Customer Reviews

Back to the World

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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This has always been one of my favorite Curtis Mayfield albums, even though I don't think its his most popular (and it often goes out of print.) The reason is because its just so darn tight and funky - - yet political (in that distinct Curtis Mayfield) way too. The tracks are so tight, its incredible... and not only is it heavy funk - - but its a distinct type of funk that only Curtis was playing (and that's hard to describe for the uninitiated.) - - I don't know how to describe it... 100% Curtis = 94% JB, 6% Bob Marley ??? Really, you have to listen...

Overall, this is a great album because on one hand the instrumental tracks are kicking -- even if you're not dancing, you can't help but move, however, if you listen to it just for the lyrics, you can follow Mayfield's lyrics from begining to end... in part because he had a unique style of lyric writing too that made him more of a political poet or even a pre-hip hop rapper more than a simple soul wailer or crooner (as was common in that era.) Throughout the album Mayfield's status as a visionary and artist becomes clearer and clearer as he paints pictures and makes you think and wonder. Consider the opening track BACK IN THE WORLD, with its pumping bass and drums, lush violins, wa wa guitars, and funky horns about a Vietname Vet who dreams of coming back to the U.S. but finds life quite a bit different than what he was expecting... Mayfield pleads his case passionately and emotionally by putting you in his mind, yet the tune is also so damn funky you don't know how to respond. The music makes you want to dance... but the message makes you both sad and angry at the same time. And at the same time he also has that unique style of rhythm guitar as well !

Overall this is an intense album. Some people were blown away by other artists who were delivering political messages at that time... like Marvin Gay and Gil Scott Heron - - but after hearing this album you'll realize that Curtis (the guy who laid down the ultimately controversial "Mighty Mighty Spade and Whitey" and "SUPERFLY" soundtrack which provided social commentary on the film at the same time you watched it) *WAS* the man ! ! !

I played this album on the air at Utapao Royal Thai Naval Air Force Base in 1973 and 1974 over the American Forces Radio and Television station. Most of us knew this album because it was about a Vietnam Vet coming back to the States. Curtis Mayfield was a great musician and a wonderful human being. He is missed.

This one's my favorite Curtis Mayfield release after Superfly.It was originally released in 1973 and was required listening during my days in the US Army. Oh what great memories! Highly recommended!!

This record has my alltime favorite curtis tune, and I love a whole lot of curtis tunes to death. When he says "it's the educated people...making up the rules, holding back the schools" I couldn't agree more. But much like his debut, Curtis, the hypnotic and apocolyptic ("hell below" on that one) is balanced by more upbeat stuff. Maybe the best Curtis cover art, too.

WOW!!!!!!!!! Back to the world.was our going back to united states,from overseas in and around 1975-1980..we sign our posters,and play back to the world...this is the song..

Within Curtis Mayfield's world and beyond so much was different in the year or so following Superfly. Not only had the artist find himself in need for a change and so was the country. Watergate,the end of Vietnam,the realization of the new outlook for the 1970's was looming large and typical of Curtis's style he elected to face this head on. This concept album revolves around third person musings of a young black soldier returning from war,finding a world around him that is wracked with uncertainty about everything from civil rights to the future of human relations itself. Not only that but Curtis's music was again undergoing a change. Where his breakthrough soundtrack a year earlier was for all intents and purposes based on his previous three albums (especially Curtis Live) this album actually took even further a cue from the cinematic side of things. Based as much in Curtis's distinctive sound blending his rhythm section with orchestration as anything he's ever done everything these sounds are meshed together in quite a different way. The strings and horns don't take a fluttery and operatic a role in the music as they do bleed into the overall production in actually even more a psychedelic soul/funk fasion than before and not only that the grooves themselves have an even slicker flavor to them. The title song begins the album with this sweeping epic feeling that takes the type of sound Curtis might've dealt with on his latter day work with the Impressions but also added his tougher funk groove into it as well. "Future Shock" and the chunky "Right On For The Darkness",which again leaps from near ballad pace into churning,intense funk. The chugging tempos and bright melodies of "If I Were Only A Child Again","Can't Say Nothin'" and "Keep On Trippin'" might deceive one into thinking their hearing a sort of throwback to the Impressions windy city soul style again but peek under the grooves and the bottom is definately of Curtis's solo vision rather than that of his past work. Also as conceptually heavy as these songs are in the context of this album it's almost impossible to envision them anywhere else. After his big success the previous year the music of Curtis Mayfield would never quite be the same. And while he'd never again reach quite that level of commercial success again this album more than showcased his ability to keep himself up and vital as a purely creative entity/R&B mainstay.

