Customer Reviews

Chinese Wall

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THIS IS A WONDERFUL CD THAT YOU WILLENJOY HEARING OVER AND OVER AGAIN.IN "FOR EVERY HEART THATS BEEN BROKEN" YOU CAN FEEL THE SENSITIVITYOF PHILIP BAILEY. THEN THERE IS THEROMANTIC "SHOW YOU THE WAY TO LOVE"THIS IS ONE OF THOSE CD'S WHERE ITSREALLY DIFFICULT TO CHOOSE A FAVORITE.

"Photogenic Memory" already sells you quickly on this collector's CD, esp. if you are a musician of any genre and are familiar w/ the percussion talents of Paulinho da Costa. For fans like me who have liked Brazilian themes since the late 60's, I know Paulinho's work from his collaborations w/ Sergio Mendes. (See "Primal Roots" for classic examples of Mendes/da Costa work.)

Of course, the most fun track is #6, "Easy Lover", featuring the excellent counterbalancing of the Bailey/Collins voices forefronting Phil's wonderful cabbage-chopping work on his trap set. One can almost see the silvery flashiness of his Zildjian Platinum crashes, and underlining punctuations on the high hat. Complimenting everything perfectly are the work of the other musicians, esp. Nathan West's bass lines: sensual, throbbing, and definitive, but not overpowering. Somehow, even has many times as I have heard this number on FM, nothing can surpass playing this! CD track on quad stereo w/ the equalizer pushed up a bit to further highlight Phillip's E,W, & F signature range interweaving around Phil's primary melodic path.

This listener's favorite, however, esp. because of its incredible change in mood and texture from its previous track is "Show You The Way To Love". It demonstrates Phillip's own depth, sensitivity, and capabilities to interpret his music and lyrics beyond his mesmerizingly viscous falsetto style.

And, if nothing else grabs you listening to this CD (even my Deaf friends keep borrowing it to feel its "biorhythms", by the way), Phillip's profile cover photo, the photo of The Great Wall, and the inside photos of the band, producers, and studio guys at work and at play shows just how much fun it must have been to realize the end product. Check it out: there are even neat b&w photos of our buddy, Phil Collins, w/ more hair than I've ever seen on his cute, little noggin!

While overall this CD is fine -a swan song for the R&B genre?-, for me the song here -the one that makes me rate this album with five stars- is "Walking on the Chinese Wall". That song -that incredible song- stands out easily between the other songs here, including the smash hit "Easy Lover". For those who have heard this song before, they will agree with me that once you listen to it with your eyes closed -a good set of headphones is a must- you will experience an overwhelming, near unspeakable experience that leaves you high and dry and wanting to listen to it all over again and again and again. Yes, "Easy Lover", "Children of the Ghetto" and "Show You The Way To Love" are nice songs, where Phillip Bailey sings beautifully. But in "Walking..." his singing stands as class apart. His voice plays joyfully with the drums, the chorus voices, the bass... gosh, believe me when I say -and I'm not exaggerating- that this song is a landmark of the eighties, a pristine example of the good great music that were done at that time. Tempted? Why not! I'm sure you will love it. So check this out. enjoy.

While overall this CD is fine -a swan song for the R&B genre?-, for me the song here -the one that makes me rate this album with five stars- is "Walking on the Chinese Wall". That song -that incredible song- stands out easily between the other songs here, including the smash hit "Easy Lover". For those who have heard this song before, they will agree with me that once you listen to it with your eyes closed -a good set of headphones is a must- you will experience an overwhelming, near unspeakable experience that leaves you high and dry and wanting to listen to it all over again and again and again. Yes, "Easy Lover", "Children of the Ghetto" and "Show You The Way To Love" are nice songs, where Phillip Bailey sings beautifully. But in "Walking..." his singing stands as class apart. His voice plays joyfully with the drums, the chorus voices, the bass... gosh, believe me when I say -and I'm not exaggerating- that this song is a landmark of the eighties, a pristine example of the good great music that were done at that time. Tempted? Why not! I'm sure you will love it. So check this out. enjoy.

