The label Wewantsounds has just announced the reissue of Robert Cotter's unavailable album Missing You , released in 1976. Originally released on the Tiger Lily label, Missing You disappeared immediately and the few copies that survived are now out of print. The album, recorded in New York City between 1975 and 1976, is also the first known recording of Chic - or Big Apple Band as the group was then called - of which Cotter was the lead singer along with Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, Tony Thompson and Robert Sabino. The album has been remastered and the reissue includes the original cover art, plus a booklet with liner notes by Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele of New York magazine Love Injection.
Missing You had a singular fate in being denied a release in 1976. Tiger Lily, a sub-label of Roulette Records, the label of the sulphurous Morris Levy, was in fact a tax scam whose goal was essentially to lose money. After being officially active for a few years, the label disappeared without a trace. The album has since become an underground classic that is traded at a premium among DJs and collectors.
Beyond its rarity, the album is excellently crafted in offering a wide range of styles, from the heavy-funk of the title track and "Disco Blues" to the acoustic soul of "Three Wise Men" to the mid-tempo conga-driven groove of "God Bless The Soulfire People." The Big Apple Band's two tracks, "Love Rite" and "Saturday" also provide a glimpse into the origin of the Chic sound. A remake of "Saturday" would become a hit for one of the Chic Organization singers, Norma Jean Wright two years later. The album ends with the incredible "Come On With It", a politically charged diatribe against Nixon with dark psychedelic arrangements.
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