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The KEY word here is HITS. Success = Hits. The first two Sly and The Family Stone albums , the first two E.W.F. albums ,the Pain ,Pleasure and Ectasy albums by The Ohio Players and Funkadelics 6 albums for Westbound ,were not accepted by the majority of the African American audience. They were listened to and followed by the African American college students and people that were tuned into the "advante garde" or other than mainstream Soul audience. There was a definate division in what one side listed to or was open to ,there was Soul/Funk/ R+B and what was Rock and Jazz influeneced Soul/Rock R+B . African Americans who were into those groups at that time were also into groups such as B.S.T. ,Chicago ,Led Zepp and Grand Funk. I had many friends who were not into Sly ,Funkadelic and The O.P. "Stand" was the point when more of the African American audience was into Sly , Skin Tight for The O.P. , Last Days In Time for E.W.F ,"Stage" for Funkadelic. As the African American audience grew ,the chance to Crossover grew along with it. The best material by all the groups mentioned here in this thread ,wasn't no hit, in terms of commercial value. Maggot Brain ,Sex Machine and I Think about Loving You can't be considered "hits" ,but that don't take away from them being classic tracks.
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And the difference is that all of the groups you've listed eventually had top ten and number one hits on the Billboard pop charts, except P-Funk. That is part of the mystique. Damn near every mover and shaker in Black Music has met that criteria somewhere in their career. P-Funk is the lone exception. Even James Brown, as much as we would like to put his music in a pro-Black context, has had top ten and top five hits. In many ways P-Funk maybe the biggest black cultural phenomenon in recent memory, and by that I mean that they represented a Black musical revolution that seized the consciousness of the African American community, yet got no love outside of the hood.
All of this is to say that no one band or performer in 1970's Black Music ruled the decade. Everyone shared the pie and went back for seconds.
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Let me ask a similar queston.
Who was Bigger than EWF in 1970's Black Music? Not as big....but BIGGER.
And I'm referring to the Whole EWF experience.
Just Curious.
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The Jackson Five/Jacksons? A lot more pop hits under their belt throughout the decade.
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EWF didn't rule the 70's!
Let me try Des. Not all are bands as requested by Kev-Lo, but you'll get my point.
Stevie Wonder [[especially his Superstition-Higher Ground, As, Pastime Paradise), The Temptations [[especially with Papa was a Roller), Marvin Gaye [[What's Going On), The Isley Brothers [[Who's That Lady), Rose Royce [[Car Wash), Donny Hathaway [[The Ghetto) and of course Curtis Mayfield where huge in the country that i grew up in. Bigger than EWF.
Maybe that has to do with the history of those bands or musicians, a lot of them where already established artists from back in the days.
Most of the good stuff from EWF wasn't available to us normal people back then. Lot's of us only had the chance to listen to the music the record companies wanted us to listen to.
They started to play EWF more when EWF changed the musical formular to September or Boogie Woogie Land.
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ollie , That's an interesting point of view. May I ask ,what country are you from?
In comparison ,I'm an African American from New York City. Back when E.W.F. released their first Warner album ,there was no air play on Black Radio or any other market and only a few people knew of the group. The second album had the beautiful track ,"I Think About Loving You" , which did get some airplay and was a slow jam played at Black parties in the eastern inner cities of N.Y. ,Jersey ,Philly and Washington D.C. The first Columbia album ,"Last Day's" , Had "Time Is On Your Side" and "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" , and was also played on Black radio ,although not in rotation. That's classic E.W.F. Compare it to the catipillar in the cacoon. At this point E.W.F. was most popular with college and progressive Soul music fans ,because of the melding of Jazz ,Funk and Soul elements. From there it was all uphill , cutting edge until after "Gratitude and Ramsey's "Sun Goddess". From there ..................
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Daddyacey i grew up in Germany/D'dorf and learned from a few funky friends that EWF had really good music on the early albums. Nothing of the early stuff was ever played on radio, they only started to play EWF on air when the music in my opinion wasn't so good anymore. Not that i have a problem with other people's musical taste, but the later stuff wasn't as interesting to me as the early records. My own personal musical taste always seemed to differ from the masses anyway.
In the 80's EWF had a cult status of being a major FUNK band in Germany. But they took the September or Boogie Wonderland Funk as the base for that, and people who know more than the average knew that that wasn't right. EWF can FUNK the hell out of anybody, but money and softening the FUNK was the game back then and still is.
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I think that Earth, Wind & Fire were at least until the death of Charles Stepney on a path that elevated them into a level of success where no other large black group had attained [[Shout Outs to the Ohio Players and Isley Brothers as well). Maurice while more than a competent producer seemed to lack something that Stepney provided the group. As I worked in retail throughout the 70's I can recall the constant competition between EW&F and The Isley Brothers as well as Stevie Wonder. Those three acts provided the most anticipation when new product was in the pipeline. I only wonder how long Earth, Wind & Fire could have continued the mystique that they seemed to posess had Charles Stepney lived past That's The Way Of The World.
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WaltB, have you forgotten Mr Stepney did write for and do production work for the Spirit album though sadly he died
during the recording sessions?...
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You're right Splanky! it's been a lot of years...
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great vids!
splanky.... charles stepney had a small b +w photo and in memory of on spirit back cover.
nothing ruled the '70's really did it?
end of the detroit motown
then the philly sound kicked off
the live acts that took your breath away were ewf,war and the pfunk tours.
the early 70's what about the jb's
ewf had 5/6 good albums 72-79
kool and the gang's funky stuff was THE anthem,they were great too 'till they got a vocalist and went disco,celebrate,ladies night
ohio players with the pain/pleasure/climax thing then on to mercury for skin tight, fire and honey.
war went thru the 70's quite well
bt express 1 great album then faded slowly,by 3rd album for definate
brass construction 1st 2 albums great/good then i lost intrest.
the fatback band with their street funk style. "street dance" [[perception label) was something else
parliament's pfunk 75 onwards and the funkadelic,bootsy collins thing maybe if any one did imo it was the pfunk movement.
bootsy collins bass ruled the 70's jb and pfunk?
or the brekkers they were on everything with the electric sax and trumpet
dont mention disco tho'!
'spose the only way to do it is in record sales
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We as people know that Earth,Wind & Fire's live shows in the mid seventies and early eighties were a thing to witness.Their concerts weren't nothing to sneeze at.You definitely can't compare the same group from then to now,just ain't the same.I really like to know is when the record companies are going to get up their butts and release live Dvd's or Blu Ray's of E,W & F's classsic shows?I mean never before seen concerts of the classic lineup.That's something I've been waiting for the past ten years.I hope and pray they will do it soon!Peace!
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I wish Brick was more popular back then. They combined Jazz/Funk/Soul..even a bit of Reggae. Now, I loved ALL the sounds back then from the Ohio Players to Parliament, to EWF, to the Isleys and so on, BUT BRICK just did it for me..Paulo XXX
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I meant to ask this earlier. Why isn't "Head To The Sky" available domestically? I've always thought that all of EWF's album were available in the U.S.. I'm starting to see that that isn't the case.
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The short answer is "Yes" among others.