#678: E is for Earth Wind & Fire

I Am is the name of this record.
I am having a dance party here
in my study at 11:30 in the morning.
I am grooving to these funky
rhythms from “In the Stone” right
out of the gate, and the funk hardly
lets up for half a second as the
tracks segue from one to the other
with hardly a beat in between.
I am listening to a record that
I am unable to remember buying,
but the price tags are still there,
$1.99 from the stacks at Goodwill.
I am listening to the hit ballad,
which I recognize when I hear it,
but not when I read the title:
“After the Love Is Gone.” I am
thinking, there’s some cheese
here, not atypical for 1979, but
this cheese here is punctuated
by these surprising hits and turns,
a most sophisticated kind of
sentimental, sloppy ballad.
I am, for example, thinking about
that crazy transition between
the two double choruses before
the outro fade–which amazingly
drops everything out except the
sax, still riffing, while the next
funky dance tune kicks off.
Holy crap. It’s so kick ass.
I am wondering if I can dance
and type at the same time.
Turns out, I can. I am wondering
why I did not absolutely love
Earth Wind & Fire when I was a kid.
In 1979, I am trying on the punk rock,
I am turning to the new wave; as
a young drummer, I am influenced
by the prog and the prodigious,
but the new wave and punk,
and Zappa, and King Crimson,
bring on the weird,
and that’s what turns me on.
It must have been that the lyric
content of the funk and soul
of the day, somehow strikes me,
even in my teens, as sentimental
and silly, so much so that I am
missing the absolute mastery
and power of these musicians.
It’s so crunchy and tight and
musically nuanced. Now, I am thinking
that no one is doing this today.
That Childish Gambino record
comes close, maybe that collab
between Bruno Mars and Anderson
Paak is circling the ball park.
I can’t think of a single other artist
today that comes close, although,
I know they’re out there, as, by now,
everything is out there if you dig
deep enough. For today, I am happy
to be visiting this funky soul music
at the source. I am thinking
that I have not enjoyed myself
as much listening to an album
I hardly know as I have enjoyed
myself on this glorious, sunny,
Wednesday February morning.

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Notes on the vinyl edition: I Am, Columbia Records, 1979, used black vinyl in good condition.

In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric. .