released today

Three years after the french boxset called Someday We'll All Be Free and 10 years after the aborted project from Rhino UK, Warner is gonna release Never My Love : The Anthology a new 4 CD boxset on nov. 11th, 2013 including 13 never heard before songs and unreleased live takes recorded at the Bitter End (New-York City) in october 1971. This box contains a very long essay written by the english journalist Charles Waring plus an interview with Roberta Flack.

The first CD compiled some classic tracks (incl some edit versions published only on 45 rpm) recorded by Donny Hathaway including the duets with June Conquest he recorded in the late sixties for Curtom Records, Curtis Mayfield label based in Chicago.

The second CD compiled 13 never heard before demos; mostly "work in progress" tracks including a 20 minutes long amazing classical concerto (previously calley Life Pt. 1-4) recorded in october 1973 after the Newport Jazz festival tour, Donny did during the summer 1973.

The third CD compiled some unreleased takes recorded at The Bitter End in NYC. Donny played 9 sets, between October 27 & 29 1971. You could hear for the first time a 15 min funky version of The Ghetto and an alternative take of Everything Is Everything incl. an other Willie Weeks amazing bass solo and a great bluesy solo played Cornell Dupree, Donny's guitarist.

Last CD compiled all studio tracks with Roberta Flack officially already released between 1972 to 1977.



Disc 1 : The Life and Music of Donny Hathaway

1. I Thank You Baby – June & Donnie
2. Just Another Reason – Donny Hathaway & June Conquest
3. The Ghetto – Part 1
4. The Ghetto – Part 2
5. Thank You Master (For My Soul) (Promo Edit)
6. Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)
7. Tryin’ Times
8. To Be Young, Gifted and Black
9. I Believe To My Soul
10. This Christmas
11. A Song For You
12. Magnificent Sanctuary Band
13. Giving Up
14. Come Back Charleston Blue – Donny Hathaway with Margie Joseph
15. Little Ghetto Boy (Studio Version)
16. Valdez In The Country
17. I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
18. Lord Help Me
19. Come Little Children
20. Love, Love, Love
21. Someday We’ll All Be Free
22. You Were Meant For Me



Disc 2 : Unreleased Studio Recordings

1. Never My Love
2. A Lot Of Soul
3. Let’s Groove
4. Latin Time
5. Tally Rand
6. Memory Of Our love
7. Sunshine And Showers
8. After The Dance Is Done
9. Don’t Turn Away
10. Always The Same
11. Brown Eyed Lady (Instrumental)
12. The Sands Of Time
13. ZYXYGY Concerto

Disc 3 : Live at The Bitter End 1971 (All Previously Unreleased Performances)

1. What’s Going On
2. Sack Full Of Dreams
3. Little Ghetto Boy
4. You’ve Got A Friend
5. Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)
6. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother
7. Jealous Guy
8. I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
9. Hey Girl
10. The Ghetto

Disc 4 : Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway Duets

1. I (Who Have Nothing)
2. You’ve Got A Friend
3. Baby I Love You
4. Be Real Black For Me
5. You’ve lost That Loving Feeling
6. For All We Know
7. Where Is The Love
8. When Love Has Grown
9. Come Ye Disconsolate
10. Mood
11. The Closer I Get To You
12. You Are My Heaven
13. Back Together Again

I was gonna buy this,but a family member informed me that "Santa" will most likely get it for me as a Christmas gift really looking forward to this set

One of his best songs! this is REAL SOUL MUSIC,folks!

"I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know"

Thank you! Never would have heard about this otherwise!

Got to have this!

I'm very impressed with the tracklist,especially the second disc which contains unreleased songs.

Looks like a great collection, the 'Just Another Reason' track with June Conquest is a cool song IMO, written by Curtis.

thetimefan said:

Looks like a great collection, the 'Just Another Reason' track with June Conquest is a cool song IMO, written by Curtis.

I would mess with you Soul but its been awhile since I've had to reach in my pockets because of your talent of "finding" these box sets. Gota have it, everything I have of Hathaway is on vinyl. Thanks for the hook-up.

TD3 said:

I would mess with you Soul but its been awhile since I've had to reach in my pockets because of your talent of "finding" these box sets. Gota have it, everything I have of Hathaway is on vinyl. Thanks for the hook-up.

yeah,this set is must-have

I just bought it. It's awsome and a great compliment to the

studio albums and the french boxset "someday we'll all be free"

/peace Manki

manki said:

I just bought it. It's awsome and a great compliment to the

studio albums and the french boxset "someday we'll all be free"

/peace Manki

I found a really good,in-depth review of the box set....

Donny Hathaway: Never My Love – box set review

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Michael Hicks

Donny Hathaway: Never My Love: The Anthology [Box Set]
CD
Out Now

A new box set of CDs by gifted musician and powerful singer of pop and R&B hits Donny Hathaway. Michael Hicks reviews for Louder Than War.

