Is It Still Good To Ya

Is It Still Good to Ya

Love Confessions

Baby, Be Mine

Bedroom Classics, Volume 3 [Digital Version]

Smooth Sailin' Tonight (Single Version; Remastered)

Touch and Go

Love Is A House

Oa Hit List: The Gap Band

Yearning For Your Love

Quiet Storm Slow Jams

Don't Say Goodnight

Shalamar - This Is For The Lover In You (DJ Clone Edit)

Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly | Before I Let Go (Change Request ReVision)

For this ReVision—my third one from this same group—I chose an iconic song that has had a great influence on me and my artwork throughout my lifetime. Featuring groove-intensive rhythm and blues, combined with a west coast-style songwriting balladry, their sound was something I immediately connected with from the very first time I heard “Joy And Pain” on the radio as a child. 

Often referred to as the “Black Grateful Dead” for their loyal cross-generational fanbase, Maze was formed in San Francisco, California in the late 70s, fronted by the Philly-raised songwriter and former gospel singer, Frankie Beverly. 

Originally called Raw Soul, the group changed their name to Maze upon the recommendation of Beverly’s mentor—as well as a major catalyst for their meteoric ascension in popularity—Marvin Gaye. 

Written and produced by Frankie Beverly and released on their 1981 Live In New Orleans recording, "Before I Let Go”, is the quintessential Maze record. Peaking at number thirteen on the Billboard R&B chart in 1981, this masterpiece would later go on to define the group, achieving iconic status as a cross-generational cultural benchmark of contemporary Black American Music.

“It was about somebody who was really having trouble letting go of something”, states Beverly of the “ode to a love lost” that helped inspire the song's lyrical content. Initially written in a slower tempo, the members of Maze developed the song into the seductive groove that cemented its musical legacy.     

Featuring conventional instrumentation of this era for an R&B ensemble—live percussion, Electric Bass, Guitar, and Fender Rhodes—I replaced the Electric Guitar lead parts with standard polyphonic synth choices for that period, including Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 bright brass pad, layered over a saturated Oberheim OB-X brass tone, for harmonic texture. 

For as much as they have written and recorded timeless songs and records, you really have not fully experienced their spiritual mastery until you've seen Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly live in concert.

Buy ReVision

Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly | Before I Let Go (Change Request ReVision)

Black Butterfly

It's You That I Need Live and Other Favorites

Where Do We Go from Here / Journey

Choice Soul Cuts

You're My Latest, Greatest Inspiration

Teddy Pendergrass was an indisputable soul legend when he made his Elektra/Asylum debut in 1984. The former Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes lead vocalist and chart-topping solo superstar’s career had been stalled by a 1982 car accident, in which he suffered permanent paralysis from the waist down. After intensive physical therapy, he signed with Asylum and returned with the triumphant “LOVE LANGUAGE.” The album – which included the top 10 AC hit single, “Hold Me,” with vocals from a young Whitney Houston – was later featured prominently as the evocative soundtrack to Alan Rudolph’s 1984 film, Choose Me.

“JOY,” released in 1988, reached #2 on Billboard’s “Top R&B Albums” chart – his highest placing since “TEDDY” in 1979 – with two top 3 R&B hits in “2 A.M.” and the stirring title track. “Joy” proved a #1 smash, Teddy’s first solo chart-topper in a decade.

Pendergrass scored his third career R&B #1 with 1991’s “It Should Have Been You,” featured on his 11th studio album, “TRULY BLESSED.” Teddy’s third and final Elektra release, 1993’s “A LITTLE MORE MAGIC,” saw the singer collaborating with fellow stars like Barry White and labelmate Gerald Levert.

Teddy Pendergrass retired from the music business in 2006. Sadly, he passed away three years later following surgery for colon cancer.

You're My Latest, Greatest Inspiration

Teddy Pendergrass

Recent comments

iamdsrw

iamdsrw

Elbert Johnson

michaelisfilthy

Related tracks