Blaxploitation from the Staples and Curtis Mayfield. The title track is all-time knockout soul music: Mavis is startlingly randy, over a masterful, sinuous rhythm. Goddess. New Orleans winningly sublimates I Heard It On The Grapevine; I Want To Thank You is decent, too; Curtis throws in a few Shaft-style instrumentals.
That title track, though.
Their classic, fourth LP, with the mighty I’ll Take You There.
Respect Yourself is here, too; and We The People, co-opted recently by Joe Biden.
With the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns.
The key recordings of the greatest southern soul singer of all time.
Her debut album reissued at last, as a deluxe HIQLP. The CD comes in a Japanese-style, rigid-card sleeve.
Utterly unmissable.
‘Three years ago Honest Jon’s put out her late ‘60s and early 70s recordings and it’s the most unimpeachable collection of heartbreak you’ll ever hear. This new album is just as good’, NME
‘Early contender for 2009’s album of the year. Yes, already’ (Mojo). ‘The sheer soul in her voice is revolutionary’ (NME).**** The Independent, The Times. ‘**** a masterclass in gritty southern soul’ (Daily Mail).
The key recordings of the greatest Southern Soul singer there ever was, with pristine sound, including twelve previously unissued tracks — completely superseding HJ’s own gallant stop-gap.
His masterpiece.
A walloping one dozen tonics of close-cropped, spasming, blissed-out boogie abstraction, for dancin and prancin. Zinging pick-me-up blends of forensic, gleeful, sleight-of-hand skills and disco connoisseurship, school of Ron Hardy.
It’s a must.