Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
5 Stairsteps & Cubie
Love’s Happening
(Curtom, 1968)
Not the Jackson 5.
Pub quiz fodder: name the five pubescent siblings from the Midwest fronted by a four-year-old boy and mentored by a soul legend who had their first chart hits back in 1968. Full marks and a warm bottle of Lambrini to the dude in the corner who stopped their companions writing down 'The Jackson 5' and muttered 'The Five Stairsteps'. Organised into a singing act by their police detective father Clarence Burke Sr. and given their collective moniker by their mum (after noticing that when lined up according to age - little Cubie Burke at the end - their descending heights resembled a flight of stairs), this Chicago R&B brood were auditioned by The Impressions' Fred Cash before signing to Curtis Mayfield's fledgling soul label Windy C, in 1966. But it's the work they did for Curtom, the label Mayfield launched with the Impressions' manager Eddie Thomas in 1968, that possesses the real magic. Although eight of the ten tracks on Love's Happening were written by Mayfield himself, The Stairsteps' versions of Stay Close To Me, Don't Change Your Love, Little Young Lover etc. sound surprisingly different from the Impressions' originals. Gone is Mayfield's sad-sweet falsetto and melancholy yearning for a lost love/memory/America, replaced by innocent, barely-broken vocals that seem to tell you The Stairsteps are living all these precious moments right here, right now, in the first flush of teenage joy. A Fifth Dimension autumnal sadness would creep into later singles but this is just pure bright green summer days.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 02/03/2010
Further Listening
The Five Stairsteps – The First family Of Soul (Buddha, 2001)
The Impressions – This is My Country (Curtom, 1968)
The Jackson 5 – Diana Ross Presents… (Motown, 1969)
Previous Disc of the day
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Smashing review, love it!
Posted by Rob at 2:56 PM GMT 03/03/2010 Report Abuse
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