Customer Reviews

Smiling Faces: The Best of Undisputed Truth

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Undisputed Truth, or "Underrated Truth" as I sometimes call them, are generally remembered today as the "Smiling Faces" group, but producer Norman Whitfield really took them to fascinating musical heights in the years following that everlasting hit. You need to buy a turntable, and hunt down their old albums to completely understand the Truth.

Unfortunately, you can't buy records on Amazon, and turntables aren't exactly the most practical means of home audio. So, just go ahead and buy this album, even if you own all the records. Just so you can hear "Lil' Red Ridin' Hood" remastered in your thumpin' car stereo, with the windows rolled down, while you're cruisin' through the ghetto!

"Law of the Land" is a pulsing, rythmical, complex soul/funk work-out. It has grooving chops, and dynamic vocal and string arrangement. Sorry to say, I don't know the stand-out female singer's name, but this lady can belt it like the best Motown vocalists. She makes you wanna gasp for air whenever you hear her.

"UFOs" is a pristine example of the group at their pulsing, psychedelic funk rock best. Great lyrics, trippy sounds fx, goofy vocals. Very interesting stuff.

"Lil' Red Ridin' Hood" is almost the penultimate black rock song. This one, I think, is up their with some of Funkadelic's most grungy opuses. The premise for the song is genius: a young, pretty, rich girl in a red dress walks through the ghetto and gets harrassed by a funny-cigarette smokin' brother. Instrumentally, the song is simplistic, and frankly have a thrashy, head-banging feel. Vocally, the lyrics of the verses aren't melodic, and are "exclaimed" more than sung, giving the song a unique and threatening feel. I dig it as one of my favorite '70s recordings.

"Help Yourself" is a great song, but I'd much rather have the version from the Higher than High LP than this one.

"Poontang" a fun, raucous funk romp. It's a self-referential song where the singer talks about dreaming of becoming a star since childhood, how he recorded "Smiling Faces" (or "a hit record" as it's referred to), how it sold sold a million ten days after it was first released, "and that sounds alright to me!", he says. Consequently, he gets a lot of Poontang. Good, bouncing, joyous funk with great horn arrangements...naturally.

Well the Truth of the matter is, this's just a sample of the what the band was all about. But until they finally release their whole original albums on CD, this is the best you'll have to do. Please Universal, please give us the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, in the form of a BOX SET. Now that would be NASTAY.....

just an idea

First off I think some other reviewers are confusing the Truth with the Temptations...

However if you a fan of the Truth then you will be very happy with what you have here...remastered versions of their interpretations of some Temps classics and their own popular tracks from the 70's!

Oh and by the way, the slower (and much longer) version of Ball of Confusion is....well it just is!

Rockin soul...funky soul...good stuff!

Honestly speaking, though MOTOWN epitomizes CLASSIC SOUL... I wouldn't have called the label "consistently funky" - - artists on Motown tended to be a lot more poppish and polished as compared to their other label counterparts... The TRUTH however, were definitely Motown's REBEL group... Though their productions were definitely MOTOWN slick the their tracks were incredibly groovy... and very funky at times... I always thought of them as THE TEMPTATIONS on lot's and lot's of acid... They take classic vocal soul, mix in a bit of Phil Spector's layer of sound approach, but then have lot's and lot's of strange wa wa, production hooks and wierd stuff that most other straight soul groups weren't doing at the time.

As for this particular compilation... a nice intro... however, realistically speaking the UNDISPUTED TRUTH were one of those groups who had their share of hits and great tunes, but I don't think they really had enough "anthems" to fill up a "greatest hits" album... that's to say, instantly recognizable tunes automatically associated with the group's sound (Smiling Phases and their version of Pappa Was A Rolling Stone are the one's most people remember.)... So rather than a GREATEST HITS album, I think an fuller ANTHOLOGY capturing all their different sounds would have been way better.... One particular thing about the group was that they were very experimental... but their thing was to take the sound of other groups then do it in their style... from their early years in which they sounded a lot like the TEMPS to later years in which they had sort of a P-Funk/Bootsy thing going (take the Ohio Players/Blowfly-ish "Poontang" (with its outrageous "I used to hate it til I ate it!" chorus!) for example... and in the middle where you even hear takes on groups like The Staples (Help Yourself) and even the Commodores (Higher than High)...

