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Gladys Knight & The Pips - 1971 - Standing Ovation
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Gladys Knight & The Pips - 1971 - Standing Ovation
Almost a deeper soul sound than before from Gladys Knight -- a record that features some very strong southern-styled production from Johnny Bristol and Clay McMurray
-- but in a way that reflects the new sort of "adult" mode of the time!
The style here is a careful blend of the raspiness of Knight's roots
and some of the changes going on in Memphis and Muscle Shoals -- modes
that are still a bit down home, but which show a more mature
presentation of their themes -- served up in arrangements by HB Barnum,
David Van DePitte, and Paul Riser.
Tracks : 1. Make Me the Woman That You Go Home To (3:47) 2. Can You Give Me Love With a Guarantee (3:08) 3. Fire and Rain (3:58) 4. Master of My Mind (2:27) 5. He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother / 6. Bridge Over Troubled Water (5:35) 7. It Takes a Whole Lotta Man for a Woman Like Me (3:11) 8. Help Me Make It Though the Night (4:18) 9. Long and Winding Road (3:25) 10. If You Gonna Leave (Just Leave) (3:38) 11. No One Could Love You More (3:17)
Members : Gladys Knight Merald "Bubba" Knight William Guest Brenda Knight Eleanor Guest Edward Patten
Gladys Knight & the Pips
were an R&B/soul musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from
1953 to 1989. Best known for their string of hit singles from 1967 to
1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967) and "Midnight Train to Georgia"
(1973). The longest-lived incarnation of the act featured Gladys Knight
on lead vocals, with The Pips, who included her brother Merald "Bubba"
Knight and their cousins Edward Patten and William Guest, as backup
singers.
Review : Originally released as Soul LP 736 in December 1971, this album heralded Gladys Knight,
once and for all, as a singer for discerning adult listeners. Never
again would any pretense to adolescence be affected. From this album
forward, I was never indifferent at the news that Gladys Knight & the Pips had a new release.
The album led off with the group's then current single "Make Me The Woman You Go Home To",
a sterling performance. Nowadays, though, the lyrics might raise an
eyebrow as Gladys 'bargains' to keep the man she wants: 'with a smile
I'll fix you're evening meals/ iron your clothes - it ain't no big
deal.' She also promises not to ask questions while her man stays out
all hours and she doesn't know where he is. Yes, that's taking some big
chances, but if love's never made a fool of you, there's a good chance
you've never really been in love. "Master of My Mind", here, is from the same emotional territory.
Oh, Gladys can still let an abusive lover have it right back, and there's some proof of that here too in "If You're Gonna Leave Just Leave", and especially "It Takes A While Lot Of Man For A Woman Like Me". Fed up, and with clever Smokey Robinson lyrics to fuel her fury, Gladys tells her failing lover: 'Need
someone who can see/ what I'm trying to be/ But you don't appreciate
it/ and I don't like where I'm situated/ Never knowing what changes
you're gonna go through/ And I don't need no KID who's as old as you!'
There are nice takes on outside material like "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", a superb and effecting read of James Taylor's "Fire And Rain", and the gentlemen Pips singing some lead parts on The Beatles' "The Long And Winding Road".
This album's crown jewel, however, was Gladys's take on the Sammi Smith country hit, "Help Me Make It Through The Night"
written by Kris Kristofferson. There was no better proof that the group
was never going back to teenage material after this. Fittingly, Gladys
is all alone for this starkly orchestrated dissertation of loneliness,
and I still think it's in the top five emotional performances of her
life. Anyone who heard this in the early months of 1972 couldn't have
been surprised at how majestically she re-interpreted 'The Way We Were'
three years later. If you're broken-hearted and need to feel sad for
yourself, this performance, and maybe a few shots of something 80-proof
are all you need.
There's
a considerably longer list of accomplishments that Motown records can
be proud of compared to any list of mistakes. But high on that shorter
list is the fact that this group's concerns about the attention and
promotion they got were not addressed adequately. Tired of feeling
ignored, and with one more album after this one, they left for a
contract with Buddha records. And we all know the glory that came then.
~By D.V. Lindner