Free The Black Man’s Chains new Charly release

[Eddie Hubbard]

Charly Records continue their GSF Records reissue programme with this new release ,originally issued in 1972 .”Free The Black Man’s Chains “ was an ambitious project to release a Black Opera ,no doubt encouraged by the rock operas “ Tommy “ and “ Jesus Christ Superstar “ which were in vogue at the time .

The main vocalists are L.C.Grier ,who with The Grier Brothers had a fine release on the Philadelphia Melody label with “ Weeping Baby All The Time “ and Novella Edmonds a new name to me .

Not surprisingly ,the lyrics on many of the songs have a strong social conscience ,black struggle theme ,which again was to the fore in 1972 .The strong musicians line up included some key names from Philly : Bobby Eli,Daryl Hall ,Don Renaldo ,Richard Rome ,Ron Baker ,Norman Harris and even Ray Charles on electric piano .

The best songs for me are the powerful title track by L.C. Grier ,a powerful funk track which would go down a storm at the hard edged Funk events ,the beautiful “ Gone Is The Laughter Of You “ which also gained a 45 release on the Sunshine label ,and the duet of LC and Novella Edmonds on “ North To The Promised Land “ .

Excellent in depth sleeve notes by Dean Rudland complete a really interesting release .