It has some good songs like "Back to the World" and "Future Shock" but it seems like a bit of a disappointment as a follow-up to "Superfly". I imagine it's almost impossible to repeat the success of "Curtis", "Roots", and "Superfly". It's sad that Curtis could never repeat the success of these earlier albums.

His vocal delivery in "Back to the World" is at a higer pitch making it hard at time to make out the words to the song. I plan to buy his next album, "Sweet Exorcist" from 1974.

Curtis is still one of the greatest songer/songwriters ever. I can listen to songs like "(Dont Worry) if there's hell below, we're all going to go" and "The other side of town" over and over and still marvel at the creativity and feeling in these songs.

They truly transcend time.

I remember when I was a child studying the album cover of "Back to the World", just like I studied the cover of "Superfly". I consider myself Curtis Mayfield's biggest fan. I really don't remember hearing any of the songs back then, maybe snippets, but I am truly grateful that Amazon.com had this in stock. The cd is rather short (35 minutes), but it's short and sweeter than candy corn. This is a must have.

What fascinates me about Curtis Mayfield--well, NASA scientists can't count that high.

But one most important element is that when soul and funk seemed two schools that only sometimes crossed paths, Mayfield to craft a perfect synergy.

On back to the world, the master continues with his soul that was always perfectly orchestrated, never sappy, and funk that was always knockout punch, but always melodic.

Forget about the brilliant social commentary--Mayfield somehow always managed to write and sing in poetry AND prose at once--the music works as two genres at once, not mixing them, but merging him.

Great music is common. True genius is rare. Curtis does and is both.

I really loved this album and have always thought it was a great follow up to his masterpiece Superfly. He really shows off his incredible musical compositions on this album with some of the most breathtaking instrumentals i've ever heard. Curtis was the complete package, great songwriter, singer, arranager and producer. This album is a kind of a "concept" album of sorts. It still has powerful and timely lyrical content mainly dealing with life in the U.S. after the vietnam war which had just ended as the last troops were finally on their way back home.

The title track and 1st song on the album is told from the viewpoint of a soldier whose made it back home only to be told that A) The war had not been won and B) Nothing really had changed for the better since he'd left and in many ways was now worse. It's a very descriptive and chilling realization that now the soldier was in the midst of a another war for freedom of thought and expression "Back In The World". The second track, "Future Shock" is just as moving and powerful.

It details the actual war the soldier and his family are experiencing right here at "home" "Back In The World" that is the U.S. and paints the very real picture of how their was a just as much a struggle for survival here as in Vietnam. Then comes the Crown Jewel of this album, "Right On For The Darkness", which is such a beautiful example of a play on words. He tells of the blindness of the people and all the injustices going on all around and salutes the ignorance with a "Right On For The Darkness" almost as if to say, you're blind and asleep so continue on in your delusions.

It's at this point, after detailing all the "wrongs" of society, that the poet begins to tell us how to deal with the issues of the day. The following track, "Future Song (Love A Good Woman, Love A Good Man)", is a prayer that the family unit, which is were stability in any society truly lies, will not allow their ego, fears and illusions to break down that unit and it will instead be made strong so the following generations will know true love and the stability it brings. One of my personal favorite tracks follows, "If I Were Only A Child Again", this song reminds us of the innocence of seeing the world through the eyes of a child and how that simplicity and pure love can truly make the necessary changes needed in society very much possible.

The next song, "Can't Say Nothing" is mostly an instrumental jam that allows Curtis and his band to truly show off their skills. The horns and drums on this song are AWESOME and some of Curtis' best guitar work is found here! And the beautiful album closer, "Keep On Trippin" is a song about one whose lost his love but is hoping that the "trip" she's on will lead her back to his arms. I've said it before and stand by it, Curtis Mayfield is the single most underrated and underappreciate artist of the 20th century. His name should immediately come up when the discussion of greatest artists comes up and this album is another fine example of that fact.

As difficult as it is to follow up a masterpiece such as Superfly, I believe Curtis was able to pull it off with this LP and it's another fine example of his tremendous skills and the gift he shared with the world at large, his incredible music.