Hi guys,

Can anyone recommend what records I should buy from Curtis Mayfield to have a good overview of his best work?

Cheers,
Wuudy

ROOTS

Or the Best of I think

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Loads of good ones out there, Start of with Curtis's first band THE IMPRESSIONS heres a good one
caution theres a vol 2. You cant go wrong with the ACE label
but heres a real cheap one £3.87 at Amazon) which you cant go wrong with.




As for Curtis's solo stuff, i'd suggest you get a good compilation first and if you like what you hear start checking his solo stuff, such as ROOTS, but you may find that you have enough
heres a good cheapie also from Amazon £8.37.

Thanks guys. I was looking at Itunes but they don't have the greatest hits albums so Amazon is the way the go or I just do it the old fashion way and go to the music store :-)

Cheers,
Wuudy

depends on the range your store has, why not just check first.

I recommend the "Superfly" Soundtrack deluxe 25th anniversary edition released
by Rhino couple of years ago.

Incredible grooves and fine tunes packed with demo´s ,instrumentals,altenative mixes on
a double disc.

You won´t be disappointed !

I would second that on the deluxe version of Superfly. Incredible!

Superfly is great no doubtm but not the place to start IMHO and certaily not the redux.

The essential Curtis albums in order of importancer are Curtis, Roots, Superfly, Live (71). After that he made one other fairly good one called Future Shock but then blanded out into disco.

Curtis is one of the best black power/hippy consciousness albums ever. It's psychedelic in places but throughout it ozzes soul and a fantastic groove. One of those rare albums that takes both your head and feet there...wherever there is, man!

Yup, Superfly Deluxe is a MUST buy.

Then ...

Curtis - the first solo album - and Roots are must haves. Ditto Curtis/Live.

Thereafter, the albums get patchy.

Best of the rest:

There's No Place Like America Today and Back to the World are really good. But you'd be best served by a broad ranging anthology of his solo stuff, like The Definitive Soul Collection.

Also of interest may be The Curtom Story - a 3 CD anthology of material Curtis produced for his Curtom label. Fascinating and often brilliant material. Doesn't include Patti Jo's cover of Ain't No Love Lost unfortunately - way better than his version, and an early underground disco classic.

For The Impressions, there's a near definitive anthology (1961 - 1977), which is esssential.

Song from ROOTS, I would suggest play it LOUD

I played the tape for months in my car back then





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Great one,NICOS !

not sure what album it's on, but make sure to download Mayfield's "Here but I'm Gone", excellent anti-drug song covered very well by Clapton on his last tour