BLACK 45’s

Recent years have seen the forthright injection of social commentary into soul music. The trend started with tunes like James Brown�s �Say It Loud (I�m Black and I�m Proud)� and Curtis Mayfield�s �We�re A Winner.� Within the last year the movement has been toward self-criticism and purging the ghetto of negative thought and characters that hold the black struggle down. Curtis urges people to �Check Out Your Mind� before they can push on to change society. In �Stone Junkie� he attacks the dope crisis that ravages black communities. Paul Kelly did a. song called �Stealin� In The Name Of the Lord� that exposes one of the ghetto�s most notorious parasites - the fly-by-night store-front preacher. According to Kelly he�ll steal your money and your woman and tell you all you need is him and Jesus.

Another leech whose role is not much different from that of the preacher is the pimp. He�s the cat who cruises around in his *71 Cadillac keeping an eye on his corner meat markets of human flesh. He�ll take most of his girls� hard humped cash and beat them if they didn�t turn enough tricks to buy him a new wardrobe. GENE & JERRY (Chandler and Butler) attack the pimp and his world in 4*Ten And Two (Take This Woman Off The Comer)� (Mercury 73195), an up-tempo super production that utilizes a throbbing bass foundation for a shifting array of voices, strings, brass, fuzz guitar, and street, noise. The tune was written by James Spencer, who recorded the original version last year on Butler�s Memphis label, and is packed with street imagery — the numbers in the title refer to the price of a quick fuck and a cheap room.