Home | About Us | Contact | Shopping Cart | Checkout

Released 1973

Many of Stax's releases in its final years were dull soul. But by the standards of the era, William Bell's second-to-last Stax LP was an above-average affair that was more diverse than many such efforts of the time. The three songs he co-wrote with guitarist Horace Shipp Jr. were socially conscious tunes in a different bag than the straightforward romantic odes Bell usually purveyed. "Save Us" was indebted to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On era, with a Philly-influenced funk/soul groove, and "Fifty Dollar Habit" was, of course, about drug use. Elsewhere, Bell stuck mostly to love songs, self-penned and otherwise, getting into a pre-disco lope on the title track, with the sweet soul balladry of "What I Don't Know Won't Hurt Me" and "If You Really Love Him," and the light, reggae-influenced rhythms on "Lonely for Your Love." [The album is now available as part of a reissue that combines Phases of Reality and Bell's final Stax LP, 1974's Relating, onto a single CD.] ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

TRACKS

1. Save Us
2. True Love Don't Come Easy
3. Fifty Dollar Habit
4. What I Don't Know Won't Hurt Me
5. Phases of Reality
6. If You Really Love Him
7. Lonely for Your Love
8. The Man in the Street
9. Lovin' in Borrowed Time
10. All I Need Is Your Love
11. Such a Fever
12. Nobody Walks Away from Love Unhurt
13. Gettin' What You Want (Losin' What You Got)
14. I've Got to Go on Without You
15. Drinkin' and Thinkin'
16. You've Got the Kind of Love I Need
17. You Don't Want a Man
18. Nobody But You

:: Back to William Bell

:: View more Georgia rhythm & blues artists.