Customer Reviews

Planets of Life

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

 

 

All of these years, I thought the Janus release of 1973, Planets Of Life, was an original album that gathered together the group's
Soul Clock recordings of 1969-70. Thanks to this CD, I learned that the original album containing tracks 1-10 on this issue, was titled "The Whispers" and appeared on Soul Clock in 1970. So the Janus release in 1973 was a re-issue! The highlight of The Whispers' Soul Clock output was the haunting, "Seems Like I Gotta
Do Wrong." It's a very moving song about Black people not being able to move up the social ladder, and offers an early analysis of why corrections systems in the U.S. are filled with people of color. The song is a very courageous indictment of American society at the dawn of the seventies (and, sadly, still applies today). Besides the original album content, there are eight bonus cuts (B-sides or non-lp singles), which are seeing the light of day for the first time in 30+ years. But there is a HUGE error. My copy lists "Planets Of Life" as the third cut on the disc, but the song that plays is "If You," a well-remembered song from the Janus years. I'm sure it is just an inadvertant switch of the master tapes, but when you are dealing with the title cut of a CD, you just can't let that title cut not appear. Castle Records has done the fans of The Whispers a great service by making this compilation happen (as well as the follow-up: a two-disc retrospective of the Janus years), but this kind of sloppiness won't help them build a trustworthy reputation. If you pick this one up and the error has not been corrected, the song "Planets Of Life" is available on "Vintage Whispers" and a couple of other choice compilations. It also appears in a live version on the all-time classic album, "Headlights."

great day is a great song that i have been trying to find. i will be glad to add to my collection.

Planets Of Life is one of the best collections of The Whispers you could buy. With 3 releases on CD on the market, who's going to get it right? Well, I ordered this one since I already had the "Soul Clock Recordings" issue from England (mind you, this is the first review actually written for this Canadian version,) and it didn't have the title track as listed. My luck has it that I was sent the wrong one. Instead, I recieved the German version. If anybody is trying to sell you that one, don't buy it because it's complete crap! I'll tell you why, because it's recorded from vinyl, the recordings are then normalized with digital clip and noise reduction (I use a german CD burner program, and the clip and noise reduction options make the recording muffled and ***tty.) Anyway, I'm waiting to hear back from the seller that sent me the wrong CD, then I will do an update of this review for this version from Unidisc (the last of the Planets Of Life albums on CD which is from the Janus/ GRT reissue of the original recordings.) Hang 10...

I have been a huge fan of The Whispers for about 35 years or more. The songs that I have been searching for were listed on the CD description however when it arrived they are not included on this CD. I am very disappointed because I already have a compilation cd which includes three of the best cuts on this cd.