Earth Wind and Fire in their early days
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Artist:
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Track:Sweet Sweetback's Theme
Those of you who know Ramsey Lewis' "Wade in the Water" will know that Maurice White began in the field of jazz/gospel, before forming Earth Wind and Fire. Way back in 1972, when Melvin van Peebles decided to produce, write and star in "Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song", even a man with his colossal self-confidence balked at writing and performing the soundtrack as well, and thus it fell to the then relatively obscure Earth Wind and Fire to write and perform the film music. This is the main theme.
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MOG it up!
Comments (2)
Brought back some memories. Sweet Sweetback was rawer than the Peter Fonda/Dennis Hopper film. Somewhere in the archives I have a very obscure record Melvin Van Peebles did as Brer Soul, kind of a proto-rap spoken monologue with a jazzy accompaniment. Something like beat poetry. He has had a remarkable life, ended up as a commodity trader in Chicago. His son Mario made a couple of films, but hasn't been heard from lately.
It's also very easy to tell that EW&F came from the church because of thier writing style and their playing style. It's written all over their music...even in some of their lyrics too.