O’Jays/Intruders, Croydon Fairfield Halls
The O’Jays and the Intruders represented the other side of the Soul Vocal Group coin — unlike the music of their Motown counterparts, theirs is uncompromisingly BLACK, still — so that the overwhelming reception under which they reeled at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls on the first date of the Philly Sound tour was especially gratifying to see.
The Intruders opened with Cowboys To Cowgirls before their current hit, I Wanna Know Your Name, brought swarms of young girls (plus one bloke!) clambering on stage to kiss them! After She’s A Winner, the group managed by way of their “street corner” reminiscing to set the “gang war” scene for their long romping finale, I’ll Always Love My Mama, so well that the song really came alive … as did the young audience, who erupted into unexpectedly enthusiastic applause for this (in Britain) lesser known hitless yet thoroughly deserving vocal group.
Billy Paul, accompanied by some excellent musicians, was himself so embarrassingly bad that after three consecutive bum notes he put a percentage of the audience behind bars (where we happily drank until the end of his set).
The O’Jays, in the shape of their Jimmy James-ish leader, Eddie Levert, are far more ebullient on stage than their image suggests. After Put Your Hands Together and Time To Get Down, the trio whipped up a Partty, Partty, Partty chant on When The World’s At Peace before softening for a full-blown tour de force on Skylark’s Wildflower. During Back Stabbers, a respectable young couple left their seats and walked soberly to the side where, amidst a seething throng of other dancers, they quietly went spare! Black music reaches the white middle class! The Soulful slow standout of the show, Sunshine, found the O’Jays in their old style, with Eddie wailing without the mike over a cooing back-up, rapping to the fellas about what they should be saying to their girls (thus getting through to the girls himself), and walking in the aisle. Love Train of course closed the show, with everyone up and dancing and the entire cast on stage.
Stateside newies
BARBARA JEAN ENGLISH: You’re Gonna Need Somebody To Love (While You’re Looking For Someone To Love (Alithia AR 6053).
This may or may not be the Barbara English who I used to know over nine years ago – if she is, she’s as stunning to look at as she is to listen to on this soulfully bittersweet slowie, a painfully cynical play on words (note the difference in the title between “BODY” and “one”) which she co-penned with its producer, the great George Kerr of O’Jays fame. Bert Keyes did the tinkling, plunking, cooing, sawing and thumping slow arrangement, which makes just the right slightly dragging backing to the hurtingly self-aware yet tenderly-meant emotions of the beautifully sung and breathily spoken lyrics. Let me just say that this had all the girls in the office going out of their heads when I was playing it one lunch-break! “Emotion” is a word that it is easy to bandy about, yet it was never more applicable than in the case of this stunner. Yeah!
LOVE UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA: Love’s Theme; Sweet Moments (20th Century TC 2069).
Poor Love Unlimited! The gorgeous gals of “Walking In The Rain With The One I Love” fame have a new hit LP in America called “Under The Influence Of Love Unlimited”, but this hit single culled from it doesn’t contain even a squeak out of them on either of its instrumental sides! Not, actually, that that matters, as both sides are gloriously schlock, pretty-pretty melodies by that arch Hayesian copyist, Barry White, who has concocted an eminently listenable mixture of swirling strings, glutinous guitar, snikkety cymbals, wukka-wukking wah-wah, bumping bass and blatant beauty which is both cloyingly sweet and naggingly irresistible at one and the same time. Mmmm, I can’t get enough of this sweet love stuff!
American Singles
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Highways Of My Life; Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (Epic EPC 1980).
As a complete contrast to “That Lady,” the 3 + 3’s newie is a delicately pretty slowie which owes more than a nod of recognition in the direction of Stevie Wonder’s recent romantic style, both vocally and especially instrumentally. With so much hot product out at the moment, there’s no knowing how this will go, although it certainly deserves to do well. As little of the Brothers’ Buddah-distributed material came out here, their choice of James Taylor’s wee-small-hours slowie as flip may surprise some of you: in fact, they’ve been consistently scoring Stateside with similar reworkings of such as Carole King and even Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay“). Low-key, and nice. SMOOCH PICK. Continue reading “December 15, 1973: O’Jays/Intruders live, Barbara Jean English, Love Unlimited Orchestra, The Isley Brothers, Sly & The Family Stone, Chuck Berry”
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