I’m not typically a big disco fan. Digging around at the Night Owl record show in Portland I came across this record. It was definitely one where the cover just caught me, I mean look at it. Plus it’s on Big Tree Records which is always a little intriguing considering the labels history. As soon as I put it on and heard the first track, also the title track, I knew I made the right choice. It’s a bluesy soul song about what I’m assuming is their neighborhood, Cicero Park. The lyrics tell a story of gentrification by way of urban development. The guitar is rumbling and perfectly distorted. At one point disco strings come in but not in an obtrusive way. Then a flute line that fits just as well plays over the bridge. The second track, Could Have Been Born in the Ghetto, starts with a similarly bluesy guitar. Wait, is this a disco record or not? Oh, hold on, yeah the disco strings arrive a little earlier in this song but still tastefully placed in a way that doesn’t steer the feeling out of the blues realm, interesting. The vocals shine again this time talking about the possibility of being born in the ghetto and the set of circumstances that would’ve come with. Later in the album there are more disco forward tracks but overall the feel of the album is set by these first two songs. The other mysterious thing is I never saw the record before or since. Glad I grabbed it.
Released 1974 on Big Tree Records
Review by Def Wax
Def Wax 