All in all, its ashame this group today is probably one of the lesser known artists from the MOTOWN stable... in my book, they were among the best and funkiest...

Now if only some FOOTAGE and more material by THE DYNAMIC SUPERIORS would emerge...

As for the best of the UNDISPUTED TRUTH, you want the album they did with BOOGIE BUMP BOOGIE - - Check out ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (as opposed to this compilation) to get it and a few more...

...vehicle for producer Norman Whitfield's psychedelic soul, with two female group members giving an added dimension to the crisp, billowing orchestration. While "Smiling Faces Sometimes (Tell Lies)" can be seen as cynical, the overall content (give or take "Poontang") is a call to revolution, in stark contrast to the self-centered focus of modern R&B.

at oberon "from motown": "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for The Undisputed Truth. The Single was released in the spring of 1972. This is almost forgotten, because later in 72 Norman Whitfield revised the song for The Temptations and created the grammy-winning funk symphonie.

I'm gonna give this five even though I don't own the cd. I do however own all the albums on vinyl, and its criminal that the only cd releases are 2 best ofs and "face to face with the truth". Motown or Hip-O selct need to remaster the first 6 albums and release them on CD, (their last two were released on Whitfields on record label)But until then, do yourselves a real real favour and try and hunt down these vinyls, because these compilations don't do the group any real justice. You need the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth. Maybe we need to start a poll and nudge these record execs to "do the right thing"

Other notable "truth" songs not on cd include (imho) "California soul", "If i die" "sunshine" "i saw you when you met her", "our day will come", "i'm losing you", "ma" and "misunderstood"

Note to "A Music Fan": The probable reason these "remastered" versions don't sound the same as the originals is that the definitive versions of several of the songs, including "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" and "Ball of Confusion" were recorded by the Temptations, not this group! Check out "Psychedelic Soul" or one of the Tempts other compilations to see.

At the time, the writers and execs of the Motown music machine were in the habit of having more than one group record their songs, as a way of pushing the songs as well as promoting the groups. Yes, a bit cynical and confusing...

The Undisputed Truth, however, did record the definitve, darkly beautiful version of "Smiling Faces" heard here.

I think some of this compilation's few reviewers do indeed think they are reviewing the Temptations. Same record company but not the Temps! It is a pity the powers that be/were at Motown couldn't spare the group a few of their OWN songs from the stable of writers (if they were still there) rather than have them do cover versions of others' songs (not uncommon in Motown's early days). Even so it's still presentable work and "Smiling Faces" (the single) is so damn uniquely good, it's almost worth the price of the whole package.

Certainly, Smiling Faces is one of the greatest tracks ever. I did not know there was more. If you like Funkadelic and Ohio Players, you will probably like this. However, it is more kitchy, derivative and prefabricated, lacking a bit of the original artistry of those others. But at the same time it more 'Warholian.' Maybe releasing the whole catalog - with the great mastering here! please don't screw it up - would give this material it's proper due and would free it from it's lesser reputation. This is good stuff...

I agree with whoever said the remastering has taken a bit of the bite out of the sound on Smiling Faces Sometimes, but damned if the record doesn't have one of the best intros of any of the Motown singles. (Can anything duplicate those old singles that just crackled with energy and life on your turntable? There is nothing like a Motown 45!) That being said, damn is this record cool.The arrangements are sexy and sensual, and the lead singer of this group has a great, gruffly soulful voice. The women raise the roof too. Check out Law of the Land,those grooves are on fire! I find their versions of Papa and Ball of Confusion very enjoyable, much as I prefer the Temps hit versions. An added treat is that these songs have lyrics that really speak to the era they came out in, and are surprisingly relevant today. This album may be an eccentric child of Motown, but have no doubt it is Motown, and that means one word: it's H-O-T.