I heard Tower of Power's classic fourth LP Back To Oakland for the first-ever time today, courtesy of a CD I picked up at the yard sale my man Chris threw a few weeks back. That cat had good musical taste, there's no doubt. He said he saw the Digables play circa the spring of '93, which was when I caught them at the Purple Gator in Myrtle Beach. Around the same time, he also said he saw Blind Melon open for Lenny Kravitz at Brown's spring bash (Chris went to RISD), which must have been a stop on the Universal Love tour that later swung through Chapel Hill. I went to that show with Mel and Steve, and Steve got to hang out with Lenny backstage.
Anyway, one of the dozen CD's I picked up from Chris was Back To Oakland. I'm pretty sure I've got a scratched up copy of this on vinyl. But I'd never listened to it, probably becuz it was too scratched up. My loss, since the record is super tight, with a totally funkified horn section that inspired multiple chills. And virtually a concept album, exploring an underlying theme of a relationship on the rocks throughout stellar tracks like Don't Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream), Just When We Start Makin' It, Can't You See (You Doin' Me Wrong), Time Will Tell, Man From The Past, the beautiful slow number Below Us, All The City Lights, and finally, this highlight, Love's Been Gone So Long.
Written by Bruce Conte, formerly of The Loading Zone. He replaced original guitarist Willie James Fulton when he joined the band at the start of the recording sessions for its third album, the self-titled Tower of Power (1973), which went gold. Conte stayed with the band until 1979, playing on seven LP's altogether and writing a number of songs. He reunited with TOP for a brief time starting in 2006. Last year, Conte announced he had leukemia. Visit his website for more info about his career and current struggle to beat his illness.
- Dyn-O-Mite