Fifty-one years ago Roberta Flack’s impressive debut, First Take, was released. In the ensuing years she has had hits in both the pop and R&B charts and earned six gold records. She's also achieved multi-platinum success with Killing Me Softly. In April, 2020, Flack received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her creative contributions. To celebrate the occasion, SoulMusic.com - in conjunction with Run Out Groove Records - released a remastered box set version of First Take.
First Take: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is a 1-LP, 2-CD set that includes a meticulously remastered version of the original album on both CD and vinyl, plus single edits, B-sides and other unreleased tracks from her archive. It is packaged beautifully.
Recorded in February 1969, First Take introduced Flack to the world. But it wasn’t until 1972 and her version of Ewan MacColl’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face made an appearance in Clint Eastwood’s terrific film, Play Misty For Me, that this record took off up the charts. The song would remain at No. 1 for six weeks and win a Grammy for Record of the Year, in 1973.
But there's more to First Take than the aforementioned hit record. Other songs - some of them written with Donny Hathaway, Flack's longtime collaborator - include a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, as well as Compared To What? - probably my favourite song on this record - which was written by Gene McDaniels and kicks off the album. This song initially received attention after Les McCann and Eddie Harris performed it at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival and then recorded it for their album Swiss Movement, also released in 1969. Flack's take on the song is wonderfully sensuous, but there's a bite in there, too. Her vocals are as piercing as a sharp arrow, but there is no clipping or annoying sibilant "s" sounds here and her words got right down deep inside my gut. Horns punch where accents are needed and the percussion is subtle and unobtrusive, like a faint heartbeat, almost, with a good "thump" when necessary, but only when necessary. There is nothing overdone here and everything works so well together. If the song were a wine it would be a perfect, extra-dry red.
Compared To What would eventually be recorded by more than 270 artists. Second up Is Angelitos Negros, an exquisite and precise commentary on race relations that brings Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit to mind. It's sung in Spanish over what sounds like a traditional Spanish melody, and - sadly - it seems as relevant now, maybe even more so, than it did then. The English translation of the lyrics is provided below because I think it's such a wonderful poem. And such a bold statement, too. Perhaps delivering it in Spanish to that particular beat was a way to get all the non-Spanish speaking racists and bigots onto the dance floor, a sort of inside joke, something to be filmed, perhaps, and overlaid with subtitles and played on cable TV.
Although the Virgin is white
Paint black little angels
Cause they go to heaven too
All the good black kids
Painter, if you paint with love
Why do you despise their colour?
If you know that in heaven
God loves them too
Painter of saints in the bedroom
If you have a soul in your body
Why have you in painting your paintings
Forgotten black people
Whenever you paint churches
You paint beautiful angels
But you never remembered
To paint a black angel
There's also, as mentioned earlier, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which everybody knows, although most people haven't heard it sound this good!
McCann provides an introduction to First Take’s new liner notes, which were otherwise penned by SoulMusic.com's authority (and founder) David Nathan and are presented in a 12″x12″ hardcover book.
Perhaps a high point of this set for most fans of Roberta Flack will be the bonus disc. Long reluctant to release archival material such as alternate takes, she here swings the vault door wide open. The disc kicks off with a live version of All The Way from 1968 and is followed by 12 unreleased demos Flack recorded over two days in November, 1968.
Only 3,000 copies of this record have been pressed so you better get a move on if you want to acquire one. I received my copy tonight and I can enthusiastically report that it sounds fabulous, as good as anything you would expect from Run Out Groove.
The only little annoyance is that the first 300 copies ordered after this project was announced - mine was one of them - were supposed to be signed by Flack but weren't. About two months after I ordered the record I received an e-mail from SoulMusic.com stating that Flack was too ill to sign the records. A few months go by before the record arrives on my doorstep and then - for a brief moment after I opened it - it seemed as though a signature had actually been included. Next to the record inside the package was a UPS envelope with the word URGENT written across it, and when I opened it out popped a "signed" photograph of Roberta Flack. I also collect autographs, so I did a bit of research that revealed the signature to be a facsimile.
