LP Review: I Am
Released: 1979
LP Charts: #1 R&B (1 week), #3 pop
All ‘n All (A) was released in December 1977 and it wasn’t until June 1979 that I Am found its way to record shelves.
Don’t fret. Earth, Wind & Fire was busy in the meantime.
They released The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 in November 1978. This compilation happened to include three songs otherwise unavailable on other EWF albums. And they are all worth tracking down.
“Got To Get You Into My Life” (7.5/10) — yep, a cover of the Beatles song. It was a pretty big hit (#1 R&B, #9 pop) and I think it’s the equal of the original song as EWF simultaneously hews close to the Liverpool quartet’s structure but also make the song their own. Sure there’s a bit too much Vegas-show ham, but as you can tell from my rating, that is more than compensated for in other areas. The intro has catchy doo wop finger-snappin’, there is a really good guitar solo, and the outro is where the song reaches it peak. There’s an edition of this song that has an outro that just simply fades out… STAY AWAY FROM THAT ONE. You want the ending with an a cappella featuring Philip Bailey singing the chorus with the guitar cutting it up.
“Love Music” (7/10) — I mean this in a polite way: this song represents EWF churning out its formulaic pop-funk without any hassle or fuss. For now it’s cool, but on an album review soon to come, you’ll see the formula turned into boring mayhem.
“September” (8/10) — a smash upon its original release (#1 R&B, #8 pop), this disco-pop-funk song seems more popular now than it ever was in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s. I am truly baffled it is AS BELOVED as it is. It should be beloved, but my God, it reached over-saturation in the 2010s. Someone needs to investigate further why this happened.
Okay, well after scoring two more big hits, Earth, Wind & Fire finally released I Am, which was their most unabashedly commercial album. Not saying that as a dig or insult, but this album just feels different than all of its predecessors. There is still the chipper positive lyrics and the requisite spiritualism, but everything here seems a bit more calculated than usual.
Back in their early days, I noted how EWF was a bit too ragged and needed some tightening up. Well, now they got too tight and needed to loosen up a bit. Perhaps the contributions of Allee Willis and David Foster are to blame.
Both Willis and Foster had bounced around the LA music and culture scene since the early 1970s, but I Am is what got them into the big time. Willis had already begun working with EWF by co-writing “September”; meanwhile Foster’s first hit song as a writer and producer was 1978’s “Got To Be Real” by Cherly Lynn, which was a not-so-subtle reworking of the Emotions’ “Best of My Love”, which was written and produced by… Maurice White!
Clearly all three parties were on the same musical wavelength, to mostly positive effect, but with some problems that are mostly manageable on Side 1 of the LP.
“In The Stone” picks up where All ‘n All’s “Be Ever Wonderful left us off: powerful horns galore! The opening horns are so good in fact the rest of the song is a relative let down. Don’t get me wrong, the whole song is good. But them opening 35 seconds are divine. The horns continue on the disco-pop-funk of “Can’t Let Go”. It’s a good and catchy song, but goes on a touch too long, which is odd since it lasts for only 3:28. Guess that’ll happen when you repeat the chorus too much in attempt to recapture the magic of “September”.
Foster earned his keep on “After the Love Has Gone” (#2 R&B, #2 pop). The ballad’s massive success set Foster up for another two decades’ worth of big money being made from writing and producing big melodramatic ballads. You’ll probably recognize a few of his productions from this list. Maybe those future hits of his got too predictable, but this early work is moving. “After the Love Has Gone” is one of the best Yacht Rock songs thanks to its heavy piano and saxophone noodling.
That noodling sax segues directly into “Let Your Feelings Show”, a funky rhythm-guitar-driven workout that unfortunately overstays its welcome by about a minute. Probably woulda worked better if they incorporated a musical solo of some kind.
SIDE 2
The manageable flaws found on Side 1 become painful at times on Side 2.
Featuring the Emotions, “Boogie Wonderland” (#2 R&B, #6 pop) is 4:48 long, has great verses, a good chorus, and an actually very interesting instrumental track that seems to be going places around the 2:50 mark with the keyboard work, the timbales, and strings. But sadly it gives up on a more complex instrumental arrangement by going right back to the chorus at the 3:40 mark which is repeated ad infinitum until the conclusion. Maybe I’m complaining too much, but this song coulda been excellent.
A good counterpoint to “Boogie Wonderland” is the very next song: “Star”. It does not settle for good and attains excellence. It is of comparable length (4:24) to “Boogie Wonderland” (4:48), has good/great verses and chorus, but instead of running over the same old ground during its final minute, “Star” lets Philip Bailey ad lib and inserts a trumpet solo during the outro. Bailey and the trumpet joyfully ride the grove to the song’s conclusion.
Oh boy, now we get the real warning signs of impending doom that arrive on the next EWF album. “Wait” is a fine song and is well produced, but it’s absolutely by-the-numbers. Any band in the late 1970s El Lay music scene could have churned this song out. Nothing here is particular to EWF. We also have our recurring problem on this album of repetitiveness and songs running out of gas before their runtime concludes.
Worse yet is “Rock That!”. I love rock guitar. However, the rock guitar on this instrumental does not fit in with the horns and strings it’s surrounded by. This is the first bad song from Earth, Wind & Fire since… Last Days and Time. It was a good six-year. Not bad!
The album does end on a note of hope: “You And I”. It’s no-fuss pop song that’s just well-executed. You don’t need to have mysticism and vibes and explosive solos when you have a catchy chorus and the song knows when to quit.
ALBUM GRADE: B
I Am is super slick, perhaps too slick for its own good. But what do I know? It went double platinum and was the band’s first LP to spawn two top 10 pop singles. And that’s after they had two non-album singles also hit the top 10 over the previous calendar year.
So, even if they’d already peaked artistically, surely EWF’s commercial success would keep on keepin’ on in the 1980s. Right?
Song Scores
In The Stone: 8/10
Can’t Let Go: 7/10
After the Love Has Gone: 8/10
Let Your Feelings Show: 7/10
Boogie Wonderland: 7/10
Star: 8/10
Wait: 6/10
Rock That!: 4/10
You And I: 8/10