BENTLEYFUNK@HOTMAIL.COM / 2024 / SINCE 2008: The Fatback Band Studio Albums

The debut album by the soon-to-be venerable Fatback Band is a mostly instrumental -- minus some "What's Going On"-style exclamations and raps in the background -- collection of pure funk grooves. More in the Curtis Mayfield vein of slick and nimble dancefloor fillers than loose Parliament/Funkadelic jams, these nine tracks are concise -- only one track breaks the four-minute barrier -- and tightly constructed, with little room for exploratory soloing or aimless vamping. The key tracks, however, are the three non-originals, cover choices that might surprise some folks who have never heard, say, Isaac Hayes' Black Moses: the Fatback Band strips down any cheesy sentimentality from Glen Campbell's Jimmy Webb hit "Wichita Lineman," Bread's wimp-rock classic "Baby I'm-A Want You," and even the moldy oldie "Green Green Grass of Home," purifying the tunes down to their melodic basics and transforming them into absolutely ravishing deep soul ballads. These are the sort of songs that keep people eagerly snapping up any '70s soul or funk album they can find, looking for just this kind of effortless, slinky groove. Let's Do It Again is highly recommended for the three covers alone, but the six originals, all powered by drummer/bandleader Bill Curtis, are equally fine.

Following up on its first successful R&B single, "Street Dance," the Fatback Band released 1973's People Music (their second album on the Perception label). While it doesn't include any hits or even near misses, it does have a nice mix of the group's signature, in-the-pocket funk-jazz jams. Combining the horn-driven soul of Stax with the tight groove of the JB's (James Brown's early-'70s band), the band works through nine mostly solid tracks. The influence of the JB's is readily heard on the fast-paced "Fatbackin'" and "Kiba," while premonitions of the coming disco era are evident on bumpin' cuts like "Nija Walk" and "Soul March." Supplying contrast to these instrumentals, the band indulges in a few vocal cuts with various band members taking the mike; although the after-hours jazz and flutes cut "To Be With You" includes a regrettable vocal turn by bassist Johnny Flippin, guitarist Johnny King's pleading and vulnerable performance on "Baby Doll" does comes off nicely. And rounding out the group's impressive roster are other original members like tenor saxophonist George Adams, trumpeter George Williams, and drummer Bill Curtis. People Music is an enjoyable disc, but newcomers might want to check out one of the band's greatest hits packages first.

FEEL MY SOUL 1974

The Fatback Band didn't enjoy as much chart success with this mid-'70s LP as most others from this period. There weren't any classic novelty tunes or great dance or message tracks; it was simply a functional album with decent horn charts, competent vocals and an occasionally interesting bassline or horn solo. It's among their least remembered and celebrated albums.

Fatback's first album outing of 1975 has pleasant grooves to spare but lacks the consistent material or cohesive feel that would make it a memorable album. The highlight is the title track, a relentless groove built on a thick bassline that features the band trading lively double-entendres about how "hungry" they are. The ballad "Feed Me With Your Love" tackles similar lyrical territory, but uses a silky mid-tempo groove layered with plenty of keyboards to powerful effect. Sadly, much of the other material is too thin to sustain the album. Songs like "Put the Funk on You" and "Boogie With the Fatback" have got a similar party-hearty style and benefit from an engaging live-in-the-studio feel, but lack the strong hooks and clever arrangement that characterize "Yum Yum." The album is also saddled with weak tracks like "Trompin'" and "Let the Drums Speak," songs that trudge along through endlessly repeated chants as they run their central riff into the ground. While Yum Yum shows the promise that would later be realized on albums like Fired Up and Kickin', it is too unfocused and tentative to please anyone except Fatback's most devoted fans. Since the hit title track can easily be tracked down on compilations, funk fanatics should think twice before getting this album.