I dunno. It just seems kinda lame that SoulMusic.com would do that, especially without an explanation. And putting it in a UPS envelope and marking it URGENT almost seems like intentional subterfuge. I wonder how many people think they have received an actual, signed photograph. I'll bet there's more than a few! What most likely transpired is this: for whatever reason, SoulMusic.com decided to include the photo in all 3,000 boxes as part of the otherwise outstanding packaging. An added bonus, so to speak. But it just cheapens things. It's not anything someone who collects audiophile records would care about. It's a needless expense on the production side.
Still, it's a small complaint given the outstanding quality of the rest of the package, which looks and sounds great. In my opinion this new version sounds superior to the original version - which I also have - and the vinyl is much quieter. This pressing has more space, a much wider soundstage and it really breathes. Very highly recommended, fake signature and all.
Fifty-one years ago Roberta Flack’s impressive debut, First Take, was released. In the ensuing years she has had hits in both the pop and R&B charts and earned six gold records. She's also achieved multi-platinum success with Killing Me Softly. In April, 2020, Flack received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her creative contributions. To celebrate the occasion, SoulMusic.com - in conjunction with Run Out Groove Records - released a remastered box set version of First Take.
First Take: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is a 1-LP, 2-CD set that includes a meticulously remastered version of the original album on both CD and vinyl, plus single edits, B-sides and other unreleased tracks from her archive. It is packaged beautifully.
Recorded in February 1969, First Take introduced Flack to the world. But it wasn’t until 1972 and her version of Ewan MacColl’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face made an appearance in Clint Eastwood’s terrific film, Play Misty For Me, that this record took off up the charts. The song would remain at No. 1 for six weeks and win a Grammy for Record of the Year, in 1973.
But there's more to First Take than the aforementioned hit record. Other songs - some of them written with Donny Hathaway, Flack's longtime collaborator - include a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, as well as Compared To What? - probably my favourite song on this record - which was written by Gene McDaniels and kicks off the album. This song initially received attention after Les McCann and Eddie Harris performed it at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival and then recorded it for their album Swiss Movement, also released in 1969. Flack's take on the song is wonderfully sensuous, but there's a bite in there, too. Her vocals are as piercing as a sharp arrow, but there is no clipping or annoying sibilant "s" sounds here and her words got right down deep inside my gut. Horns punch where accents are needed and the percussion is subtle and unobtrusive, like a faint heartbeat, almost, with a good "thump" when necessary, but only when necessary. There is nothing overdone here and everything works so well together. If the song were a wine it would be a perfect, extra-dry red.
Compared To What would eventually be recorded by more than 270 artists. Second up Is Angelitos Negros, an exquisite and precise commentary on race relations that brings Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit to mind. It's sung in Spanish over what sounds like a traditional Spanish melody, and - sadly - it seems as relevant now, maybe even more so, than it did then. The English translation of the lyrics is provided below because I think it's such a wonderful poem. And such a bold statement, too. Perhaps delivering it in Spanish to that particular beat was a way to get all the non-Spanish speaking racists and bigots onto the dance floor, a sort of inside joke, something to be filmed, perhaps, and overlaid with subtitles and played on cable TV.
Although the Virgin is white
Paint black little angels
Cause they go to heaven too
All the good black kids
Painter, if you paint with love
Why do you despise their colour?
If you know that in heaven
God loves them too
Painter of saints in the bedroom
If you have a soul in your body
Why have you in painting your paintings
Forgotten black people
Whenever you paint churches
You paint beautiful angels
But you never remembered
To paint a black angel
There's also, as mentioned earlier, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which everybody knows, although most people haven't heard it sound this good!
McCann provides an introduction to First Take’s new liner notes, which were otherwise penned by SoulMusic.com's authority (and founder) David Nathan and are presented in a 12″x12″ hardcover book.
Perhaps a high point of this set for most fans of Roberta Flack will be the bonus disc. Long reluctant to release archival material such as alternate takes, she here swings the vault door wide open. The disc kicks off with a live version of All The Way from 1968 and is followed by 12 unreleased demos Flack recorded over two days in November, 1968.
Only 3,000 copies of this record have been pressed so you better get a move on if you want to acquire one. I received my copy tonight and I can enthusiastically report that it sounds fabulous, as good as anything you would expect from Run Out Groove.
