Eugene McDaniels in 1961
Revolutionary album "Outlaw" (1970) --Atlantic Records label All music and songs written by Eugene McDaniels
Eugene McDaniels in 1994
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/arts/music/eugene-mcdaniels-singer-songwriter-of-soul-and-blues-hits-dies-at-76.html
All,
Last night I was playing a deeply cherished and recently purchased ALBUM (as in real VINYL folks) of a revolutionary 1970 recording by one of my all time favorite musical artists and singer/songwriters of the 1960-1980 era, the legendary Eugene McDaniels (popularly known as 'the Left Reverend Mac D' in honor of both his radical politics and fiery and dynamic downhome delivery of his amazing lyrics). The author of such original, highly influential and profound song classics (and hits!) of the '60s and '70s as 'Compared To What', 'Feel Like Making Love', 'A Hundred Pounds of Clay', and 'Tower of Strength' among many others, McDaniels was a formidable musical composer, arranger, song stylist, producer, and songwriter whose diverse and eclectic mastery of Jazz, Classical, Folk, Blues, R and B, and Gospel forms and styles made him a highly esteemed member of an absolutely extraordinary Golden Age of musicians who also happened to be singers and songwriters of the 1960s and '70s period which included such iconic peers and giants as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Carole King, Sam Cooke, Gil-Scott Heron, Terry Callier, Aretha Franklin, Laura Nyro, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, and Janet Ian (!)...
Anyway as I was lovingly taking the classic 1970 album by McDaniels entitled 'OUTLAW' out of its jacket I casually remarked to my wife "I wonder whatever happened to Eugene McDaniels. He was a ****genius!" So after listening once again transfixed to a recording that I was originally so fascinated and delighted by in college when it first appeared that I wore out three different copies of it over the next decade, I decided out of now intense curiosity that I would google his name on my computer and I immediately came across the news that he had just died last month in Los Angeles on August 1 at the age of 76. Initially shocked I went on to read his obit and saw that he had lived a long, satisfying, and creatively productive life well beyond the much deserved but temporary fame and adulation that he found in the 1960s and '70s, and that he was survived by a loving wife, six children (one named Dylan), a sister, and nine grandchildren and I felt even more elated and proud that I had always been and remained such an enthralled fan and dedicated listener to his timeless music and song lyrics, many of which I have reprinted below along with a discography and inspiring videos of his outstanding performances on YouTube. So Enjoy!
Oh...and one more thing: I would like to publicly thank the famed retail music store AMOEBA RECORDS here in Berkeley, California for once again making the 'Left Reverend Mac D's' classic recordings on the Atlantic label generally available once again. I am especially gratified personally because I did not still own and had not heard a complete recording of OUTLAW in over 20 years until I purchased it again some six months ago at AMOEBA. I remain humbly in their debt and especially that of Mr. McDaniels whose magnificent music and songs will thankfully never die...So RIP brotherman Mac D. We love you...
Kofi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC6LdIcmDQs
Songwriter Eugene McDaniels (1935-2011) talks about his hit song "Compared to What" Recorded by Les McCann and Eddie Harris in 1969. Recently recorded in 2010 by John Legend and The Roots, with 278 different recorded versions in between. Imaged and edited by Dennis Collins Johnson and Grace Peirce.
COMPARED TO WHAT?
by Eugene McDaniels
1969
[First recorded and immortalized on the LP Swiss Movement (1970) by Les McCann and Eddie Harris]
Love the lie and lie the love
Hanging on, with push and shove
Possession is the motivation
That is hangin' up the goddamn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut
Everybody now!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what?
Come on baby, now
Slaughter houses are killin' hogs
Twisted children are killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old ladies, kissin' dogs
I hate the human love of that stinkin' mutt
I can't use it!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Come on baby, now
The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We chicken feathers all without one gut
Goddammit!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what?
Sock it to me!
Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Trying to duck the wrath of God
Preachers fillin' us with fright
They all trying to teach us with what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of stupid nut
I can't use it!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Lover, baby, hey
Where's that bee and where's that honey
Where's my god and where's my money
Unreal values, a crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kinda brings to mind ol' young King Tut
(He did it now)
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what?
August 1, 2011
Eugene McDaniels, Singer-Songwriter of Soul and Blues, Dies at 76
By DENNIS HEVESI
New York Times
Eugene McDaniels, whose mellifluous voice brought him high onto the Billboard charts several times in the early 1960s, and who wrote “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which Roberta Flack took to the top of the charts in 1974, died on Friday at his home in Kittery Point, Me. He was 76.
He died after a brief illness, his wife, Karen, said.
With his four-octave range, Gene McDaniels, as he was first professionally known, hit No. 3 in the spring of 1961 with “A Hundred Pounds of Clay” and No. 5 later that year with “Tower of Strength.” He last hit the Top 40 with “Spanish Lace” in late 1962.
Mr. McDaniels’s songs, including those he wrote for other artists later in his career, jumped from jazz to blues to ballads to gospel and could be peppered with cultural criticism and political protest.
The lyrics of his bluesy up-tempo song “Compared to What,” recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969 by the pianist and singer Les McCann and the saxophonist Eddie Harris, include:
“The president, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason”
After hitting No. 1 in 1974, Ms. Flack’s rendition of Mr. McDaniels’s swooning “Feel Like Makin’ Love” (“Strollin’ in the park, watchin’ winter turn to spring/Walking in the dark, seein’ lovers do their thing”) was nominated for a Grammy. It has since been covered by numerous artists.
Eugene Booker McDaniels was born in Kansas City, Kan., on Feb. 12, 1935, to Booker and Louise McDaniels. The family later moved to Omaha, where his father was a minister.
Gene sang in the church choir, became enthralled by jazz, attended the Omaha Conservatory of Music and moved to Los Angeles when he was 19. There he began as a solo singer before meeting and performing with his jazz idol, Mr. McCann. That led to his signing with Liberty Records.
Later in his career Mr. McDaniels became a producer for, among others, the organist Jimmy Smith and the singers Nancy Wilson and Merry Clayton.
Mr. McDaniels’s first two marriages ended in divorce. Besides his wife, the former Karen Thompson, he is survived by five sons, London McDaniels, Christopher McDaniels, Django McDaniels, Mateo McDaniels and Dylan Patterson; a daughter, Dali McDaniels; a sister, Patricia Nichols; and nine grandchildren.
