REARview Album: Friends and Strangers
Friends and Strangers (1977) is an all-time classic album for me. It sounds as fresh today as it did almost 50 years ago. F&S is his third solo album (Pressure Sensitive and Fever preceded) following a stint with Earth, Wind & Fire.
The opening track “Goodtime Ride” sounds so futuristic like an rocket taking off. The synth bounces from ear to ear. Ronnie’s sopranos trades licks with the background vocal sighs. In that way, it was probably the first instrumental album that I heard that had ‘background vocals.
The title track, with its synth opening dropping down with the bass, is incredible—and put Ronnie on the map, so to speak. It was a major hit with Frankie Crocker on WBLS in NY and Tony Brown on WDAS in Philly.
‘Saturday Evening’ showed off Ronnie’s chops as a soulful singer as well. The combo with his super sweet soprano sax is intoxicating. ‘Life In Paradise’ is as relaxing a tune as you’ll ever hear. It makes me feel like I’m on vacation any day!
Those are just some of the highlights, as every tune here is a winner! It’s definitely a timeless record, and I’ll probably post more Ronnie stuff in the future! I’ll just put a teaser here—both Butcher Brown and Lettuce have covered his classic ‘Tidal Wave.’
Give it a listen, and if you like it, drop me a line!
FunkCity.net REARview Albums
REARview Albums are a new format for FunkCity.net, intended to cover recent past and classic albums that are among my favorites.
As I tend to wrap up my year-end coverage early, there are often noteworthy albums in the last quarter that I can’t get to with my full track-by-track coverage. Also, in my full album reviews, I’m frequently referencing classic funk and jazz albums that, for me, are foundational listening.
For my subscribers and past readers, you know that Track-By-Track album reviews are detailed and as such take a long time to bang out! The new REARview Albums feature will enable me to communicate more frequently and succinctly.