Earth Wind and Fire – Moment of Truth / Bad Tune
Earth Wind Dashikis Afros and Fire
Listen/Download – Earth Wind and Fire – Moment of Truth
Listen/Download – Earth Wind and Fire – Bad Tune
Greetings all.
It is now time for all good men (and women, natch) to get themselves together and ease on into a brand new week.
Fall is in full swing, with the cool air, and the leaves and all that mess and I’m feeling productive.
I haven’t been doing much fieldwork (of the vinyl variety), but what I have managed to pick up has been excellent, not to mention the products of in-house excavation, in which yours truly gets down into the crates and spends some time with unjustly neglected records.
Today’s selections are the fruit of just such a search, and their neglect was decidedly unjust (undue/unfair?).
A while back when I was fortunate to be down spinning the records in Washington I was lucky enough to slip in some quality digging time alongside my man DJ Birdman. I brought home a grip of tasty stuff that trip (DC always treats my crates well) and among the haul were the first two albums by Earth Wind and Fire.
“Earth Wind and Fire!” you say. “I can get those at my local Goodwill for the cost of a shiny quarter!”
Not these you can’t my friends, because you’re probably thinking of their CBS stuff when they were having all of those big hits we all know so well (or maybe you can but you’ll need to give me the address of your local Goodwill).
However, did you know that they did two albums for Warner Brothers in the early 70s?
Neither did I (initially) but when I found out some years ago those records went on the old want list, because if you dig some EWF, you know that an earlier, grittier version thereof would very well kick some ass.
And it (they) did.
Maurice White and Wade Flemons (who had some collectible, pre-EWF 45s under his own name) had been working together in Chicago during the 60s, before relocating to Los Angeles near the end of the decade, where they were joined by Verdine White and a large crew of others to form the first version of Earth Wind and Fire.
Their first, self-titled album was recorded in 1970 and released in 1971, and while it does display tastes of the later EWF, there’s a heavier funk at work here, crossed with progressive elements.
The two tunes I bring you today illustrate both sides of that coin.
‘Moment of Truth’ is a serious mover, with some incredibly solid bass playing by Verdine (he’s so much more than just a fine and fancy head of hair) and a horn section that won’t quit.
‘Bad Tune’ has something of a flavor of the times, with a little bit of that Afrocentric hippy thing weaving in and out of the funk (electric kalimba anyone?), opening quietly, getting heavy and then dissolving into a trippy, jazzy sound with some nice guitar by Michael Beal, before picking up heat yet again with some fuzz bass.
And – this is the cool part – they manage to pack all that into less than five minutes, displaying a shocking economy for the time.
If you dig what you hear, while the individual albums are hard to come by, after their mid-70s success with CBS, WB reissued both of their EWF albums as a budget two-fer which is a little bit easier to find.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
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Always had a thing for EWF,All’N’All was one of the first albums I bought,as I loved ‘Fantasy’.Have collected them all up to 1979 ‘I Am’ where along with the Emotions the recorded ‘Boogie Wonderland’.The live version of ‘Reasons’ on ‘Gratitude’ blows me away!!
Doing a bit of my own research.I see that Maurice White recorded on the Chess label in the sixties and also Ronnie Laws, another favourite of mine was with them.His two albums ‘Pressure Sensitive’ and Freinds and Strangers’ were great if you were into the Jazz Funk scene.
Would loved to have seen EWF live in the seventies.
Sorry Larry I’ve rambled on a bit here!
Not a problem Tony. Maurice recorded as a drummer (I believe) with Ramsey Lewis.
Growing up in the 70’s it was sad to watch EWF de-volve into all that pyramid-power crap w/ the huge show biz trappings. But it gassed to me no end when I found out Maurice White played on so many Chi-town soul records.
Didn’t know Wade Flemons worked with them but considering Maurice’s roots it makes sense. I love “Here I Stand.”
Larry, you picked the 2 best cuts off this LP by far. “Bad Tune” is the greatest record EWF ever recorded IMO – bad kalimba solo, sound effects and incredibly funky. Cheers – Stu.
The original “Everything Is Everything” is on this set too.
I first heard “Love Is Life” on a Detroit jazz station and was an instant fan. “I Think About Loving You” got plenty of air play featuring the female lead Sherry Scott. Did you know WB dropped EWF and Herbie Hancock on the same day? That is halarious.
Oh yeah…Labelle was in tha “pink slip” group. What were they thinking?
Hancock, Rubinson and Gleeson were pushing farther into the fusion avant-garde, just as Warner Bros. dropped Hancock from its roster. “Warner Bros. dropped Herbie Hancock, LaBelle and Earth, Wind & Fire all on the same day,” Rubinson says. “Those very, very important artists of the future of black music were dropped. I was there. They said, ‘We don’t know what to do with this music.’ They all went to Columbia Records.”
Here’s a good read.
https://jazztimes.com/articles/14547-spin-city-modern-djs-look-to-1970s-jazz-for-beats-and-inspiration