RIBS TPTD: Earth, Wind & Fire, parts 2 and 3…
Filed under: R&B, RIBS, Triple Play Thurs-Day, jazz, podcasts/mixes, soul
OK, whew! I’m finally finding a little bit of quiet/free time to get the new mixes posted here. Man, lemme tell ya… it really has been ONE OF THOSE weeks around here IRL. But hey, we all go through it every now and then. As I’m fond of telling people sometimes, “but just think of how much more interesting your autobiography is going to be after you get through this”. {smile} And, of course, the other thing I think about during trying times like I’m going through right now are the words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said:
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
And since I have always been one to give others the advice that “failure is not an option” I fully intend to measure up to the trials and tribulations at hand. OK, enough about all of that, I don’t need to burden you with my (when you look at the greater scheme of things) insignificant issues, you came here for some good music. Now on that I can stand and deliver with no problem at all whatsoever! (you know, I think I really need to work on this confidence problem I’ve been struggling with… {smile})
The “Elements of the Universe”, Earth, Wind & Fire! This is the group that is the main course being offered up from the RIBS kitchen this week. Today you have 2 EWF entrees to enjoy as I’m finally completing the 3-part Earth, Wind & Fire mix-a-thon I started last week for the Labor Day holiday weekend. In case you may have missed it EWF, part 1 can be found here.
Now if you’ve been following RIBS for a while you know I like to try to give you a slightly different take on the music when I do a mix dedicated to a single artist or group. My point of view is that anybody can take the popular hit songs from an artist that everybody is familiar with and put together a mix. That’s easy. What I try to do here on RIBS is give you some of the lesser known (but still extremely good) stuff by the artist or group that you might not be as familiar with and mix that in with some of the hits and/or personal favorite songs of mine by them. Additionally, if the artist has written for or produced for other acts I like to spotlight those also since things like that can often go overlooked by the public at large.
The Earth, Wind & Fire, part 2 mix is a perfect example of this philosophy. Except for the short opening intro cut, “Sing A Message To You”, all of the songs on EWF, part 2 are either interpretations (or covers if you prefer that term) of Earth, Wind & Fire songs by other artists or songs by artists that were produced by EWF (meaning founder and leader Maurice White, of course). I think you’ll really enjoy part 2 as it includes artists like Dwele doing his take on “That’s The Way Of The World”, Ledisi doing “Devotion” (simply beautiful IMHO), Kirk Franklin doing “September” and Chaka Khan’s version of “Shining Star” (as only Chaka can!) Additionally there are cuts by Deniece Williams (EWF produced her first two albums This Is Niecy and Song Bird), The Emotions (EWF revived their career in the mid-70s and produced their Flowers and Rejoice albums) and a solo effort from long time EWF member Philip Bailey called “I Know”.
The Earth, Wind & Fire, part 3 mix goes back to the group itself and explores some of their early work (for the most part) from the Last Days And Time, Head To The Sky and Open Our Eyes albums in addition to some favs of mine that you don’t hear much anymore. Oh, and I made sure to include a couple of instrumentals (“Power” and “Africano”) like a certain favorite RIBS fan requested/suggested {smile}.