Although Mr. McDaniels was absent from the charts as a performer after the early 1960s, his writing continued to leave its mark. His songs “have substantial melodies and rich, useful harmonies,” Don Heckman wrote in The New York Times in 1970, adding that it was “difficult to think of any other composer since Bob Dylan who has managed so well to find musical expression for the swirling cultural currents that envelop us.”
"Love Letter To America" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
"Welfare City" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/02/local/la-me-gene-mcdaniels-20110802 Gene McDaniels dies at 76; pop singer and songwriter
The pop star first found fame as a singer and later, as a producer and songwriter for other artists. He continued to work in the music industry throughout his life and was recently in the process of creating another album.
August 02, 2011|
By Dennis McLellan,
Los Angeles Times
Gene McDaniels, who emerged as a pop singing star in the early 1960s with hits such as "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and "Tower of Strength" and a decade later wrote Roberta Flack's No. 1 hit "Feel Like Makin' Love," has died. He was 76. McDaniels, whose career included many years as both a songwriter and a record producer, died Friday at his home in Kittery Point, Maine, after a short illness, said his wife, Karen "I put him as the second-greatest thing I ever heard," jazz musician and vocalist Les McCann told The Times on Monday. The greatest, he said, is Aretha Franklin. McCann hired McDaniels as the first singer in his band in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. "I couldn't believe we had someone that good, that young, in our band," McCann said. "We were all young and being creative and developing our talents. Someone picked him out and said, 'Let's make you a star.' " After signing with Liberty Records, McDaniels scored his first major hit in 1961 with "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," which reached No. 3 on the Billboard chart. Liberty reportedly wasn't quite prepared for the single's immediate success and did not release publicity photos of McDaniels for about six months. Many fans initially had no idea he was black until they saw him performing on stage. "People were amazed. That really tickled me," McDaniels recalled in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel. At the time of the record's release, he said, having throngs of teenage white girls swooning over a black singer would not have been tolerated. "If I had been white, I could have been a matinee idol," he said. "But being black, that was taboo." McDaniels' other '60s hits included "Tower of Strength," "Chip Chip," "Point of No Return" and "Spanish Lace." By the late '60s, McDaniels' pop stardom had diminished, but by then he was carving out a reputation as a songwriter. McCann had a big hit with the McDaniels-written "Compared to What," a song on McCann and Eddie Harris' 1969 album "Swiss Movement." McCann had recorded the song, an up-tempo social commentary, a few years earlier, but it had made no impact. Not so the second time around. "When it was really a hit, we'd walk on stage, and they'd yell out 'Compared to What!' One night I said, 'Let's see if we can get by not playing it,' and we got booed. It's an amazing song. I do that song at least twice a night, and I still love it. All of his songs were fantastic." "Compared to What" has shown up in eight movies, including "Casino," and was featured in an international Coca-Cola campaign. More recently, it was included on the 2010 John Legend and the Roots album "Wake Up!" In the early '70s, Atlantic Records released McDaniels' albums "Outlaw" and "Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse," for which he wrote or co-wrote the songs. "They were very political albums, and they got him kicked off his label," his wife said. Flack's 1974 recording of McDaniels' "Feel Like Makin' Love" reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart and was nominated for two Grammys. McDaniels wrote many songs for Flack. McDaniels' songs have been recorded by singers including Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Johnny Mathis and Ray Charles. He also produced for artists, including Flack, Knight, Lenny Williams and Melba Moore. The son of a minister, Eugene B. McDaniels was born Feb. 12, 1935, in Kansas City, Kan., and grew up in Omaha, where he began singing in his father's church as a young boy. He formed a gospel quartet in junior high school and, while idolizing jazz singers, including Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, launched his career after graduating from high school. Karen McDaniels said her husband recently had been working on a new CD, "Humans Being." Retirement wasn't on his agenda. "Never," she said. "He couldn't retire because he was always writing music. Everything was about the music, always. It was his soul, his essence completely." In addition to Karen, his third wife, McDaniels is survived by his sons, London, Christopher, Mateo, Django and Dylan; his daughter, Dali; his sister, Pat Nichols; and nine grandchildren. dennis.mclellan@latimes.com
http://denisesullivan.com/2011/07/31/the-outlaw-the-left-rev-mcd-and-musical-warrior-eugene-mcdaniels-rip-1935-2011/
Keep On Pushing: Black Power Music From Blues to Hip-Hop
by Denise Sullivan
Lawrence Hill Books, 2011
Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse by Eugene McDaniels (1971)--Atlantic Records
JULY 31, 2011
The Outlaw, The Left Rev. McD, and Musical Warrior, Eugene McDaniels, RIP 1935-2011
A Tribute by Denise Sullivan
The music of Gene McDaniels was a big inspiration to me before, during and after the writing of Keep on Pushing: In many ways he and his largely untold story was the motivation to write a book that provides not only an overview of intersections between music and social and political movement, but takes a close look at some of the artists/activists who were undermined by a climate and culture ultimately unequipped to support their visionary work. And yet, rare groove chasers know well the name Eugene McDaniels; his 1971 album for Atlantic, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse is a standard-bearer for psychedelic soul/funk/jazz rhythms and is borrowed frequently for its samples (most famously by the Beastie Boys in “Get It Together”). The album is a fierce statement of black pride, anger, and frustration, equally powered by a super-soul fever, peace, and ultimately love. It’s a showcase for McDaniels breadth as a composer, from folky singer-songwriter styles (“Susan Jane”) to proto-rap (“Supermarket Blues”); McDaniels’s strongest words are demonstrations of righteous indignation, though he also offers spiritual ideas.
