Customer Reviews

C'mon and S-W-I-M

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I've had this CD for about a year now, but stuck it on for the first time today and was blown away by how great it is. The backing band is tight and plays furiously; the live-in-studio stuff is especially shocking in its intensity. This isn't far from a lot of Chicago soul (mid-60's Gene Chandler or Major Lance come to mind); it's not as languid and bluesy as Stax stuff, not as poppy or well-produced as Motown. In fact, Bobby covers material from both labels here, and they're probably the weak points.

The secret to its quality is in the combination of Bobby's wild vocals - like a more tuneful James Brown, the stellar production, particularly given the times and the style of music, which was rarely afforded extensive studio time, and the many excellent songs written for Bobby by Sly Stone. Sly's also the man behind the production, and you can hear some of the ideas that Sly & the Family Stone later expanded in an embryonic state - i.e. "That Little Ole Heartbreaker Me."

This sort of unadorned party soul can be a bit much over 25 tracks, but I'd rather have it all in one place and sequence myself than have someone else present their idea of the 18 or so really great tracks on this. Plus the liner notes are of typically great Ace quality.

Bobby Freeman first hit the pop music world in 1958 with his top-5 "Do You Want To Dance". For years after, he made a few appearances on the pop charts with some mediocre tunes but after moving to the Autumn label and hooking up with a developing Sly Stone, he hit big again with "C'mon and Swim". While "...Swim" achieved the same chart success as "...Dance", Freeman will probably always be remembered for the often-remade bouncy classic "...Dance". This compilation collects his output for the Autumn label featuring his comeback hit "C'mon and Swim". Unfortunately, the momentum could not be maintained and with just one other minor capitalization on the "Swim" theme ("S-W-I-M"), Freeman again disappeared for good from the pop charts.

There are 25 tracks here including non-charting singles, lp sides and a few previously unissued songs and alternate versions. The sound quality is generally good to excellent, however all tracks appear in mono.

As this collection is limited in scope to his Autumn records era, this piece is of more interest to the collector or completist. Freeman's earlier hits are available on compilatinos that cover his Josie and King label-era recordings and those pieces make good complements to this compilation.