Earth, Wind and Fire

K K

Knight1979

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 Feb 2008
Messages
937
I was always a fan of 70's funk like Sly so I picked up a bunch of super cheap used Earth Wind and Fire vinyl and I don't know where to start: the grooves, the melodies, the vocals are sublime. A perfect blend of funk, soul, R&B, and pop. Infectious as hell.

On your face (Super catchy riff, has to have been sampled by someone)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jISrk2L4htM

After the Love has gone (I'm not big into corny ballads but this is awesome)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR4Ovy3LarE

Let's Groove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOY7lsBVpo (The coolest video ever)
 
They were never seen as serious funk at the time, (Like Cameo) and I know they were'nt quite Funkadelic or Parliament, but really did have some great music. (Like Cameo)
 
I was listening to Raise again the other day, on vinyl because I haven't bought any EWF since that stopped. It starts with Let's Groove, but Evolution Orange seems to stand out. I played it to a friend who's a professional musician and he just said 'they're tight' nodding his head the way his sort do. Possibly he was talking about something else, but the production does seem very practised, perhaps to the extent that it gets in the way of the funk. The funk was there when they were live. I'm all for bands dresing up as ancient Egyptians though, and walking on stage in formation, all thirty of them. Liam should give the matter some thought.
 
merlot somme said:
I was listening to Raise again the other day, on vinyl because I haven't bought any EWF since that stopped. It starts with Let's Groove, but Evolution Orange seems to stand out. I played it to a friend who's a professional musician and he just said 'they're tight' nodding his head the way his sort do. Possibly he was talking about something else, but the production does seem very practised, perhaps to the extent that it gets in the way of the funk. The funk was there when they were live. I'm all for bands dresing up as ancient Egyptians though, and walking on stage in formation, all thirty of them. Liam should give the matter some thought.
Click to expand...

Raise is a mixed bag and was more disco than funk. They get away a little bit from the lush melodies and instrumentation of previous albums. Check out Spirit, That's the way of the World and All in All. There is very little production on these albums and they were recorded during the dead room era where engineers just wanted to capture a pure signal from the instruments without any fluff. Those albums jump out of the speakers and you can really hear what incredible musicians they were.
 
Gladys1979, I'm glad you said they were good musicians because they were weren't they, that's often overlooked. I suspect it's because most people have only ever listened to EWF in a lift, in Tescos, or via some tinny transistor, and haven't heard it turned up.

I hope you don't mind me asking you about something slightly different but possibly in your line ... what do you think of War (city, country and all that). I haven't heard much of their stuff but no-one seems to have anything good to say about them, why does no-one like them?
 
War.....I'm not real familiar with their catalog. I have Everyday Music and the World is a Ghetto on vinly but I haven't listened to them in a while. It has more of a sun dried, southern california feel to it. I also remember them having a strong latin feel and rythm to the music, reminicent of Santana or something similar. I don't remember being quite moved by it like I am by Sly and EWF but I should probably re-visit them. Oddly enough, EWF's first album in 1970 (which is very hard to find) sounds a whole hell of lot more like War then their later stuff.
 
Thanks for that Mr Knight, with War it must be the Love side of me coming out. I didn't start litening to EWF until the mid 1980s when I went to college (in London, and from that period I've got some much loved if now very easy to date stuff from a briefly put together band called Floy Joy, ever heard of them?) At that point EWF had already gone into some sort of retirement and London was being plagued by Womack and Womack and their like. I went to see Chaka instead.
 
Saw EWF at Stafford Bingley Hall in 1979.Still probably best gig ever seen.

They did that bit at the end of the set where some alien spacemen came and led each one into a spaceship at the back of the stage. The ship lifts off, the bottom falls out and the spacemen take off their helmets (ahem!) and IT'S THE BAND!!

But yes -absolutely top players and tight as a drum.

Anyone see Parliament /Funkadelic at Belle Vue around that time?
 
They did that bit at the end of the set where some alien spacemen came and led each one into a spaceship at the back of the stage. The ship lifts off, the bottom falls out and the spacemen take off their helmets (ahem!) and IT'S THE BAND!

It's just as I was saying, Liam and Noel could learn a few things. How to be eternally cool to start with.
 
Brilliant Band,my fave songs of theirs are,Reasons,Way of the World,and Loves Holiday,class songs.
 
merlot somme said:
I went to see Chaka instead.[/quote

I remember clearly, a certain member of Thin Lizzy, having er 'relations' with Chaka Khan, in the ladies toilets at Brambles club in the early 80's during a party...........happy bloody days.
Click to expand...
 
Midnight creeps so slowly into hearts of men who need more than they get,
Daylight deals a bad hand to a woman who had laid too many bets.
The mirror stares you in the face and says Baby, uh uh it don't work
You say your prayers, though you don't care, you dance and shake the hurt

Dance .... Boogie wonderland.
 
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