Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 02/01/2008
Run Time: 68:05
The 16-track
Rated X-Traordinaire sets out to rescue the reputation of the
Johnnie Taylor of 1976-1980, the period that began with his biggest smash,
"Disco Lady," but that found him, so the conventional wisdom goes, a
Southern soul man set adrift on the
disco wave. Annotator
Kalamu Ya Salaam argues that
"Disco Lady" is not a
disco song, and backs this up by noting that the track actually was played by members of
Parliament-
Funkadelic. True enough, though that only applies to
Taylor's debut
Columbia album,
Eargasm. Elsewhere,
Taylor did drift, from
Muscle Shoals tracks that updated his
Stax Memphis sound to tracks that sounded like
Marvin Gaye. The early years, 1976 and 1977, were more accomplished than the later ones, and that's where compilation producer
Leo Sacks focuses, with 12 of the 16 tracks coming from then. In so doing, he ignores
R&B chart singles like
"Keep on Dancing" and
"Ever Ready," but he satisfies the "best-of" title.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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