Fatback's second album of 1975 is a serious improvement over Yum Yum: the arrangements are tighter, the hooks are stronger, and the grooves keep the listener riveted from start to finish. It downplays the live feel of previous albums like Keep on Steppin' in favor of a more carefully arranged feel that highlights the tasty keyboard and synthesizer work of Gerry Thomas. Raising Hell also produced two major hits for the group: "(Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop" capitalizes on the dance craze of the title with a steady bass-driven groove that works in layers of keyboards, guitars, and horns to keep things interesting, and "Spanish Hustle" is a propulsive dance jam that alternates synthesizer flights of fancy with intense Latin percussion breaks guaranteed to make the listeners shake their hips. The album tracks that back up these singles don't make their presence felt as strongly, but none ever descend to the level of filler: "Groovy Kind of Day" alternates smooth harmony vocals with jazzy electric-piano riffs to create a smooth mid-tempo track and the group's cover of the Four Tops' classic "I Can't Help Myself" is cleverly re-arranged to fit Fatback's dancefloor format . The result is a fine collection of funky dance music that helped Fatback solidify their reputation as one of New York's foremost disco groups. It remains just as listenable and is worth a spin for disco and funk fans alike.

This 1976 release from Fatback is an odd proposition: While nothing on it is unlistenable, it is also lacks any memorable moments. The problems begin with the title track: While it bounds out of the gate with a forceful, funky energy, it also recycles riffs and structural ideas from their previous big hit, "Spanish Hustle." The rest of Night Fever plays out in a similarly uninspired fashion -- it has plenty of energy but lacks the quality songs and carefully constructed arrangements necessary to create a worthwhile dance music album. The result is an album that tries hard but ends up chasing its own tail. A lot of the tracks drive potentially exciting riffs into the ground because they lack an effective arrangement ("The Joint [You and Me]"), while other songs feature thegroup repeating a chant ad infinitum while the band performs an uninspired vamp in the background ("Disco Crazy" and "No More Room on the Dance Floor"). There is also an uninspired cover of the Four Seasons' hit "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)," which fails to add any new ideas to the sound or style of this song. The one track that manages to stand out is "If That's the Way You Want It": While this ballad is as minimalist in style as most of the other tracks here, it benefits from a solid arrangement, atmospheric synthesizer backing, and a truly lovely group-harmony hook. Unfortunately, this bright spot can't make up for the overwhelmingly lackluster quality of Night Fever. Even hardcore Fatback fans may want to think twice before picking this album up.

NYCNYUSA is an improvement over 1976's lackluster Night Fever, but not by much. It suffers from the same problem that plagues many of the albums in the Fatback catalog: While the group has no problem generating solid grooves, they often have trouble translating them into enough solid songs to sustain an album. Inconsistent material continues to be a problem on NYCNYUSA: "Spank the Baby" layers a chant that is inane even by disco standards over a repetitive jam while "Duke Walk" sinks the pleasant quality of its pop-reggae feel with a dull arrangement that lacks any interesting twists and turns. Another problem track is "Cosmic Woman," which fails to make to good on the promise of its interesting title due to uninspired lyrics and a humdrum groove. Despite these inconsistencies, the album does manage to produce some strong tracks: the title track pays affectionate tribute to the band's birthplace with a nice combination of carefully layered harmony vocals and a catchy tune full of pop hooks, while "Love Street" effectively layers exuberant horns over a forceful bassline to create an effective fusion of soul grooves and pop hooks. Fatback also scored an R&B chart hit with "Double Dutch," which pits dance instructions against a pulsating groove to create another in the group's long line of trademark dance-craze songs. In short, NYCNYUSA is too inconsistent for the casual track but offers a few worthwhile tracks that might please the Fatback fanatic.

