They did a great job riding the crest of many trends. Plus they were kinda Zelig like. First they taught the Beatles to sing, went to Motown just as they were starting to dominate, then they gave Hendrix a place to sleep and some work, started their own label and found the inetersection of funk and pop, taught Michael Jackson to moonwalk, brought in a new generation, got sampled by everyone, sued George Michael, were sued by the IRS. They were there for every important event in the history of the second half of the 20th century.
Don't all jump on me at once (no homo) but I do have a spare copy of 'get into something.' I'm open to trades.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
One of my all-time favourite groups.
I have a clear memory of one particular afternoon during the summer holiday when I was around 11 years old and just about to start secondary school (junior high to most of youse). My dad had just bought me my first transistor radio, so I was fucking with it out in the garden trying to find a station that didn???t play all the Matt Monro and Vikki Carr and Mantovani shit that my mum used to listen to on the big old 1950???s radiogram in the living room. Eventually, something caught my ear. A high, keening tenor filled with yearning, plaintive but with a note of anger somewhere at the centre. ??????and there???s a rose in a fisted glove, and the eagle flies with the dove, and if you can???t be with the one you love, honey love the one you???re with???. It sort of sounded like a rock record ??? it was certainly a rock song ??? but the raw, soulful intensity of the vocal wasn???t like anything I was familiar with at that age. When the DJ announced that this was the brand new sound of the Isley Brothers with Stephen Stills??? ???Love The One You???re With???, I remember thinking how different it was from the few Isley Brothers songs I knew from my older cousins??? Motown Chartbusters albums.
A couple of years later, when I was altogether deeper into music, growing my hair and listening to Led Zeppelin and the Who and Yes, I heard ???That Lady???, and that shit straight took my head off. From that point on, I was A Fan. As soon as I could afford it, I copped ???3+3???, and I???d still have that same copy to this day if my younger brother hadn???t ???borrowed??? it from me some ten years later. A soul band covering soft-rock songs like ???Listen To The Music??? and ???Summer Breeze??? was pretty fresh to me, but the original joints were something else. Put it this way ??? I want ???Highways Of My Life??? played at my funeral. There???s no way at that age I could have really understood what lay at the heart of that bitter-sweet lyric, but Ron Isley???s voice alone was enough to stop you in your tracks and make you listen, especially after that beautiful synth melody drew you in. ???Though you are the one, you???re not the same???. Believe me, I learnt what that shit meant in time.
A few more summers passed, and for a while it seemed that with every one came a new Isleys record even better than the one before it. ???Live It Up??? and ???Fight The Power??? were monsters, but during the long, hot summer of ???76, ???Harvest For The World??? was never off the radio. Every time I hear that song now, I remember an impromptu house party the day before we broke up from school, where me and a dozen or so friends stayed up all night, clowning around, drinking whatever we could get our hands on and talking shit about future plans until the sun came up. I???d spent most of the night trying to get next to the girl I still consider my first love, yet that night I never found the nerve to tell her how I felt. That story turned out to have a less than happy ending. Anyway, someone turned the radio on at about seven in the morning, drew the living room curtains, and the sun poured in on a bunch of teenagers nursing the unfamiliarity of a stinking hangover. ???All babies together, everyone a seed, half of us are satisfied, half of us in need?????? There it was, that beautiful, pleading voice, telling us, and indeed everyone, to wake the fuck up and get ourselves together. We got washed, fed, watered, and, wearing the same clothes we???d had on the night before, headed back to school for the last time.
Highways Of My Life Footsteps In The Dark Get Into Something Work To Do Hope You Feel Better Love If You Were There That Lady Fight The Power Don???t Say Goodnight (It???s Time For Love) Live It Up
(the Isleys) found the inetersection of funk and pop
There's a Rolling Stone feature article on the Isleys from '78 where they are bitching openly about not being played on FM rock radio alongside Fleetwood Mac and Boston.
Did they make a disco lp? Winner Takes All?