I, like many others, came to Donny Hathaway’s music through his duets with Roberta Flack. Well, one song called The Closer I Get To You. It was included on a Flack compilation I had recently bought. His voice just floored me. He sounded like a smoother Stevie Wonder. But the fact is – Stevie Wonder sounded like him. Donny’s debut album had a huge effect on Stevie’s singing. Listen to the change in Wonder’s vocal delivery from 1970 onwards. The Motown genius was so impressed with Hathaway’s debut – he bought a number of copies and gave them as gifts to friends, family and those in the industry.

During his short life, Donny Hathaway released only three solo studio albums. His debut, Everything Is Everything, from 1970; 1971’s Donny Hathaway, and Extension Of A Man, which appeared in ’73. As timeless as these studio recordings are, the one album that cemented the Donny Hathaway legend is his Live album from ’71. Recorded at The Troubadour in LA and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, it’s essential to every music lover’s collection. His music is gaining new disciples with each reissue – and rightly so. Now we have Never My Love: The Anthology [Box Set]. What does it offer? The answer is quite a lot!

We get selections from his three studio solo albums plus his OST for Comeback Charleston Blue. Included is Leon Russell’s A Song For You, a number, which is Donny’s calling card, and a song, which has been reacted by every soul tinged performer on American Idol since the show’s incarnation. The studio version of Little Ghetto Boy. A social commentary on 1970s young America. Love, Love, Love, one of Paul Weller’s favourite Donny Hathaway songs, which is always a joy to hear – no matter its home. Marvin Gaye shook up the music world with his ’71 LP What’s Going On, that influence can be heard and felt on this song. The beautiful orchestrated strings and voices at the midpoint – sends shivers: “Every time you smile, it goes through me.” Hathaway, again, did not compose this, but it shows his magical ability of turning everything musical into his own. He wasn’t an interpreter of other’s work – he was the natural owner. I Thank You Baby and, its original B-Side, Just Another Reason, his duets with June Conquest, are another great inclusion. Anything involving Curtis Mayfield is worth owning.

The biggest draw, to this new set, is the unreleased material on the second disc. Never My Love is a fully realised ballad. Originally written and performed by baroque pop group The Association. Donny’s voice soars and his piano playing blends every genre. Hathaway was a music lover – irrespective of genre. A music scholar. From the lowest blues to the highest symphony. This belief in the totality of music is evident on the second song, A Lot Of Soul. This is country soul Donny. Not many performers in the 1970s were blending these musical movements, maybe the exception of Ray Charles a decade earlier. Memory Of Our Love is a somewhat bare bones of a song, a work in progress. Although when he sings, “Don’t worry about tomorrow …” it sounds like a fully formed human being. His phrasing is magical. He pierces the soul from the most unexpected musical angles. Sunshine Over Showers is sublime. In the wrong hands, a song like this can come over as saccharine but Hathaway’s warm embrace of a voice mesmerises. Nobody sang like this in 1975. Nobody sings like this in 2013. A great voice isn’t about how many trills, runs and licks you can perform; it’s about serving the song, bleeding some words – healing others. I’ve had this song on a loop. “But once a tear has all but fade/A bright rainbow is made.”

The earliest material here predates his debut album. Don’t Turn Away and Always The Same, would get even Stephen Hawking heading to the Wigan Casino. Both are a slice of euphoric loveliness. Elsewhere, Brown Eyed Lady is an instrumental, but you just know it wasn’t intended to be left that way. With Hathaway’s vocal on top – something special could have happened. The same could be said of The Sands Of Time And Changes. Zyxygy Concerto, the final slice of Donny on the unreleased disc, may very well be where he was heading. If he had lived longer – this could’ve been his musical landscape. Of course, he not only had the voice of a god, but could also arrange and compose like one. There’s a train of thought that previously unreleased recordings remain just that, unreleased, because they lack quality. That’s not the case with the best of the material here.

Disc three, again, offers unreleased music. This time in the form of live recordings. These cement his mastery as a pianist and vocalist. A Wurlitzer never sounded sweeter. A voice rarely sounding as perfect. He takes on What’s Going On and John Lennon’s Jealous Guy and sprinkles them with fairy dust.

As I said earlier in this piece, my love affair with Donny Hathaway began with Roberta Flack. This set’s fourth, and final, disc closes with 13 of these duets and collaborations. I’ve been transported back to a teenager. Although through years of owning the majority of both’s solo work, it’s my view that, on their own – they created better music. That’s not to say they didn’t create beautiful music when together, because they did. For All Me Know, Where Is The Love and The Closer I Get To You are timeless songs, but other material did tend to veer into middle of the road territory.

Over four discs, Never My Love: The Anthology [Box Set] offers all the evidence needed to present Donny Hathaway as one of the greatest singers god put breath in. His past, and maybe what would have been his future – is here.