Something's Rotten (in 2016)

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    Something's Rotten (in 2016)
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    I must admit that when it comes to guilty pleasures Philadelphia Soul is right up there.

    The string soaked complex arrangements and the nearly disco beats sound sort of naff now, but I really love them. And their use of the sort of R&B singers who have become clichés now – like Tendy Prendergrass and Lou Rawls – doesn’t help the rep but over and over again the Gamble & Huff team, along with their house orchestra MFSB, hit the jackpot.

    Records that work as dance classics, records that work as soul classics, records that work as jazz funk classics, and records like TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia) – that are just straight up classics.

    Billy Paul was a key part of that army of hits and made classic after classic for the label.

    Let Em ‘In and Me & Mrs Jones veer close to the point of overdone now.
    Only The Strong Survive and The Whole Town’s Talking are just classics.
    Am I Black Enough For You? Is a stone classic of the continued civil rights struggle and one of Billy’s many “conscience” songs.
    And Don’t Think Twice It's All Right is one of the best (gospel influenced) Dylan covers of them all.

    But I’ve always been a sucker of this crazy trip out synth monster from “War Of The Gods”

     



    I just hope he doesn’t get totally forgotten in the wake of Prince.

     

    -TH

     

    Billy Paul - December 1, 1934 - April 24, 2016

     

    145766
    Tags:
    guitar,
Submitted by Site Factory admin on



 

I must admit that when it comes to guilty pleasures Philadelphia Soul is right up there.

The string soaked complex arrangements and the nearly disco beats sound sort of naff now, but I really love them. And their use of the sort of R&B singers who have become clichés now – like Tendy Prendergrass and Lou Rawls – doesn’t help the rep but over and over again the Gamble & Huff team, along with their house orchestra MFSB, hit the jackpot.

Records that work as dance classics, records that work as soul classics, records that work as jazz funk classics, and records like TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia) – that are just straight up classics.

Billy Paul was a key part of that army of hits and made classic after classic for the label.

Let Em ‘In and Me & Mrs Jones veer close to the point of overdone now.
Only The Strong Survive and The Whole Town’s Talking are just classics.
Am I Black Enough For You? Is a stone classic of the continued civil rights struggle and one of Billy’s many “conscience” songs.
And Don’t Think Twice It's All Right is one of the best (gospel influenced) Dylan covers of them all.

But I’ve always been a sucker of this crazy trip out synth monster from “War Of The Gods”

 



I just hope he doesn’t get totally forgotten in the wake of Prince.

 

-TH

 

Billy Paul - December 1, 1934 - April 24, 2016

 

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