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
The Chi-Lites
The Best Of The Chi-Lites
(Kent, 2004)
Overlooked Chicago soul sadness.
The CD above is not exactly the copy I'm reviewing from. That would be Butterfly Entertainment's Music Club release, The Very Best Of The Chi-Lites, a 1991 purchase whose 'Pound Shop chocolate-box' packaging now looks offensively half-assed. Tragically, unlike fellow '70s vocal groups like Harold Melvin And The Bluenotes or The Detroit Spinners, The Chi-Lites have never had an easy ride, often demoted to the discount garage forecourt of soul history, racked next to the saccharine pop-soul oiliness of The Stylistics and Blue Magic. What with the scant attention accorded to the recent passing of their vastly underrated tenor Robert "Squirrel" Lester it felt like the right time to replay this Best Of and re-immerse myself in the deep soul sincerity the Chi-Lites did so well. Music Club's choice of opening tracks accurately captures the astonishing range of the group.
Fuzzed out, broken-hearted and lost, the pleading, spectral doo-wop of Have You Seen Her provides a perfect showcase for the sad, soaring tenor and confiding, good-hearted storytelling of the band's late leader, Eugene Record, while the Norman Whitfieldesque civil rights stomper For God's Sake Give More Power To The People accurately captures the group's ability to bring a deeply hip, Curtis Mayfield-like civil-rights philosophy to the '70s dancefloor. This ability, to nail the lowering mood of personal and political depression in Nixon's America, with their brumal lonely laments only really hit home the other night, watching John Dower's More4 documentary about the 1975 Ali-Frazier fight, The Thriller In Manila. As we learnt of the conflict between the two fighters and Ali's racist baiting of 'Uncle Tom' Frazier, to the delight of 'liberal' America, The Chi-Lites' sorrowful The Coldest Days Of My Life and There Will Never Be Any Peace could be heard wailing on the soundtrack, profound enough to break your heart.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 15/03/2010
Further Listening
The Chi-Lites - A Lonely Man (Brunswick, 1974)
Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson - Winter In America (Strata-East, 1974)
Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today (Curtom, 1975)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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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.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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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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