They say the good stuff in life is worth waiting for, I hope that’s the case with these mixes. It’s music time ya’ll as we present to you…
RIBS TPTD: Earth, Wind & Fire, part 2…
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and
RIBS TPTD: Earth, Wind & Fire, part 3…
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Playlist, Part 2: (song – artist – album [time])
- Sing A Message To You - Earth, Wind & Fire - Gratitude [1:19]
- Evil - Larry Coryell - Smooth Jazz Plays The Songs of Earth, Wind & Fire [4:22]
- Shining Star - Chaka Khan - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [4:01]
- It’s Important To Me - Deniece Williams - This Is Niecy [4:20]
- September - Kirk Franklin - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [3:56]
- Best Of My Love – Emotions – Rejoice [3:40]
- Can’t Hide Love - Randy Watson ft. Bilal - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [5:18]
- I Know - Philip Bailey – Continuation [4:05]
- That’s The Way Of The World - Dwele - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [5:16]
- Devotion - Ledisi - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [4:56]
- Baby, Baby, My Love’s All For You - Deniece Williams - Song Bird [4:10]
- Flowers - The Emotions – Flowers [4:22]
- Be Ever Wonderful - Angie Stone - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [4:04]
- We Go Through Changes - The Emotions – Flowers [0:53]
- Key To My Heart - The Emotions – Rejoice [5:16]
- Reasons - Stanley Turrentine - Smooth Jazz Plays The Songs of Earth, Wind & Fire [5:35]
- After The Love Has Gone - David Benoit & Russ Freeman - Smooth Jazz Plays The Songs of Earth, Wind & Fire [4:19]
- Love’s Holiday - Lalah Hathaway - Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind & Fire [4:03]
- If You Don’t Believe - Deniece Williams - This Is Niecy [7:59]
Playlist, Part 3: (song – artist – album [time])
- Interlude - Earth, Wind & Fire - Last Days And Time [0:52]
- Kalimba Story - Earth, Wind & Fire - Open Our Eyes [4:00]
- Mighty Mighty - Earth, Wind & Fire - Open Our Eyes [3:03]
- Let’s Groove - Earth, Wind & Fire - Raise! [5:37]
- Saturday Nite - Earth, Wind & Fire – Spirit [4:06]
- Power - Earth, Wind & Fire - Last Days And Time [8:13]
- Kalimba Interlude - Earth, Wind & Fire – Millennium [0:31]
- Evil - Earth, Wind & Fire - Head To The Sky [4:58]
- They Don’t See - Earth, Wind & Fire - Last Days And Time [3:30]
- Wait - Earth, Wind & Fire - I Am [3:41]
- Side By Side - Earth, Wind & Fire - The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire [5:31]
- On Your Face - Earth, Wind & Fire – Spirit [4:33]
- Sunshine - Earth, Wind & Fire – Gratitude [4:16]
- Feelin’ Blue - Earth, Wind & Fire - Open Our Eyes [4:28]
- Africano - Earth, Wind & Fire - That’s The Way Of The World [5:09]
- I’d Rather Have You - Earth, Wind & Fire - Last Days And Time [4:40]
- Devotion - Earth, Wind & Fire - Open Our Eyes [4:50]
- Sailaway - Earth, Wind & Fire – Faces [4:37]
- Spend The Night - Earth, Wind & Fire – Millennium [4:25]
- That’s The Way Of The World (Latin Expedition) - Earth, Wind & Fire - That’s The Way Of The World [1:41]
Have you missed any of the RIBS mixes we’ve posted? If you have there is now an easy way to catch up on what we’ve been up to. Just go check out the new RIBS Archives Page to see a very easy to read listing of every post (and music mix) we’ve uploaded to the site.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: soul, RIBS, TPTD, Rhythms In Black Satin, playlist, mp3, mp3blog, soul music, jazz, Earth, Wind & Fire
RIBS TPTD: Earth, Wind & Fire, part 1…
Filed under: R&B, RIBS, Triple Play Thurs-Day, podcasts/mixes, soul
I love Earth, Wind & Fire!
They are definitely among those groups that are “one of the cornerstones of the foundation of the Soundtrack of My Life”. I’ve been meaning to get around to doing an all EWF mix for quite a while now, but one thing or another kept getting in the way. AAMOF, my original plans for this Labor Day holiday weekend was to do a RIBS “5 mixes in 5 days” mix-a-thon featuring Maurice and the boys. However, life has gotten in the way of those grandiose plans so I’m cutting back and offering up at least two and, if time permits, a third EWF mix to take us through the weekend.