Amazing 1984 release from the co-lead singer of Earth, Wind, and Fire, Philip Bailey. The album is clearly a work of Phil Collins, with the signature horns and dynamic drumming, not to mention the duet with the two Phils (Easy Lover). But Mr. Bailey stamps his own name on here, as well, with his one-of-a-kind astonishing voice. Each song has is its own style, ranging between rock and R&B, but with the number of songwriters on the album, we are given a diverse set of tracks. Yet with the production of Mr. Collins and the performance of Mr. Bailey, everything works just fine. Get this CD and treat yourself to a musical gem.

This album is super!!! Phillip Bailey is one of kind. The best song is Walking on the chinese wall. It is truly one of a kind. It kind of gives you a feel that you are in ancient China. And who can forget the smash hit "Easy Lover". It also one of my all time 80's favorites and anyone who is an eighties buff must have this album! If you are a Collins or Bailey fan you must have this one in your collection. It is just fantastic!!!!

When I first heard this album it was on vinyl when I was seriously into the music of Earth Wind & Fire and to be honest I didn't like it very much. The music seemed very removed from what I was listening to at the time which was for the most part very hardcore funk,R&B and soul. And that's strange because this is a review by one of a few people with genuinely good things to say about 80's music in general. That was 15 years ago and upon hearing it again my opinion is a bit broader. I will say one thing for this-the way this album was presented (at least on vinyl) each side-or half if your listening to this CD version starts off with a very obviously pop/rock with a lot of louder guitars and drumming:those two songs being "Photographic Memory" and of course the albums big hit "Easy Lover",the song most people remember from this album and the reason most people probably came into it in the first place. As other reviewers have pointed out these songs are not at all indivative of the album as whole and were likely put on to cross the album over to the pop charts. The majority of this recording is every bit the regally produced R&B/funk that would be common to find on any EWF release,even during this era. "I Go Crazy" and "Time Is A Woman" are actually better examples of the 80's electro funk sound as they both focus on creating a textural mood and tempo as opposed to seeing how many synthesized effects could fit into one song. "For Every Heart That's Been Broken" and "Woman" are both excellent songs that,with the combined sound of the Phenix horns and Philip's jazzy gospel chordal phrasing on the vocals make them both sound like possible EWF outtakes from the Faces era of their recording career. Same goes for the heavily gospel sounding "Show You The Way To Love" which would not have been out of place on EWF's Powerlight from the previous year before this. "Go" is one of the more heavily funk oriented tunes and kind of glues the sound of a lot of the rest of the album in one great jam. There are also two somewhat epic songs in the title track which is a seemingly awkward mixture of 80's progressive pop and afrobeat. Somehow with the great melody Philip pulls this rather Peter Gabriel sounding tune off very well. The last tune is a great moody version of "Children Of The Ghetto",again an epic song in more of a jazz-funk vein. Overall the sound of this album is quite different from that of Philip's solo debut Continuation which has a more fluid sound from cut to cut and doesn't have songs with such an obvious pop and rock influence. Even so there is a lot of great music here,especially from the mid 80's usually electronic/synthesizer oriented R&B/soul and funk environment so this is more than worth checking out.

Funny, I bought this album for one thing the song Chinese Wall but, I have a friend to like his music so it was a good gift to him.

"Chinese Wall" is the "solo" debut by Earth Wind and Fire's Phillip Bailey. It might be a bit unfair to Bailey, but 80s superstar Phil Collins plays a major role on many dimensions of this album. Collins plays instruments or provides vocals on every track on this album. Collins also serves as the album's producer and is co-writer of the mega duet he does with Bailey "Easy Lover" Collins takes his long-time studio and tour musician Darryl Stuermer to play guitars on many of the tracks. Despite the heavy hand of Phil Collins, much of this album still has the footprint of Phillip Bailey on it. Bailey's unique voice is heard throughout the album and contributes to some of the songwriting. For Collins, the mid 80s was his hey-day - he worked with his solo career, Genesis, producing artists like Bailey and Eric Clapton, and even joining Led Zeppelin at Live Aid.

