270. Curtis Mayfield, "Curtis"

 


When the first song on your album is called "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go" and starts with Curtis Mayfield yelling "Sisters! N-----s! Whities! Jews! Crackers! Don't worry, If there's a Hell below, we're all gonna go!" you know Mayfield has more on his mind than just having fun.  Nevertheless, this album alternately goes so hard and then so smooth that you can't help but absorb that message, whether or not you want to.  (Watchers of mediocre HBO dramas will recognize this song as the theme from "The Deuce.")

So that opening song is a rocking funk jam, but the album then moves into the psychedelic soul it's known for, with "The Other Side of Town."  Later we get "Move on Up," an absolute banger that you almost certainly have heard.  The constants throughout are the social message and Mayfield's beautiful voice.  The vocal is higher in the mix than it is on most records, but that seems like a good choice.  I'd mix mine that high too if I sounded like Curtis Mayfield.

He had kind of an incredible and tragic story.  Mayfield grew up in Chicago, was a member and songwriter in the Impressions, where he cranked out a bunch of classics like "People Get Ready" and "Talking About My Baby" and so, so many more.  He went solo in 1970 with this album, and then did Super Fly and other albums.  In 1990 he was paralyzed from the neck down when a lighting rig fell on him onstage in Brooklyn, but he kept composing and singing.  Mayfield died at 57 in 1999.  Knowing this backstory somehow makes this album more poignant, even though it doesn't need it; it stands completely on its own, a singular artistic vision.  Great album.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Definitely.

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