Earth, Wind and Fire - Love's Holiday - September | Radio DAZZ

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EARTH, WIND AND FIRE

These are my two of my favorite songs from Earth, Wind and Fire, one of the most energetic and rich-sounding groups of the Disco era.

In a class by themselves, they used full, live, on-stage instrumentation and created a fusion of Disco and Soul that made them stand up and stand out.

I was starting to get serious about pumping iron in the gym (so that my shirts wouldn't look so empty), and still had some aspirations of a career as a musician...but I was starting to suffer from a worrisome dose of early-onset Pragmatism. I actually worked as an accountant for a short time after graduating with my MBA. Fortunately for survival of the gossamer thread of my sanity and for the other struggling, young partner-bound junior accountants and auditors of the Manhattan-based firm, one of the partners fired me for insubordination [he caught me doing my impression of his voice, which was indeed something special]. But, back to Earth, Wind and Fire ...

The first song, "September," is straight-ahead funk, with a backbone of phenomenal, repetitive, hypnotic harmony -- all of it in high register. It was a legendary hit, and lives on (even at the end of that Ben Stiller-infested movie "Night at the Museum," or whatever it was called, when all the exhibits came to life and were dancing together in a boogie wonderland). It shouted pure joy, with an undertone of wistful nostalgia.

The second song, "Love's Holiday," was a fabulous slow-dance ballad, with distinctive, polytonal chord structures that created a combination of mystery and majesty. It was musically quite complex, but so graceful (like a ballet dancer) that you would never feel the work that went into its composition and arrangement. It is slightly physical, with some very warm references, but it stays just below the surface and never gets crude, or undignifies the worshipful love, both in its physical and emotional forms, that inspired its creation.

Click on either the links or the video players to enjoy both of these wonderful songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfLEc09tTjI&feature=related [September]