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"...Try Expanding Your Understanding..."
For years I've been looking
for an excuse to review this fabulous and criminally neglected Soul Funk Gospel
gem - and now I have one. It's been reissued in Japan as part of the
"Chess Best Collection" CD series and its just arrived on my doorstep
in time for a cool Yule y'all (sorry couldn't resist).
I've had the 1998 Ace/Beat
Goes Public disc that offers two LPs on 1CD of Rotary Connection's
"Songs" (1969) and "Hey, Love" (1971) (2LPs on 1CD) for
years now and treasure it. But this Japanese reissue is listed as having 2013
DSD remastering in adverts - so I had to own it. Doesn't actually say that
anywhere on the disc or liner notes nor the Obi - but it does sound stunning -
if not a little clinically clean in places.
Released 11 Dec 2013 in
Japan – "Hey, Love" by The New ROTARY CONNECTION on Universal/Chess UICY-75987
(Barcode 4988005792754 for the right issue) is a straightforward transfer of
the 9-track American album (40:25 minutes).
The OBI wraps around the outside of
the jewel case. The 16-page booklet is the usual Japanese affair - front cover
artwork on Page 1 with the rear LP art on the last page. In between there is a
Japanese essay and the lyrics in English - naught else (nothing you can really
get your teeth into). It's a budget release so its priced at below 1000 Yen
which means that even including P&P it's below a tenner - and often only
eight quid - a bit of a steal frankly.
1. If I Sing My Song [Side 1]
2. The Sea & She
3. I Am The Black Gold Of
The Sun
4. Hangin' Round The Bee
Tree
5. Hey, Love
6. Love Has Fallen On Me [Side 2]
7. Song For Everyman
8. Love Is
9. Vine Of Happiness
Originally released on vinyl LP in the States on Chess/Cadet Concept CC 50006 in August 1971 (October 1971 on Chess Records 6310105 in the UK also credited as "Hey, Love" by The New Rotary Connection) - it features the
hand of writer, arranger and player maestro CHARLES STEPNEY (see PS below) - Chess's answer to
Norman Whitfield - a man with a conscience and a way with a funky and soulful
tune. Tracks 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9 written by Charles Stepney and Richard Rudolph - Tracks 2 and 4 written by Richard Rudolph - Track 6 written by Charles Stepney and Lloyd Webber - Track 7 "Song For Everyman" written by Terry Callier
The other attractions are MINNIE RIPERTON, KITTY HAYWOOD, SHIRLEY WAHLS
and DAVE SCOTT all on Lead Vocals with Stepney playing a huge number of
instruments as well as arranging. Top session-men include superb guitarists
PHIL UPCHURCH (see my review of his stunning 1971 double-album "Darkness
Darkness" also on Japanese CD) and the fuzzed up axework of PAT FERRERI.
The album also featured RICHARD RUDOLPH (Minnie Riperton's husband of the time)
- he solo-wrote both "Hanging Round The Bee Tree" and "The Sea
& She" and excepting one other - co-wrote the rest of the album with
Stepney. As well as Producing and Arranging - Stepney is listed as playing a variety of keyboards - Piano and Electric Piano, Harpsichord and Organ as well as Backing Vocals. The LLOYD WEBBER that Stepney co-wrote "Love Has Fallen With Me" on Side 2 is a Chess Records in-house songwriter and not the Andrew Lloyd Webber of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Chess: The Musical" fame. Bass and Drums by SYDNEY SIMS and DONNY SIMMONS.
The album's big tune is the
magnificent "I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun" which was rescued from
obscurity by British/US Funksters NUYORCIAN SOUL featuring JOCELYN BROWN when
they sampled and covered it in 1997 on the hip Talkin' Loud label. They brought
the song and Rotary Connection in general into the charts (to 31). Ace then
reissued that CD the following year and there's been vinyl repros of the
"Hey, Love" LP in the West End of London ever since - meeting the
demands of those constantly searching for something cool and Soulful to
rediscover. Besides "Gold" there are 4 other masterpieces on here -
the echoed and swirling vocals of "Hanging Round The Bee Tree"
(graced many of my Reckless in-store play lists), the gorgeous and sunny upbeat
title track "Hey, Love" followed by Kitty Haywood letting it vocally
rip on the sublime "Love Has Fallen For Me" (covered by Chaka Khan on
her "I'm Every Woman" LP). But the best for me is the lone TERRY
CALLIER track (a songwriter Stepney was plugging) called "Song For
Everyman" - it is just brilliant and sends me every time I hear it (lyrics
from it title this review).
In truth - and I played both
to hear the differences - the only thing I'd say about the supposed 'remaster'
is that it is unbelievably clean - but perhaps I suspect a little
over-compressed. You have to give the tracks a bit of wedge - but even if you
do - the clarity is gorgeous (hiss gone) and I've loved re-hearing these tracks
in such beautiful sound.
So why didn't Rotary Connection make it with this corker of an album? Why is "Hey, Love" not spoken about in the same hushed tones as say "Tapestry" or "Blue" by Carole King and Joni Mitchell also from that staggering year - 1971. I suspect that with all those hippy-dip lyrical references to helping out your brother and bombing others with love - this populus-of-punters unknown Soul group was perceived as a poor man's Fifth Dimension perhaps - a sort of watered down gathering - peddling a lame "Hair" musical. "Jesus Christ Superstar" on MCA Records was issued October 1970 and perhaps all that holy-roller stuff was already sounding a tad dated by the summer of 1971. This of course did for them commercially and is just plain wrong as an assessment (it's just a stormingly good Soul album with some Righteous mellow coursing through its beautiful veins). Typically it took British Soul fans to reignite interest and a torrent of well-deserved praise has followed ever since.
Stepney is a sort of
underground cult figure now amongst aficionados - spoken about in hushed tones.
Riperton went solo and produced a string of gorgeous Soul albums in the
mid-Seventies only to sadly succumb to breast cancer at a criminally young age
in 1979. Still - they all have this legacy to remind us. I adore "Hey,
Love" and its infectious Soul upbeat message vibe - reminds me of the same
joy I feel when I hear a great Staples Singers album.
Get this disc into your life
soonest - I believe it's up for deletion June 2014...
PS: See also my online
reviews for "Rotary Connection" (their 1968 debut) and
"Songs/Hey, Love" (a 2LPs on 1CD) release in 1998 on Ace/Beat Goes
Public – and the Terry Callier album "I Just Can't Help Myself" also
in this Japanese series of reissues...(all involving vocalist Minnie Riperton too). And lately - the Ace Records compilation of February 2026 called "Eternal Journey: The Arrangements And Productions Of Charles Stepney" by CHARLES STEPNEY and VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace/Beat Goes Public CDTOP 320 (Barcode 029667115223) - a 20-Track single CD and also 20-Track 2LP VINYL set.