The Lord is black, his mood is in the rain,
The people have called he’s coming to make corrections
You can hear his voice blowin’ in the wind
McDaniels is the composer of “Compared to What,” the 1969 jazz-soul wartime protest made famous by Les McCann and Eddie Harris: “Possession is the motivation that’s hangin’ up the goddam nation.” McDaniels was born in Kansas City in 1935, studied at the Omaha Conservatory of Music, and graduated from Omaha University. After forming a band in the 1950s, he signed with Liberty Records and hit in 1961 with “A Hundred Pounds of Clay,” followed by five more Top 40 hits, including “Tower of Strength.” All in all, McDaniels had six Top 40 records in 1961 and 1962 before he turned his focus to writing (he worked closely with Roberta Flack and ultimately wrote her hit “Feel Like Making Love,” among others). By the time he attempted to launch his solo career as a singing and songwriting artist, McDaniels had had the time to chew on what he wanted to say and had an intensely unique way of saying it. He was fearless with his melodies and in his verses. The instrumentation was a wild combination of folk-funk: electric and acoustic bass rubbed against guitar, drums, and piano, and they all combined with lyrics that strike chords of deep recognition. With the fascist-fighting folker’s impeccable style of oration, he injects the song with theatrical and emotional soul power. As he sings, he evokes images of a man increasingly incensed and so confused by injustice that he’s stretched to the point of losing his mind. His elegy for the red man, “The Parasite (For Buffy),” dedicated to Sainte-Marie, is a shining example of his dramaturgical song style that places his subjects in a social, political and psychological context. But McDaniels’s revolution of the mind is a peaceful one; though he paints pictures of hell and all hell breaking loose, his narrator does not advocate use of violence as a solution. Rather, violence is portrayed as the problem. “Supermarket Blues” describes a situation in which a man demands his money back for a can of peas marked as pineapple and ends up with a beating. Somehow he even finds a way to inject dark humor into the mess: “I wish I’d stayed home and got high instead of coming into the street and having this awful fight.” Whatever darkness he’s describing, McDaniels’s point of view remains poised and unique; his higher consciousness and keep-on-pushing spirit bleeds between the notes of each slyly rendered gospel-laced track. Years later, the white-rapping, Tibetan-Freedom-loving Beastie Boys would turn to McDaniels, nicknamed the Left Rev McD, for a sample, as would the Afro-centric, conscious hip-hoppers, A Tribe Called Quest. Last year, John Legend and the Roots brought back a version of “Compared to What.”
During the course of the five years I was writing and researching Keep on Pushing, I attempted to reach McDaniels a number of times, hoping he would answer some of my questions about his early ’70s work and the mysterious stories of conspiracy and suppression that surround it, though my requests remained unanswered. In the book, I attempted to unravel his story the best I could, the facts based on bits and pieces from pre-existing interviews, including information passed on by Pat Thomas who reissued Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse and its predecessor, The Outlaw. With little information available to me, in the end, I came to my own conclusions about McDaniels and his exceptional work, the kind of music that reaches inside, touches the soul, and alters it. The Left Rev. McD made a difference, and mercifully the music remains, though his presence will be missed: Eugene McDaniels made it real—no comparison.
"Silent Majority" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
COMMENT ON EUGENE MCDANIELS BY CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE CARRI COLTRANE:Gene and I were partners in every aspect of music for 30 years. He produced my 3 CD’s in 1997 and 1998. I co-produced his CD “Screams and Whispers”. He and I wrote the classic hit, “Meet Me On The Moon”, recorded by the late great Phyllis Hyman and wonderful Kimiko Itoh. He was my dearest friend and I will miss him very much. I was with him the eve before he passed. He was lucid and elegant. His marvelous spirit was ‘moving on’ as he wrote in a song. He told me he wasn’t afraid and was ready. He died peacefully with his wife Karen and closest loved ones around him. He leaves behind a vast catalog of incredible songs containing lyrics that we can all hold in our hearts and sing to the melodies that he and collaborative writers such as Mike Melvoin, Terry Silverlight, Ted Brancato, myself, Paul Anderson, Thomas Snow, Ron Carter, Eddie Gomez, Charlie Ernst, Dennis C. Johnson, Mark Lucas, his own sons, London, Christopher, Django, Mateo, Al Sylvestri and many more, composed. Gene wrote poignant and clever lyrics to Miles’ solos, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Oliver Nelson, David Sanborn, John Lewis, to name a few. McD also wrote lyrics to Classical composers such as Chopin and Beethoven. Any time we want to hear Gene’s ‘voice’ we can all re-listen to his hit music recorded and sung by himself, Roberta Flack, Les Mc Cann, Melba Moore, Nancy Wilson, Merry Clayton, BB King, Terry Lauber, Kimiko Itoh, Carri Coltrane, Diane Schuur, Joe WIlliams, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin. God Bless Eugene McDaniels and thank you for such an incredible human being.
Carri Coltrane email: nostwo@comc
Not many people know who Eugene McDaniels is but they surely would recognize his music. He produced and wrote songs for various soul and r&b artists on heavy-hitter labels such as Motown and Atlantic as well as maintained a fairly successful solo career. While he crooned pop chart-toppers in the 50′s and 60′s, most hip hop heads know him for his controversial and socially conscious album of 1971, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse. Headless… became, and still remains, sample fodder for many artists including The Beastie Boys, Tribe, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, and countless others. The tried and true formula of electric bass, guitar, keys, and drums never fails to inspire. But McDaniels’ tales of buying canned food with government money to the tragic plight of Native Americans to, obviously, the coming of the apocalypse makes this album one of my favorites of all time as well as a must listen to anybody reading this right now. The 1970 album Outlaw, while not as jazzy, is just as funky and ridiculously overlooked. So here’s a salute to one of the greatest songwriters, who, with his talents, spread knowledge to some and will continue to be an inspiration to many.
TO HEAR EXCERPTS OF THE FOLLOWING GREAT SONGS BY McDANIELS PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINKS
Sung by Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes
Sung by Eugene McDaniels – Sagittarius Red (from Outlaw)
Sung by Roberta Flack – Feel Like Makin’ Love
"Feel Like Makin' Love" by Eugene McDaniels--sung by McDaniels
"UnSpoken Dreams of Light" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
http://flabbergasted-vibes.blogspot.com/2011/02/eugene-mcdaniels-outlaw-1970.html
Review of "Outlaw" posted at Flabbergasted Vibes: A Music Blog; Author unknown
February 23, 2011
Eugene McDaniels
"Outlaw"
Released on Atlantic (SD 8259) 1970
1 Outlaw 5:00
2 Sagitarius Red 3:03
3 Welfare City 2:52
4 Silent Majority 4:10
5 Love Letter To America 3:57
6 Unspoken Dreams Of Light 6:40
7 Cherrystones 3:08
8 Reverend Lee 6:31
9 Black Boy 2:59
PERSONNEL:
Bass - Ron Carter
Drums - Ray Lucas
Engineer - Bob Liftin , Dean Evenson
Guitar - Eric Weissberg , Hugh McCracken
Percussion - Buck Clarke
Piano - Mother Hen
Producer - Joel Dorn
Recorded at Regent Sound Studios, NYC
With special thanks to
Les McCann
******************************
"She's a nigger in jeans, she's an outlaw, she don't wear a bra."
