Black Pearl – Cold Sweat
Black Pearl – Uptown
Black Pearl – People Get Ready
Might revise this tomorrow, but wanted to get something up tonight before my radio show at KCRW. Best I can gather, Black Pearl was a Los Angeles based group, who put out a couple of records in the rock’n’soul vein (the other being a self-titled record on Atlantic with some really great artwork). They were led by B.B. Fieldings and featured not one, or two but three…count ’em up, three guitarists (or four if you include the bass player).
Recorded live at the Fillmore West in Frisco in 1968, this record is fairly highly prized because of a pretty solid breakdown in “Cold Sweat.” Overall the record is a solid showcase for the group and for Fieldings’ sincere appreciation of black music. “Cold Sweat” shows off the best parts of the group, solid groove, nice and funky, mostly based off the James Brown original, but with other bits thrown in, particularly at the breakdown as B.B. calls out each member of the band “Memphis Soul Stew” style beginning with the drummer who he implores to do it “dirty” and “nasty”.
“Uptown” is similar in style and feeling to “Cold Sweat,” though with some “mildly” racist essentialism associated with white folks going to the “darker” side of town to let it all hang out, though I think B.B.’s sincerity makes it seem more endearing (especially when he’s talking about soul food) than totally ignorant (A fine line admittedly, and maybe it’s just me, but since I’ve been doing cultural studies research on race and representation, I feel like I hear this trope a lot in the 50s and 60s).
B.B. certainly was attempting to do his part to bridge the Soul / Hippie divide, this especially comes out during his version of “People Get Ready” which contains these pearls of wisdom towards the end.
What the fuck good is it to live
if you don’t know what you’re alive for,
So I ask you,
I ain’t talkin’ hippy talk,
and I ain’t talkin’ freak talk,
I’m talkin’ bout life,
I’m talkin’ about the way it was,
the way it is and the way it always will be…
Not much else to say other than that…enjoy the music.
Cheers,
Michael