CoronaVinyl Day 226 (M): Got To Find a Way by Curtis Mayfield

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I meant to post this last night, but instead I decided to watch a great Showtime documentary on Motown called Hitsville: The Making of Motown.  It's free on Amazon Prime Video until tomorrow, so watch it if you can!

Yesterday's CoronaVinyl category was "M," and I ended Black History Month with a bang, listening to Curtis Mayfield's 1974 album Got to Find a Way.  Back in April, a mere 194 CoronaVinyl albums ago, I featured Mayfield's iconic Super Fly soundtrack for the "Illinois" category, and I ran through his history and many accomplishments there, so I won't repeat all that here.  Suffice it to say, Mayfield is a soul and funk icon.

On Got to Find a Way -- which only has three songs per side -- Mayfield continued to hone his funk/soul jam skills, with all but two songs clocking in at 5:50 or longer.  The album wasn't a huge success -- topping out at #76 on the Billboard album chart and #18 on the Billboard R&B album chart, and only producing one charting song, "Mother's Son," which reached #15 on the Billboard R&B singles chart -- but I think it's pretty damn good.  Mayfield's voice is silky as always, and the album somehow sounds polished and funky at the same time (and I'm not using "polished" pejoratively).  Of course, I prefer the funkier songs to the slower, soul ballads, but that's just me.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Love Me (Right in the Pocket)"

The first track on the album is the funkiest track on Side 1, and the title implies some sort of jeans pocket handy.  

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Mother's Son"
I like the second side better than the first because all three songs are on the funkier side.  It was really a toss-up between all three songs, but I went with "Mother's Son."  It's funky, baby.