Now hopefully you do know who Earth, Wind & Fire is. This is one of those mega-supergroups that not only has been around for almost 40 years, but has crossed over and had hit songs on both the soul/R&B and pop charts. Not too mention having toured worldwide and having an international fan base. However, just in case you are not that familiar with the group (damn, where have you been? {smile}) you can check out their bio here on The Official Earth, Wind & Fire Website.
While I have many, many, many memories of Earth, Wind & Fire and their music there are two that stand out and that I never fail to think of when I hear an EWF song. The first one is from my freshman year in college. It was a Friday or a Saturday night as I recall and we had just found out that the new EWF album “Gratitude” had been released and was now in the record store (yes, this was BC/BI [before cellphones/before iTunes]). Problem was the store closed in less than an hour and we were a good 45 minutes or more away by subway (none of us Freshmen were allowed to have cars on campus back then). Well, about 8 of us rushed out, jumped on the train and just got to the store with about 10 minutes to spare before it closed. Whew! Needless to say it was an Earth, Wind & Fire 24/7 in the dorms THAT weekend.
My other fond memory is the EWF concert in Madison Square Garden I attended during Senior year in high school. I had only been a licensed driver for a short time (a few months) when this concert was held and Mom did not want me driving to New York. No way no how! So, we told her that we took the train (*wink, wink* {smile}) Also, the “That’s The Way Of The World” album had recently been released and I remember how beautiful “Reasons” sounded, live in MSG with Darlene Franklin by my side (my sweetheart in high school). That was our song. I always think of Darlene when I hear it.
Wow, I could go on and on just about all day talking to you about my Earth, Wind & Fire memories! But that’s not really what you came here for. OK, time to get to the music, as we present to you…
RIBS TPTD: Earth, Wind & Fire, part 1…
Alternate (if you have a problem using the javascript pop-up): Click here.
Right-click here to download .MP3 file (111Mb, 1:18:59)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist: (song – artist – album [time])
- Kalimba Blues – Earth, Wind & Fire – Millennium [0:39]
- Hot Dawgit – Ramsey Lewis and Earth, Wind & Fire - Sun Goddess [3:03]
- Got To Get You Into My Life – Earth, Wind & Fire – The Best Of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol 1 [4:10]
- Serpentine Fire – Earth, Wind & Fire – All ‘N All[3:51]
- September – Earth, Wind & Fire – The Best Of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol 1 [3:34]
- Imagination – Earth, Wind & Fire – Spirit [5:16]
- Sun Goddess – Ramsey Lewis and Earth, Wind & Fire – Sun Goddess [8:31]
- Love’s Holiday – Earth, Wind & Fire – All ‘N All [4:21]
- The World’s A Masquerade – Earth, Wind & Fire – Head To The Sky [4:48]
- Love Is Life – Earth, Wind & Fire – Earth, Wind & Fire [5:02]
- Keep Your Head To The Sky – Earth, Wind & Fire – Head To The Sky [5:09]
- I’ll Write A Song For You – Earth, Wind & Fire – All ‘N All [5:24]
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone – Earth, Wind & Fire – Last Days and Time [4:52]
- That’s The Way Of The World – Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s The Way Of The World [5:46]
- I Think About Lovin’ You – Earth, Wind & Fire – The Need Of Love [5:55]
- Reasons – Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s The Way Of The World [5:01]
- Be Ever Wonderful – Earth, Wind & Fire – All ‘N All [5:07]
- Brazilian Rhyme (Interlude) – Earth, Wind & Fire – All ‘N All [1:23]
Have you missed any of the RIBS mixes we’ve posted? If you have there is now an easy way to catch up on what we’ve been up to. Just go check out the new RIBS Archives Page to see a very easy to read listing of every post (and music mix) we’ve uploaded to the site.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: soul, RIBS, TPTD, Rhythms In Black Satin, playlist, mp3, mp3blog, soul music, jazz, Earth, Wind & Fire
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