OUT NOW: Curtis Mayfield, THE VERY BEST OF CURTIS MAYFIELD (2LP Sky Blue Vinyl)
Precious few artists captured the vibe of black life in America quite like Curtis Mayfield. Frantic and funky rhythms churned beneath sweeping symphonic strings, horn blasts and percussive guitars, all narrated by Mayfield's tales of living in the city in his signature falsetto.
The Very Best of Curtis Mayfield is a glimpse of the artist at the peak of his powers, collecting many of his finest recorded moments in one place. In honor of Black History Month 2022, RHINO has released this classic collection in a very special double-LP sky blue vinyl set.
"His music resonates today," insists Todd Mayfield, the artist's second-eldest son released the book Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield in 2016 . "I think he would probably say the more things change, the more they stay the same."
The definitive collection of Curtis Mayfield’s reflective, soul-moving, and evocative hits includes everything from the political to the romantic; with cuts from his genre-defining Super Fly soundtrack (“Freddie’s Dead”) to statement-makers like "Move On Up," which according to Mavis Staples, was a tribute to the legendary Staples Singers.
"Curtis lived around the corner from us," Mavis Staples told Mojo magazine. "He was like my baby brother. He'd drop by and we'd eat together and he'd talk politics with Pops. One day he came to Pops and said 'I want to write songs like The Staple Singers do, and Pops said 'Curtis man, you're a writer, a poet! Write some of those songs!' The first one Curtis wrote was 'Move On Up' and he came round and played it to us and Pops said, 'That's my boy!'"
In regards to his Super Fly theme song, Mayfield was inspired by the story arc of the movie's lead character, Youngblood Priest: "It was a glorious moment for our people as blacks," Mayfield told Q magazine (via Songfacts). "Priest had a mind, he wanted to get out. For once, in spite of what he was doing, he got away. So there came 'Super Fly' the song. He was trying to get over. We couldn't be so proud of him dealing coke or using coke, but at least the man had a mind and he wasn't just some ugly dead something in the streets after it was all over. He got out."
