The 500 - #318 - Back Stabbers - The O'Jays

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 318

Album Title: Back Stabbers

Artist: The O'Jays

Genre: Funk, Philadelphia Soul, R&B

Recorded: Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, USA

Released: August, 1972

My age at release: 7

How familiar was I with it before this week: 1 Song

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Love Train

I was born in 1965, which makes me a member of Generation X (1965 - 1979) and a "kid of the seventies". However, neither label really captures my identity. Technically, I am on two cusps -- born halfway through the 60s and just a year shy of "technically" being a Baby Boomer. I am old enough to remember the Vietnam War, Nixon's impeachment and the OPEC oil embargo. I am also young enough to have experienced video arcades, New Wave music and the Sony Walkman before I was a teenager.

As a "kid of the seventies" (ages 4 - 13) I was too young to have any agency during the tumultuous decade. Consequently, I was more a witness than a participant in the events of "The Me Generation" and I happily enjoyed my front-row seat. I embraced it all, from Jaws to Star Wars, The Bay City Rollers to Sex Pistols, Charlie's Angels to Mork & Mindy. I was a sponge for everything pop-culture. I even read the novelization of Saturday Night Fever because I was too young to get into the biggest film of 1977 and I needed to understand the main character, Tony Manero, better.

This week's record, Back Stabbers, by The O'Jays captures the curiously alien energy that surrounded me in the mid-seventies. It feels like the soundtrack to a world that I thought I was growing into. At 11, I sincerely expected to be wearing a white disco suit by the time I was an adult...and by adult, I meant 19.

The O'Jays (1972 line-up)
(l-r)  Walter Williams, William Powell, Eddie Levert

Back Stabbers is the fifth studio release by the soul, R&B, funk collective known as The O'Jays, formed in Canton, Ohio, in 1958 when they were still attending McKinley High School. Initially, they were a five-piece, doo-wop group dubbed The Mascots and, later, The Triumphs.

The Mascots (1959)

Another name change came in 1963 as a tribute to popular Cleveland disc-jockey, Eddie O'Jay, who had tirelessly promoted the band's earliest recordings. By the time of this recording, the group  comprised three members, Walter Williams, William Powell and Eddie Levert. They had relocated to Philadelphia under the guidance of legendary songwriters and producers, Gamble & Huff (Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff).

(l-r) Gamble and Huff

The trio became part of the PhillySound or Philadelphia Soul, a genre of the late 60s and early 70s characterized by funk influences and rich instrumental arrangements which included sweeping strings and piercing horns.

The Sound of Philadelphia

There are two tracks on this record that stand in magnificent juxtaposition, while perfectly capturing the "swinging vibes" of the pre-AIDS seventies. The title track, Back Stabbers, is a cautionary tale. The speaker warns the listener to be wary of friends, and even neighbours, who are out to steal their "lady".

Somebody's out to get your lady
A few of your buddies, they sure look shady
The blades are long, clenched tight in their fists
Aimin' straight at your back
And I don't think they'll miss

A few tracks later is the song Listen To The Clock On The Wall. This time the speaker is an unfaithful husband who is wooing the wife of another with this soulful entreaty:

We don't have much time
To blow each other's minds
Girl, you better hurry
Your husband might get worried
And my wife, she doesn't see
The change in me

I was simply delighted by the prospect that both songs were from the perspective of the same speaker. Simultaneously worried about losing his wife while also sneaking around behind her back with another man's lady. The whole record is a delightful listen and, if you are of my vintage, a trip down nostalgia boulevard, white polyester disco suit and all.