Genre: soul
Rating: 2 stars **
Title: Get Down
Company: Chi Sound/20th Century Fox
Catalog: T-578
Year: 1978
Country/State: Chicago, Illinois
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5206
Price: $8.00
I'm assuming that the fact the mid-1970s found Gene Chandler without a recording contract, without a production deal, and having recently been convicted of selling heroin may have had something to do with Gene Chandler allowing himself to be dragged into recording and releasing disco.
Given his personal surroundings, 1978 saw Chandler reunited with longtime mentor Carl Davis and his Chi-Sound label, returning to the studio to cut his first new material in five years. Chandler's comeback single 'Tomorrow I May Not Feel The Same' b/w '' (Chi-Sound catalog number ) was a beautiful slice of old school soul and met with some success in the local Chicago market, but did little elsewhere. The comeback was then briefly sidetracked while Chandler served a 180 day prison sentence for the earlier drug conviction. Out of jail, Davis and Chandler found their target audience with their next single - 'Get Down' b/w 'I'm The Traveling Kind' (Chi-Sound catalog number 2386). A top-5 R&B, top100 pop hit, it stood as one of the era's better disco numbers. The single's success also convinced 20th Century Fox to purchase Chi-Sound.
Moving to capitalize on the Chandler's comeback, 20th Century promptly released 1978's cleverly-titled "Get Down". In addition to the earlier singles the set offered up a mixture of competent 'love man' ballads and less invigorating disco moves ('What Now' and 'Lovequake'). Chandler's voice remained in excellent form; far more versatile than you would have thought if you only knew him from 'Duke of Earl'. The big problem stemmed from producer Davis song selection. With the exception of the title track (which was stretched out over eight minutes) and the upbeat Chandler original 'Just Give Me the Cue', the album sagged under the weight of too many mid-tempo ballads. After awhile, material like 'I'm The Traveling Kind', 'Greatest Love Ever Known' and 'What Now' just started to blur together. Under the 20th Century umbrella Chi-Sound also tapped the LP for another single 'Please Sunrise' b/w 'Greatest Love Ever Known' (Chi-Sound catalog number 2404).
"Get
Down" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Get
Down (James Thompson) - 8:14
2.) Please Sunrise (Eugene Record - Barbara Acklin) - 5:57
3.) Tomorrow I May Not Feel The Same (L. Thomson - Eugene Dixon)
- 3:52
(side
2)
1.) I'm The Traveling Kind
(L. Thomson - Eugene Dixon) - 4:06
2.) Greatest Love Ever Known (James Thompson) - 3:32
3.) Give Me The Cue (A. Thomson - Eugene Dixon) - 3:46
4.) What Now (Curtis Mayfield) - 3:15
5.) Lovequake (D. McGilberry) - 4:50
Chandler has a small web presence at:
http://www.genedukeofearl.com/