With opening lines like these, you know you are in for a weird trip.
Eugene McDaniels may be famous (or infamous) for `Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse` but for my money (which isn't much these days), THIS album has the songs! Also, while that album has the reputation for being the one that prompted Spiro Agnew to tap his phone, I have a strong feeling the spying started with "Outlaw". I mean, they're holding a rifle on the album cover, and "Love Song to America" declares him an enemy of the state (albeit unwilling).
Eugene McDaniels may be famous (or infamous) for `Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse` but for my money (which isn't much these days), THIS album has the songs! One of the weirdest career trajectories in music, McDaniels had gone from an early 60s R&B hit maker, as Gene McDaniels, with songs like "100 lbs of Clay", then seemingly taken a few years away from music, and reemerged with this militant, bizarre, and utterly seductive music. If I remember correctly he had begun working on this album while in the studio with Bobby Hutcherson recording the amazing album "Now!" Only one of the tunes on this album is really reminiscent of that masterpiece, "Unspoken Dreams of Light", loaded with jazz intervals and trippy, convoluted lyrics about a coming bloody revolution sweeping the country. It's a rock-funk-folk arrangement, I suppose, but the refrain sounds like it was left over from "Now."
Every song on here is very literally great. McDaniels' vocals are amazing, both emotionally stirring and also full of swagger and attitude. There is a twang to some of the tunes and especially Hugh McCracken's and Eric Weissberg's guitar licks that might invite comparisons to the Rolling Stones of this era. You can say that if you like, McDaniels probably would have not have objected to the comparison, but in a profound way these two albums of McDaniels are everything the Stones wanted to be in 1970. Black, for one thing, but incendiary, funky, roots-laden, gospel-tinged soul and rock music that truly must have made the so-called "Silent Majority" tremble in their straight-laced shoes with its scathing social criticisms, dark ironic humor, and sharply articulated anger. How is the listener supposed to react to the folk strumming of "Welfare City" whose chorus is, "la la la, la la la la la, la la, la la la la la, smoke a joint" ?? Well, just sing along I guess. By the end of the tune, with layered vocal harmonies, it sounds as catchy as "I'd Like To Give The World a Coke."
"Silent Majority" is sadly as relevant today as it was in 1970. For those too young to know the history of that phrase, it was what the reactionary Nixon-era conservatives called themselves during the "cultural revolution" of leftist politics, free love, drugs, and rock and roll. McDaniels calls them out on their hypocrisy and also makes the astute observation that they weren't really all that 'silent.' Unfortunately these same types of people are even more organized now, and still claim to speak for the "majority" of Americans, representing true patriotism, and calling anyone who disagrees with them a communist. These days, they call themselves The Tea Party.
McDaniels would never again make records like this one and "Headless Heroes". It seems as if he has never said much publicly about them (silenced by the Kissinger-blessed majority??). It almost seems as if he is not aware, or simply uninterested, in the profound influence this music had on the relatively few people who have had the privilege of hearing it. These are underground classics loved by fans of rock, soul, and funk, have been name-checked by all kinds of hipsters. There was an article devoted to Daniels in the respectable magazine (I mean that sincerely) Wax Poetics, but I don't remember what it said. Also can't figure out what issue it was in but it seems to have been included in the second `anthology` in book form. Anyone who wants to scan it and post it here, be my guest. The guy is kind of a mystery to me in a lot of ways.
McDaniels was a good friend and colleague of Roberta Flack during this period, and wrote classic tunes in her repertoire like "Compared to What?" and "Reverend Lee" (his version of this latter tune is MUCH stranger, and longer), both of which became stables of Flack's repertoire during the early 70s. McDaniels also penned one of her huge hits, "Feel Like Making Love", which won him a Grammy. Again, ....what the fuck? How does one go from making THIS record, to winning a Grammy for a love song just a few years later??? He has also written material for Aretha Franklin.
Gene McDaniels is still around, he has a website, a Facebook account, and a You Tube channel. He has even released some music recently, about which I knew nothing until yesterday when researching for this upload.
This was one of my first vinyl rips, made on my Music Hall turntable, a Parasound preamp, and recorded using a Tascam digital recorder at 24/96 resolution. I think it sounds warm and musical, but someday I may rip it with my new setup, after I get the album out of storage from my bunker in the Kayman Islands. Apparently this was released on CD by Water Records but I never knew that until yesterday and have never come across it. I find their mastering to be cold and harsh on everything I have by them -- although they usually release amazing, essential music - so I am quite happy with this for the moment.
I photographed the album with my Nikon D80 but.. I have no idea what I did with the files. So I have included some album cover scans I found on an interesting blog devoted to vinyl album art. ENJOY!!
