Search - Various Artists :: Eccentric Soul: Young Disciples

Good intentions but not-so-good songs

Andre M. | Mt. Pleasant, SC United States | 03/02/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In the late 60s and early 70s, the Young Disciples organization (not to be confused with the infamous street gang of the Midwest that Prince shouted-out in "Sign of the Times") was formed as a musical collective to keep kids in the ghetto of East St. Louis, Illinois off of the streets. Noble idea. Unfortunately, these resulting recordings are simply not that good. Much of it is simply crude, low-budget, poorly recorded and often poorly -played amateurish jug band funk (as a would-be R&B critic friend of mine used to say) that sounds like bad outtakes from a cross between the Mod Squaud Soundtrack and the Banana Splits.



However, as poorly played and mediocre as much of this stuff is, some tunes are interesting at best. The Georgettes had some promising harmonies and Ames Harris' "People" is a lyrically interesting litany of ghetto life that predates Grand Mater Flash's "The Message" by about a dozen years. Sharon Clark would have made an excellent vocalist with the proper songs and production. "Country Loving-Country Style" is a mildly amusing funky blues. That aside, there is not much to recommend this, aside from the good it did in keeping these kids involved in a constructive alternative to street life (as the original rappers tried to do a decade later) and it's nice to know that the Young Disciples hold fond memories of this experience and hold occasional reunions."