Tower of Power
spelunk
3,400 Posts
I have heard some hate on these dudes recently. I ride though. Their horn lines are just so damn together. And I love funk bands who lean towards some sweet soul. For some reason they are like the Doobie Brothers of funk music to me. But maybe that's just because they are best buddies in the dollar bin.Discuss. 
Comments
I don't see why; I'm with you, they were a great band.
That's another thing that stands out about the T.O.P., compared to other funk bands - they could write songs, not just vamps. I mean, nothing wrong with chants over vamps, like War, Mandrill and all the rest, but I kinda like the fact that Tower of Power's funkiest stuff sounds a little more thought-out (without being stiff and premeditated).
...and they were also both interracial bands who recorded for Warner Brothers, just like Little Feat and Graham Central Station!
TOP has some joints. I grew on this right here as my parents used to play this on the regular. "What is hip" is that shit amoung many other tracks
I don't see how you could hate this group...
Boom, done.
yep, great album...i always wondered what the story was with that cover, that definitely looks like an actual sign, i wonder if they hung it up there for the photo shoot, or if its just some masterful pre-photoshop photoshopping...
that one and the self titled are just very high quality albums, and Lenny Williams is pure class.
even on the other records like 'urban renewal' and 'bump city', which are not nearly as good, there are some excellent songs, especially the ballads.
i love this group.
Not as polished as their later stuff, but I will ride for this all day
Lets not forget all the studio work they did too.
Eg: T.O.P. and Souled Out have some great tracks.
Plus the 20+ minute monster version of "Knock Yourself Out"
on Live and in Living Colour is raw and funky as hell.
I saw them live at Blue Note in Tokyo a few years ago and they killed it.
But damnit, they didnt play my all time fav: Soul Vaccination.
Cold Blood are the shit too. Wasnt there was some cross pollination of
TOP and CB members at some point?
there was a point in time where i kept seeing this record for $40...i think i made a post about it on here a few years ago. luckily i got mine for $5 and then another copy at goodwill
I don't know if it's the region I live in or people buy TOWER POWER records like crazy. Around here their stuff never see's the light of day in the local record shops.
yep, great album...i always wondered what the story was with that cover, that definitely looks like an actual sign, i wonder if they hung it up there for the photo shoot, or if its just some masterful pre-photoshop photoshopping...
That two instrumental tracks on that Lights Out San Francisco album is dope too.
Never ever seen this. What's the deal?
Maybe it's a regional thing, but of all the T of P albums out there, from what I've seen East Bay Grease pops up the least!
Yeah, here in Chicago it seldom, if ever, shows up. You're lucky to find a San Francisco Records sampler LP with a cut or two from East Bay Grease on it.
I've heard a few stories, one was that it was a compilation album put together without the group's permission, although the cover art was apparently the original artwork for Bump City[/b]. I remember reading it at bumpcity.com before it became towerofpower.com (the Bump City site was much more informative), and there's some info about it here:
http://www.soulmusiconline.com/bumpcity/recordings/music/cds-lps/import/index.html
One site also claims that it was a "Warner Special Products" album made for the Philippines market, and a number of them were imported into the U.S. before the supply was cut off. Nonetheless, *someone* approved it if it had the original Bump City[/b] artwork.
But yeah, it's just a compilation of what had come out on Warner Bros. up to that point.
That's the work of Bruce Steinberg, who did countless albums for Warner Bros. back then, and later for other labels.
http://brucesteinberg.com/
East Bay Grease[/b] was once the raerest of the bunch, but I found my copy for a dollar about a year before Rhino released it on CD, so it's regional. The rarity is because it remained out of print compared to the other albums in their discography. There's no reason for it to be any higher than $15, and that would have to be NM.
I generally prefer the albums they did before they went to Columbia, although I'll admit it's been a few years since I've heard them so I'd probably have to hunt them down again.
I used to have promo Columbia singles of "You Ought To Be Having Fun" and "We Came To Play." They weren't bad, but you could tell that disco kinda took their edge off (just like the other funk bands who survived past 1975). I'm sticking with the Warners and San Francisco sides.
$40.00 was typical for a NM EBG to the international market a few years ago.
People get confused all the time about the value of condition to a serious collector. Your $1 bin copy is probably worth $1.
This is my point. AP (and other honest and trusted sellers) sold NM records to a community of serious collectors who are not interested in your dollar bin beaters.
I mean sure, for a few years a few years ago you could sell a lot of fairly common records of this variety to euro man for ridiculous magic land prices... and Anthony probably still could... but does that make them "$40 records"? I guarantee you that if I pick up every clean copy of East Bay Grease I come across for under $10 in 2008 I'll end up being stuck with bunch.
Again, a clean copy is very different than a NM copy as graded by someone like AP. Because beat copys are not rare they are worth not much. Because clean copys are harder to find they worth a little more. Because NM copies are hard to find, they are worth not a little more, but a lot more. If you live in Europe, or New England, where the record didn't sell, they would be worth even more.
I agree that you would be stuck with a bunch. You don't have AP's reputation for tough grading and selling NM records.