Discography
Studio albumsIn Times Like These - Liberty (1960)
Sometimes I'm Happy, Sometimes I'm Blue - Liberty (1960)
A Hundred Pounds Of Clay - Liberty (1961)
Gene McDaniels Sings Movie Memories - Liberty (1962)
Hit After Hit - Liberty (1962)
Tower Of Strength - Liberty (1962)
Spanish Lace - Liberty (1963)
The Wonderful Word Of Gene McDaniels - Liberty (1963)
Outlaw - Atlantic (1970)
Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse - Atlantic (1971)
Natural Juices - Ode (1975)
Screams & Whispers - Sky Forest Music (2005)
Produced by Eugene McDanielsThe First Time - Carri Coltrane, 1999
Flamenco Sketches - Carri Coltrane, 1998
All,
Last night I was playing a deeply cherished and recently purchased ALBUM (as in real VINYL folks) of a revolutionary 1970 recording by one of my all time favorite musical artists and singer/songwriters of the 1960-1980 era, the legendary Eugene McDaniels (popularly known as 'the Left Reverend Mac D' in honor of both his radical politics and fiery and dynamic downhome delivery of his amazing lyrics). The author of such original, highly influential and profound song classics (and hits!) of the '60s and '70s as 'Compared To What', 'Feel Like Making Love', 'A Hundred Pounds of Clay', and 'Tower of Strength' among many others, McDaniels was a formidable musical composer, arranger, song stylist, producer, and songwriter whose diverse and eclectic mastery of Jazz, Classical, Folk, Blues, R and B, and Gospel forms and styles made him a highly esteemed member of an absolutely extraordinary Golden Age of musicians who also happened to be singers and songwriters of the 1960s and '70s period which included such iconic peers and giants as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Carole King, Sam Cooke, Gil-Scott Heron, Terry Callier, Aretha Franklin, Laura Nyro, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, and Janet Ian (!)...
Anyway as I was lovingly taking the classic 1970 album by McDaniels entitled 'OUTLAW' out of its jacket I casually remarked to my wife "I wonder whatever happened to Eugene McDaniels. He was a ****genius!" So after listening once again transfixed to a recording that I was originally so fascinated and delighted by in college when it first appeared that I wore out three different copies of it over the next decade, I decided out of now intense curiosity that I would google his name on my computer and I immediately came across the news that he had just died last month in Los Angeles on August 1 at the age of 76. Initially shocked I went on to read his obit and saw that he had lived a long, satisfying, and creatively productive life well beyond the much deserved but temporary fame and adulation that he found in the 1960s and '70s, and that he was survived by a loving wife, six children (one named Dylan), a sister, and nine grandchildren and I felt even more elated and proud that I had always been and remained such an enthralled fan and dedicated listener to his timeless music and song lyrics, many of which I have reprinted below along with a discography and inspiring videos of his outstanding performances on YouTube. So Enjoy!
Oh...and one more thing: I would like to publicly thank the famed retail music store AMOEBA RECORDS here in Berkeley, California for once again making the 'Left Reverend Mac D's' classic recordings on the Atlantic label generally available once again. I am especially gratified personally because I did not still own and had not heard a complete recording of OUTLAW in over 20 years until I purchased it again some six months ago at AMOEBA. I remain humbly in their debt and especially that of Mr. McDaniels whose magnificent music and songs will thankfully never die...So RIP brotherman Mac D. We love you...
Kofi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC6LdIcmDQs
Songwriter Eugene McDaniels (1935-2011) talks about his hit song "Compared to What" Recorded by Les McCann and Eddie Harris in 1969. Recently recorded in 2010 by John Legend and The Roots, with 278 different recorded versions in between. Imaged and edited by Dennis Collins Johnson and Grace Peirce.
COMPARED TO WHAT?
by Eugene McDaniels
1969
[First recorded and immortalized on the LP Swiss Movement (1970) by Les McCann and Eddie Harris]
Love the lie and lie the love
Hanging on, with push and shove
Possession is the motivation
That is hangin' up the goddamn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut
Everybody now!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what?
Come on baby, now
Slaughter houses are killin' hogs
Twisted children are killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old ladies, kissin' dogs
I hate the human love of that stinkin' mutt
I can't use it!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Come on baby, now
The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We chicken feathers all without one gut
Goddammit!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what?
Sock it to me!
Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Trying to duck the wrath of God
Preachers fillin' us with fright
They all trying to teach us with what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of stupid nut
I can't use it!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Lover, baby, hey
Where's that bee and where's that honey
Where's my god and where's my money
Unreal values, a crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kinda brings to mind ol' young King Tut
(He did it now)
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what?
August 1, 2011
Eugene McDaniels, Singer-Songwriter of Soul and Blues, Dies at 76
By DENNIS HEVESI
New York Times
Eugene McDaniels, whose mellifluous voice brought him high onto the Billboard charts several times in the early 1960s, and who wrote “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which Roberta Flack took to the top of the charts in 1974, died on Friday at his home in Kittery Point, Me. He was 76.
He died after a brief illness, his wife, Karen, said.
With his four-octave range, Gene McDaniels, as he was first professionally known, hit No. 3 in the spring of 1961 with “A Hundred Pounds of Clay” and No. 5 later that year with “Tower of Strength.” He last hit the Top 40 with “Spanish Lace” in late 1962.
Mr. McDaniels’s songs, including those he wrote for other artists later in his career, jumped from jazz to blues to ballads to gospel and could be peppered with cultural criticism and political protest.
The lyrics of his bluesy up-tempo song “Compared to What,” recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969 by the pianist and singer Les McCann and the saxophonist Eddie Harris, include:
“The president, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason”
After hitting No. 1 in 1974, Ms. Flack’s rendition of Mr. McDaniels’s swooning “Feel Like Makin’ Love” (“Strollin’ in the park, watchin’ winter turn to spring/Walking in the dark, seein’ lovers do their thing”) was nominated for a Grammy. It has since been covered by numerous artists.
Eugene Booker McDaniels was born in Kansas City, Kan., on Feb. 12, 1935, to Booker and Louise McDaniels. The family later moved to Omaha, where his father was a minister.
Gene sang in the church choir, became enthralled by jazz, attended the Omaha Conservatory of Music and moved to Los Angeles when he was 19. There he began as a solo singer before meeting and performing with his jazz idol, Mr. McCann. That led to his signing with Liberty Records.
Later in his career Mr. McDaniels became a producer for, among others, the organist Jimmy Smith and the singers Nancy Wilson and Merry Clayton.
Mr. McDaniels’s first two marriages ended in divorce. Besides his wife, the former Karen Thompson, he is survived by five sons, London McDaniels, Christopher McDaniels, Django McDaniels, Mateo McDaniels and Dylan Patterson; a daughter, Dali McDaniels; a sister, Patricia Nichols; and nine grandchildren.
Although Mr. McDaniels was absent from the charts as a performer after the early 1960s, his writing continued to leave its mark. His songs “have substantial melodies and rich, useful harmonies,” Don Heckman wrote in The New York Times in 1970, adding that it was “difficult to think of any other composer since Bob Dylan who has managed so well to find musical expression for the swirling cultural currents that envelop us.”
