Earth, Wind & Fire Album: “Earth Wind and Fire”

I remember hearing this in '71 and being transfixed by a group that sounded so completely original. A "different" Earth, Wind & Fire than we came to know, but no less interesting. A muscular horn section with strong jazz sensibilities. Strong harmonies, funky, tight. They cover a wide range of styles. A great shame that it was out of print so long. I wore out my copy of this about 6 months after it came out. "Love is Life" is a joy with simple and idealistic lyrics(appropriate to the mindset of the time), it's strong harmonies. The first three pieces are exceptional.

This is a very good album, that unfortunately was released at a time when Black radio was loathe to play anything over 3 minutes long. As a result it passed largely unoticed. Love is Life, Fan the Fire, and This World Today are all very strong cuts that would have been big hits if released in say, 1975. Easily the best of their first 3 albums, and far superior to the weak follow-up.

This has some of the best vocal harmonizing you'll hear from EWF as well as a lot of energy ( Check out "reach out your Hand..."), but without the histionics of their late 80's stuff. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

This is a great introduction to earth, wind and fire and it's obvious that they were a fantastic band from the beginning.

A very important thing to know is this version under this ASIN no. is REMASTERED. It's obvious the moment you hear it! Then I checked the inner sleeve and found remastering credits. At first I had read the back cover where it says that the music was originally inherent with distortions and hiss and they have tried improving on this, so I wasn't sure if this meant that they directly transfered to digital from it's original condition.

But I'm happy to say it is remastered and sounds like 'old school' as they, in the best possible way!

This is a must have for any fan of EW&F. The genesis of a timeless group of true musicians revealed...get it!