This is soul.
Not Al Green soul.
Not Isaac Hayes soul (but perhaps a bit closer to that).
This is the soul of the black man.


Eugene McDaniels

CD 1: Outlaw, 1970

CD 2: Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse, 1971




2CDs / 2013 / Japan Import / 320Kbps


Tracklist / CD 1 / Outlaw, 1970:

1. Outlaw

2. Sagittarius Red

3. Welfare City

4. Silent Majority

5. Love Letter To America

6. Unspoken Dreams Of Light

7. Cherrystones

8. Reverend Lee

9. Black Boy


Tracklist / CD 2 / Headless Heroes, 1971:

1. The Lord Is Back

2. Jagger The Dagger

3. Lovin' Man

4. Headless Heroes

5. Susan Jane

6. Freedom Death Dance

7. Supermarket Blues

8. The Parasite (For Buffy)


Like many other Americans of the era, something happened to Eugene McDaniels between 1965 and 1970 that transformed him from Gene McDaniels to “Eugene McDaniels the Left Rev. Mc D”.
The former Mr. McDaniels was a clean-cut soul singer in the mold of Jackie Wilson that enjoyed minor commercial success in the early ‘60s; the reinvented Reverend posited himself as a fervent voice of protest, recording a pair of now-classic records for Atlantic in 1970 and 1971, “Outlaw” and “Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse”.
But where many other artists dabbled in the counterculture to explore different ways of presenting their image or to take advantage of looser codes of moral conduct, McDaniels fully embraced the movement’s radical politics - so much so that then-Vice President Spiro Agnew allegedly called Atlantic to issue a verbal cease-and-desist order upon the release of his second record (Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse) for the label.
Headless Heroes was quite revelatory, for its jazzy soul vibes had been a source of significant hip-hop samples (Pete Rock, A Tribe Called Quest, Organized Konfusion) whose original sources were only heard by a fortunate few cratediggers. Outlaw, on the other hand, is an entirely different breed of soul: more rock-influenced, more overtly political, and truly beyond comparison with any of its contemporaries.
As on Headless Heroes, McDaniels recorded Outlaw with a rock- (and jazz-) solid band that featured legendary jazz bassists Ron Carter and Miroslav Vitous, ubiquitous ‘70s session guitarist Hugh McCracken and Alphonse Mouzon on drums - a group that fleshed out the Rev’s hippie-folk-funky dreams with undaunted restraint. The band is largely responsible for the record’s pure cohesiveness, as they bring McDaniels’s disparate styles together into one of the most powerfully lasting statements of post-Aquarian Age culture.