"Love Letter To America" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
"Welfare City" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/02/local/la-me-gene-mcdaniels-20110802 Gene McDaniels dies at 76; pop singer and songwriter
The pop star first found fame as a singer and later, as a producer and songwriter for other artists. He continued to work in the music industry throughout his life and was recently in the process of creating another album.
August 02, 2011|
By Dennis McLellan,
Los Angeles Times
Gene McDaniels, who emerged as a pop singing star in the early 1960s with hits such as "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and "Tower of Strength" and a decade later wrote Roberta Flack's No. 1 hit "Feel Like Makin' Love," has died. He was 76. McDaniels, whose career included many years as both a songwriter and a record producer, died Friday at his home in Kittery Point, Maine, after a short illness, said his wife, Karen "I put him as the second-greatest thing I ever heard," jazz musician and vocalist Les McCann told The Times on Monday. The greatest, he said, is Aretha Franklin. McCann hired McDaniels as the first singer in his band in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. "I couldn't believe we had someone that good, that young, in our band," McCann said. "We were all young and being creative and developing our talents. Someone picked him out and said, 'Let's make you a star.' " After signing with Liberty Records, McDaniels scored his first major hit in 1961 with "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," which reached No. 3 on the Billboard chart. Liberty reportedly wasn't quite prepared for the single's immediate success and did not release publicity photos of McDaniels for about six months. Many fans initially had no idea he was black until they saw him performing on stage. "People were amazed. That really tickled me," McDaniels recalled in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel. At the time of the record's release, he said, having throngs of teenage white girls swooning over a black singer would not have been tolerated. "If I had been white, I could have been a matinee idol," he said. "But being black, that was taboo." McDaniels' other '60s hits included "Tower of Strength," "Chip Chip," "Point of No Return" and "Spanish Lace." By the late '60s, McDaniels' pop stardom had diminished, but by then he was carving out a reputation as a songwriter. McCann had a big hit with the McDaniels-written "Compared to What," a song on McCann and Eddie Harris' 1969 album "Swiss Movement." McCann had recorded the song, an up-tempo social commentary, a few years earlier, but it had made no impact. Not so the second time around. "When it was really a hit, we'd walk on stage, and they'd yell out 'Compared to What!' One night I said, 'Let's see if we can get by not playing it,' and we got booed. It's an amazing song. I do that song at least twice a night, and I still love it. All of his songs were fantastic." "Compared to What" has shown up in eight movies, including "Casino," and was featured in an international Coca-Cola campaign. More recently, it was included on the 2010 John Legend and the Roots album "Wake Up!" In the early '70s, Atlantic Records released McDaniels' albums "Outlaw" and "Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse," for which he wrote or co-wrote the songs. "They were very political albums, and they got him kicked off his label," his wife said. Flack's 1974 recording of McDaniels' "Feel Like Makin' Love" reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart and was nominated for two Grammys. McDaniels wrote many songs for Flack. McDaniels' songs have been recorded by singers including Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Johnny Mathis and Ray Charles. He also produced for artists, including Flack, Knight, Lenny Williams and Melba Moore. The son of a minister, Eugene B. McDaniels was born Feb. 12, 1935, in Kansas City, Kan., and grew up in Omaha, where he began singing in his father's church as a young boy. He formed a gospel quartet in junior high school and, while idolizing jazz singers, including Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, launched his career after graduating from high school. Karen McDaniels said her husband recently had been working on a new CD, "Humans Being." Retirement wasn't on his agenda. "Never," she said. "He couldn't retire because he was always writing music. Everything was about the music, always. It was his soul, his essence completely." In addition to Karen, his third wife, McDaniels is survived by his sons, London, Christopher, Mateo, Django and Dylan; his daughter, Dali; his sister, Pat Nichols; and nine grandchildren. dennis.mclellan@latimes.com
http://denisesullivan.com/2011/07/31/the-outlaw-the-left-rev-mcd-and-musical-warrior-eugene-mcdaniels-rip-1935-2011/
Keep On Pushing: Black Power Music From Blues to Hip-Hop
by Denise Sullivan
Lawrence Hill Books, 2011
Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse by Eugene McDaniels (1971)--Atlantic RecordsThe Outlaw, The Left Rev. McD, and Musical Warrior, Eugene McDaniels, RIP 1935-2011
A Tribute by Denise Sullivan
The music of Gene McDaniels was a big inspiration to me before, during and after the writing of Keep on Pushing: In many ways he and his largely untold story was the motivation to write a book that provides not only an overview of intersections between music and social and political movement, but takes a close look at some of the artists/activists who were undermined by a climate and culture ultimately unequipped to support their visionary work. And yet, rare groove chasers know well the name Eugene McDaniels; his 1971 album for Atlantic, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse is a standard-bearer for psychedelic soul/funk/jazz rhythms and is borrowed frequently for its samples (most famously by the Beastie Boys in “Get It Together”). The album is a fierce statement of black pride, anger, and frustration, equally powered by a super-soul fever, peace, and ultimately love. It’s a showcase for McDaniels breadth as a composer, from folky singer-songwriter styles (“Susan Jane”) to proto-rap (“Supermarket Blues”); McDaniels’s strongest words are demonstrations of righteous indignation, though he also offers spiritual ideas.