Man With the Band finds Fatback stylistically treading water: While they are moving closer to the distinctive blend of funk and disco they would perfect on albums like Fired Up and Kickin' and XII, the tracks presented here lack the focus and distinctive hooks that made those albums work. The result is an album that grooves along without ever picking up a lot of steam. The epic title track that kicks off the album represents these problems: While it contains some hypnotic moments where the band's energy merges seamlessly with the song's handful of hooks, it ends up dragging because these magical moments are interspersed with too much aimless jamming. Other tracks are reasonably energetic throughout but lack the distinctive riffs or creative arrangements that would make them notable ("Master Booty" and "Funk Backin'"). There are also a couple of throwaways, the most notable one being "Zodiac Man," which tosses out some silly astrology-inspired lyrics over a repetitive, lightweight groove. Despite these problems, there are some moments that manage to gel in a memorable way: "Mile High" blends high harmony vocals and spacy synthesizer lines to create an engagingly jazzy dance tune and "Midnight Freak" carefully molds its relentless groove into a tight arrangement that makes it a strong mid-tempo jam with a memorably sultry atmosphere. In the end, Man With the Band has enough strong moments to make it a worthwhile purchase for disco fanatics but isn't consistent enough to keep the casual listener interested.

The New York funk band's LP is divided into two segments, the Freak Party and the Foot Stompin' sides. Foot Stompers first: you won't find a better girl-watching song than "I Like the Girls," awhere an incessant bass riff drives the funky anthem; some timely rim drumming and cowbells embellish the beat along with well-placed horn riffs. "Snake" has a Latin beat and relies heavily on salsa horns; it's pure jazz and shows Fatback's versatility, with some tasty solos added for seasoning. The side concludes with "Can't You See," a laid-back tune, real laid-back, so laid-back you wonder why it's on the Foot Stompin' side. "I'm Fired Up" kicks off the Freak Party side; the vocals are muddy and the words (the few there are) are hard to distinguish, but so what? Fatback is about the beat, the rhythms and the musicianship. "Boogie Freak" has a more infectious beat, and the lyrics are more interesting than "Fired," though they ripped the girlish backing vocals from the Ohio Players. The weakest tune on the album is "Get Out On the Dance Floor"; it has too many changes, weak lyrics, and uninspired vocals -- if I never heard it again it wouldn't be too soon, 5:40 seconds of nothing. "At Last" (yes, the old standard) concludes the Freak side. The classic is done in straight-ahead lounge-club style; a better vocalist might have made something of this, as the arrangement is superb, but the vocalist is adequate at best. Like the Foot Stompin' side, the Freak Side failed to live up to its name.

While it doesn't overflow with high points like Fired Up 'N' Kickin', Brite Lites, Big City remains a solid album's worth of funky disco. The hooks aren't as instantly catchy as the ones that propelled past hits like "Spanish Hustle" or "I Like Girls," but songs like "Freak the Freak the Funk (Rock)" sport nice big grooves that will keep the listener's toes tapping. The album's big highlights are "Big City," a tribute to New York driven by a surprisingly jazzy horn riff, and "Let Me Do It to You," a percolating funk showcase that cleverly pits male and female vocal sections against each other as it doubles its thumping bassline with the chant mentioned in the title. "Wild Dreams" is another highlight, an interesting tune that contrasts mellow female harmonies against an insistent beat churned out by the rhythm section. Some of the tunes get a bit repetitive at times, most notably "Hesitation" and its reliance on an endlessly-reiterated chant, but the band's performance is strong enough throughout the album to overshadow these moments of weakness. The result is an album that isn't strong enough to win over people who aren't already fans, but will definitely satisfy fans of the Fatback sound.

Fatback maintained the same high standard of quality to produce another impressive slab of funk-tinged disco. XII is notable to hip-hop historians for the track "King Tim III (Personality Jock)," a song often tagged as the first rap song (it was released as a single shortly before the more popular "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang). "King Tim" remains a killer blast of hip-hop, seamlessly mixing a slick old-school rap into the band's intensely funky blend of organ, energetic horn blasts, and a relentless walking bassline. However, this isn't all there is to XII: The album's other tracks present a consistent mix of funky grit and disco slickness. Standout tracks include "Gimme That Sweet, Sweet Lovin'," which layers a Bee Gees-style falsetto vocal with an addictive mid-tempo groove anchored by a synthesizer bass, and "Disco Bass," which blends a catchy chant-along chorus with the serpentine hook mentioned in the title. XII is also notable for the high quality of its sound, which filters the energy of their sound through a carefully crafted soundscape that brings out all the details of their sound: a good example is how the huge drum sounds that propel "You're My Candy Sweet" seem to leap out of the speakers. The only track that tends toward the filler that has marred past Fatback albums is "Disco Queen," but even it is redeemed by its punchy horn arrangement and some catchy background vocals. All in all, XII is one of Fatback's finest albums and a treat for anyone who likes their disco music especially funky.

