Eugene McDaniels - Outlaw (Reissue)
(Water)
The Water imprint (by way of Runt, Atlantic, and Rhino) have also repackaged McDaniels' initial foray into socially conscious rock and soul anthems (originally issued on Atlantic in 1970) with the same glossy booklet, definitive liner notes (courtesy label head and Mushroom mainstay Patrick O'Hearn Thomas), and crystalline sound as the Lancaster release. From the first line of the opening (title) track, "She's a nigger in jeans," it's clear McDaniels (rechristened "the Left Rev. McD," is not in the same headspace that brought us his previous claims to fame via his early '60s hits, "A Hundred Feet of Clay" and "Tower of Strength" or his future, sultry soul composition, "Feel Like Making Love" that Roberta Flack took all the way to number one in 1974. Here, we discover a vital entry in the early development of the multi-racial, peace, love and harmony rock, funk and soul movement that conquered the airwaves in the late '60s/early '70s via the likes of Sly & The Family Stone, Chambers Brothers, and War, along with key releases from James Brown, the Isleys, Parliament/Funkadelic, Chairman of the Board, et al.
The title track actually refers to women who don't wear wedding rings or bras—an outsider who, God forbid, thinks for herself as your basic "hippie chicks"! It's all delivered in a trashy snarl that closely approximates Mick Jagger singing Dylan's "She Belongs To Me," whose lyrics are closely miMICKed at one point. In a perfect world, "Welfare City" would have been a hit single blasting from every AM station that was making one-hit wonders out of contemporary tracks like "Give Me Just A Little More Time," "Smiling Faces (Sometimes)," and "Express Yourself." Unfortunately, its vivid description of everyday life in and around the Bowery and Washington Square Park areas of NYCs Greenwich Village coupled with repeated invitations to "smoke a joint" probably had program directors running for their Sly Stone and War records, which, although not too dissimilar, were probably less threatening (and more dance-oriented) to their predominantly white audiences. Interestingly, War would deliver the same message (but, importantly, omit the drug references) on their chart-topping smash "The World Is A Ghetto," which would go on to become the biggest selling album of 1973, a full three years after the McDaniels' track.
In "Silent Majority," McDaniels' liberal political agenda is couched in a humanistic plea to America's heartland to at least CONSIDER the Pledge of Allegiance's call for "liberty and justice for all," and his soapbox sermons continue in "Love Letter To America," wherein he tries to change the system from within by chastising Americans for failing to fulfill the promises our forefathers outlined in such radical documents as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. As with Buffy Sainte-Marie's similarly scathing shame-on-yous "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying" and "Soldier Blue," it's required listening for ALL Americans. And speaking of Buffy, the "Native American question" or "Indian problem" is addressed with equal concern, pity and shame in "Unspoken Dreams of Light," which McD delivers as a showtune, bellowing the lyrics as a progenitor to the hip-hop rap style so prevalent today.
Not everything is successful: I forgot "Sagittarius Red" before it even ended; "Cherrystones" sounds more like a cross between a bedtime story and a sermon on the mount (although the twin guitar attack of Hugh McCracken and Eric Weissberg on the latter is almost enough to recommend it); and "Reverend Lee" is a slow, bluesy, gospel-tinged tale that doesn't bear repeating—even though McDaniels' proselytizing does occasionally echo Jagger's similar forays into Fairytale Land via "The Spider & The Fly," "Midnight Rambler," "Monkeyman," etc. Nevertheless, Outlaw is as historically important as it is timelessly entertaining, and is recommended to more than just the "Love, Peace & Happiness" spouting '60s hippie burnouts and political refugees.
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