TRACKLIST
A1 Breakin' Bread 4:20
A2 I Wanna Get Down 3:14
A3 Little Boy Black 3:54
A4 Rice 'N' Ribs 4:05
B1 Rockin' Funky Watergate 5:16
B2 Makin' Love 3:36
B3 Funky Music Is My Style 5:24
B4 Step Child 6:43
DESCRIPTION
COMES BUNDLED WITH A 5-COLOR, 22x 22 POSTER OF THE COVER ART!
So many times we refuse to go back and break bread with our parents, relatives and old friends... Times are tough, the
economy is rough, everybodys tryin to make a dollar. Sometimes you get away from yourself. Wont you go back and
break bread, while we still have some to break?
So implored James Brown, Fred Wesley and even album engineer Bob Both, on the back cover liners of the 1974 soul
classic Breakin Bread. Times were indeed tough for everyday folks in the waning days of the Nixon era. Escape-ism was
needed. Humanity sometimes seemed to be in short supply.
But James Brown and his assembled People Records roster were always there to take soul music fans away from their
everyday trials and tribulations, even while occasionally funking up negative situations (for instance, Rockin Funky
Watergate, one of the centerpieces of this album). The heavy grooves laid down by trombonist and bandleader Fred
Wesley, saxophonist and arranger St. Clair Pinckney and Freds assembled New J.B.s were, almost literally, comfort for
the ears.
1974 saw a vortex of superfunk coming out of James Browns People Records stable, and this platter wasnt even the only
J.B.s album that year (see also: Damn Right, I Am Somebody, also reissued by Get On Down). But it is one that added to
the powerful musical and social legacy of that crew. Its an air-tight, eight course meal, with most platters clocking in at
four delicious minutes each.
Breakin Bread is a truly memorable funk stew, with warm, call-and-response vocals, complicated-but-laidback soul,
and an important message – alluded to in the back cover plea. I Wanna Get Down, Rice N Ribs and Funky Music Is
My Style all feature intricate, infectious grooves. In fact, there isnt much time to catch your breath on Breakin Bread,
and thats a beautiful thing.
Reissued on LP with a sumptuous, five-color, 22 x 22 poster of the cover art, all wrapped in a Stoughton Tip-On jacket
and thick polybag, there is never a bad time to revisit this classic (maybe replacing your worn-out original copy). Or, just
as importantly, let it blow your mind for the first time.