In 1980, the carefully studio-crafted combination of funk and disco Fatback had been developing on their last few albums paid off with Hot Box, an album that spawned some serious R&B chart hits. The big hit from this long-player was "Gotta Get My Hands on Some (Money)," a song driven by a rock-solid synthesizer bassline and a freewheeling, Parliament-like rap about the singer's need to score some cash to keep his head above water. It further spices up its funky stew with an array of vocal-harmony hooks and squiggly, ear-catching synthesizer flourishes to create one of Fatback's finest hits. The album's other notable success was "Backstrokin'," a tune that layered plenty of saucy double entendres over a combination of elongated synthesizer lines and staccato horns. Sadly, the rest of the album never quite captures the infectious yet carefully controlled energy of these hits: the title track works hard but never builds up the head of steam that would make it come to life and "Come and Get the Love" sports a lovely group harmony hook but suffers from humdrum lyrics that lack a fresh take on its very traditional subject. The song that gets closest to the arresting quality of the singles is "Love Spell," which triumphs over its uninteresting rap-styled lead vocal thanks to a doubled group vocal/synthesizer hook that digs deep into the listener's consciousness and takes hold. Overall, Hot Box is a solid listen for Fatback fans but those interested in the album's hits would probably be better off picking up a copy of The Fattest of Fatback.

After storming the R&B charts in 1980 with the singles-spawning Hot Box, Fatback quickly capitalized on this success with another album's worth of their funky disco stylings that same year. 14 Karat lacks the obvious singles of the album that preceded it, but it is stronger overall as an album. It starts strongly with the one-two punch of "Let's Do It Again" and "Angel," the former being an invitation to partying driven by a massive, thumping bassline and the latter being a ballad sweetened with plenty of synthesizer and mellow harmony vocals. 14 Karat's other tracks present a combination of strengths and weaknesses, with both sometimes fighting it out on the same track. For instance, "Concrete Jungle" has some unimaginative "life in the big city" lyrics but makes up for it with a unique, percussion-driven melody and "Lady Groove" fails to present a colorful character portrait that lives up to its intriguing title but makes up for it with an arresting, synthesizer-dominated melody. The one truly weak track is "Without Your Love," a pleasant but unimaginative ballad that feels like filler. However, that song is easily made up for by the killer synthesizer-based hooks of "Your Love Is Strange" and the sharp, jazzy instrumental stylings of "Chillin' Out." In short, 14 Karat is an album that will primarily appeal to Fatback's fans but is strong enough to provide plenty of diversion for those listeners.

By 1981, large-scale R&B bands like Fatback were being pushed to the sidelines by smaller groups whose primarily electronic sounds excluded traditional soul music frills like horn sections. Fatback was obviously paying attention because Tasty Jam pares down the group's sound to push synthesizers to the forefront. The resulting fusion of old-fashioned grooves and up-to-date electronics resulted in the group's strongest, most consistent album since XII. Tasty Jam simply presents six slices of dense, rhythmic electronic funk. It lacks the catchy pop elements of past Fatback outings, but compensates with tight arrangements and arresting rhythms: "Take It Any Way You Want It" is built on a pulsating, polyrhythmic bed of electric piano and synthesizer hooks and "Keep Your Fingers Out the Jams" pits the effectively harmonized chant of the title against a rolling synthesizer bassline guaranteed to induce some hip shaking. "High Steppin' Lady" is another strong track that hooks in listeners with the intriguing contrast between its Latin-flavored percussion and its bubbly, percolating synthesizer lines. The album drags a bit in places, most notably the repetitive grooves of "Kool Whip," but none of the songs ever truly wear out their welcome and the group's compelling mastery of their groove makes up for these occasional shortcomings. In the end, Tasty Jam lacks the standout singles that would give it crossover appeal but remains a solid listen for fans of electronic-oriented dance music.

