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"…Express Yourself…"
As none of these American albums ever received a UK issue on original vinyl and the Rhino Expanded CD remasters of 2007 are long gone - this 2010 5CD mini box set in Warner Brothers ongoing "Original Album Series" is a smart reissue. It makes available desirable Sixties and Seventies Funk, Soul & R'n'B - even if the music isn't all genius. Here are the street-smart details...
UK released August 2010 - "Original Album Series" by CHARLES WRIGHT & THE WATTS 103rd STREET RHYTHM BAND on Warner Brothers/Rhino 8122 79833 5 (Barcode 081227983352) breaks down as follows:
Disc 1 (32:49 minutes):
1. Caesar's Palace [Side 1]
2. Yellow Submarine
3. Brown Sugar
4. Soul Concerto
5. Fried Okra
6. Spreadin' Honey
7. A Little Class & A Little Trash [Side 2]
8. The 103rd St. Theme
9. The Girl From Ipanema
10. Bring It On Home To Me
11. Whole Hog, Or None At All
12. Watts Happening
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut album "The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band" - released April 1968 in the USA on Warner Brothers W 1741 (Mono) and WS 1741 (Stereo) - Stereo Mix Used. The album was also known as "Hot Heat And Sweet Groove" because of these words on the rear sleeve.
Disc 2 (46:48 minutes):
1. Sorry Charlie
2. Something You Got
3. 65 Bars And A Taste Of Soul
4. Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
5. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
6. A Dance, A Kiss And A Song
7. Phuncky Bill
8. Get Ready [Side 2]
9. Stormy Monday
10. Giggin' Down 103rd
11. My Summer's Gone
12. Knock On Wood
13. I Wake Up Cryin'
14. Do Your Thing
Tracks 1 to 14 are their 2nd album "Together" - released April 1969 in the USA on Warner Brothers WS 1761 (Stereo). The album is split between studio and live recordings. Tracks 1, 3 and 10 are Studio Instrumentals while 11 and 13 are Studio Tracks with Vocals - the remainder are mostly cover versions all recorded Live At The Haunted House, Hollywood in California in May 1968
Disc 3 (35:24 minutes):
1. Till You Get Enough
2. I'm A Midnight Mover
3. Light My Fire
4. Comment
5. Everyday People
6. Must Be Your Thing [Side 2]
7. Love Land
8. Oh Happy Gabe (Sometimes Blue)
9. Twenty-Five Miles
10. The Joker (On A Trip Through The Jungle)
Tracks 1 to 10 are their 3rd album "In The Jungle, Babe" - released October 1969 in the USA on Warner Brothers WS 1801 (Stereo).
Disc 4 (45:35 minutes):
1. Road Without An End
2. I Got Love
3. High As Apple - Slice 1
4. Express Yourself
5. I'm Aware [Side 2]
6. Tell Me What You Want Me To Do
7. High As Apple Pie - Slice II
Tracks 1 to 7 are their 4th album "Express Yourself" - released June 1970 in the USA on Warner Brothers WS 1864 (Stereo). Albums 1 to 3 were credited to The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - this is the first credited to Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
Disc 5 (28:30 minutes):
1. Express Yourself II
2. Let's Make Love Not War
3. Just To Settle My Nerves
4. What Can You Bring Me? [Side 2]
5. Your Love Means Everything To Me
6. You're So Beautiful
7. I Got Your Love
Tracks 1 to 7 are their 5th album "You're So Beautiful" - released June 1971 in the USA on Warner Brothers WS 1904 - credited to Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
As anyone who has bought one of these sets will know - you get 5 skinny card repro sleeves inside a flimsy card wrap - in this case gathering together their first five albums (Rhino also did "Rhythm And Poetry" from 1972 on an expanded CD remaster in 2007). Speaking of remasters - having had 4 of these albums on the 2007 CD versions - it's clear to me that those remasters have been used here (no new upgrades). The sound is punchy if not a little hissy (especially on the first two albums). The card sleeves are lovely to look at - while the CDs themselves carry a track list with basic songwriter credits but naught else.
Relistening to these albums is a mixed experience - parts of them are great while others are dire - especially the dreadfully limp "You're So Beautiful" album where he ruins his own "Express Yourself" by doing a Part II that sucks. On the plus side as you go through the earlier album you stumble on storming album cuts to savour - the funky instrumental "Oh Happy Gabe (Sometimes Blue)" where Trumpeter Gabe Flemings does the coolest instrumental. There's also the fab "Fried Orka" track - a funky instrumental that sounds like Booker T & The M.G.'s meets War. I also quite like their unusual take on Sly Stone's "Everyday People" which they turn into a monster JB's groove without the lyrics.
"Together" has always been a bizarre album to me - yet one that actually works. Half studio and half live - it opens with the cool studio instrumental "Sorry Charlie" that then segues into a bluesy live cover of Chris Kenner's "Something You Got". That in turn is followed by wickedly funky studio instrumental "63 Bars And A Taste Of Soul" (it was used as the B-side to the non-LP "Bottomless" - put out as a 45 in 1968 on Warner Brothers 7222). The Meters stabbing brass and guitar of "Giggin' Down 103rd" turned up in 2000 on the "Right On! Volume 2" CD compilation - a superb WEA gathering up of rare grooves for collectors. And complimenting the irrepressible "Express Yourself" you also get their other big groove chart hit - "Your Love Means Everything To Me" - an improvisation that sounds like The JB's working out a bad backbeat before their overlord comes into the studio and fines them for missing a beat.
Wright never had the greatest of voices and he would regularly butcher ballads with his stoned whine (their cover of The Doors "Light My Fire" is the lamest I've ever heard - a song that's genuinely hard to ruin). But his band had a fantastic rhythm section - and when they hit that funky groove - you begin to realise why they charted four of these five albums on the American R&B charts. So - good and bad...but man when they were good...
70ts Soul, R'n'B, Funk, Jazz Fusion
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
