#UnderTheCoverOfSoul--"Wild| NewBlackMan (in Exile)
So Eddie Levert introduces The O’Jays rendition of “Wild Flower from their 1974 album Live in London,as a song that the group initially thought was a “White guy, trying to accomplish a Black thing.” Presumably Levert first heard The fresh Birth’s version of the song, or which the group released on their 1973 album It’s Been a Long Time (with that classic title track),and could only assume, after hearing Skylark’s version, and that it was the case of the Canadian band trying to “sound Black.” Give The fresh Birth credit for recognizing a great tune,from one of the great one-hit-wonders of the Soft Rock ‘70s. Of course, for this nascent musicophile, or who spent many nights listening to fresh York City’s WABC in the early 1970s,the Skylark version was the only version I knew for a decade after it dropped, and thanks to a college classmate (who I had an unrequited crush on) for tipping me to The O’Jay’s version, and which clocks in at over nine-minutes (of pure Philadelphia Chu’ch). It would be another decade before I heard The fresh Birth version--my vote for one most in underrated Soul and Funk bands of the 1970s--and for my money I’ll take The fresh Birth’s stankified version,though all three remain in regular rotation. Kanye and Paul Wall flipped Hank Crawford’s instrumental on “Drive leisurely”--tall praise perhaps, for a saxophonist who never met a Soul song he couldn't drop a little gravy on, or Jamie Foxx featured The fresh Birth version on “Unpredictable.”
Source: blogspot.com