This 1981 outing is probably the slickest album in the Fatback catalog, and that's not necessarily a good thing. Although the instrumentation still has a familiar earthiness to it, the album employs a new set of different, slicker vocalists and just as many engineers to create an album that appears designed to appeal to as many different segments of the R&B market as possible. Gigolo is professional enough to live up to this ambition, but its attempts to be all things to all people cause it end up as an album that is neither fish nor fowl. It also robs the band of the distinctive personality that characterized past albums like Raising Hell and XII. Case in point: The slick but lifeless cover of the Chi-Lites' classic "Oh Girl," which sounds like it could have been recorded by any second-tier soul band. That said, Gigolo still offers enough high points to appeal to the Fatback fan. Knockout tracks on this album include "Higher," a barnstorming track about an addictive love that sports a surprisingly rock-oriented beat, and the title track, an electronic opus with plenty of Zapp-styled synthesizer hooks. There is also an inspired cover of "Na Na, Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye," which transforms that song from a lightweight bubblegum tune into a full-blooded funk outing dressed up with Parliament-style cartoon vocals and synthesizer squiggles. All in all, Gigolo probably won't take pop or soul fans by storm but remains an interesting curio with enough solid tracks for the hardcore Fatback devotee.

On this 1982 album, Fatback continues in the funky electronic vein they established with Tasty Jam. This time out, the songs are paired off into two distinct suites: "Hot Funk" and "Mellow Madness." The songs in the "Hot Funk" arena are the ones that fare best. Each tune from this side smoothly integrates a steady stream of carefully orchestrated hooks with plenty of tasty synthesizer riffing: "On the Floor" keeps the listener hooked with its effective combination of a spacy electronic soundscape with a catchy chorus, while "U.F.O. (Unidentified Funk Object)" turns what could have been a silly and cartoonish space funk outing into a diverting slice of cosmic fun that is full of intriguing synthesizer sound effects. The songs on the "Mellow Madness" side go for a more straightforward R&B approach and come off as less interesting as a result. For instance, the slickness of "She's My Shining Star" cannot overcome the song's mundane, clichéd love song lyrics and the mellow atmosphere of "Do It to Me Now" is undone by a lead vocal that is too forceful for its relaxed musical surroundings. "Hip So Slick" is the only song from this side that truly shines, yet it feels misplaced because its danceable beat and forceful bassline make it sound like it belongs on the "Hot Funk" side. Despite these problems, On the Floor With Fatback serves up enough potent funk tunes to make it a worthwhile purchase for the Fatback collector.

Fatback was always well aware of where the future lay. Keeping their eyes and their funk firmly on the pulse of R&B, Fatback (aka Fatback Band) took their audiences on a two-decade journey of perpetual evolution, wrapping their roots in psychedelic R&B, pop, soul, disco, and on into hip-hop, as that genre was formulated as well. By 1983, the musical pulse was firmly in the hands of the new wave -- both in soul and pop. Michael Jackson, Prince, and Cameo ruled the R&B roost, while a thousand bubblegum wannabes beat at the door behind them. Fatback absorbed all this excitement, and once again proved that they could match anyone. Is This the Future? is eminently danceable, light funk infused with synthesizers and '80s bass to create a vital brew. Fatback recorded one of the first rap records in 1979, and they repeat the form here. This time, Gerry Bledsoe takes the mic, with a DJ rap through the title track which gives the band a Top 50 R&B hit. "Spread Love," meanwhile, was a strong, effusive slab of danceable pop -- and, alongside "The Girl Is Fine (So Fine)" and "Up Against the Wall," really kept the pace flowing. In fact, only " "Funky Aerobics (Body Movement)" really lets the side down, a weak presentation of not very well-placed sexual innuendo, and little more than wasted space. On the whole, Is This the Future succeeds. It's not the driving funk of earlier renown -- in places, it's not even really that funky, and was never intended to be so. It is, however, extremely entertaining, infused with bright energy and further evidence of just what remarkable chameleons Fatback were -- changing with the musical tide while keeping their essence intact.