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His startling 1970 comeback for Reprise, recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. A blend of blues, Sly Stone and country rock loaded with the Richard scream, rollicking piano and booting saxophone. ‘He was just singing his booty off,” recalled Travis Wammack (who wrote Greenwood, Mississippi for the session).
The title track kicks off side two with a staggering dollop of super-heavy funk: ten increasingly frazzled minutes of breaks-and-beats heaven pilfered by everyone from Big L and Lord Finesse to Prodigy.
‘Opens with the discotheque-friendly Hey, Rocky by front-cover stars The Shirelles of New Jersey, the USA’s most successful girl group until the Supremes broke through and stole their thunder, and closes with The Bermudas’ Chu Sen Ling, a record sure to appeal to those who favour the ethereal West Coast sound.
‘Other highlights include The Hollywood Chicks’ dance-craze Tossin’ A Ice Cube, which marks the recording debut of Barry White (on handclaps); great tracks by The Witches, The Pussycats and Linda Laurie from the catalogue of genius songwriter/producer Bert Berns; MayAlta Page’s densely produced rarity Don’t Worry About Me Baby (I Feel Just Fine); and, for the girl group buff who has everything, He Calls Me Child by Ohio duo 2 Of Clubs, and A Dumb Song by the soulful Delicates, both previously unreleased.’
Terrific soulful Northern banger — a Wigan anthem — and classic Motor City fire from Jack Ashford’s Pied Piper Productions. Performed, written and produced by LC.
Superb, sexed-up, Paradise Garage disco fire, produced by Jesse Boyce and Moses Dillard.
Magnificent, smoking sister-funk, both sides. ‘What is wrong with the men / Trying to do us in.’ Produced by West Coast legend Miles Grayson.
‘A re-imagining.’
Many people rate this his best solo album, for murder like Pusherman, Freddie’s Dead and Give Me Your Love (and less persuasively because it trespassed most deeply into rock audiences).
‘This heavy script… I could relate with a lot of it… It allowed me to get past the glitter of the drug scene and go to the depth of it — allowing a little bit of the sparkle and the highlights lyrically, but always with a moral to that.’
Superior Rhino reissue, with die-cut sleeve.
His terrific Positive-Negative LP from 1976, plus singles for Golden Voice, Mercury and Tosted (including the original Now That I Have You), and the sixties sides of his organ-funk combo the TMGs.
Lovely, characterful, poignant soul music which irresistibly radiates the singer’s worship of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.
Al Green, Philly Soul and also-ran frustration are in the wings: What Can I Do came out of Grand Rapids on the coat-tails of Back Up Train; I’m A Stranger was recorded at Sigma, in the slipstream of Be Thankful For What You Got.
“I’m out here all alone… trying to find my way… I don’t know where to roam… I just don’t know what to say about all this… I’m a stranger.”
Blissful boogie-down soul by the Fatback Band alumnus, produced by Greg Carmichael and Patrick Adams; originally released in 1978. With the almighty It Ain’t No Big Thing.
‘Two tracks from early 70s Los Angeles, around the time of his eponymous first LP. Say You is a superb updating of the Monitors’ harmony hit from 1965, given the distinctively sensitive McNeir treatment. I’m Sorry is a self-penned slow-burner that builds a perfect dancefloor beat.’
Deeply-felt soul from the twenty-two-year-old in 1972, following its own path onwards from Stevie Wonder, with a personality and integrity which stay with you.