I just spent an afternoon chilling to this album a couple weekends ago. The CD Odyssey dice gods must have noticed because they rolled it up for me. Or it could be, you know, random.
Disc 1432 is…. Mighty Love
Artist: The Spinners
Year of Release: 1974
What’s up with the Cover? All kinds of awesome. We’ve got the Spinners arrayed around the top of a circle like some kind of RnB Mount Rushmore. Below that we’ve got a bunch of astrological signs, each more awesome than the last. What sign are each of these guys? Funky…
How I Came To Know It: I knew the song “Mighty Love” from the Crooklyn Soundtrack (reviewed way back at Disc75). Great soundtrack, lousy movie. Anyway, I decided to check out the Spinners recently for reasons that escape me. Of their catalogue, this was the album that stuck well enough for me to pick it up. Maybe because of the presence of “Mighty Love” but I also like to think because it’s their best.
How It Stacks Up: I like to think its their best, but it is the only one I have, so it can’t stack up.
Ratings: 3 stars
Over the last two days, when I wasn’t listening to the Spinners’ “Mighty Love” I found myself gravitating to early Ice Cube. I think I just needed a bit more grit in my diet.
There’s nothing wrong with “Mighty Love.” On the contrary, I enjoyed experiencing these five fine voices (tenors Billy Henderson, Bobbie Smith and Phillippe Soul Wynne, baritone Henry Fambrough and bass Pervis Jackson). They know their craft and are unselfish in the way they divide up the time to serve the song. There is plenty of call-and-answer, as well as harmony when the situation calls for it.
Standouts include the schmaltzy grooves of “Ain’t No Price On Happiness” and the celebratory horn-strewn “I’m Coming Home”. The former is built for wistful summer strolls in the park, the latter for impromptu handclapping and hip-swaying on the street corner.
Nothing beats that title track that first drew me in, though. “Mighty Love” is a song that manages to be both tender and powerful. Lyrically, it is the strongest on the record, starting with the worldly wise:
“Once…there was a boy and girl
Boy said, ‘I love you so’
Girl said ‘I’ll never leave you’
They grew older and left each other
Because that’s the way love goes.”
It sounds sad, but it really isn’t. It’s a reminder that if you live any
time at all you’re going to have more than a few loves. Also, it sets you up
for that triumphant chorus of “you need a mighty love.” You’ll love a
few people, but you’ll only have one or two loves that are mighty. Good down-to-earth
relationship advice was never so romantic.
However, for all the joy this record gave me (and it gave me a lot) there were also times when it felt emotionally detached. A lot of the tracks aren’t so much for sinking into, as for absent-mindedly playing along in the background. Like something you’d hear in a movie coming from an open car window that fades in, briefly lingers, and fades away again. I wanted every song to hit me between the eyes the way the title track always does.
There’s a “hey, we’re entertaining you!” vibe going on every now and then as well that felt a bit rehearsed. I know you need to rehearse to pull these kinds of vocal athletics off, but I still found myself wishing for the urgency and grit of James Brown or…dare I say it…Ice Cube?
My copy of the album (on CD – a format that does no favours to the warm mid-range heavy seventies production) comes with four bonus tracks. This can sometimes bug me, but the tracks they’ve chosen are every bit as good as the original record. I got a particular kick out of “You Sure Are Nasty” which, as you can surmise from the title, is not a mighty love. More like one of those “they grew older and left each other” moments, but with a lot more smack talk and maybe a lawsuit or two thereafter.
Overall, this record was a lot of fun, even if it didn’t quite achieve my expectations of “timeless classic.”
Best tracks: Ain’t No Price on Happiness, I’m Coming Home, Mighty Love, and also from the bonus material: You Sure Are Nasty
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