This album is a good album, but for a solo album it seems to suffer from 'too many cooks in the kitchen' and as a result, I don't feel there is the type of cohesion between the tracks that I would expect from the album. There are TWENTY songwriters on this album (including Collins and Bailey in the total) - with a different combination of songwriters on each track. That is way too many songwriters for an album. As a result there are some good songs and some weaker songs.. Producer Phil Collins at getting the most out of Phillip Bailey on each of the tracks, but it is tougher to get the cohesion I normally look for on every effort. A little more cohesion, I would have rated this album much higher.

For the most part, this is more of an R&B album and Bailey's vocals shine in many areas. The most popular song from the album is "Easy Lover" which is the duet between Collins and Bailey - this is more of a Rock song. Collins riveting drums are clearly heard on this particular song. It's a shame that Collins and Bailey have not done more duets because there is great synergy between them as evidenced on this album. The best song on this album is the title track "Walking on the Chinese Wall". This song also doesn't has more of a Pop/Rock feel than an R&B feel - but it is a great and moving song. As it the song it really discusses "Ancient Tale of hidden Chinese Love" using a lot of symbolism. Bailey's voice is the best I ever heard it - and that goes back to his Earth Wind and Fire days. Collins has some trademark haunting drums as well. This song got some airplay in 1985, but never got the type of attention or popularity it deserved. It's a shame that the songwriters - Roxanne Seeman, Marcy Levy, and Billie Hughes didn't get to have another track on the album.

There are highlights with the lesser known tracks. As for some of the classic R&B stuff, two great tracks are "For Every Heart That's Been Broken" and "Go". "For Every Heart..." is a slower track while "Go" is a very catchy song with some catchy lyrics "Life is full of passion; cavier and fashion; Go, go out and play"... "Go, for whatever reason; Go, it's the time and season". The song "Time is a Woman" is nice fusion between R&B and Rock" with some great guitar work by Stuermer. It also contains great background vocals. "Woman" is a nice song that has the Collins' trademark horns in it. There even is a "latin style horn interlude" toward the latter part of the song. The interesting thing about "Woman" is that Bailey uses a more baritone voice than he has ever used. Collins again comes in with some great drumming as well. Another underrated track is "Children of the Ghetto" - its a slower, more R&B feel to it. Collins' drums sound outstanding and have a 3 dimensional effect to it. This is also a well written song that basically describes as the title indicates - children living in the ghetto. The opening track is weak - "Photogenic Memory". Yes Collins has some nice drumming, but it is a very weak dance style song with some computer-like voice by the background vocals. It also seems to go on forever and doesn't excite me.

This CD has outstanding liner notes. All of the lyrics are included. Each song has all of the appopriate credits in terms of songwriters and musicians. There is a nice gallery containing pictures of some of the faces behind the music (this is always a pleasant treat). Of course, there is a picture of the Great Wall of China even though the album has very little oriental influence other than the title track.

This CD is still worth getting in your collection. Whether you are a Collins or Bailey fan (or both), there should be something for everyone in this collection despite what I feel is a lack of cohesion.

Don't get me wrong, this CD showcases Philip doing some of his best work of the decade only due the fact EWF was going through their "ELECTRONIC" period(see "Photogenic Memory" as proof). If you can find it, his BEST work without a doubt is on his DEBUT album entitled 'CONTINUATION',which is, alas NOT on CD, but should clearly be. I think 'CHINESE WALL' was just a vehicle for Phil Collins to return a favor to Bailey and EWF for borrowing their horn section(The Phoenix Horns)for his solo project(see and HEAR the song 'SUSSUDIO' among others. I'm not trashing the CD, mind you, I just think once you hear the other album, you all will be convinced. Maybe someone at SONY/COLUMBIA will take the hint and release it on disc in the NEAR future. Don't hold your breath. Been there....Done that!