Time: 32:15
Size: 73.9 MB
Styles: R&B
Year: 2000
Art: Front
[3:01] 1. I Do Love You
[2:35] 2. Fat Boy
[2:20] 3. Reap What You Sow
[3:19] 4. Sitting In The Park
[2:54] 5. Love Me
[2:06] 6. Strange Feeling
[3:00] 7. Secret Love
[3:00] 8. Cross My Heart
[2:53] 9. Every Day I Have The Blues
[2:50] 10. Tell Me The Truth
[4:13] 11. Summertime
Billy Stewart was an utterly singular vocal magician who belongs to a long ago era, when an enormously gifted black man could astonish listeners by writing and recording something so utterly disarming as "Fat Boy" (Bo Diddley, another unreconstructed genius, discovered Billy and obviously had a hand in the song's production). Billy Stewart could dazzle with that voice of his, but his deepest and truest music speaks to the fat boy in each of us, somehow empowering anyone whose heart ached, or who was "different", or felt unworthy of love. What makes "Sitting In the Park" such a heavenly experience is that shimmering waterfall of a bridge, when the long suffering narrator's "Why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh whys?..." mark a revelatory moment of frustrated longing, after which he decides not to sit on that park bench yet again, waiting for his beloved - who may or may not show up. Just as the fat boy needs and finds love, "Park's" narrator eventually realizes he doesn't deserve abuse or indifference, and walks away. "I Do Love You" sweeps the listener into the ecstatic intensity of Billy's boundless love, a vocal reverie that swells with joy, with the Chess session stalwarts - especially Leonard Caston's piano - creating a soundscape of stunning beauty for Billy's exquisite vocal performance, in which he finally seems to dispense with mere words altogether.
Billy Stewart was a man's man, a couragious artist whose fearless vulnerability, honesty, and sense of just how raw and squirmingly alive we all are underlies his gift, for we're elevated by how he applies that astonishing voice to songs and themes that resonate now. Billy Stewart, fat, diabetic, a vocal virtuoso, revelled in ecstasy, and embraced love yet refused to let pain and heartache define him as a victim. Sure, "Summertime" is a knockout, a musical and vocal tour de force, especially in this long version, but one is impressed more by technique than passion. That makes it exciting, and a pleasure to hear - but thankfully an exception; technique rarely trumps content in Stewart's work. The deeper secrets are revealed elsewhere, which leads me to regret that this is such a scrawny volume to represent such a big artist. And if you care about decent sound, this 2000 remaster is the only game in town. But be forwarned, "Millennium" offers 11 songs in 32 minutes, short by even vinyl standards. Why so skimpy? If you want more you have to buy the drab sounding 1990 comp, which has twice as much music. Billy Stewart really deserves a career spanning retrospective, with the sort of warm, detailed, full sound unthinkable during the early digital era (1990). ~J.P. Ryan
Billy Stewart was a man's man, a couragious artist whose fearless vulnerability, honesty, and sense of just how raw and squirmingly alive we all are underlies his gift, for we're elevated by how he applies that astonishing voice to songs and themes that resonate now. Billy Stewart, fat, diabetic, a vocal virtuoso, revelled in ecstasy, and embraced love yet refused to let pain and heartache define him as a victim. Sure, "Summertime" is a knockout, a musical and vocal tour de force, especially in this long version, but one is impressed more by technique than passion. That makes it exciting, and a pleasure to hear - but thankfully an exception; technique rarely trumps content in Stewart's work. The deeper secrets are revealed elsewhere, which leads me to regret that this is such a scrawny volume to represent such a big artist. And if you care about decent sound, this 2000 remaster is the only game in town. But be forwarned, "Millennium" offers 11 songs in 32 minutes, short by even vinyl standards. Why so skimpy? If you want more you have to buy the drab sounding 1990 comp, which has twice as much music. Billy Stewart really deserves a career spanning retrospective, with the sort of warm, detailed, full sound unthinkable during the early digital era (1990). ~J.P. Ryan
The Best Of Billy Stewart