Paul-itical

Billy Paul is best known for the smoothest of soul, his voice as silky as the bedsheets he could serenade you into. Me & Mrs Jones, I Want Cha’ Baby, Thanks For Saving My Life, Let’s Make A Baby… they all glide across the ears, airbrushed in Fender Rhodes, glossy orchestration and tasteful brass, Paul’s easy, conversational phrasing sung in a Barry White before-his-balls-had-dropped chocolate-coated vocal. Mainly written by Gamble & Huff, his music epitomises the pre-disco big band soul style that would morph into The Sound Of Philadelphia, a distinct style of music desperate to keep up and remain crucial while the world turned to synchopated beats and four-to-the-floor rhythms. In order to make its statement, the classic Philly sound – and by association, much of Billy Paul’s – relies on rhythmic hi-hats, lush orchestration and slick arrangements featuring a cast of players and entire choirs of backing vocalists. Save a few records, TSOP is not really my kinda stuff; it’s too slick, there’s no grit, it’s schmaltzy, even. I like my soul music down ‘n dirty and TSOP along with Billy Paul just doesn’t deliver. Or so I thought.

On his 360 Degrees of Billy Paul album, you’ll find the infectious and completely magic Am I Black Enough For You?

Billy Paul – Am I Black Enough For You?

This – this! – is more like the Philly sound I’m into! Announcing itself on a clavinet run that I believe (although I’m no expert on this) spells out S.T.E.V.I.E.W.O.N.D.E.R. in morse code, it gives way to cop show brass; low and sliding in the verses, stiletto-sharp and stabbing in the chorus and answering the vocals between the singing. There’s the ubiquitous wah-wah, free-flowing polyrhythmic congas, a casually funky, octave-leaping bassline that even Bootsy Collins might have trouble playing and it all runs away on an elongated outro that features – yes! – a false ending, the fading brass ‘n bass cheekily picking things back up again for another minute of headnodding groove just when you’re sure the party is over. It’s one of those records you’ll want to play again and again as soon as it’s finished.

Unusually for Billy Paul, the song’s message is political. Sitting alongside other black pride records such as James Brown’s Say It Loud (I’m Black And Proud), its message was one of defiance in the face of white oppression.

We’re gonna move on up
Six by six
I gotta use my mind
Instead of my fists

Coming hot on the Cuban stacked heels of Me & Mrs Jones, his Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 smash, the record was a flop. It failed to make the top 75, even although it sold extremely well amongst its target audience. But it was alienating. Too confrontational, not something the average American Joe would be comfortable buying. It was clear commercial suicide after the success of …Mrs Jones, and yet, it’s so obviously a brilliant record. Fifty years on, attitudes to such records may have improved. You’d certainly like to think so. Get down on it.