“Now ladies and gentlemen, the Bitter End is proud to announce, Curtis Mayfield.”
(gentle applause)
And so begins what I regard as both the most intimate live LP, and the most perfect document of where an artist (who is already midway through a long career), and his band “are at” at the precise time it was recorded.
I love “Curtis/Live!” It is not the most accessible record ever pressed, it is not so much a “grower” as a flawed machine that requires an experienced operator to get the best out of. That is the reason I’m starting the blog with this LP, “dipping in” will only frustrate, but live with this creation and you will be glad you invested the time.
Back to that intro, as the applause subsides, the band start with “Mighty Mighty (Spade and Whitey)” which I now know is (like many others on the LP) an old Impressions song, but was new to me when I discovered this LP in 1989. Curtis raps his way through the socio-conscious lyrics but the crowd are hardly appreciative, even to the superb Conga solo by “Master” Henry Gibson. I know little of the history of the LP and deliberate avoided googling before writing this, but I like to think Curtis is experimenting with an audience, seeing how the concepts are received as much as putting on a performance for the paying punter.
It is the aforementioned little solos, bass runs, bits of guitar feedback (great screech after “I Plan To Stay A Believer”), asides to the audience about politics (how many other live LPs name check Spiro Agnew?), the mixing of extracts of verses from other Curtis songs into the performed song and other treats that make this LP so rewarding on repeated listens. I’m not afraid to admit that I actually mime Curtis’ “talky bits” like some Python nerd quoting “Life of Brian.” These nuances have become part of language between me and my fellow “Live!” admirer and friend Nic. Can you imagine such a thing?
“What congregation, with better relations, would demand more respect from society?” The next song, "I Plan To Stay A Believer" allows Curtis to demonstrate a skill I think he shares with Smoky Robinson and Bob Dylan, the ability to create great rhymes, something he is rarely credited for. He mixes into this song a bit of “Keep On Pushing” and “We’re A Winner” but the LP sleeve make no mention of this on my copy, but does on others? What the sleeve does reveal is the unplastered brickwork of “The Bitter End” nightclub. It has also convinced me that if I had the money to spend on an original US Fender guitar, I’d eschew the ubiquitous Strat for a Telecaster. If it is good enough for Curtis…..
By the start of “We’ve Only Just Begun” the band have built up a bit of a momentum, but judging by the applause, the Bitter End audience are not yet ready for a mix of Black Power and Carpenters covers. Their loss, it’s a superb earthy version of a great song and in 2011 sounds like a choice of ironic genius. Bet Curtis chose it for the sentiment, the rhymes and the chords. A man without prejudice. Curtis quickly moves on to “People Get Ready” even then he probably would have known that the Impressions track would become a staple for his live performances for years to come, but it is when this ends that the LP (and performance) starts to get more serious.
“Stare And Stare” is moody and dark and speaks of prejudice borne out on bus rides. Importantly it is the perfect mood changer for the next offering “Check Out Your Mind” (another Impressions song) takes on a hard, funky and psychedelic tone that the studio group version never had. Joseph “Lucky” Scott’s bass bubbles away in the background before taking a run behind Curtis’ guitar solo, while Tyrone McCullen hammers the beat down hard. I love this band. The funked up Impressions material continues with “Gypsy Woman.” It is the rest of the LP that outlines Curtis Mayfield’s artistic integrity and musical talent. He must have been capable of knocking out crossover soul hits in his sleep and if employed at Stax or Motown he would have done. Instead he remained independent (at least through the Curtom label) and in his solo material ploughed a less fertile furrow of playing at places like “The Bitter End” with a musical edge that challenged rather than pacified. “The Makings Of You” is a tender love song that many writers would envy but could be overlooked here, falling as it does, between the drug critical “Check Out Your Mind” (Superfly was coming soon) and “We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue,” the latter being another chance for Curtis to show off some superb rhyming couplets and talk frankly about “grown up shiftless jiggers” I’ve bought a few records over the years and I haven’t found any other (pre hip-hop) that comments so concisely on race related cival rights, I’ve heard plenty of “Black Power” type posturing, and of course a whole folk movement, but nothing as candid as Curtis. The track takes a very funky turn and winds the crowd up perfectly for “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go”.
The crowd took a bit of warming up, but by now they are in Mr Mayfield’s pocket. The “Don’t Worry” bassline driving forward as “Lucky’s” congas must drip with palm sweat. Curtis teases the crowd in this and the final track, another little quirk that makes this LP irresistible to me. The final track is my least favourite but has some genuinely funny moments and clearly winds the crowd into a frenzy, again Mayfield’s charm allows him to joke with the audience on sensitive subjects, comparing women using the contraceptive pill to “ease the pains” with heroin addicts, despite keeping his tongue firmly in cheek, is a risky business, but after the “whoo” from the crowd he wins them over again.
So there it is. By no means perfect. Not perfectly recorded, received by the audience or even performed, but an idiosyncratic masterpiece. There is so much to love, so much to reward the listener who perseveres with repeated listens. Mayfield’s introduction of the band members alone is great, as is every other “talky bit” or shout from the crowd, the musicians are marvellous and Curtis’ choice of material I find intriguing. There is little from his first solo LP (what, no “Move On Up?”), and his reworks of Impressions songs have become to me the definitive versions.
Get it.
Play it.
All the way through!
King Canute, January 2011.
Published tracklisting (from discogs, differently tracked versions of the same recording exist):
A1 Mighty Mighty (Spade And Whitey) 6:46
A2 Rap 0:2
A3 I Plan To Stay A Believer 3:00
A4 We're A Winner 4:35
B1 Rap 0:42
B2 We've Only Just Begun 3:43
B3 People Get Ready 3:35
B4 Rap 0:35
B5 Stare And Stare 6:19
C1 Check Out Your Mind 3:50
C2 Gypsy Woman 3:48
C3 The Makings Of You 3:03
C4 Rap 2:00
C5 We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue 6:38
D1 (Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below, We're All Gonna Go 9:08
D2 Stone Junkie 7:48
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