The only little annoyance is that the first 300 copies ordered after this project was announced - mine was one of them - were supposed to be signed by Flack but weren't. About two months after I ordered the record I received an e-mail from SoulMusic.com stating that Flack was too ill to sign the records. A few months go by before the record arrives on my doorstep and then - for a brief moment after I opened it - it seemed as though a signature had actually been included. Next to the record inside the package was a UPS envelope with the word URGENT written across it, and when I opened it out popped a "signed" photograph of Roberta Flack. I also collect autographs, so I did a bit of research that revealed the signature to be a facsimile.
I dunno. It just seems kinda lame that SoulMusic.com would do that, especially without an explanation. And putting it in a UPS envelope and marking it URGENT almost seems like intentional subterfuge. I wonder how many people think they have received an actual, signed photograph. I'll bet there's more than a few! What most likely transpired is this: for whatever reason, SoulMusic.com decided to include the photo in all 3,000 boxes as part of the otherwise outstanding packaging. An added bonus, so to speak. But it just cheapens things. It's not anything someone who collects audiophile records would care about. It's a needless expense on the production side.
Still, it's a small complaint given the outstanding quality of the rest of the package, which looks and sounds great. In my opinion this new version sounds superior to the original version - which I also have - and the vinyl is much quieter. This pressing has more space, a much wider soundstage and it really breathes. Very highly recommended, fake signature and all.
BONUS TRACK
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born on February 10, 1937. At age nine she started playing the piano and so excelled at it that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. She entered the university at age 15, one of the youngest students ever to enroll there.
Her music career began in Washington-area night clubs in the mid 1960s. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers on the piano, and then during intermissions would sing blues, folk and pop standards in a back room. She eventually modified her style into a more popish sound and her reputation started to grow.
In 1968, Flack was hired to play at Mr. Henry's Restaurant on Capitol Hill in Washington. Her voice mesmerized those that saw her perform. Word spread, and soon A-list celebrities were dropping by whenever they were in town, including Woody Allen and Ramsey Lewis, among others. Mr. Henry's owner, Henry Yaffe, later recalled that Flack told him that if he could give her work three nights a week she would quit teaching music. He did, and then so did she.
Les McCann would eventually "discover" Flack at Mr. Henry's and later, on the liner notes for First Take, would write: "Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more. She alone had the voice." He arranged an audition for Flack at Atlantic Records and, not long after, she recorded 39 demos in less than 10 hours. First Take is said to have taken just 10 hours to record.
In 1999 Flack gave a concert tour in South Africa, where the final performance was attended by Nelson Mandela. On April 20, 2018, she was appearing onstage at the Apollo Theater at a benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America when she became ill and left the stage. She was rushed to the Harlem Hospital Center, and her manager later announced she was still feeling the effects of a stroke she'd had a few years previously. She is, apparently, still not well enough to sign autographs.
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born on February 10, 1937. At age nine she started playing the piano and so excelled at it that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. She entered the university at age 15, one of the youngest students ever to enroll there.
Her music career began in Washington-area night clubs in the mid 1960s. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers on the piano, and then during intermissions would sing blues, folk and pop standards in a back room. She eventually modified her style into a more popish sound and her reputation started to grow.
In 1968, Flack was hired to play at Mr. Henry's Restaurant on Capitol Hill in Washington. Her voice mesmerized those that saw her perform. Word spread, and soon A-list celebrities were dropping by whenever they were in town, including Woody Allen and Ramsey Lewis, among others. Mr. Henry's owner, Henry Yaffe, later recalled that Flack told him that if he could give her work three nights a week she would quit teaching music. He did, and then so did she.
Les McCann would eventually "discover" Flack at Mr. Henry's and later, on the liner notes for First Take, would write: "Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more. She alone had the voice." He arranged an audition for Flack at Atlantic Records and, not long after, she recorded 39 demos in less than 10 hours. First Take is said to have taken just 10 hours to record.
In 1999 Flack gave a concert tour in South Africa, where the final performance was attended by Nelson Mandela. On April 20, 2018, she was appearing onstage at the Apollo Theater at a benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America when she became ill and left the stage. She was rushed to the Harlem Hospital Center, and her manager later announced she was still feeling the effects of a stroke she'd had a few years previously. She is, apparently, still not well enough to sign autographs.
