Back Stabbers

O'Jays, The

Suave Soul with a Mission

The first great album of '70s Philadelphia soul, Back Stabbers took the best impulse of the era's pop music—that inclination to celebrate love as something precious—and bathed it in the studio-orchestra opulence that became the defining characteristic of the "Sound of Philadelphia."

This was a potent combination, and a gold mine. On the opening track, lead singer Eddie Levert proclaims the album's guiding philosophy: "Love is not a state of mind, love's a fact of life." Nine songs later, on the massive hit "Love Train," the singer sends an urgent, idealistic appeal to others who might feel the same way: "People all over the world, join hands, start a love train." In between are accounts of love trouble ("992 Arguments"), fear of commitment ("Time to Get Down"), and a trenchant cautionary tale about deceitful friends ("Back Stabbers").

The songs are all great, but the arrangements—far more lavish than anything else on the radio—makes them undeniable classics. Producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff assembled a team of arrangers who conceived of pop on an orchestral level. The Philly Sound is distinguished by active, often tricky string parts that snake around the vocal lines, offset with jazz guitar and vibraphone and other sophisticated touches. The arrangers—and the musicians of what became known as the MFSB (Mother Father Sister Brother) Orchestra, which included moonlighting Philadelphia Orchestra members—do the hard work. All the O'Jays' Levert (and Teddy Pendergrass and the other Philly-soul stars) had to do was slide their vocals into a sumptuous, instantly sensual mix.

Back Stabbers contains most of the key O'Jays tracks (one exception is the ambitious seven-minute masterpiece "For the Love of Money," issued on the subsequent Ship Ahoy). Its message of tolerance cut across barriers of race and radio formats, proving that, in the early '70s anyway, there really was room on the Love Train for everybody.

Genre: R&B
Released: 1972, Epic
Key Tracks: "Back Stabbers," "Love Train," "992 Arguments."
Catalog Choice: Ship Ahoy
Next Stop: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: Wake Up Everybody
After That: The Stylistics: Round Two
Book Page: 562

Buy this Recording

Share this page:

Comments:

Post a Comment:

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:



About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

This is an online version of the list (published alphabetically in the book). The entries in the book break down genre bias and broaden every listener’s horizons—think Miles Davis to Claude Debussy to the melodic story-songs of The Decemberists. And the writing is passionate, informed, opinionated.

More about the book

site design: Juxtaprose