I'll always wonder...(Curtis Related)
drewnice
5,465 Posts
This is a highly unusual CURTIS MAYFIELD item. Curtis is found performing (vocals, guitar with small band) 4 of his compositions on this limited edition, industry only 45 RPM EP. This record was produced for Mayfield's CURTOM PUBLISHING as demos for the songs - these are NOT the original, released versions of these songs!!! To our knowledge these performances have not appeared anywhere else. Tracks are: "I Thank Heaven", "Little Boy Blue", "A Man's Temptation" and "Little Brown Boy". These are charming, intimate performances by a soul music legend that you're unlikely to see offered again! The record has no release #...or label identity. It has blue labels with black print. Hand-written on the labels is "Artist: Curtis" and a 4 digit number. It's safe to assume only several hundred copies were pressed!! Disc is in solid VG+++ condition...been played but very well cared for - just a couple minor scuffs that do not effect play! This is a one-of-a-kind item for only the serious collector!!!!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4727572463&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEDW%3AIT&rd=1
Comments
anyone got a complete discography of all his 1970-present material?
i've mentioned this here before, but it really bothers me how relatively undocumented mayfield's work is. can someone point me to a good old fashioned obsessive discography or what? we are talking about one of the more important soul composers and performers of all time, no?
and why aren't there people actively working to uncover/reissue stuff like the record above and that live houston(?) bootleg someone was flossing around here a little while back
but what do i know? i only (finally) got a copy of no place like america today today.
my favorite album from the legend.
a month or so back I found a live LP on Curtom from Mayfield that was pressed in Mexico. great LP from a later date that covers most of the classics and had a new track from him that was a 4 minute electric piano instrumental
is that the one from the late 80s that was on curtom through ichiban?
who know's, maybe it'll grow on me.
well for one thing they're all impressions songs, which would be interesting to hear him performing on the solo tip. but i'd say that curtis has also had a more consistant career than many of the artists we discuss here. late 70s, 80s, even into the 90s you could find at least one or two cuts on most of his records that are as powerful as what he was doing in his prime.
is it possible that they're complete trash? i suppose, but i'd say it's less than likely that the record above doesn't have any redeeming qualities.
"Little Brown Boy"
"I Thank Heaven"
"A Man's Temptation" is from Ridin' High
"Little Boy Blue" from The Never Ending Impressions
I mean, if the first two albums aren't classic...
What was the other item?
that mexican press live in europe LP mentioned earlier
pusherman from '88
dustygroove had one of these earlier this year - I wonder if it's the same copy...
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Judging by the format alone (4-song 7" EP of composer's demos) I'd say it couldn't have come out later than the mid-70s... theres no way they'd do something like that in the 80s, it would've been a CD
I'm curious why it ended so low, perhaps its not that rare after all?
Or perhaps people aren't searching for records by 'common' artists on eBay as much as they hunt down raers.
Why would you have to know it existed in the first place? I certainly didn't, but came across it. Type in the artist name, RARE EP shows up as a search result...
at any given time there's like 100 curtis mayfield records up on the bay and like half of them are Superfly, nobodys skimming through his shit on ebay by artist name.
There's been three of these same Mayfield demos on eBay in the past few months. All have come from ex-JB manager Alan Leeds. The first one went for $10, the second for $18 and now this one went for $50.
Oh, really?
I did and often do.
i respect your hustle.
i recently got through this book- 'People Never Give Up' by Peter Burns. It was pretty uneven and largely read like an homage from a swooning fan, but it has its moments and also has a decent discography with some good detail (although i'm sure it doesn't list that 45 rpm demo)
Nuts stuff coming from that collection. If I remember right he also had an unreleased JBs album. (I think most of the tracks were released in other forms / titles tho)
He definitely had a (then) unreleased live JB album, I wanna say it was a triple LP test pressing of a session that did actually appear on CD in the past 15 years... but DAMN
I just hope this stuff is going into the right hands...
People generaly pay more for known records than for unknown.
Well, there goes my answer. See what happens when you leave the board for 3-4 days (that, besides no one missing you)?
new to the forum, just thought i'd let you know something on this, from memory so a bit vague. This 7 is one of 3 or 4 genuine 45 promo's recorded with the band that made curtis/curtis live, and all, so it's master henry gibson, lucky thompson, etc. they were promo's pressed around 1970ish. they are acoustic demo's and they are magngnificent, there's one otherwise unrecorded track amongst them, all the rest are impressions tunes redone or tracks completed for albums from 70-72. have a good day - p.
I bought a 45 off this seller recently and recognized the return address - I'm in the same city. Matched the address to a yard sale I checked out a year or two before he started hitting ebay with this stuff. Went after work and got a couple Palmieri records. Dude running the sale told me I should have been there earlier - 'there was a lot of good stuff here'. Years later I figure out it was Leeds.