People Get Ready: The Curtis Mayfield Story

Disc 1
1	Gypsy Woman / The Impressions 2:21
2	It's All Right / The Impressions 2:49
3	I'm So Proud / The Impressions 2:50
4	Keep on Pushing / The Impressions 2:33
5	Amen / The Impressions 3:29
6	People Get Ready / The Impressions 2:38
7	Woman's Got Soul / The Impressions 2:18
8	We're a Winner / The Impressions 2:24
9	I Loved and I Lost / The Impressions 3:16
10	Fool for You / The Impressions 2:54
11	This Is My Country / The Impressions 2:49
12	Choice of Colors / The Impressions 3:18
13	The Makings of You / The Impressions 3:44
14	(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go 7:51
15	Move on Up 8:54
16	We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue 6:03
17	Check out Your Mind / The Impressions 3:53
18	Mighty Mighty (Spade and Whitey) / The Impressions 6:58
19	Stone Junkie 7:47
Disc 2
1	Beautiful Brother of Mine 7:28
2	Get Down 5:48
3	We Got to Have Peace 4:46
4	Freddie's Dead 5:28
5	Superfly 3:55
6	Give Me Your Love 4:18
7	Pusherman 5:03
8	Future Shock 3:38
9	If I Were Only a Child Again 2:55
10	Can't Say Nothin' 3:38
11	Kung Fu 3:51
12	Sweet Exorcist 3:52
13	To Be Invisible 4:11
14	Mother's Son 6:06
15	Billy Jack 6:08
16	So in Love 5:12
Disc 3
1	Only You Babe 4:22
2	Party Night 3:49
3	Mr. Welfare Man 5:36
4	Show Me Love 3:47
5	Do Do Wap Is Strong in Here 5:31
6	You Are, You Are 3:40
7	Do It All Night 3:41
8	You're So Good to Me 3:38
9	Between You Baby and Me 4:44
10	Love's Sweet Sensation 3:51
11	Love Me, Love Me Now 4:51
12	Tripping Out 3:53
13	She Don't Let Nobody (But Me) 3:56
14	Baby It's You 3:34
15	Homeless 7:33
16	Do Be Down 4:09

Barnes & Noble

PEOPLE GET READY accomplishes a too-rare feat for box sets: It leaves you a sense that history is unfolding before your ears. A true godfather of soul, Curtis Mayfield was also one of the most articulate social critics to grace the music world, and this three-CD set traces his development as one of R&B's most distinct voices. Disc one tracks Mayfield's journey from the Impressions' inspirational R&B classics ("It's All Right" and the gorgeous "People Get Ready") to more politicized and soulful emancipation proclamations, like "This Is My Country" and "Choice of Colors." Mayfield went solo in 1970, and while the funk got heavier, he continued to address race issues with evocative meditations like "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue." Disc two finds Mayfield focusing largely on ghetto life with prime cuts from his landmark SUPERFLY, a funkadelic soundtrack that burned up the charts. It closes with "Billy Jack," an epic slow jam that withholds its bluesy horns in a kind of musical foreplay. The third disc flags a bit, thanks to a brief Mayfield disco derailment, but it continues to show off his social-realist eye with "Mr. Welfare Man" and "Homeless." PEOPLE GET READY won't let you forget that Mayfield, currently paralyzed after a tragic stage accident, had the musical chops to match his lyrical ones. Filled with dirty, chunky grooves that gave Mayfield space to use his fabulous falsetto, his wah-wah pedal, and brilliant horn charts, this set will move you -- mind, body, and soul. Seth Kaufman

All Music Guide

The focus of this three-CD, 51-song production is on Curtis Mayfield's solo work; much of the first disc is devoted to his most popular work with the Impressions, but the remainder of the compilation surveys his solo output from 1970 to 1990. The Impressions tracks are uniformly excellent, but the Mayfield-only cuts are more problematic. The best of these -- the Superfly highlights, of course, and early-'70s singles like "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go" and "Beautiful Brother of Mine" -- are as good as anything he ever did. But even in the early '70s, he was erratic. Some of the post-Superfly stuff is OK; this period takes up half of disc two and all of disc three. Mayfield never lost his vocal abilities or his production skills; after the late '70s his material got into dance music and romantic urban contemporary. For a Mayfield retrospective, most will be better off with MCA's two-disc Anthology 1961-1977, which goes into the Impressions period with much greater depth and includes the cream of his '70s solo recordings. Richie Unterberger