LP Review: Live
Released: 1972
LP Charts: #4 R&B, #18 pop
Pretty odd for an artist’s most successful solo album to be live LP, but that’s the case for Donny Hathaway. Refreshingly, Live isn’t just Hathaway running through songs he’s already done in the studio. Six of the eight tracks are covers he never had and never would release on a solo studio album. And the album was culled together from two different live performances, I believe.
The sound is also really tight since the live band at each peformance was a six-man affair: Hathaway on electric piano, Mike Howard on guitar, Willie Weeks on bass, Fred White on drums, and Earl DeRouen on congas. Phil Upchurch played guitar at one show, while Cornell Dupree did so on the other.
Hathaway opens the album with the best cover of “What’s Going On” I’ve ever heard. It’s a bouncy jazz rendition that has a fantastic electric keyboard solo. This is what a cover should be instead of simply rehashing an original.
Then Hathaway goes into a soaring 12-minute rendition of “The Ghetto” that has the audience in the palm of his hand during the final two-minute stretch.
Those first 17 minutes of music then cede ground to a slew of mellower R&B songs. “Hey Girl” is a plenty of lightweight fun. “You’ve Got A Friend” (yes, the Carole King song) is a sappy thrill thanks to audience participation. “Little Ghetto Blue”, first recorded for the soundtrack to Come Back Charleston Blue, is a tame brooding blues-based song. “We’re Still Friends” has an enjoyable, twitchy guitar solo. The fifth and final of these relatively short R&B numbers is a cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”.
The album finale is another lengthy jam: “Voices Inside (Everything is Everything)”. This jam is good… to a point. The original version of this song was only 3:30, so to have it stretch out to 13:35 is quite the audacity. The members of the band each get a little time to shine, but without much vocalizing or chanting, the lenght gets a little much on an otherwise good groove.
ALBUM GRADE: B
I wish the album could have kept up the fire and energy of its first two tracks, but this is nonethless the first time where every song on a Donny Hathaway album is a good or above average listen.
Song Scores
What’s Going On: 8.5/10
The Ghetto: 8/10
Hey Girl: 7/10
You’ve Got A Friend: 7/10
Little Ghetto Boy: 6/10
We’re Still Friends: 6/10
Jealous Guy: 6/10
Voices Inside (Everything is Everything): 7/10