Harvest For The Isleys
It occured to me the other day that in the year and a half I've been doing this blog I've only featured one track by The Isley Brothers which a shocking omission on my part as I think they're one of the greatest groups ever to walk the earth. So here's a couple of tracks from their great 1976 album "Harvest For The World" to make up for it. "So You Wanna Stay Down" is a driving, soul-pop-rock number powered by acoustic guitar that makes it funky as hell but light-footed too. Just hearing Ronald Isley's sweet. sweet voice makes me feel good all over. "(At Your Best) You Are Love" is a gentle ballad that's about as good as late-night bedroom soul gets, so warm and tender it's like someone running their fingers through your hair. This was covered by Aaliyah apparently, never heard her version though. I've left some vinyl crackles in the file as I think they give it a certain warm ambience. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
"Harvest For The World" isn't quite as great as their masterpiece "3+3" (every home should have one) but it's pretty damn good and nearly all their 70s albums are worth getting. Another great thing about The Isley's albums from that era is the outlandish outfits they wear on the covers. My friends and I used to joke about going to the pub dressed in silver jumps suits with tassled sleeves like the one O'Kelly Isley is wearing above. Well, it was funny at the time. You had to be there I guess.
[Download]
So You Wanna Stay Down - The Isley Brothers
(At Your Best) You Are Love - The Isley Brothers
3 Comments:
I'm very partial to their earlier stuff; I've had "I Must Be Losing My Touch" in heavy rotation lately.
Thanks!
-j
For me, The Isleys do n`t get as much credit as other soul artists. Their body of work throughout the Seventies is right up there with the much lauded(and quite rightly so)Seventies albums from Stevie Wonder.Knicker-dropping vocals, incendiary guitar work, they were equally at home in bedroom as they were on the dancefloor. What else is there???
I was a big fan of theirs and can remember buying the 3+3 LP at age 14 one christmas, after hearing 'who's that lady'. I bought every album after that until they went a bit poppy in the 80's but still bought their albums, which became more and more overproduced (same thing happened to EWF). Every album they released went gold over 10- 15 year period plus they ran their own label (T-Neck), so give 'em the praise that's due.One regret they never toured much and never left the states.
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