it at Sigma Sound in order to get that TSOP sound and it was *nowhere* near as good as a Spinners or O'Jays record! Well, it's grown on me since then, but I still think it could have been so much better if he'd actually enlisted Gamble & Huff or Bell.

Uh, digressing, sorry. I love the Detroit Emeralds "Feel the Need", it's the most elegant song about horniness ever. Really really eerie ghetto paranoia lyrics for the Undisputed Truth's "Smiling Faces Sometimes"-"beware of the handshake that hides the snake!", the Temptations social commentary songs (mostly written by Whitfield, I think)--"Runaway Child Running Wild", "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", "Cloud Nine", "Ball of Confusion"--are really stirring, despite the sometimes corny, dated words, Prince Phillip Mitchell's "Star in the Ghetto" is a 70s soul "Piss Factory". Favorite soul falsetto performance-Blue Magic's "Sideshow", really excellent "rejected lover as freak" metaphor-type song, too. Although the Stylistics and the Delfonics were no slouches in the castrati dept., either. Or Eddie Kendricks--his post-Temptations singles "Keep on Truckin'" and "Boogie Down" are so much better than their titles. And then there's Redbone's Native American soul classic "Come and Get Your Love". And then there's the early disco hits that I didn't realize were disco at the time: Hues Corporation-"Rock the Boat", Gwen McCrae-"Rockin' Chair".

Oh, I almost forgot the Chairmen of the Board--"Pay to the Piper", "Give Me Just a Little More Time", "Finders Keepers". 70s Soul at its poppiest.

I feel I'm not really doing these records justice with my half-assed descriptions--they're all glamorous, sexy, moving, melodic, super-danceable, ...I'm terrible at this sort of thing. You know what, you should just buy that Rhino Can You Dig It? compilation, it's 90 bucks but every song is superb. Or copy the tracklisting from Amazon and try and find mp3s of them.

I'm sure there are loads of more obscure records that you'd find interesting, too. I was just picking (mostly) the ones I remember from my childhood. Hope this encourages you to go out and get more.

BLOWFLY!!!!!!!!

chaki how does blowfly fit with your 'every black artist who has novelty value for white people is an UNCLE TOM' views?

Major Lance is an interesting one (i thought he was more 60s?) - relatively obscure name, but highly revered in the Northern Soul scene.
Indeed so. As my father was (and still is) into the Northern Soul scene, I was *subjected* to all sorts of soul records. Actually as a result of his obsession, we never played seventies music at home. My first discovery was Madonna. I was never exposed to Abba and the like.
Anyway yeah late 60s.

"chaki how does blowfly fit with your 'every black artist who has novelty value for white people is an UNCLE TOM' views? "

I've never said that in my life, fool.

Go get yourself an Ann Peebles greatest-hits, right now. The "James Brown's Funky Divas" comp from a couple of years ago is amazing amazing amazing (and just about the only place to hear Lyn Collins, Vicki Anderson and my all-time favorite singer Marva Whitney). The second and third Stax boxed sets are both kick-ass, too, if you're feeling flush with funds. And early-'70s Motown psychedelic soul--Norman Whitfield productions, especially--really needs to be collected on a decent comp.

Others have mentioned the marvelous Honey Cone, whose complete works have apparently just been collected on a double CD.

Subject for advanced study: Betty Davis. Yow!

re: Delfonics - the best part about the original "Ready Or Not" is that the first half of the chorus is in 7/8 (skips a beat between "you can't hide" and "gonna fiiiind you"), which I simply adore. i'm gonna have to track down a GH of theirs sometime.