Lou Bond
(Light in the Attic)
He was touted as "the black James Taylor". But unfortunately, Memphis soul troubadour Lou Bond's sole LP on Stax Records' subsidiary imprint We Produce met the same fate as Big Star's pair of aces for the label, #1 Record and Radio City: It was marginalized by Stax's crumbling relationship with distributor CBS Records and was never shipped to most record stores, thus making copies of the original a highly sought-after relic amongst collectors.
Fans of Terry Callier, Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers, whose stellar 1972 classic "Let Me Into Your Life" Bond covers here, will certainly revel in the ragged, confrontational, organic R&B of Lou Bond, which also includes a stirring rendition of Jimmy Webb's "Lucky Me" that opens up the album. Elsewhere, echoes of the many conflicts and tribulations that plagued the Nixon era can be heard across such songs as "Why Must Our Eyes Always Be Turned Backwards," which addresses the violence in Vietnam, Northern Ireland and the United States all in the same song; and "To The Establishment," a 12-minute epic featuring orchestral swells reminiscent of Black Moses, courtesy of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the South Memphis Horns, and a slow, steady rhythm helmed by members of The Bar-Kays (it's been sampled by such modern-day greats as Outkast, Mary J. Blige and Prodigy of Mobb Deep).
Now, thanks to the prodigal crate diggers at Light In The Attic, this beautiful, poignant melding of protest folk and Southern soul is given the second chance it deserves, reintroduced to the marketplace with new, informative liner notes, a killer repackaging job and previously unreleased tracks from the original recording sessions. Notable among that extra material is a stunning live medley of Duke Ellington's "I'm So In Love With You" and the all-time great blues standard "Motherless Child," the only bonus cut to appear on the CD version of Lou Bond (the digital version of the album boasts two more cuts, which could have handily fit on the disc as well, to be quite honest). But regardless of how you still take your music, be it via MP3, compact disc or grand old wax, studied fans of classic Memphis soul music should waste no time investing in this true treasure of an album whose moment of shine has been a long time coming.
Standout Tracks: "Lucky Me," "Let Me Into Your Life," "To The Establishment," "Come On Snob" RON HART
