Maurice White of Earth Wind & Fire Dead

About three years ago when my daughter was 18 she was going through a bit of a difficult time and I made her an EWF cd compilation. I left the house and said play it as loud as you want on the (Naim) system. An hour later she text me to say she was overwhelmed how brilliant it was and it was exactly what she needed to get her mind in a positive frame. She's been a big fan ever since.

 

I wouldn't for one minute call it 'dance music'. That's why I didn't use that term. It is music you can dance to and some of the time I do. My feeling is they were unfairly and lazily lumped in with disco when I Am was released. Anybody with a clue will know that a lot of music written off as merely disco was in fact played by people with far more chops than your average rock outfit. Sadly the critics will label R 'n B as somehow impoverished relative to rock because it lacks intellectual weight, ergo 'dance music'. White was a bona fide jazz drummer with Chess, I've been listening to EWF since 1977 and for me they wiped the floor in terms of musicality with any 70's rock act you care to name.

 

R.I.P.

Tough year, and it's only February 6th.

 

I was listening to All N'All through earbuds on the subway yesterday and even in that very subpar listening evironment it's clear that the production on that album is absolute perfection. Everything about it is genius, not least the track sequencing, with those legendary interludes. I'm still getting something new out of it after 36 years. Johnny Graham was underused in EWF, he had a great sound and made every note count.

 

Although I much prefer The Beatles' original of that one, it says something about something that while the film from which EW&F's cover emanated - the misbegotten cinematic adaptation of Sgt. Pepper - was a disaster in every which way, their recording was the biggest hit of the whole bunch, reaching the Top 10 of the pop and R&B charts, outpacing even label mates Aerosmith's re-do of "Come Together." Talk about taking another artist's song to a new level . . . or plane, if you will . . .

 

And, Maurice heard what could be done for the song in his head. I think the hardest part was trying to get the other guys in the band to hear it, too, and they did. It too them all of 20 minutes in a locked hotel room to get their arrangement together and ready for recording.

 

A shame, a Dutch 2 CD comp is my go to EWF comp. It beats the individual Sony CD comps. Sounds great too.

 

It certainly stands as a testament to White's vision that he and the band were all able to make their "Got To Get You . . . " cover . . . ahem, come together. More than what could be said for the band that covered that one at that point in their careers.

As for "Sun Goddess," I checked: The edited single version (3:08) made #20 R&B, #44 pop - and #5 on the disco charts. Where it may've flown on the jazz charts, was the LP with the long version (8:29).

 

Bowie has more posts because it has been about 4 wks....Maurice White just passed, the posts on here will accumulate, give it time.

 

I don't think the posts will accumulate.

I will admit that it's hard for me to know how to respond to those not too familiar with EWF, or R&B music in general, because people not knowing about the music is such an alien concept to me, coming from that era. I guess this forum is full of aliens.

 

That band was hellacious in concert. They don't get mentioned enough when the topic of great live acts is brought up. RIP Maurice.

 

I loved this band and I appreciate Maurice's contribution. Rest in peace.

 

Bad ass ************.
Much love. RIP

 

Billboard asked George Clinton to comment on Bowie here.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/c...n-david-bowie-remembers-mothership-connection

 

R.I.P. Maurice. One of the greats for sure. I remember getting the GH Vol. 1 for xmas in 1978 & still consider it the greatest of all the GH comps ever compiled.

I was listening to an ipod playlist I made for the top 40 hits of 1975 (the year I started paying attn to the top 40) just before xmas and was reminded then of how many of those at or near their peak that year (Barry White, John Denver, 2/3 Bee Gees, Freddy Fender, lead singers of the Spinners, Hot Chocolate, Harold Melvin, Queen, Carpenters, Van McCoy, Major Harris, Joe Simon, Esther Phillips) & fresh young upstarts from 1975 have already passed (Phoebe Snow, Minnie Riperton, Donna Summer).

Now a few weeks later having to add Maurice White, David Bowie, Natalie Cole, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner to that list is very sad. Alternatively, I was listening to a playlist from 1962 last week and thinking how thankfully a good portion of the early 60s stars are still with us (Dion, Brenda Lee, Gary US Bonds, Connie Francis, Chubby Checker, 4 Seasons, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Smokey Robinson, Dee Dee Sharp, etc).

 

Didn't the late Doug Henning (of "The Magic Show" fame) coordinate their live act at one point? I remember reading at some of their concerts they literally "disappeared" from the stage towards the end due to the kind of trickery Mr. Henning employed. Dovetailed with White's concerns of matters spiritual that held huge sway in EW&F's lyrics, I guess. I suppose that their music, based on that factor alone (such as the "glide like a 747" in "Let's Groove"), constituted a different type of "deep soul" than the usual connotations of that term.

And I don't think it was just the "dance music" label that some corners may've looked down (and unjustifiably, I'll agree) on EW&F; I.I.N.M., "After The Love Has Gone" may've also tagged them as treacly balladeers on top of it (I presume it was prescient that one of the writers was someone who could be called the King of Treacle, David Foster).

 

Nope, the operation already started in 2015: http://www.ranker.com/list/dead-musicians-2015-famous-musician-deaths/ranker-death-lists?page=2

I guess someone above is having a ball of sorts, although it's not my idea of having a ball...

 

...and another, Bill Champlin, ended up joining then ballad-leaning Chicago a couple of years after this tune was released.

Ed

 

An awesome monster of a band that crossed multiple genres ...
listening now. RiP

 

I learned something new yesterday. That Maurice White produced, "Best Of My Love" for the Emotions in 1977, a huge, deserving hit single. Even though it sounds exactly like Earth Wind & Fire with chicks singing on it, I never made that connection until it was pointed out to me.

 

@zebop What do you think of their early albums? (Their eponymous debut,Head to the Sky,Open Our Eyes,etc.)

 

I haven't heard the debut but I've heard the rest of the early ones.

I played Last Days and Time a couple of months ago, It was good. It was cool to hear that sound coming together. Of the early songs I like that cover of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" and "The World is a Masquerade."

I like EWF a bit better when Charles Stepney began to work with them. By 1974 they were off and running, you can hear it in songs like "Devotion" and "Mighty Mighty."

For the most part I didn't play the early albums that much, but I did like them and of course I heard the early hits and popular songs on the radio even when they were making new material.

 

I am not @zebop but here are my two cents:

I am very fond of "Last Days and Time". This was first released roughly in the same time frame as the early Funkadelic and Ohio Players albums were being issued. So this was a fertile time for great (and diverse) bands and I loved it. "Last Days and Time"was a good breakout album showing flashes of a great band. I still listen to it often. It was followed by the very strong "Head to the Sky" and "Open Our Eyes". While not the monster sellers that many of the following albums were, they represented the EW&F that I like the best. They were somewhat flawed and not as "slick" as later albums but they had an "organic" feel that the others didn't. The next two studio albums were great with better production values but the music seemed to be smoothing out. "All 'N All" and "I Am" were the last two EW&F albums that I bought.

 

@robertawillisjr did a better job than @zebop did, ha.

I couldn't quite connect with the earlier albums, I don't know why. I liked them but I started hearing them in 74-75 and went from that point and didn't play the pre-1974 stuff that much.

I'm still amazed that I like the later EWF stuff as much as I do. I probably stopped after buying the albums after Touch the World.

 

He produced their debut album and I think the EW&F horn section played on the album.