Deep Album Cuts Vol. 376: Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack passed away at 88 years old on Monday. I've been delving into her catalog over the last few years and picking out songs for this playlist, I always feel a little guilty when I don't get around to finishing a playlist for an artist until they die. But it is what it is, I'm happy to look back at her remarkable career regardless of the circumstances.
2. Be Real Black For Me (with Donny Hathaway)
3. Early Ev'ry Midnite
4. No Tears - In The End
5. Go Up Moses
6. I Can See The Sun In Late December
7. And The Feeling's Good
8. Sunday And Sister Jones
9. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
10. After You
11. If Only For One Night (with Peabo Bryson)
12. Disguises
13. And So It Goes
14. Mood
15. Ballad of the Sad Young Men
Tracks 9 and 15 from First Take (1969)
Track 1 from Chapter Two (1970)
Tracks 5 and 8 from Quiet Fire (1971)
Tracks 2 and 14 from Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (1972)
Track 4 from Killing Me Softly (1973)
Tracks 3 and 6 from Feel Like Makin' Love (1975)
Track 10 from Blue Lights in the Basement (1977)
Track 7 from Roberta Flack (1978)
Track 12 from Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway (1980)
Track 11 from Live & More with Peabo Bryson (1980)
Track 13 from Oasis (1988)
Roberta Flack really became a star because a deep album cut turned into a hit. Her debut album had already been out for two years when Clint Eastwood heard "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" on the radio and chose to feature it in Play Misty For Me, and it eventually rose to #1 on the Hot 100. Lauryn Hill, who of course rocketed to fame with the Fugees' cover of "Killing Me Softly With His Song," posted a tribute to Roberta Flack on Tuesday that mentioned some of her favorite Flack songs, including "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" from First Take.
Flack, who studied classical piano at Howard University, wasn't primarily a songwriter, but she had a handful of songwriting credits across her catalog, including the beautiful 7-minute piano instrumental "Mood." In fact a lot of my favorite moments on this playlist are just how she colors the songs with piano embellishments, she had a real gift for interpreting and arranging other people's songs. I roll my eyes at a lot of the pop and rock covers on soul albums in the '60s and '70s, but I genuinely enjoy Flack's version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a song I generally don't have a lot of time for. Flack co-wrote "Go Up Moses" with the Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1971, and co-wrote "And So It Goes" with her good friend Maya Angelou in 1988.
Donny Hathaway wrote a few songs on Flack's early solo albums, even before they recorded their famous duets, including "Gone Away," with Hathaway co-wrote with Curtis Mayfield. Last year, my brother-in-law turned me on to an early '60s hit he really loved, "Tower of Strength" by Gene McDaniels, and after I checked that out, I realized that McDaniels wrote a lot of Roberta Flack's best songs, including the singles "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Compared To What," and deep cuts like "Sunday and Sister Jones" and "Early Ev'ry Midnite." There's a great moment at about 3:22 on "Sunday and Sister Jones" where I suddenly become aware of the fact that Bernard Purdie is definitely the drummer on the track -- he's not playing his most famous beat, the Purdie shuffle, but a busy snare rim click pattern over a relaxed open hi-hat groove that I've heard him play on several other songs over the years.
After "Feel Like Makin' Love" became Flack's third #1 hit in 1974, she signed what was reportedly the most lucrative contract ever at the time for a female artist. The Feel Like Makin' Love album came in behind schedule and over budget by the time it was finally released in 1975, and Roberta Flack self-produced the album (as 'Rubina Flake') after the original producer left the project. That probably hurt her career, and the album performed below expectations, but I think it's a brilliant album, perhaps her best. The centerpiece of the album is the 12-minute "I Can See The Sun In Late December," perhaps the greatest song Stevie Wonder ever wrote that never appeared on any of his own albums (he performed it live many times, including on the German television program "Musikladen," although Stevie's rendition of the song is much shorter than Flack's).
You'll probably hear a few moments on this playlist that you'll recognize from samples. "Gone Away" was sampled on T.I.'s "What You Know." "Be Real Black For Me" was sampled on Scarface's "My Block." "Early Ev'ry Midnite" was sampled on Tony Yayo's "I Know You Don't Love Me." Flack's piano from her version of Leonard Cohen's "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" was sampled on Lil Kim's "Queen Bitch." "After You" was sampled on Pusha T and Lauryn Hill's "Coming Home." And "If Only For One Night" was sampled on Terror Squad's "Take Me Home."
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