Genre: soul
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Phases of Reality
Company: Stax
Catalog: STS-3005
Year: 1972
Country/State: Memphis, Tennessee
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: minor ring and edge wear; 2" seam split along top
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4566
Price: $10.00
Cost: $66.00
Today, if most people recognize the name William Bell, its probably for his work as a writer ('Born Under a Bad Sign', 'You Don't Miss Your Water', etc.), rather than as a singer. That's unfortunate since Bell's solo catalog is surprisingly strong.
1972's self-produced "Phases of Reality" is a perfect showcase for Bell's talents. Propelled by Bell's likeable voice and the cream of Muscle Shoals sessions talent, unlike many Stax LPs, this one's quite diverse. Exemplified by the title track, 'Man In the Street' and several other songs, lyrically the album was certainly more activist than his earlier work. Normally that might boit be a good thing, but in this case most of the eight Bell-penned tracks featured something worth hearing - a neat melody, an interesting lyric, the title track stands as one of the earliest uses of a drum machine that we've heard. Highlights include the percussive opener 'Save Me', 'Fifty Dollar Habit' (sporting a surprisingly blatant anti-drug lyric) and the reggae flavored 'Lonely for Your Love'. Elsewhere Stax tapped 'Save Us' b/w 'If You Really Love Him' (Stax catalog STA-0128) as a single. One of my favorite Bell releases ...
"Phases of Reality" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Save Us - 3:17
2.) True Love Don't Come Easy - 2:49
3.) Fifty Dollar Habit - 3:33
4.) What I Don't Know Won't Hurt Me - 3:44
(side
2)
1.) Phases of Reality - 3:09
2.) If You Really Love Him - 3:57
3.) Lonely for Your Love - 2:45
4.) The Man In the Street - 3:56
Many of Stax's releases in its final years were dull soul. But by the standards of the era, William Bell's second-to-last Stax LP was an above-average affair that was more diverse than many such efforts of the time. The three songs he co-wrote with guitarist Horace Shipp Jr. were socially conscious tunes in a different bag than the straightforward romantic odes Bell usually purveyed. "Save Us" was indebted to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On era, with a Philly-influenced funk/soul groove, and "Fifty Dollar Habit" was, of course, about drug use. Elsewhere, Bell stuck mostly to love songs, self-penned and otherwise, getting into a pre-disco lope on the title track, with the sweet soul balladry of "What I Don't Know Won't Hurt Me" and "If You Really Love Him," and the light, reggae-influenced rhythms on "Lonely for Your Love."