The Lord is black, his mood is in the rain,
The people have called he’s coming to make corrections
You can hear his voice blowin’ in the wind
McDaniels is the composer of “Compared to What,” the 1969 jazz-soul wartime protest made famous by Les McCann and Eddie Harris: “Possession is the motivation that’s hangin’ up the goddam nation.” McDaniels was born in Kansas City in 1935, studied at the Omaha Conservatory of Music, and graduated from Omaha University. After forming a band in the 1950s, he signed with Liberty Records and hit in 1961 with “A Hundred Pounds of Clay,” followed by five more Top 40 hits, including “Tower of Strength.” All in all, McDaniels had six Top 40 records in 1961 and 1962 before he turned his focus to writing (he worked closely with Roberta Flack and ultimately wrote her hit “Feel Like Making Love,” among others). By the time he attempted to launch his solo career as a singing and songwriting artist, McDaniels had had the time to chew on what he wanted to say and had an intensely unique way of saying it. He was fearless with his melodies and in his verses. The instrumentation was a wild combination of folk-funk: electric and acoustic bass rubbed against guitar, drums, and piano, and they all combined with lyrics that strike chords of deep recognition. With the fascist-fighting folker’s impeccable style of oration, he injects the song with theatrical and emotional soul power. As he sings, he evokes images of a man increasingly incensed and so confused by injustice that he’s stretched to the point of losing his mind. His elegy for the red man, “The Parasite (For Buffy),” dedicated to Sainte-Marie, is a shining example of his dramaturgical song style that places his subjects in a social, political and psychological context. But McDaniels’s revolution of the mind is a peaceful one; though he paints pictures of hell and all hell breaking loose, his narrator does not advocate use of violence as a solution. Rather, violence is portrayed as the problem. “Supermarket Blues” describes a situation in which a man demands his money back for a can of peas marked as pineapple and ends up with a beating. Somehow he even finds a way to inject dark humor into the mess: “I wish I’d stayed home and got high instead of coming into the street and having this awful fight.” Whatever darkness he’s describing, McDaniels’s point of view remains poised and unique; his higher consciousness and keep-on-pushing spirit bleeds between the notes of each slyly rendered gospel-laced track. Years later, the white-rapping, Tibetan-Freedom-loving Beastie Boys would turn to McDaniels, nicknamed the Left Rev McD, for a sample, as would the Afro-centric, conscious hip-hoppers, A Tribe Called Quest. Last year, John Legend and the Roots brought back a version of “Compared to What.”
During the course of the five years I was writing and researching Keep on Pushing, I attempted to reach McDaniels a number of times, hoping he would answer some of my questions about his early ’70s work and the mysterious stories of conspiracy and suppression that surround it, though my requests remained unanswered. In the book, I attempted to unravel his story the best I could, the facts based on bits and pieces from pre-existing interviews, including information passed on by Pat Thomas who reissued Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse and its predecessor, The Outlaw. With little information available to me, in the end, I came to my own conclusions about McDaniels and his exceptional work, the kind of music that reaches inside, touches the soul, and alters it. The Left Rev. McD made a difference, and mercifully the music remains, though his presence will be missed: Eugene McDaniels made it real—no comparison.
"Silent Majority" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
COMMENT ON EUGENE MCDANIELS BY CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE CARRI COLTRANE:Gene and I were partners in every aspect of music for 30 years. He produced my 3 CD’s in 1997 and 1998. I co-produced his CD “Screams and Whispers”. He and I wrote the classic hit, “Meet Me On The Moon”, recorded by the late great Phyllis Hyman and wonderful Kimiko Itoh. He was my dearest friend and I will miss him very much. I was with him the eve before he passed. He was lucid and elegant. His marvelous spirit was ‘moving on’ as he wrote in a song. He told me he wasn’t afraid and was ready. He died peacefully with his wife Karen and closest loved ones around him. He leaves behind a vast catalog of incredible songs containing lyrics that we can all hold in our hearts and sing to the melodies that he and collaborative writers such as Mike Melvoin, Terry Silverlight, Ted Brancato, myself, Paul Anderson, Thomas Snow, Ron Carter, Eddie Gomez, Charlie Ernst, Dennis C. Johnson, Mark Lucas, his own sons, London, Christopher, Django, Mateo, Al Sylvestri and many more, composed. Gene wrote poignant and clever lyrics to Miles’ solos, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Oliver Nelson, David Sanborn, John Lewis, to name a few. McD also wrote lyrics to Classical composers such as Chopin and Beethoven. Any time we want to hear Gene’s ‘voice’ we can all re-listen to his hit music recorded and sung by himself, Roberta Flack, Les Mc Cann, Melba Moore, Nancy Wilson, Merry Clayton, BB King, Terry Lauber, Kimiko Itoh, Carri Coltrane, Diane Schuur, Joe WIlliams, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin. God Bless Eugene McDaniels and thank you for such an incredible human being.
Carri Coltrane email: nostwo@comc
Not many people know who Eugene McDaniels is but they surely would recognize his music. He produced and wrote songs for various soul and r&b artists on heavy-hitter labels such as Motown and Atlantic as well as maintained a fairly successful solo career. While he crooned pop chart-toppers in the 50′s and 60′s, most hip hop heads know him for his controversial and socially conscious album of 1971, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse. Headless… became, and still remains, sample fodder for many artists including The Beastie Boys, Tribe, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, and countless others. The tried and true formula of electric bass, guitar, keys, and drums never fails to inspire. But McDaniels’ tales of buying canned food with government money to the tragic plight of Native Americans to, obviously, the coming of the apocalypse makes this album one of my favorites of all time as well as a must listen to anybody reading this right now. The 1970 album Outlaw, while not as jazzy, is just as funky and ridiculously overlooked. So here’s a salute to one of the greatest songwriters, who, with his talents, spread knowledge to some and will continue to be an inspiration to many.
TO HEAR EXCERPTS OF THE FOLLOWING GREAT SONGS BY McDANIELS PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINKS
Sung by Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes
Sung by Eugene McDaniels – Sagittarius Red (from Outlaw)
Sung by Roberta Flack – Feel Like Makin’ Love
"Feel Like Makin' Love" by Eugene McDaniels--sung by McDaniels
"UnSpoken Dreams of Light" by Eugene McDaniels, 1970
http://flabbergasted-vibes.blogspot.com/2011/02/eugene-mcdaniels-outlaw-1970.html
Review of "Outlaw" posted at Flabbergasted Vibes: A Music Blog; Author unknown
February 23, 2011
Eugene McDaniels
"Outlaw"
Released on Atlantic (SD 8259) 1970
1 Outlaw 5:00
2 Sagitarius Red 3:03
3 Welfare City 2:52
4 Silent Majority 4:10
5 Love Letter To America 3:57
6 Unspoken Dreams Of Light 6:40
7 Cherrystones 3:08
8 Reverend Lee 6:31
9 Black Boy 2:59
PERSONNEL:
Bass - Ron Carter
Drums - Ray Lucas
Engineer - Bob Liftin , Dean Evenson
Guitar - Eric Weissberg , Hugh McCracken
Percussion - Buck Clarke
Piano - Mother Hen
Producer - Joel Dorn
Recorded at Regent Sound Studios, NYC
With special thanks to
Les McCann
******************************
"She's a nigger in jeans, she's an outlaw, she don't wear a bra."