Yeah, that's the one with "It's A Disco Night." And even though just about everything they did in this era was disco-friendly (maybe that's why the rock stations didn't touch 'em), it doesn't sound like they were cashing in on a fad, like the Ohio Players, War and all the other fading funk bands who were still around (barely) by then. Remove the word "disco," mix down the drums a little, and "It's A Disco Night" probably could have fit in on 3+3.
So what are the rarest things by the band or on T-Neck?
In general, I hardly ever see a T-Neck record at all that isn't by the Isleys or Bloodstone (even though the Dave "Baby" Cortez does turn up from time to time).
the joint with Hendrix?
I've seen that one exactly twice (bought it the second time). Both times the asking price was $10. I don't normally pay that much for an album, but it was worth it.
Now I'm looking for that Yankee Stadium live LP with the Isleys, the Stairsteps, Judy White, the Sweet Cherries and the Brooklyn Bridge. I admit, I've seen it here and there, but it was usually overpriced or chewed-up. I might just pay whatever it costs now.
So what are the rarest things by the band or on T-Neck?
In general, I hardly ever see a T-Neck record at all that isn't by the Isleys or Bloodstone (even though the Dave "Baby" Cortez does turn up from time to time).
the joint with Hendrix?
I've seen that one exactly twice (bought it the second time). Both times the asking price was $10. I don't normally pay that much for an album, but it was worth it.
Now I'm looking for that Yankee Stadium live LP with the Isleys, the Stairsteps, Judy White, the Sweet Cherries and the Brooklyn Bridge. I admit, I've seen it here and there, but it was usually overpriced or chewed-up. I might just pay whatever it costs now.
Never knew about this before, but it may be common amongst dudes that are into rock:
"get into something"...this is rare? i have the 45, i love it, i had no idea it was that rare. i first heard it on the Nicky Siano comp on soul jazz...and recently there was a remix of it i was hearing on the radio...maybe a hip hop tune sampled it...know what i'm talking about?
I've been pulling the needle back on "Make Me Say It Again Girl" a lot lately.
You beat me to it. This was the exact song I was thinking of when I clicked this thread. I think I need to put that on and "At Your Best". Their slow cuts are unfuckwithable.
Comments
That is a nice cover. The music is good.
They did a great job riding the crest of many trends. Plus they were kinda Zelig like. First they taught the Beatles to sing, went to Motown just as they were starting to dominate, then they gave Hendrix a place to sleep and some work, started their own label and found the inetersection of funk and pop, taught Michael Jackson to moonwalk, brought in a new generation, got sampled by everyone, sued George Michael, were sued by the IRS. They were there for every important event in the history of the second half of the 20th century.
Did they make a disco lp? Winner Takes All?
I have a clear memory of one particular afternoon during the summer holiday when I was around 11 years old and just about to start secondary school (junior high to most of youse). My dad had just bought me my first transistor radio, so I was fucking with it out in the garden trying to find a station that didn???t play all the Matt Monro and Vikki Carr and Mantovani shit that my mum used to listen to on the big old 1950???s radiogram in the living room. Eventually, something caught my ear. A high, keening tenor filled with yearning, plaintive but with a note of anger somewhere at the centre. ??????and there???s a rose in a fisted glove, and the eagle flies with the dove, and if you can???t be with the one you love, honey love the one you???re with???. It sort of sounded like a rock record ??? it was certainly a rock song ??? but the raw, soulful intensity of the vocal wasn???t like anything I was familiar with at that age. When the DJ announced that this was the brand new sound of the Isley Brothers with Stephen Stills??? ???Love The One You???re With???, I remember thinking how different it was from the few Isley Brothers songs I knew from my older cousins??? Motown Chartbusters albums.
