360 Degrees Of Billy Paul Rar

Click to expand.I have to respectfully disagree. The 70's O'Jays material is classic and has aged quite well in the past 40 years or so. To these ears, songs like 'Back Stabbers', 'Love Train', 'For the Love of Money', etc., sound as good today as they did when they were first released.And regarding Gamble and Huff (and of course by association, Philly International), I would argue they were the genesis of some of the best music of the 70's - the O' Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Billy Paul, etc.

Click to expand.90% of the time I prefer the 'rawer' sound on sixties soul records as opposed to the slicker 70's stuff for artists who were prolific in both decades. The 10% are those artists who really came into their own in the 70's, like Stevie. I suppose someone like Marvin is a draw between the two.So I have a bias towards the early material in general.Now I do like Gamble and Huff, I think they are very talented, but it's not me favourite type of 70's soul. I generally don't like all the strings and the very lush sound.

360 Degrees Of Billy Paul has proved to be prime material for producers looking for great samples. It has been used by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, M.O.P., Last Emperor, Scarface and The Game. AM I BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU was the second single release and peaked at #29 in the R&B charts. It has gone on to become a key song in the. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2002 CD release of 360 Degrees Of Billy Paul on Discogs.

But obviously you can't argue with the beauty of something like 'The Love I Lost'.But many of those Gamble and Huff productions do seem very 'generic' in that the acts don't really have a sound of their own, any track could be sung by any of the acts. Now I know that's how Motown worked, often anyone sang over the basic backing track, but once they did they made it more individual.

You can tell if it's the Temptations or the Four Tops, and the material was geared to their strengths later in the 60's (the psychedelic Temps, the tortured Four Tops etc).I don't think the Gamble and Huff stuff has that same distinctness to each artist. Which is fine of course, the music is great, but I don't feel I'm really listening to the O'Jays, I'm listening to Gamble and Huff.So I suppose in conclusion I prefer the O'Jays 60's material as I like the rawer sound and it sounds more like the O'Jays. Lipstick Traces is one of my favourite soul tunes. The 70's stuff is great too in it's own way. Click to expand.Oh yes! The O'Jays Quads are wonderful.!!They aren't very flashy or showy, or radically different from the Stereo but all have lovely enveloping surround sound. And despite being done by different PIR men (or rather the remixes credited to different in house engineers) they're surprisingly similar, only Ship Ahoy, remixed by Don Murray, has lots of 360 degree round the room pans and stuff, the others are less aggressive, although I would say they all make very good use of Sony's SQ matrix system and are for me among the very best Quad LPs in that format.

I would dearly love some label like Audio Fidelity or Dutton Vocalion to give these the Surround SACD treatment someday. I play these Quads a lot! Gotta say, all the Philadelphia International Quads are well worth your while tracking down, some for their radical differences, like 360 Degrees Of Billy Paul (with different vocal takes from the Stereo etc), the Black & Blue Harold Melvin and Billy Paul War Of The Gods have similar aggressive 360 degree pans like the Ship Ahoy Quad; the surround is engaging and active on those two. Driver modem advance dt 100. Wake Up Everybody is more subtle surround and closer to a modern day 5.1 presentation (but still excellent in all respects imho.

Delightful album) and others are for me essential for their incredible sound (MFSB's Love Is The Message sounds so gorgeous in Quad, the mix is great like all the others but the fidelity.