The ABC Years and Lost Sessions

AMG Review of The ABC Years and Lost Sessions

Ed Hogan
All Music Guide

Lamont Dozier's The ABC Years and Lost Sessions culls select tracks from his two ABC albums, Out Here on My Own (1973) and Black Bach (1974). Both LPs were produced by McKinley Jackson who co-wrote Dozier's biggest hits. It could also serve as somewhat of a greatest-hits set for the Motown alumnus. It includes his highest charting singles, the deliciously melodramatic ballad "Trying to Hold on to My Woman," the cheerful "Fish Ain't Bitin'" with its President Nixon/Watergate reference ("Tricky Dick trying to be slick"), and the tender ballad "Let Me Start Tonite," which is laced with picking banjos and hickory-flavored harmonica. If you're familiar with the original albums, Lamont Dozier's The ABC Years and Lost Sessions will serve to make you long for full album reissues on Out Here on My Own and Black Bach. An unreleased Dozier track from the '70s was used as the basis of Omar's "Outside" on his 1995 RCA CD For Pleasure.