Slave's Best Songs From The 80's Are Not Even On This CD!!!!
Maria Alvarez | Stevens Point,WI USA | 07/19/2002
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Being the hardcore slave fan that I am, I was disappointed with how incomplete this cd was. Listening to this cd is like listening to every other slave compilation and the worst part is that the cd only offers you songs from the 1977-1981 period, Plus alot of them like "Snap Shot" are edited! In the liner notes it says Slave "created funk for the 1980's", yet the ironic thing is that none of the signature slave songs from the 80's makes the cut. Missing from this collection were monster jams such as: "Do You Like It....(Girl)", "Be My Babe","Steppin' Out","Bad Girl", "Shake It Up","E.Z. Lovin' U", "Ooohh", "The Word Is Out", "Jazzy Lady", "Thrill Me", "Juicy-O", "You Take My Breath Away", "I Like Your Style", "Barbara Jean Blvd.", "Dangerous", and the slow jam "All We Need Is Time"- All of which,may I add, were Top 10 R&B hits all through the 1980's!
The liner notes in this CD could be misleading-It acted as though Slave were no longer a powerful musical force in funk after Steve Washington and Steve Arrington left the band in 1980 and 1982, which in fact they were very consistent with their albums and live shows, always serving up heavy chunks o' funk with classic albums like VISIONS OF THE LITE, BAD ENUFF, NEW PLATEAU, UNCHAINED AT LAST, MAKE BELIEVE, AND SLAVE 88. Besides, I was locked into Mark Adams' groove and Danny Webster's lead vocal finesse. Whoever wrote the liner notes to this cd obviously have not listened to all of Slave's music; how else could you make a statement like,"After Steve Arrington left the band, Slave's effectiveness was seriously reduced;Even more so since Steve Washington at the time was working on other projects"- C'mon, give Slave some credit! Steve Washington may have been the group's leader in their early days,but after Stone Jam Steve Washington left Slave to pursue other interests. From then on, Slave's remaining original members:Mark,Danny,and Floyd were the main creative forces behind all of Slave's music;Not Steve Washington. Anyways,this disc was unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. For starters, it didn't have any of Slave's essential tracks from the 80's,like I mentioned earlier. It's impossible to leave out so much of Slave's work because you're missing out on alot of their music. I believe if you're gonna put out a best of or greatest hits cd by any artist,you have to include songs from every stage of their career that highlight the best from each phase of that artist's career. This Cd really didn't capture that sort of quality,which is why it sounds so scrambled and incoherent. I mean especially since Mark Adams was only 15 at the time of Slave's debut album,so after 1981's SHOWTIME he was still progressing as a musician and building his skill as a bassist. After that,Mark Adams was thunderous and "dangerous" on bass. Cuz his Monster Bass Lines and Riffs could really slap a track into the groove! He was BLAMMIN',JAMMIN'and SLAMMIN'! The ultimate Funken Town! Other flaws about this cd was that it had the entire Stone Jam album on it so a considerable amount of time was wasted on that. That's a spectacular album, but I already have that one on cd so why would I need it again? Also, songs from their earlier period like "Baby Sinister","Volcano Rupture","Just Freak","Funky Lady" (Foxy Lady), "Party Lites", and "For the Love of U" weren't on this disc. Not only that, but the two remixes of "Watching You" and "Just a Touch of Love" were poorly done by Steve Washington; the original songs are much better. So if you really wanna hear Slave's finest from the 70's and 80's,just purchase their albums instead of buying this cd!"
Instead of this unessesary greatest hits package...
Michael Tolver | Seattle Wa | 03/20/2005
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Why haven't the SLave ablums "The Concept", "Hardness of the World" and "Just a Touch of Love" been reissued on compact disk? A wealth of lesser music of the time as well as Slave's peers have been made available on CD.So I am at least going to talk about about these albums in leiu of this collection. The person who wrote the liner notes for "Stone Jam" asserts that Slave's two follow ups to the hit debut "The Hardness of the World" and "The Concept" were of little consequence on the basis poor chart performance and lack of musical coherency (meaning "radio freindly"). On the contrary, these two albums are documents of pure funk perpetrated by one of the finest outfits of the genre. What they may lacked in terms of a demographic context is compensated by the vibrance and wonder of this music.
"Hardness of the World" is uneven and the production is clumsy but there are many moments that justify its existance. The break in the title track is a textbook example of groove and synchopation in which funk music is synomonous. Marks Adams is perhaps the most overlooked bassist in all Funk and in this track he keeps a tight groove while letting loose flourishes and accents on the top of every eight and sixteen. Straight jams like "Party Song" and "The Great American Funk Song" aren't quite as sick as The hit "Slide" (which contains one of the meanest basslines ever).Two midtempo tracks "Life Can be Happy" and "Can't Get enough of You" make up on that account with seductive melodies and deep motion. The one ballad "We Can Make Love" is suprisingly restrained and mature and musically coveys the more peacefull feeling of love while keeping the tension of passion real. The true stand out is "Baby Sinister".An astonishing peice of mutant funk with heavy metal guitar stabs punctuating a forboding yet silly groove. Over this is a wormy synthline that just makes you wanna wiggle.
The Follow up "The Concept" is a more serious affair starting off with "Stellar Fungk" which is compositionally more along the lines of prog rock in terms of structure and includes clever use of a voicebox and a weird heavy metal type break in the middle with the ending sailing off into the best cosmic acid funk this side of Funkadelic. "The Way You Love is Heaven" has some cheesy vocals but the hypnotic instrumentation and multilayered percussion out weighs this. "Thank You God" is a short percussion piece with conga's, timbales and host of other batterie. "Drac is Back" and "We've Got Your Party " are the same track with A searing guitar solo by Mark Hicks in the former and vocals in the latter, Both stand on their own as solid party funk. "Just Freak" is the strongest track. Earthy guitar chops over a percussive undersong augmented by badass horn charts, and a fluid groove that concludes with a jam in which Mark Adams lays down three bass (count'em) overdubs that weave in and out of each other, building to a climax before fading off in a sea of feedback that would do Sonic Youth proud. The final track "Coming Soon" is beyond catigorisation alternating between being tender and menacing. Again these albums are milestone in 70s era big band funk and its pretty lame that these have yet to be reissued as well with fellow Dayton funksters Faz-o's first two albums "Riding High" and "Good Thang". And with "Just a Touch of Love" not being reissued either despite the hit with the title track. Shame"
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1