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HIGHER GROUND
HIGHER GROUND
SOUL, FUNK and JAZZ FUSION
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
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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...
