Maurice White in Earth, Wind & Fire

A singer, songwriter, producer, and drummer were all lost at once on February 4, 2016 when Maurice White, the founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, passed away. White had been born in Memphis, Tennessee as the son of a doctor and grandson of a honky-tonk pianist. His family had made a move when he was young to the city of Chicago where he learned to sing gospel. As he grew, his passion for music did as well. White ended up attending the Chicago Conservatory of Music in the mid Sixties. While in school, he made connections with impactful bands of the time by working as a sessions drummer at Chess Records. Nearly four years later, he began to play with the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Then, in 1969, he decided to form his own band which he named the Salty Peppers.

Despite the creation of his own band and several other accomplishments that had lead up to this point, White had made a name for himself through several other undertakings as well. Throughout the existence of his band, White had also started a career as a producer that lasted throughout the Seventies. During this time he worked and created ties with the Emotions, Ramsey Lewis, and Deniece Williams, all of who were influential artists at the time. Unfortunately, by the early Nineties, White had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. From then on, he had quit touring with his bands for the sake of his own health. However, up until the day he passed away from the disease, White had continued to be involved in both the production and managing of the music produced by his band as well as others.

Earth, Wind & Fire is known today as an all American band that has created music of nearly every genre. R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin, and African are all genres that have been incorporated into the dozens of albums that they have created. Although this band acquired major success and amounted to more than 90 million albums being sold, it is important to acknowledge who they were before their fame.

As mentioned previously, Maurice White had created a band called the Salty Peppers during his time in Chicago. White eventually uprooted himself from Chicago and made a huge move to Los Angeles where he eventually renamed his band as Earth, Wind & Fire. The name of the band had stemmed from White’s astrological chart and its absence of any water signs. Once no real success came from the first few albums the band released, White decided to refresh the band and completely change around the musicians that it consisted of. Into the band came White’s younger brother, Verdine, who was a bassist, singer Philip Bailey, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and guitarist Al McKay. With the new members, the band’s style changed drastically as they took to jazz, R&B, funk, soul, and pop. After signing with a new record label, the album Head to the Sky was released in 1973. This album lead to White’s first success with his band as more than 500,000 copies of the album sold.

Before this mass success of Earth, Wind & Fire, the band had released a self-titled album that consisted solely of seven tracks. The band that had created this album varied greatly from the band that found fame in later years. The founding members of this band had been Maurice White, Wade Fleming, Sherry Scott, and Don Whitehead. All four of these members shared vocal duties and piano playing equally on the album. Created upon their initial move to Los Angeles, this album was created to not only be impactful through its melodies and innovative style, but also through the messages and meaning that each individual song carried.

Earth, Wind & Fire’s debut album had been release during the time of the Civil Rights Movement when oppression and discrimination of African Americans in America was commonplace and accepted. The Civil Rights Movement had consisted of strategies, groups, and social movements in the United States whose intention was to end the racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. As a response to this fight for equality, Earth, Wind & Fire’s debut album consisted of tracks that begged for love, forgiveness, and community in a time where hate and bigotry were encouraged. As a result, the band and fans ended up with an album whose general message of positivity and peace has lasted decades and remains relevant to this day.

After all of this buildup, here is the contents of the album:

“Help Somebody”

This song establishes the tone, genre, and vibe of the album right away. The incorporation of brass horns and piano give the song a sense stability and sharpness while the electric piano and funky melodies create a sort of edginess and flow. The tempo and beat of the song is kept by instruments that sound rather foreign. Because I have to describe them, I’ll describe the sounds as two wooden pieces clinking together and a wheel grinding. All of these elements together create a song that is innovative and upbeat all while remaining grounded by a beat that makes the track easy to listen to.

In addition to the sonic elements of the song that make it so interesting, the lyricism that went into the song asserts the hopes and beliefs of the band. With lyrics like: “Reach out and help the weak man”, “The love you give might help somebody live”, and “Your helping hand will make you a better man” the album is obviously pushing for a better world where standing up for each other and being a good person is customary.

“Moment of Truth”

This track replicates the first song of the album in the way that the brass instruments create a surge of sound to introduce it. A funky melody is established and periodic swells of the horns create a dynamic track that is, if nothing else, fun to listen to. An interesting component of this song is the several vocalists that all seem to have equal part on the track. For example, no single vocalist leads. Instead, all work together to create harmony and balance in the song that manages to never overpower the instrumentals that are occurring at the time.

