RATING GUIDE

90-100% Excellent

80-90% Very Good

60-80% OK/Good

50-60% Is it worth it?

Below 50% forget it.

CURTIS MAYFIELD'S

CHICAGO SOUL

LEGACY 481029

Track listing

1 The Opals

You can't hurt me no more

2 Walter Jackson

What would you do?

3 Major Lance 

I'm the one who loves you

4 Billy Butler

I can't work no longer

5 Gene Chandler

Good times (a.k.a Gonna be good times)

6 Major Lance

Monkey Time

7 Artistics

Patty cake

8 Billy Butler & the Enchanters

(I've got a feeling) Your gonna be sorry

9 Major Lance

Think nothing about it

10 Billy Butler & the Enchanters

Nevertheless (I love you)

11 Walter Jackson

It's all over

12 Billy Butler & the Enchanters

Found true love

13 Major Lance

You'll want me back

14 Walter Jackson

That's what mama says

15 Billy Butler & the Enchanters

Gotta get away

16 Walter Jackso

Funny (not much)

17 The Opals

You're gonna be sorry

18 Major Lance

Gonna get married

This CD may not be easy to find - it's been out for quite some time. Nevertheless, it is one of those CD's that will leave you wondering, "Why didn't I get it when it came out?" And if you've got it then you're probably smirking with that self-satisfied feeling of didn't I do well. In terms of tracks and time it is not a bargain (45:31). By now it may be available in the bargain basement bins and probably second hand too. If you come across a copy make a bee line for the counter with it in your mitts and transfer ownership to yourself with some of the folding. Not all of it can be described as pure Northern but does that really matter? Great soul music is great soul music.

Curtis Mayfield is a seminal figure in the development of Soul music in the 60's. He is to Chicago what Berry Gordy was to Detroit. This compilation contains compositions, production work and arrangements from one of the most talented and respected musicians of the latter part of this century. 

The Opals kick off the proceedings with a typical Mayfield ballad You can't hurt me no more. Beautiful arrangement and the girls give it their all. Classic soul. (9/10)

Walter Jackson does a deep soul smoothy with What would you do. Again, if you are familiar with the Impressions recordings then this will not come as any great surprise. Mayfield's hallmarks are stamped all over this gem (9/10).

Major Lance delivers the first Northern style track with I'm the one who loves you. If it wasn't for his voice you would be convinced you were listening to the Impressions at their peak. Absolutely brilliant track. Could do with some plays on todays Northern scene but is there anyone out there brave enough to revive it? (10/10)

Billy Butler and the Enchanters deliver I can't work no longer in their own inimitable style. And stylish this is with the kind of polish in the arrangement that could only be Mayfield's handiwork. (10/10)

Well, Chicago also means Gene Chandler. What is their to say about this fabulous recording? Mr Smooth and Mr. Polish at it again giving Gene a superb production and a classic number into the bargain. Definitely Northern through and through. (10/10)

The Monkey Time made Major Lance a national figure by cashing in on one of the big dance crazes of the period. Unlike most dance records Monkey Time has that Mayfield and the Impressions feel to it. it is still one of the best dance genre records from the 60's. Another 10/10.

Patty Cake is a little too twee for me and probably for most Northern devotees. It's also "tres tres 50's" and not typical of Chicago's 60's output of that time. The Artistics did much better than this item. Not a great piece of music but not bad either. (6/10)

For me Billy Butler and the Enchanters rarely puts a foot wrong. Their material is strictly Class "A". You're gonna be sorry is a great mid-tempo number that just oozes quality through the speakers. Just so cool and stylish. Yep. got to be another 10/10. Major Lance follows on in a similar vein with Think nothing about it. Oh, yes! More class indeed. Another 10/10.

And so to the outstanding track of the CD and worth owning the CD for this one track alone. (Considering the excellent recordings on this CD that is really saying something). Fantastic string arrangement. Billy Butler & the Enchanters Nevertheless is in my personal Top 10 of all time great Soul tracks ever! 100/10 if that were possible but we'll have to settle for 10/10.

Walter Jackson continues with his balladeering It's all over. very much like his earlier tracks. Class through and through though definitely not Northern dancing material but still awesome listening. (So do we have to dance to everything?) It would be grossly unfair to give this less than 9/10. So we won't.

Found true love begins with a bitty doo wop element that betrays Butlers & Enchanters origins. It remains a noticeable element throughout the song but that doesn't detract from yet another fine mid-tempo offering with a fine hook. Not ripe for the full monty of marks but worth a definite 9/10.

Major Lance with a ballad? Eh? Yep. The little feller does a fine slowie with You'll want me back and manages to escape doing an Impressions clonalike. 9/10.

The best Walter Jackson number on the CD comes next. That's what Mama says. A real advisory record full of truisms. 9/10.

Gotta get away is Impressions clonalike stuff. Brilliant all the same. Billy Butler & the Enchanters never got closer to the sound of the Impressions than they did with this number. If this were slipped onto an Impressions compilation it very few would be able to tell the difference. A great dancer all the same. Worth another 10/10 - heck I'm generous!

Well, there's always one track that goes and spoils it. Walter Jackson is the culprit who impersonates a lounge tuxedo a la Dean Sinatra Cole Junior with overtones of Johnny Matthis. Sorry, Walt! This ain't Funny (Not much). This is well crap! Good for a laugh but pleeeze ... all we need is sizzling strings from Nelson Riddle to compound the horror of horrors. 2/10 - and then only out of respect to his other great tracks on this compilation.

The Opals lift the spirits a little with You're gonna be sorry. Outstanding it ain't but at least it's in the right direction and it is most definitely sound mid-tempo soul. Good enough for 7/10.

The compilation ends with Major Lance doing Gonna get married. Love the bongos that keep featuring all the way through. A really relaxed number just about mid-tempo and you could dance to it but it's really another one of those Mayfield story songs. Good but not great. Worth a sound 8/10.

So, maybe not every track is Northern but so what. And it does contain the outrageously fabulous Nevertheless by Billy Butler & the Enchanters. Need more than that be said? Now after hearing this you really get to the nitty gritty about just how much of an influence Mayfield was in 60's Chicago. 80% rating. Would have been higher but that Walt Jacksonreally was dire and dragged the score down.