A couple of years later, when I was altogether deeper into music, growing my hair and listening to Led Zeppelin and the Who and Yes, I heard ???That Lady???, and that shit straight took my head off. From that point on, I was A Fan. As soon as I could afford it, I copped ???3+3???, and I???d still have that same copy to this day if my younger brother hadn???t ???borrowed??? it from me some ten years later. A soul band covering soft-rock songs like ???Listen To The Music??? and ???Summer Breeze??? was pretty fresh to me, but the original joints were something else. Put it this way ??? I want ???Highways Of My Life??? played at my funeral. There???s no way at that age I could have really understood what lay at the heart of that bitter-sweet lyric, but Ron Isley???s voice alone was enough to stop you in your tracks and make you listen, especially after that beautiful synth melody drew you in. ???Though you are the one, you???re not the same???. Believe me, I learnt what that shit meant in time.
A few more summers passed, and for a while it seemed that with every one came a new Isleys record even better than the one before it. ???Live It Up??? and ???Fight The Power??? were monsters, but during the long, hot summer of ???76, ???Harvest For The World??? was never off the radio. Every time I hear that song now, I remember an impromptu house party the day before we broke up from school, where me and a dozen or so friends stayed up all night, clowning around, drinking whatever we could get our hands on and talking shit about future plans until the sun came up. I???d spent most of the night trying to get next to the girl I still consider my first love, yet that night I never found the nerve to tell her how I felt. That story turned out to have a less than happy ending. Anyway, someone turned the radio on at about seven in the morning, drew the living room curtains, and the sun poured in on a bunch of teenagers nursing the unfamiliarity of a stinking hangover. ???All babies together, everyone a seed, half of us are satisfied, half of us in need?????? There it was, that beautiful, pleading voice, telling us, and indeed everyone, to wake the fuck up and get ourselves together. We got washed, fed, watered, and, wearing the same clothes we???d had on the night before, headed back to school for the last time.
Highways Of My Life
Footsteps In The Dark
Get Into Something
Work To Do
Hope You Feel Better Love
If You Were There
That Lady
Fight The Power
Don???t Say Goodnight (It???s Time For Love)
Live It Up
There's a Rolling Stone feature article on the Isleys from '78 where they are bitching openly about not being played on FM rock radio alongside Fleetwood Mac and Boston.
Yeah, that's the one with "It's A Disco Night." And even though just about everything they did in this era was disco-friendly (maybe that's why the rock stations didn't touch 'em), it doesn't sound like they were cashing in on a fad, like the Ohio Players, War and all the other fading funk bands who were still around (barely) by then. Remove the word "disco," mix down the drums a little, and "It's A Disco Night" probably could have fit in on 3+3.
the joint with Hendrix?
Get Into Something?
Marva Whitney: Giving up on love 45?
Footsteps in the dark 12"?
the dave baby cortez LP is a tough find.
It's truly bizarre.
I'd like to get the Privilege album on T-Neck.
Isley Brothers Way?
Ehhh, I get it pretty frequently and it languishes in the bins for $15-20.
Cool record
In general, I hardly ever see a T-Neck record at all that isn't by the Isleys or Bloodstone (even though the Dave "Baby" Cortez does turn up from time to time).
I've seen that one exactly twice (bought it the second time). Both times the asking price was $10. I don't normally pay that much for an album, but it was worth it.
Now I'm looking for that Yankee Stadium live LP with the Isleys, the Stairsteps, Judy White, the Sweet Cherries and the Brooklyn Bridge. I admit, I've seen it here and there, but it was usually overpriced or chewed-up. I might just pay whatever it costs now.
Never knew about this before, but it may be common amongst dudes that are into rock:
I doubt it. Heard about it, and I'd probably be into it if I heard it, but I have never laid eyes on the cover until right this minute.
True, I don't. Specially living in a town where I've gotten quality used albums for $8 or less.
But damn if that ten-dollar Isleys/Hendrix rekkid wasn't the bomb!!
You beat me to it. This was the exact song I was thinking of when I clicked this thread. I think I need to put that on and "At Your Best". Their slow cuts are unfuckwithable.
How Lucky I Am is my shit.