Earth, Wind & Fire
Vitamin
631 Posts
In my opinion they are right up there with Sly Stone, Stevie, Prince, James Brown and Marvin Gaye. Seriously, all you diggers looking for modern soul raers, just pick up Raise, Faces and I Am. I put those records up against every other modern soul record, at least that I've heard. And I like Modern Soul (no homo). But in a lot of cases, the raerer stuff is raer for a reason. It's got a blazing drummer behind a drab singer. EWF in this regard are like the 83 Sixers, there is no weakness. Did anyone besides like Donnie Hathaway caliber people have a better voice than Philip Baily? Did anyone except for maybe Tower of Power have better horn arrangements?And unlike almost every other artist, their shit gets better over time. The original material they played with the Pharoahs and Charles Stepney, Maurice White's work with Ramsey Lewis is great. But compare that to those three aforementioned records from 1979 to 1981. What other artist who was putting out stuff in the late 60s and early 70s can you say that about? Their style actually got better towards the end of the 1970s, the further they got away from Jimi Hendrix. Also, their hits are not as good as their other stuff, like Al Green. But speaking of their hits, they bring the entire world together. White people, Samoans, Vietnamese people, Kurds--love September and Let's Groove. The King of Morroco, Mohammed the third, requested for his state dinner for the elements to be the house band. He's an EWF nut. Brazillian Rhyme is one of the nicest breaks ever given to DJs. I'm not a DJ, but doesn't this band have like 15 to 20 sure fire, emergency, get everyone in the room dancing songs. That's 20 Let the Music Plays, or what have you. I celebrate their entire catalogue.
Comments
Plaese to check out my live report from a few weeks ago.........
http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/show...true#Post918650
Argueably YES.
I dont know if their later catalog is the right place to start though.
As much as i like I AM its not as good as that 73-77 shit.
Most cats tend to write them off near the end but, yeah that 78-83 shit should be hyped up more.
OR THE APPRECTIATION POST FROM A FEW MONTHS AGO
http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/show...part=1&vc=1
(first track anyway)
off the top of my head, obvious ones
saying someone 'went disco' gave a lot of folks a bad rap. this might be a good new thread
In the Local Black Exp theyve always sat next to or above these artists.
BAN
i'm known as a hardcore, early-to-mid-70s jazz-soul-funk kinda guy, and i rarely like stuff from the late 70s. BUT i can't help but recognize that EWF late-70s stuff is like their pinnacle. earlier stuff is cool, but Brazilian Rhyme-era stuff is just impeccably conceived, constructed and performed music. Really some of the best music ever recorded from any time period. Transcends considerations of time or genre.
this was hanging on the wall at my work, but somebody threw it away
No.
By 'club' I mean 'Club'