The Greatest Gifts

Paul McCartney: Another Day

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A fresh batch of greatest hits compilations hit record stores in November of 1978, just in time for the Christmas rush. Not yet the music snob who disdained greatest hits records, I would have put Wings Greatest at the top of my list for the singles I didn't own like "Another Day", "Hi Hi Hi" and "Juniors Farm". I never got it.

Here's the memorable ad for the album:

The Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits 1974-78 is culled from three albums, the title track from The Joker and the rest from Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams. No bonus tracks. Nevertheless, it has sold 14 million copies.

Steely Dan's Greatest Hits is a double album with one bonus track, the forgettable "Here In The Western World", which was originally recorded during the Royal Scam sessions.

The Best of Earth Wind and Fire Volume 1 arrived with three bonus tracks: the Grammy winning "Got To Get You Into My Life" for those who didn't buy the Sgt Pepper soundtrack; "Love Music" and the Top 10 hit, "September", surely one of the best singles of the year.

Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 came with "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", her #1 duet with Neil Diamond. Diamond and Streisand had each recorded the song for separate albums, but radio DJ Gary Guthrie  spliced their versions together as a going away present form the wife he was divorcing. When Columbia Records got wind of the sensation the sing was causing they convinced Diamond and Streisand to go into the studio and cut a real duet. They'd surprise Grammy viewers in 1980.

Approaching In a Zoom

Earth Wind and Fire : Jupiter

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On November 21, 1977 Earth Wind and Fire released All 'n'All, the first album of theirs that I bought-by mistake thanks to the Columbia House Records and Tape club. I still consider it one of the best mistakes I made with Columbia House ( and a hell of a lot better than the Allman Brothers' Enlightened Rogues or Bad Company's Desolation Angels).

Even as a teenage novice music lover, I was taken by the complex, funky horns, the spaced out lyrics and the Brazilian music influences. It remains a favorite from 1977.

Joe McEwan of Rolling Stone wrote what seems like a mixed review but he would later put this on his ten best list

At their worst, Earth, Wind and Fire indulge in some of the most pretentious excesses in current black music. As on past Earth, Wind and Fire records, All 'n All is filled with leaded brotherhood platitudes, Star Trek sci-fi and stiffly poetic love songs. This sounds overwrought and depressing (and maybe it is). But there's a catch: I like the record, for like much current black music, All 'n All elicits a schizophrenic response. If the album represents some of the worst in black music, it also has more than its share of the best.

 Earth, Wind and Fire's prime mover, Maurice White, is a former Chess Records session drummer, and his rhythmic sense is one of the group's redeeming features. The rhythm tracks on All 'n All are often enough to savage the most convoluted and awkward lyrics. "Serpentine Fire," a song about the spinal life-center philosophy of many Eastern religions, is a simple tango spiced by a subtle funk base and the incessant clanging of a cowbell. Other songs incorporate snatches of supple James Brown bass lines, delicate Latin beats and hard, insistent funk vamps.

 White's production virtues don't end there, though. The lyrics of "Fantasy" ("Come to see, victory, in the land called fantasy") may be hard to swallow, but the music is as close to elegance as any funk song has come. Voices and a light touch of strings suddenly appear over a choppy, propulsive track, swell and swoop, only to disappear at the snap of a finger and pop up moments later for an exciting, powerful finale. White also utilizes an odd instrumental mix that gives equal emphasis to percussion (except the bass drum, which is usually played down), bass, rhythm guitars and stabbing, staccato horn bursts. The result is light but substantial, and it's become a model for many other bands.

Escapism and fantasy are prominent in the lyrics of many soft-soul groups, but usually (intentionally or otherwise) they're used humorously, or at least with tongue in cheek. At times, Earth, Wind and Fire is also capable of such fluffy warmth; in fact, torchy love ballads sung by Verdine White, Maurice's brother, have become a recent trademark. Verdine often sounds like a straining Eddie Kendricks and here, on "I'll Write a Song for You," which is distressingly close to MOR, he has the type of lush romantic vehicle that one wishes Kendricks still employed.

 But that warmth isn't always felt, and despite the musical gloss, much of Earth, Wind and Fire's escapism seems unintentionally obsessive and desperate. It's easy to be seduced by the artfulness and grace of Earth, Wind and Fire's music and accept it for its craftsmanship and listenability. On that level, the group is challenging and fun. It's also easy to by cynical about a line like, "Jupiter, come from the galaxy/I want to meet you, to make you free," which seems as potentially dishonest and escapist as shooting dope.

 There's a strange contrast to be drawn between All 'n All and Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On. Riot was druggy, down and honest. All 'n All is flashy, bright and fanciful. Sly saw what he didn't want to see. The Earth, Wind and Fire album is like looking at yourself in the mirror and finding that nothing is there. Maybe that's what makes All 'n All so compelling -- and scary.

Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ writing:

Focusing soulful horns, high-tension harmonies, and rhythms and textures from many lands into a first side that cooks throughout. Only one element is lacking. Still, unsympathetic as I am to the lyrics about conquering the universe on wings of thought, they make me want to shake my fundament anyway. 

  And from Tom Moon's 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die :

Easily the most intense three minutes ever committed to tape by '70s hitmakers Earth Wind & Fire is "Sing a Song," the tightly wound but never fully erupting essay in funk lavishness that was a hit single from the band's 1975 album Gratitude. Next on the list might by "Reasons," the ballad showcase for the skyscraping falsetto of vocalist Philip Bailey from That's the Way of the World, which was also released in '75. In the time-compressed shorthand of pop, those are the must-have moments.

 But they're not the whole story. At the time of these successes, the Memphis-based band, led by drummer, producer, and part-time mystic Maurice White, was attempting to move beyond singles. All 'n' All, which came out in 1977, was EWF's first and best attempt at developing a wholly satisfying album experience, a cycle in which every song mattered. The unifying thread was Brazilian rhythm. "We'd been hanging out for a month in Argentina and Brazil, especially "Rio," White recalled in the liner notes. "Man, we heard stuff that blew our minds, opened our heads up wide. I wanted some of it in our music." After studying the progressive funk of Banda Black Rio and the arty songs of Milton Nascimento, White and his core group wrote pieces that embraced undulating samba and chants heard at Carnival, and integrated elements of Brazilian rhythm into the EWF lockstep funk. The wordless focal "Runnin'" with is ba-bee-da-boo-whees, turned up on jazz radio, and several album tracks, including the jittery "Jupiter," were easily catchy enough to follow the high-gloss "Serpentine Fire" onto the radio.

 White connected the tunes with a series of interludes built on the African thumb piano known as kalimba and street percussion; one, "Brazilian Rhyme," was based on a Nascimento song. Though brief, these pieces unified the album, and gave it a cosmopolitan sound that, like the music that inspired it, opened heads heads up wide.

Morning Glory

Earth Wind and Fire : Serpentine Fire

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In October of 1977 Earth Wind and Fire released the single "Serpentine Fire", a #1 R and B hit for seven weeks and a #13 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

Maurice White explained the idea behind "Serpentine Fire":

 "The Kundalini principle has to do with the fluid in the spine. After 29 days, if used properly, it can be converted into a higher consciousness of energy, which means you can step up or step down, it's your choice. It's called a serpent, because if you tipped the spine out of the body and looked at it, it would look like a serpent - and the fluid is the fire in the spine." He adds, "Nobody knows what I'm talking about, but a lot of kids go out and look it up and immediately it expands their consciousness."

Demonstrating Love and Affection

The Emotions : Best of My Love

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One of the most exuberant singles of the disco era, the Emotions' Grammy winning "Best of My Love" would top the R and B charts for three weeks beginning  June 25,1977. The song, written by Earth Wind and Fire's Maurice White and Al McKay and performed by members of EWF, would top the US pop charts for five straight weeks. Shout out to Wanda Hutchinson for hitting the big vibrato notes, though all three ladies are taking us to church!

40 Year Itch : A Funky September

Wild Cherry : Play That Funky Music

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Love it or hate it, Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music" is one of 1976's most memorable songs and, for people of a certain age, a sure way to fill the dance floor. A rock band playing clubs in the disco era,  Wild Cherry kept getting requests for funky music. People wanted to dance.  A former manager of several Bonanza steakhouses, songwriter Robert Parissi knew how to give the customers what they wanted and the result is a single that topped the US charts for three weeks.

Parliament : Do That Stuff

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1976 was a break out year for George Clinton and everyone associated with him, including Parliament, Funkadelic, and Bootsy's Rubber Band. On the verge of an arena tour, complete with a UFO stage set, Parliament released its follow-up to Mothership Connection . The Clones of Dr Funkenstein may not be as wild a trip as the cover suggests but this is a band at its peak. Horn-heavy thanks to great arrangements by Fred Wesley.

Funkadelic : Let's Take It to the People

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Westbound Records released Tales of Kidd Funkadelic on September 21, 1976  after the band had left for Warner Brothers. Tales is a collection of outtakes so there's no coherent space funk storyline to follow here but there's plenty of funk, highlighted by "Let's Take It To The People", which was sampled by De La Soul for their Low End Theory song "Everything is Fair". Hardcore Jollies is a month away.

Earth Wind and Fire : On Your Face

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Coming off of a massive Summer tour, Earth Wind and Fire released Spirit in September of 1976. Producer/Writer/ Arranger  Charles Stepney died of a heart attack during the sessions which feature more slow songs than most Earth Wind and Fire albums. The album peaked at #2 on the US album charts and paved the way for my favorite of their albums, 1977's All 'N All.

