Bermuda Music Festival - Page 7

Their debut album, “Surrender to Love,” serves as a soundtrack to the everyday lives of everyday folk, who happen to have the gift of song and a willingness to share their love with the world. The spirit is perhaps best captured by the lead single “Rhythm of Life” where the couple sings in the song’s chorus “Loving you is a dance / The rhythm of life / And if there’s a chance / I want you ’till I die.”’

The O'Jays [this one is mine also]
I spoke with legendary songwriter Leon Huff, of Gamble and Huff, about their salad days in the '70s with the O'Jays and Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes.

By '71 G&H were tired of moving their tent from label to label and approached CBS president Clive Davis about a deal for an imprint of their own, to be distributed by CBS.

Recalls Huff, "Clive was blown away by our talent, and it was a great move for us and them. Our company (Philadelphia International) really took off after we signed the O'Jays.

"I remember flying into Cleveland - a disc jockey had called to say 'Man there's a group in Cleveland that's raising hell' - so we took a flight out to Cleveland and went to see them at a club. They had lines around the corner. Those guys were tearing that club up. We stayed in Cleveland until we signed them. We took them back to Philadelphia and recorded and recorded and recorded."

With the O'Jays, and Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, the world of Gamble and Huff came together. In the '70s G&H scored ten No. 1 R&B and nine Top 40 pop hits with the O'Jays; four No. 1 R&B and four Top 20 hits with Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes.

But more importantly, all the disparate elements of the G&H sound coalesced into something new: music with rhythmic muscle, melodic sophistication and orchestral leavening, combined with a newfound social and interpersonal awareness, all funneled through the great pipes of the O'Jays' Eddie Levert and the Bluesnotes' Teddy Pendergrass.

Recorded at G&H's Sigma Sound with engineer Joe Tarsia, the roll began with the O'Jays' "Backstabbers," a remarkable combination of shimmering strings, Latin percussion, post-modern paranoia and a palpable sense of "this is it - there is nothing any of us could or should be doing other than making this music."

G&H weren't following Motown (where Norman Whitfield was making parallel strides) or anyone else (Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes were independently exploring some of the same terrain) - G&B were leading.

In addition to making hits, G&H allowed house band MFSB to stretch out in the grooves of the songs, laying a funky foundation for the extended disco remixes of the later-'70s. Album cuts of such uptempo masterworks as the Bluenotes' "Bad Luck" and "The Love I Lost"; MFSB's "TSOP" (The Soul Train theme song) and "Love Is the Message"; and the O'Jays' "992 Arguments," "I Love Music" and (best) "For the Love of Money" reached lengths of up to 10-minutes of dance floor ecstasy.

Article Author: Eric Olsen

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.

Visit Eric Olsen's author page — Eric Olsen's Blog