| The
Undisputed Truth was originally a trio, put together by fragments
left from a couple of Motown groups. Joe Harris came from
The Preps and had been involved with the Ohio Players in the
60's. Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce had a past history
in The Delicates and as backup singers for Diana Ross, Four
Tops and Edwin Starr. The year was 1970 and the man behind
this project was famous Motown producer Norman Whitfield.
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Norman
Whitfield was responsible for the radical change in The Temptations'
sound. He brought in some adventure and innovation to Motown.
The idea with the Undisputed Truth was problably to try out
new stuff and experiment. At least you get this feeling when
you look at the sleeves of Cosmic Truth and Higher Than High.
The members of the group are not listed, only the studio musicians.
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| Undisputed
Truth has always been regarded as some sort of forever-and-ever
warm up band, and not as a real group. Even if Norman saved
his goodies for The Temptations to record, it's not fair to
put the Undisputed Truth off as guinea-pigs. All three members
had voices that cannot be neglected. Calvin's and Joyce's
harmonies were like two singing birds around Harris' great
lead. In fact, Temptation's monster hit Papa Was A Rolling
Stone was first recorded by the Undisputed Truth. But their
version never reached the same commercial success as Temptation's
Grammy award winning version. |
The
debut album The Undisputed Truth was released in 1971. A soulful
record with Motown feeling. They enjoyed a top 3 R&B hit
with Smiling Faces Sometimes. A piece of psychedelic soul
from Whitfield and his writing partner Barrett Strong. This
was their biggest hit and nothing of later material could
match this success. |
| The
group, in my opinion, got more interesting as time went on.
The original trio broke up in the mid-seventies and a new
line-up was formed, based around original member Joe Harris.
The new people coming in was Taka Boom (sister of Chaka Khan),
Virginia McDonald, Tyrone "Lil Ty" Barkley and Calvin
"Dhaakk" Stephenson. Whitfield kept on toying with
their sound and they underwent a dramatic change in image
and sound, resulting in a range from psychedelic soul and
funk to black rock. They got dirtier and nastier and shocked
the fans with the clear Funkadelic influences on their releases
from the second half of the 70's. Painted faces and white
afros became their special trademark. |
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In
time for the seventh album, Method To The Madness, Norman
dropped the black rock thing and turned the production towards
funk and disco. This is my favorite album from the group,
not a single bad cut. The title track and Hole In The Wall
are plain monster funk with the coolest basslines. They
had a minor hit with the disco rocket You + Me = Love.
The
group disbanded after their record Smokin' in 1979. Taka
Boom headed for a solo career, what happened to the remaining
members, I don't know.
This
group is absolutely worth checking out. As far as I know,
none of their albums have been reissued on CD. The only
thing that turned up on CD is a greatest hits compilation,
but it doesn't cover enough to do the Undisputed Truth justice.
Spend your money on the original vinyl releases instead.
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