Features Disc of the day
Isley Brothers
The Brothers: Isley
(T-Neck/Buddah, 1969)
The Cincinnati siblings bed into their heavy period.
The tenacity of the Isleys is a thing of wonder. At the forefront of soul trends for five decades, they handled doo-wop, R&B, funk, hippy-rock, disco and hip-hop transformations with ease, as if driven inexorably on by brother Ronald's astonishing instrument, and as the 68-year-old singer currently nears the end of his bit in the big house (having been convicted on federal tax evasion charges in 2005) you wouldn't bet against some kind of a comeback. He could certainly use the cash.
A prime example of the brothers' bouncebackability, The Brothers: Isley was their second great album of 1969 (lest we forget, the year of Stand! and Cloud Nine), the group having looked out for the count after their misfiring Motown stint despite delivering the exquisite This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You), a Billboard Number 12 in 1966. But the Isleys were best when falling back on their own resources, and the vocal trio's secret weapons were the maturing younger siblings, Ernie (guitar) and Marvin (bass) plus bro-in-law Chris Jasper on keys, who'd earned their spurs on February's's superhip crossover-funk smash, It's Your Thing, and brought a wider appreciation of American youth culture, black and white, its poster issues and its musical enthusiasms. Here the Isleys' instrumental flange master a cornucopia of psych-flecked soul and funk specialisms, from the lascivious crotch-twitch groove of I Turned You On to the Meters-like lope of Vacuum Cleaner (Ron's "love" is like one, apparently), while on the gorgeously restrained contrition of I Got To Get Myself Together, they're pure Muscle Shoals.
The scarlet habits of the cover might make Ron, Rudolph and O'Kelly look like a kind of silly Spanish Inquisition, but this is a grown-up record underpinned by grown-up concerns, with the desperation and regret of Get Down Off Of The Train matched by the sepulchral Weltschmerz of operatic-blues clincher Feels Like The World ("...is closing in on me"). Around the corner was their post-Woodstock anthem-fest, Givin' It Back, but arguably they'd never strike a more perfect balance between soul grit and rock vision.
Danny Eccleston
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 18/11/2009
Further Listening
The Isley Brothers - Givin' it Back (T-Neck, 1971)
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