Detroit's Dramatics worked with a variety of producers on Joy Ride, a R and B #11 hit, thanks in part to the strangely titled disco cut "Finger Fever".

40 Year Itch : It'll Make Your Day

Earth Wind and Fire : Sing a Song

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   For two weeks in February,  Earth Wind and Fire's infectious "Sing a Song" peaked at #5 on the US pop charts, a month after it had topped the R and B charts. Like many Earth Wind and Fire hits, it was written and produced by the band's founder Maurice White, who passed away February 3 aged 74. 

   

   You could dig through the entire Earth Wind and Fire catalog and still not find a song that made you feel bad. Maurice White told Jet Magazine in 2005 "We've strived to push the idea of illumination and the vibration of positivity."

    White and his brothers changed the world. And to this day, no band can't instantly change your mood for the better...like Earth Wind and Fire. What a legacy!

40 Year Itch: A Big, Groovy Holiday Picnic

    On April 6, 1974 nearly 250,000 fans, paying between $10 band $15, jammed the Ontario Motor Speedway to see Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Black Oak Arkansas, Seals and Crofts,  The Eagles, Earth Wind and Fire and Rare Earth. Don Imus emcee'd the show which actually began 15 minutes early and stayed on schedule.

ABC Television co-sponsored the event while LA radio stations simulcast the concerts. 

Cal Jam grossed $2 million and, despite massive traffic tie-ups ( 700 cars were towed away after all 42,000 parking spaces had been filled), it was heralded as a huge success. 

  There were only 25 arrests.The smell of marijuana hung in the air, but that seemed to add to the peaceful vibe. Said one concertgoer who hiked 4 miles to find his spot: "It's like a big, groovy holiday picnic." 

  50 foot speakers helped provide the most powerful concert sound system ever assembled. Good news especially for Deep Purple, then the loudest band in the world. 

     This is the show that introduced Deep Purple's new members to the world: the still chubby vocalist David Coverdale and bassist and screaming vocalist Glenn Hughes. Richie Blackmore, apparently not used to having a camera in his face when he solo'd, attacked a cameraman and then set his amp on fire.

Emerson Lake and Palmer finished the night with Keith Emerson spinning end over end 50 feet above the ground in his piano contraption.

40 Year Itch: Ya Faith Is You

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On March 22, 1974, Earth Wind and Fire released Open Our Eyes, a future R and B chart topping album so good rock critic dean Robert Christgau called it a "fucking tour de force" . Whatever elements you love in your favorite Earth Wind and Fire album ( mine is All 'N'All) can be traced back to this, their fifth studio album. You'll find funky horn charts, thumb popping bass licks, soothing ballads,uplifting lyrics, Latin rhythms and Maurice White twiddling his funky thumbs on a kalimba. 

40 Year Itch: Sensational Late Summer Soul

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In August of 1973 Hi recording artist Ann Peebles released her biggest selling single " I Can't Stand the Rain", which peaked at #38 on the pop charts. She wrote it with future husband Don Bryant and a DJ named Bernard Miller.  John Lennon called it "the best song ever."

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Another great Hi recording artist, Syl ( "Is It Because I'm Black?") Johnson hit the R and B charts in 1973 with the title track from Back For A Taste of Your Love, an album produced by Willie Mitchell who worked on all of the Al Green masterpieces. In 1975 the Mitchell-Johnson team would record the classic "Take Me To The River".

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The most important thing about Rufus's low-key debut is the band's decision to record Stevie Wonder's "Maybe Your Baby." Wonder liked the way Chaka Khan sang it so much, he walked into the studio and presented them with "Tell Me Something Good". Their biggest hit would peak at #3 in 1974.

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Earth Wind and Fire's fourth album, Head to the Sky, features the transcendent "Evil", one of 1973's greatest singles in my opinion. The sister on the cover is singer Jessica Cleaves who would leave after this album and eventually join George Clinton's Brides of Funkenstein. 

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With Thom Bell producing, Ronnie Dyson recorded One Man Band which featured one of the Summer of '73's greatest love song " I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely" (#60 pop, #29 R and B). The Main Ingredient would make this a Top 10 hit in 1974.

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One of Aaron Neville's greatest singles is a laid back funk classic. Paul Weller covered this on one of his first solo tours. Like the horns?  They're a top of the hat to John Coltrane's "Minor Blues"

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The Four Tops had already left Motown and recorded their big hit "Ain't No Woman ( Like the One I Got)" in 1972. This follow-up hit #15 for ABC-Dunhill. It appeared on the Shaft in Africa soundtrack.