Finding Their Voices

"Head To The Sky" marks the period when Earth,Wind & Fire
begin to shed some of their artsier fusion stylings in favor of
a tougher,funkier sound.Now they hadn't made the move into pop
at all-the band still relies on heavy afro-latin percussion and
as on the Santana-like "Evil",and a healthy dose of improvising
as on the elaborate closing jam "Zanzibar".At the same time
the heavy funk of "Build Your Nest",the lovely pastoral R&B
of "Keep Your Head To The Sky" and the near gospel of
"The World's A Masquerade" point to being three of this bands
very best songs."Head To The Sky" serves as a perfect career
bridge-not the least bit what had come before but not the future yet.One wonders what might've happened if Earth,Wind & Fire had decided to expand on this varriation of they're sound.
Their subsequent pop success might've taken a drastically different form.

In the Beginning.....

at least for me anyway. This is the first Earth, Wind & Fire album I heard, and I went out and spent my whole ($5) allowance on it back in 1972. Along with WAR's "The World is A Ghetto" this is among the very first albums in my now very large collection. I liked the entire album, because at that time, the sound was very new; the concept was new; and I had never heard of a "kalimba". What an amazing sound Maurice White produced on his "finger piano"! When I read that he was from my hometown Chicago, and was a session drummer with Ramsey Lewis (his "Sun Goddess" was also one of my early album picks), I knew I had struck gold. I had to go out and subsequently get "Last Days and Time" with a young Ronnie Laws on it! Great albums to introduce this fantastic group.

Q-Dawgs Knew 'Way Back Then.

Way back when in the land of campus life, I, a naive freshman was invited to one of Omega Psi Phi's notorious weekend smokers. Why they'd ask me back then I still can't fanthom. In fact, I would make a better candidate nowadays than I would'a been then. I couldn't resist going knowing that the best looking upper classmen ladies were gonna be there. And I could dream, can't I?

Anyhoo, it was in a cramped three room basement I first heard this album. And the slo-jams (Keep Your) Head to the Sky and Masquerade must've been produced for those dancing way too close, blue lighted frathouse parties. As they say, oh, what a night!

I however didn't need to go no further than when Cleaves and Bailey hit those high notes at the end of Head to the Sky. Mom and pop was still picking up the tab of my four year education, and things (and upperclassmen women) looked better in the blue lights. So, when the regular lights came back on, suddenly, the hormonal surges screeched to a stop.

No matter. I kept what I needed to keep, anyhoo. That EWF is a great performance band which writes immortal tunes that ol' squats like me will always remember.