darker than blue

June 3, 2008

Another forgotten Curtis classic that I used to play a lot of but hasn’t been on the turntable for a while.

But I like the fact that I have gone off from where I started on this musical journey. Listened to the stripped down bass and drums of NYC No Wave or dabbled with the Arp’d synths of some Italo Disco. Pottered around in some string-drenched major label disco, and took a little timeout on the sun-deck with some Yacht Rock.

Now, all these years later, after the all those sounds I go back and listen to this – from 1970, and realise, it was setting out a sound for all of that. A couple of years after Sgt Pepper, here is soul music’s Sgt Pepper. Here’s the sound that ESG heard or that turned on a young Bambaataa. A record that David Byrne would have picked up, or Brian Eno, that gave them the courage to work the studio and create some sounds.

Maybe I’m being sentimental. And maybe this album isn’t as important for me as some of Marvin’s or Aretha’s. But this track, right here, is a killer. An iron fist message, wrapped in velvet glove strings.

Curtis Mayfield – We People Who Are Darker Than Blue

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