1968
MORE LOVE THAT'S WHAT WE NEED * THE GOSPEL CLASSICS * CHESS 8080 * UK
Their only British release and as far as I can tell their only release in America on Chess's Gospel label # 5050. This record is indistinguishable from a 'straight' Soul song, and was in fact played as one in the London Soul clubs and bar's when it came out. The record, apart from being a general plea for 'more love' it is specifically referring to and addressing the growing problem of race riots in the USA. Seventy two cities in twenty two states had, during the summer of 1967, experienced rioting, with the death toll reaching eighty three, most of whom were black. Towards the end of this particular low point in civil unrest police fired into a crowd during a student sit-in to desegregate a bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and three more black youths were killed. It was early in April 1968 that Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot dead, and although central government, through its ideological state apparatus, urged blacks to remember Dr Kings message of love and non-violence and show restraint, violence broke out in one hundred and twenty five cities. One cannot know the efficacy of records like this, but it is the belief of some artists that it is paramount their work is rigorous, and made in the belief that although it may not have any effect in any sensational way, it none the less can, and often does, reach, and even influence, some in the way it was intended; and this is all they can hope for.