New World Order Label: Warner Bros. US Release Date: 1996-10-01 The weather wasn’t kind to Atlanta, Georgia during the winter of 1995. Tornadoes, high winds and torrential rain beat down on the home of Curtis Mayfield as he lay flat on the floor of his built-in recording studio. Paralysed from the neck down, for the recording of his final album New World Order he purposefully positioned his broken body on its back to help fill his lungs with the necessary oxygen to sing, which he painstakingly did one line at a time -- all the gentle genius could muster. “Summer, winter or just cold,” he sang before being forced to pause for the air to re-enter his body.

“Through the rain and through the snow. Let’s get on back to living again, right on.” Hearing Mayfield sing in such good voice on New World Order, one wonders where his mind wandered between vocal takes as he lay flat on the floor, detached from the team of producers he had hired to do the physical work of which he was no longer capable. He might well have pondered on a career spanning 40 years, releasing almost as many albums and an influence that cannot be gauged by simple numbers. An adept pop songwriter, he sacrificed the fame and fortune enjoyed by his peers on the Motown label to make music about racial consciousness and social inequality, penning many songs that would become anthems of the civil rights movement. How sad that a man who spent his career fighting injustice would face a different plight in his final years.

Curtis Mayfield was born June 3, 1942 in Chicago and become one of the pioneers of the city’s unique brand of gospel-tinged melodic soul. He began his musical career at age seven, learning to sing and teaching himself guitar. But gospel became his first calling and he performed in many choirs before meeting Jerry Butler in a church group. Butler convinced the 14-year-old Mayfield to join his soul band, The Roosters. Two years later, after renaming themselves the Impressions, the group scored a No. 11 hit with “For Your Precious Love”, released on Vee Jay Records.

Butler would move on and achieved significant success in his solo career, but it was under Mayfield’s guidance that the Impressions became one of the most successful R&B groups of the '60s. Among their most lasting works were “Keep on Pushing”, “We’re a Winner” and, most famously, “People Get Ready”. At a time when the soul and R&B world rarely strayed away from the common love song, Mayfield’s music channelled the spirit of change that was gathering steam, writing a soundtrack that would underscore the black pride movement. Musically too, he was an innovator, utilizing his gospel roots and effectively blending them with Latin-influenced rhythms, wicked horns and melodic guitars.

Curtis Mayfield suffered tragedy in his life, but what will be remembered is his indomitable spirit and optimism, both of which are displayed in this great release. As has been well chronicled, Mayfield suffered a paralyzing injury well before 'New World Order' was released.

The end of the '60s neatly bookended Mayfield’s time in the Impressions. By that time, he had hit somewhat of a creative ceiling in the band, even rehashing the melody to “People Get Ready” a couple of times on later songs. Mayfield’s solo career, though, took a sharp turn away from the toffee R&B and bright messages of the Impressions.

Licence key to unlock limbo game for pc. His '70s output utilised stronger beats, brawny strings and plenty of wah-wah guitars. The message too became darker and less optimistic, as Mayfield now told tales from America’s drugged-out seventies ghettos.

It was these observations that helped create what would prove to be his quintessential work. Superfly was Mayfield at the peak of his powers. While the film was criticized for its glamorization of cocaine dealing, Curtis’ soundtrack is a firm social commentary condemning all aspects of the drug lifestyle. Songs like “Little Child Running Wild”, “Freddie’s Dead” and “Pusherman” were full, three-dimensional glimpses into the life, Mayfield effectively playing cautionary storyteller while avoiding being overly preachy. As he would say in a 1997 interview “With all respect, I’m sure that we have enough preachers in the world. Through my way of writing I was capable of being able to say these things and yet not make a person feel as though they’re being preached at.” The rise of disco damaged Mayfield commercially, but he spent the rest of the seventies steadily touring and recording new albums, including the classic There’s No Place Like America Today, an unflinching attack on social injustices, particularly the gulf he saw between the “American Dream” and the status of lower class blacks.