“Love Is Life”

Differing from the previous tracks, this track incorporates the brass instruments in a more subtle and calm way than before. Instead of intense floods of sound, this track has a much more laid back beat that is lead by a single symbol. As the vocalist on the track emphasizes certain portions of lyrics, the strength of the instrumentals increases to match.

Despite lacking the upbeat melodies that the other tracks hold, this track manages to hold its own by containing lyrics crucial to the interpretation of the album. The lyrics of this track tell of flowers being helped by a spring shower and birds protecting their young from the wild. These two examples are given to emphasize how people should be protecting their own and lending a helping hand to those in need. By ending with the words: “Give it all from the heart don’t wait, don’t wait ‘till tomorrow”, it is hard to misinterpret the true meaning of the song.

“Fan the Fire”

Electric guitar is a major component of this piece as it leads the entire track. Serving as the background of the song, a groovy rhythm is incorporated and maintained while the instrumentals whisper in the background and a lick on the guitar is created.

Aside from the dynamic instrumentals of this track, the lyrics speak to the idea of fanning a fire. This term refers to the idea that was basic to the civil rights movement: if you’re not helping you’re hurting.

“C’Mon Children”

This track exemplifies all of the elements  that worked together to create the entire album in their most basic form. The brass horns are solely used to introduce the track, the clinking beat is introduced next, then the drums, and then finally the groovy melody. Most of all, this track shows how powerful vocalists and their harmonies can be on a track by building the intensity of it with singing that is similar to yelling, and by detracting the intensity of the song by having vocalists whisper.

“This World Today”

With all of the same instruments as before, this track consists of a sound and style that is unlike anything else on the album. The vocalists on this track are more dynamic than ever before. With solos from each vocalist and harmonizing all throughout the song, the instrumentals basically revolve around the singing. Similar to other tracks, the surges in intensity of the instrumentals serves to help build upon the power coming from the vocalists and overall creates a track that is fascinating both instrumentally and vocally.

In addition to the sonic elements of the track, the lyrics manage to address the problems of the world just like the rest of the tracks. For this song specifically, the lyrics: “Man fighting man for no cause at all” and “Let man join hands the old and the young and let every heart now beat as one” tell of the unnecessary fighting and violence that occurs today and instead suggests that we all come together as one to create peace in the world for once. This message builds upon the overall meaning and influence of this album.

“Bad Tune”

At first I thought it was peculiar to end the album with a track such as this. However, after more thought, I think that it is genius. This track finalizes the album by showing all of the instrumental elements that had gone into the previous tracks. Listeners get a sampling of the horns, electric piano and guitar, regular piano and guitar, and other instruments that give the song a foreign sound. Furthermore, it is interesting how the pace of this track differs so greatly from those prior. Instead of one consistent tempo or beat, the track switches back and forth between being calm and slow to being energetic and upbeat.

Despite the exposure that the band had from previous creating and producing music, they were still generally inexperienced. The band had gone to a place called Hollywood Sound to record this album. The studio had been small and had been stuck between Heider Recording and David Hassinger’s Sound Factory. Despite this, the studio still had two live echo chambers for them to record in. During the recording of the album, members of the band said that they had to switch back and forth on what was incorporated. Instead of incorporating the guitar portion by one musician, they would switch it out and replace it with another musician’s efforts. Essentially, the recording process had been a ton of trial and error.

When discussing the major influences of the band, the Civil Rights Movement has to be mentioned again. The lyricism of the entire album is based entirely off of people coming together and finally having peace which is exactly what most people involved in the movement wanted. In addition to this, an influence that the band had mentioned was religion and Egypt. White had acknowledged that he always had wanted to bring his life and music to a higher plane. For him, spirituality and Egypt had done just that. To quote April Peavey from PRI, “Like Moses, leading his people from Egypt to the Promised Land, Maurice White led his fans to that higher plane”.

Even though the impact of Earth, Wind & Fire on music and culture is not well documented, it does not mean that they had none. Being a band that incorporated so many genres into one album, there is no doubt that their blend of foreign sounds with modern jazz and R&B was not replicated or changed somewhere in the world. In addition to this, the cultural impact the band had can easily be guessed. Because the album was preaching to peace and love in a time that was dark and depressing, there is no doubt that the album was what some people looked at as a place of refuge and as an example of what they would like the world to be.

Rest In Peace Maurice White