With opening lines like these, you know you are in for a weird trip.
Eugene McDaniels may be famous (or infamous) for `Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse` but for my money (which isn't much these days), THIS album has the songs! Also, while that album has the reputation for being the one that prompted Spiro Agnew to tap his phone, I have a strong feeling the spying started with "Outlaw". I mean, they're holding a rifle on the album cover, and "Love Song to America" declares him an enemy of the state (albeit unwilling).
Eugene McDaniels may be famous (or infamous) for `Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse` but for my money (which isn't much these days), THIS album has the songs! One of the weirdest career trajectories in music, McDaniels had gone from an early 60s R&B hit maker, as Gene McDaniels, with songs like "100 lbs of Clay", then seemingly taken a few years away from music, and reemerged with this militant, bizarre, and utterly seductive music. If I remember correctly he had begun working on this album while in the studio with Bobby Hutcherson recording the amazing album "Now!" Only one of the tunes on this album is really reminiscent of that masterpiece, "Unspoken Dreams of Light", loaded with jazz intervals and trippy, convoluted lyrics about a coming bloody revolution sweeping the country. It's a rock-funk-folk arrangement, I suppose, but the refrain sounds like it was left over from "Now."
Every song on here is very literally great. McDaniels' vocals are amazing, both emotionally stirring and also full of swagger and attitude. There is a twang to some of the tunes and especially Hugh McCracken's and Eric Weissberg's guitar licks that might invite comparisons to the Rolling Stones of this era. You can say that if you like, McDaniels probably would have not have objected to the comparison, but in a profound way these two albums of McDaniels are everything the Stones wanted to be in 1970. Black, for one thing, but incendiary, funky, roots-laden, gospel-tinged soul and rock music that truly must have made the so-called "Silent Majority" tremble in their straight-laced shoes with its scathing social criticisms, dark ironic humor, and sharply articulated anger. How is the listener supposed to react to the folk strumming of "Welfare City" whose chorus is, "la la la, la la la la la, la la, la la la la la, smoke a joint" ?? Well, just sing along I guess. By the end of the tune, with layered vocal harmonies, it sounds as catchy as "I'd Like To Give The World a Coke."
"Silent Majority" is sadly as relevant today as it was in 1970. For those too young to know the history of that phrase, it was what the reactionary Nixon-era conservatives called themselves during the "cultural revolution" of leftist politics, free love, drugs, and rock and roll. McDaniels calls them out on their hypocrisy and also makes the astute observation that they weren't really all that 'silent.' Unfortunately these same types of people are even more organized now, and still claim to speak for the "majority" of Americans, representing true patriotism, and calling anyone who disagrees with them a communist. These days, they call themselves The Tea Party.
McDaniels would never again make records like this one and "Headless Heroes". It seems as if he has never said much publicly about them (silenced by the Kissinger-blessed majority??). It almost seems as if he is not aware, or simply uninterested, in the profound influence this music had on the relatively few people who have had the privilege of hearing it. These are underground classics loved by fans of rock, soul, and funk, have been name-checked by all kinds of hipsters. There was an article devoted to Daniels in the respectable magazine (I mean that sincerely) Wax Poetics, but I don't remember what it said. Also can't figure out what issue it was in but it seems to have been included in the second `anthology` in book form. Anyone who wants to scan it and post it here, be my guest. The guy is kind of a mystery to me in a lot of ways.
McDaniels was a good friend and colleague of Roberta Flack during this period, and wrote classic tunes in her repertoire like "Compared to What?" and "Reverend Lee" (his version of this latter tune is MUCH stranger, and longer), both of which became stables of Flack's repertoire during the early 70s. McDaniels also penned one of her huge hits, "Feel Like Making Love", which won him a Grammy. Again, ....what the fuck? How does one go from making THIS record, to winning a Grammy for a love song just a few years later??? He has also written material for Aretha Franklin.
Gene McDaniels is still around, he has a website, a Facebook account, and a You Tube channel. He has even released some music recently, about which I knew nothing until yesterday when researching for this upload.
This was one of my first vinyl rips, made on my Music Hall turntable, a Parasound preamp, and recorded using a Tascam digital recorder at 24/96 resolution. I think it sounds warm and musical, but someday I may rip it with my new setup, after I get the album out of storage from my bunker in the Kayman Islands. Apparently this was released on CD by Water Records but I never knew that until yesterday and have never come across it. I find their mastering to be cold and harsh on everything I have by them -- although they usually release amazing, essential music - so I am quite happy with this for the moment.
I photographed the album with my Nikon D80 but.. I have no idea what I did with the files. So I have included some album cover scans I found on an interesting blog devoted to vinyl album art. ENJOY!!
Discography
Studio albumsIn Times Like These - Liberty (1960)
Sometimes I'm Happy, Sometimes I'm Blue - Liberty (1960)
A Hundred Pounds Of Clay - Liberty (1961)
Gene McDaniels Sings Movie Memories - Liberty (1962)
Hit After Hit - Liberty (1962)
Tower Of Strength - Liberty (1962)
Spanish Lace - Liberty (1963)
The Wonderful Word Of Gene McDaniels - Liberty (1963)
Outlaw - Atlantic (1970)
Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse - Atlantic (1971)
Natural Juices - Ode (1975)
Screams & Whispers - Sky Forest Music (2005)
Produced by Eugene McDanielsThe First Time - Carri Coltrane, 1999
Flamenco Sketches - Carri Coltrane, 1998
Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 136. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
Biography by Bruce Eder at Allmusic.com
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 August 2011
Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 338 & 583. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
http://cashboxcanada.ca/2017/gene-macdaniels-passes-away
Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc.. p. 458. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 296.
Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1st ed.). London: Collins. p. 477. ISBN 0-00-717931-6.
Biography by Bruce Eder at Allmusic.com
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 August 2011
Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 338 & 583. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
http://cashboxcanada.ca/2017/gene-macdaniels-passes-away
Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc.. p. 458. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 296.
Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1st ed.). London: Collins. p. 477. ISBN 0-00-717931-6.
