SoulAlive said:

^^yeah and it's hard to pick a favorite album cover because they're all great I think the Spirit cover is my favorite

"Diana" (an outtake from 'I Am') (1979)

Earth Wind & Fire - Diana - YouTube

I want a T-shirt like this

SoulAlive said:

SoulAlive said:

RJOrion said:

kitbradley said:

With all the EWF fans around I'm sure some of you are hip to the Pharaohs.HIGHLY recommnded for old school lovers.

Smoke one with ya boy.

[Edited 6/6/22 7:49am]

[Edited 6/6/22 7:50am]

BalladofPeterParker said:

One of my favorites from them is "Evil Roy" from their 1987 "Touch The World" LP.

chaynemale said:

One of my favorites from them is "Evil Roy" from their 1987 "Touch The World" LP.

Touch The World is a solid album.My favorite tracks are "Thinking Of You","Evil Roy",Here Today and Gone Tomorrow","Every Now and Then" and "Victim Of The Modern Heart".

[Edited 6/13/22 13:36pm]

Philip Bailey - State of ... - YouTube

Iam counting this LOL. Both Philip and Maurice did the solo crossover thing in the mid 80's. Above song does sound abit like EWF I feel.

thesexofit said:

Philip Bailey - State of ... - YouTube

Iam counting this LOL. Both Philip and Maurice did the solo crossover thing in the mid 80's. Above song does sound abit like EWF I feel.

I liked this song but the album Inside Out wasn't that good imo.

It wasn't solid like previous albums Continuation and Chinese Wall.

phunkdaddy said:

Charles Stepney solo album 'Step On Step'----a collection of demos and home recordings

credits

"All In The Way",the first single from 2003's 'The Promise' was a nice surprise.It sounds like a long-lost outtake from the late 70s.

Earth Wind and Fire All I... - YouTube

RJOrion said:

Maurice White's self titled solo album from 1986 was criminally underrated..it was much better than any EW&F album made between 1983-1990...Jamboree, Stand By Me, Invitation, Switch On The Radio, Children Of Africa, I Need You, all solid joints...that lp has aged better than i thought

I'm with you. I love that record.

SoulAlive said:

Charles Stepney solo album 'Step On Step'----a collection of demos and home recordings

International Anthem is proud to present 'Step on Step', a double LP collection of home recordings marking the de-facto eponymous debut album by enigmatic producer, arranger, and composer Charles Stepney (1931-1976). The music that makes up Step on Step was created by Stepney alone, in the basement of his home on the Southside of Chicago, sometime in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before his untimely death in 1976.

A Chicago born and bred arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Stepney is known for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, and as a staff producer for Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many more. In the decades since his passing, the presence of his name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly underappreciated figure… a genius relegated to the shadows.

One of the signature elements of his “baroque soul” sound is the epic, expansive, orchestral expression of his horn and string arrangements (in many cases brought to life by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), as heard on Minnie Riperton’s “Les Fleurs,” or Marlena Shaw’s “California Soul,” or Terry Callier’s “What Color Is Love.” Hence making it even more special that his de-facto debut LP Step on Step, which sees its first wide release nearly five decades after his death, is a collection of stripped-down 4-track tape recordings featuring Stepney, alone, performing all instruments with minimal means. It is, as said by Chicago culture historian (and author of Step on Step liner notes) Ayana Contreras, “the uncut funk,” an unprecedented depiction of an imbued composer imagining and conceiving music (some of which would eventually become massive studio productions) in its primal state.

Step on Step features 23 tracks, most of which are original compositions by Stepney that were never again recorded by him or any other artist. It also features prototypical, seedling-style demos of Stepney compositions for Earth, Wind & Fire, including “That’s The Way of The World,” “Imagination,” and “On Your Face,” as well as the original version of “Black Gold,” which would eventually be recorded by Rotary Connection (as “I Am The Black Gold of The Sun,” with lyrics by Richard Rudolph). And in addition to the wordless croons of Stepney original and early single “Daddy’s Diddies,” Stepney’s actual voice is heard on a couple occasions across the album, testing microphones and inputs on his tape machine.

All of the otherwise unrecorded, previously unnamed original compositions contained on Step on Step were given their titles by Stepney’s daughters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté Stepney, whose voices are also heard throughout the album, telling stories and sharing memories about their father. The Stepney Sisters, who produced this album over many years, have long been engaged in efforts to celebrate their father’s legacy and bring his work into brighter light. They’ve cherished the tape reels left behind by their father in the basement of their home, transferring the audio on multiple occasions, and originally compiling the recordings for an ultra-limited CD on their own DIY label (The Charles Stepney Masters) in the early 2010s. “We always talk about how we were trying to develop this and would go to different people and they would go ‘what is this raw stuff…’ It was just the first level of something that became something really great,” says Chanté. “To get this type of intimate look into an artist’s process is really unknown and unheard of… so I just really appreciate the opportunity to give this. I am very happy for my Dad that we’re able to share this with the world in this way, with this amount of respect.”

This new double LP collection on International Anthem presents “a genuine, beautiful, deeply emotional and personal effort by three women to reconnect with their father and validate their own memories of his passion and brilliance,” says label co-founder Scott McNiece. And it’s a long-overdue fulfillment of Stepney’s unsatiated plan to release a solo album – which he once vowed to his daughters that he would do, and that he would name it: “Step on Step.”

credits

releases September 9, 2022

All instruments performed & recorded by Charles Stepney.

.	Roll Tape
	2.	Gimme Some Sugar
	3.	Daddy's Diddies 02:00
	4.	Gotta Dig It To Dig It
	5.	No Credit For This
	6.	Roadtrip
	7.	On Your Face
	8.	That's The Way Of The World
	9.	Imagination
	10.	In The Basement
	11.	Business
	12.	Look B4U Leap 05:58
	13.	Around The House
	14.	Funky Sci Fi
	15.	Mini Mugg
	16.	Chicago Independent
	17.	Surround Stereo
	18.	Black Gold
	19.	Denim Groove
	20.	Notes From Dad
	21.	Rubie & Charles
	22.	Greatness
	23.	Step on Step 04:02

Thanks for sharing! I just ordered it!!

Fun fact: Earth Wind and Fire's 1975 hit "Can't Hide Love" is actually a remake.The original,written by Skip Skarborough,was recorded by a group called Creative Source and released in 1973.

Creative Source - You Can... - YouTube

SoulAlive said:

SoulAlive said:

Yeah that surprised me too of course,EW&F took that song and really made it their own.Their version is superior.

My older siblings had the Creative Source version on 45 so I was aware it was a remake. EWF really took it to a whole nother level! Love the song (and the original too actually)!!!

SoulAlive said:

Yeah that surprised me too of course,EW&F took that song and really made it their own.Their version is superior.

RJOrion said:

SoulAlive said:

Yeah that surprised me too of course,EW&F took that song and really made it their own.Their version is superior.

Just like they did with The Beatles joint, "Got To Get You Into My Life"...even Paul McCartney himself acknowledged the EWF version

yup