"Original Album Series" by GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION [featuring Larry Graham] - including the albums "Graham Central Station" and "Release Yourself" (both 1974), "Ain't No 'Bout-A-Doubt It" (1975), "Mirror" (1976) and "Now Do U Wanta Dance" (1977) (September 2013 Warners/Rhino 5CD Mini Box Set) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…We Be's Gettin' Down…"

Funky as a Mosquito doing the Michael Jackson Moon Walk on a Cocaine line in a Mexican Jail - Graham Central Station hit the ground running in 1974 with a debut album as brill as "AWB" - a Soul/Funk band that somehow crossed over and appealed to the white Rock audience. Hardly surprising really - especially as Larry Graham had served his Bass Player apprenticeship with Sly & The Family Stone. And with the now-deleted 2001 Rhino 2CD Anthology "The Jam" commanding a very nasty price tag (fabulous compilation though) - this 5-album Mini Box Set pitched at under twelve quid is a bit of a deal (and they're all remasters too). Here are the dudes in big hats and even bigger flares...

UK released September 2013 - "Original Album Series" by GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION (featuring Larry Graham) on Warner Brothers 8127796513 (Barcode 081227965136) offers five albums in Single Mini LP Card Repro Sleeves (Remasters) that breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (38:30 minutes):

1. We've Been Waiting

2. It Ain't No Fun To Me

3. Hair

4. We Be's Getting' Down

5. Tell Me What It Is [Side 2]

6. Can You Handle It?

7. People

8. Why?

9. Ghetto

Tracks 1 to 9 are their debut album "Graham Central Station" released February 1974 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2763 and Warner Brothers K 46286 in the UK

Disc 2 (37:32 minutes):

1. G.C.S.

2. Release Yourself

3. Got To Go Through It To Get To It

4. I Believe In You

5. 'Tis Your Kind Of Music [Side 2]

6. Hey Mr. Writer

7. Feel The Need

8. Today

Tracks 1 to 8 are their 2nd album "Release Yourself" released October 1974 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2814 and in the UK on Warner Brothers K 56062

Disc 3 (42:07 minutes):

1. The Jam

2. Your Love

3. It's Alright

4. I Can't Stand The Rain

5. It Ain't Nothing But A Warner Bros. Party [Side 2]

6. Ole Smokey

7. Easy Rider

8. Water

9. Luckiest People

Tracks 1 to 9 are their 3rd studio album "Ain't No 'Bout-A-Doubt It" released August 1975 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2876 and in the UK on Warner Brothers K 56147

Disc 4 (38:09 minutes):

1. Entrow

2. Love (Covers A Multitude Of Sins)

3. Mirror

4. Do Yah

5. Save Me [Side 2]

6. I Got A Reason

7. Priscilla

8. Forever

Tracks 1 to 8 are their 4th studio album "Mirror" released June 1976 in the USA On Warner Brothers BS 2937 and on Warner Brothers K 56235 in the UK

Disc 5 (40:27 minutes):

1. Happ-E-2-C-U-A-Ginn

2. Now Do-U-Wanta Dance

3. Last Train

4. Love And Happiness

5. Earthquake

6. Crazy Chicken [Side 2]

7. Stomped Beat-Up And Whooped

8. Lead Me On

9. Saving My Love For You

10. Have Faith In Me

Tracks 1 to 10 are their 5th studio album "Now Do U Wanta Dance" released April 1977 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 3041 and May 1977 UK on Warner Bros K 56359.

These slim card slipcases house five single repro sleeves, there's no booklet and apart from the track lists (on each CD) - there's bugger all info - but as these were remastered by Rhino back in 2001 - those remasters have been used and they sound fantastic.

The Acapella opener "We've Been Waiting" is brilliant but better by far is one of the standout tracks - "Hair". About half way through - Graham's lead vocal is taken over by Patryce Banks (credited as Chocolate). The gorgeous Patryce (Claudia Lennear look out) also provides the fabulous lead vocals on "We Be's Getting' Down" - sounding not unlike a lead in The Voices Of East Harlem or Patti LaBelle letting her lungs out. The beat-box backing, instruments-in-the-distant Production and chanting/preachy vocal refrains in the brilliant Side 2 opener "Tell Me What It Is" sounds like Talking Heads doing Soul - years ahead of its time. Just as fab is the very Isley Brothers vibe of "People" where the group goes into social consciousness about "People dying...people suffering..." - the Clarence McDonald strings giving it a classy and moving feel while David Dynamite's guitar work sounds like Prince five years before the event. The multi-layered "Ghetto" is half Soul/half Gospel - a fantastic deep grooved Staples Singers finisher. The whole album is quite brilliant actually

"Release Yourself" was released in late 1972 was perhaps a little too frantic for its own good - with "I Believe In You" and "Today" being smoochy mid-tempo highlights. "The Jam" opens proceedings with suitably slap-bass wildness on album Number Three but you heart goes to "Your Love" (a R&B Number 1) where once again Chocolate makes the perfect foil for this happy upbeat love song. "It's Alright" and "Feel The Need" were also singles (19 and 18 respectively) and you can hear why.

But my absolute crave is "Love" which peaked at 14 when it should have gone to Number 1. Subtitled "Covers A Multitude Of Sins" - it's one of those brilliant irrepressibly uplifting tunes - funky and soulful. The seven-minute slap-bass crowd-shouting funk of "Entrow" was edited down as a single too - managing a 21 position on the US charts. The voicebox "Now Do-U-Wanta Dance" and the chipper "Stomped Beat-Up And Whooped" feel like a band seeking a hit rather than making one. Their funked-up cover of Al Green's "Love And Happiness" is better.

For me there's a definite winding down by the time we reach album five - but the first three and most of four are great Seventies Soul and Funk. A very cool and timely reissue - dig in and enjoy...