Skip to main content

Donny Hathaway

80

Donny Hathaway

Donny Hathaway
 
Voices such as Donny Hathaway’s come along maybe once a decade. Before his brief but influential career was cut short by suicide in 1979, Hathaway proved himself a maestro of protest soul who effused equal amounts of political anger and romantic tenderness. With that being so, it’s a curious fact that despite his vocal gifts and his acknowledged influence on the neo-soul movement of the early 2000’s, his catalogue is often ignored. His debut album, 1970’s Everything is Everything, is equal parts spiritual and political. The album is a stirring introduction to Hathaway’s many vocal and songwriting influences (gospel, jazz, classical) and lay the ground-work for where he strove to take them. 1971’s self-titled, Donny Hathaway, consists mainly of his redefining interpretations of the current Top 40 at that time, like his shiver-inducing versions of the Leon Russell/Carpenters tune “A Song for You” and the Hollies’ “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” The real highlight of Hathaway’s discography, though, is his the 1972 live album, simply titled Live. This was my introduction to Hathaway thanks to my friend and bass player in my band who was amazed at the bass solo on the last track of the album, he had to share with me the amazement that is this album. With stirring covers of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” the album would be great as a covers album, but it’s album's aforementioned closer “Everything is Everything” which highlights the talents of the band-members through separate solos. These solos prove Hathaway and his band were truly soul legends whose influence can still be felt in today’s music. 1973’s Extension of a Man was his ambitious, “heavy” album, featuring the epochal “Someday We’ll All Be Free” and the LP’s grandiose orchestral opener, “I Love the Lore,He Head My Cry (Parts 1 & 2)." 1980 gave us the collaboration album with Roberta Flack, Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway. In 2013 Rhino records did an amazing job of capturing Hathaway with the box set, Never My Love: The Anthology, which I highly recommend for the die-hard fans out there. The music is timeless and I wish he would’ve stayed…
It’s Donny Hathaway

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cake

43 Cake Cake What you need is some CAKE. The late 90's were primed for CAKE. When the emotional hangover of the grunge scene was too much, we got CAKE. This isn't a gag joke. In fact- your gag reflexes are in need of some CAKE.  Despite CAKE's quirky surface, singer John McCrea's deadpan delivery and Vince Di Fiore's mariachi trumpet playing, CAKE is as real as it gets. And with more than 25 years as a band and still going strong, they have nothing left to prove. It all started with 1994's Motorcade for Generosity with the single " Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle " which mocked trust-fund rebels. Then came 1996's Fashion Nugget with the all-time classic " The Distance ." 1998 gave us Prolonging the Magic, a high-water mark. I got on board in 2001 with Comfort Eagle . I was big on disco at the time and their cover of " I Will Survive " caught my attention, and then I saw the " Short Skirt, Long Jacket " video o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouper

 131 Grouper  Grouper Reverb. Echo. Effects. Acoustic. Droney. These are some words you could use to explain Grouper's earlier work. Grouper is the solo project of Liz Harris. Her first album was self-titled & self-released. Grouper's second album was 2006's Way Their Crept . There was something special about that mid-ought's droney-underwater sounding indie. Grouper would go on to release five (!) more albums before I came on board as a fan: 2006's Wide , 2007's Cover The Windows & The Walls , 2008's widely acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill & 2011's double-album (but separately released) AIA: Dream Loss & AIA: Alien Observer ... just to be followed up by 2012's double album: Violent Replacement Part I and Violent Replacement Part II . It wasn't until Grouper's more structured-releases that I became a full fledged fan. It was with 2013's The Man Who Died In His Boat that I finally jumped on board as a full-fled...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Band

19 The Band The Band First known as the Hawks, the Band got their initial fame as Bob Dylan’s backing band. Remember when Bob Dylan sold out and went electric, angering fans so much that they called him “ Judas ”? Well, you can thank all of that to the Band. For a band that sounds so fucking American (seriously- no band has done the whole Americana roots music better than the Band) it’s pretty funny most of them were Canadian. After finally branching out on their own in 1968, the Band would release some of the best music ever recorded… and if you thought the Beatles had a hell of a run- check out the Band’s discography: 1968’s Music From Big Pink , 1969’s self-titled The Band , 1970’s Stage Fright , 1971’s Cahoots , 1972’s live-album Rock of Ages , 1973’s Moondog Matinee , 1975’s Northern Lights -Southern Cross , and 1977’s Islands. Lynard Skynard may have taken the crown for greatest southern rock band, but for a band full of Canadians and Americans, the Band really embraces a...
Post a Comment
Read more