Earth, Wind & Fire – “Serpentine Fire”

"Serpentine Fire" (Maurice White, Verdine White & Reginald "Sonny" Burke) Copyright 1977 SBK April Music Inc/Free Delivery Music

Many bands would be running out of ideas by their 8th album, but not Earth, Wind &Fire – many consider All ‘n All to be their best record.  Freshly inspired by the varied sounds & rhythms of South America, Maurice White brought his genre-blending compositions to new heights on this 1977 album, as evidenced by the opening track, “Serpentine Fire”, which White himself described as Earth Wind & Fire’s “most ambitious single”.

“Serpentine Fire” (Maurice White, Verdine White & Reginald “Sonny” Burke) Copyright 1977 SBK April Music Inc/Free Delivery Music

TRANSCRIPT:

Sing a song and keep your head to the sky, ‘cause you’re all shining stars. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, one of many fine shows on the Pantheon Podcast Network, and I’m your host, Brad Page.  Each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs and we dig into it together, looking and listening for all those magic moments, the little things that turn a good song into a great one. Don’t worry if you’re not a musician or musical expert, you don’t need to be. We’re just going to tune our ears into the arrangements, the performances and the production that make it a great song.

This episode we’re listening to one of the biggest, most successful acts in history. Call ‘em R&B, call ‘em funk, call ‘em Afro pop, jazz, soul…. any way you look at it, this band has an incredible catalog of music and a bunch of huge hits. We’re going to explore one of those hits right now: This is Earth, Wind And Fire with “Serpentine Fire”.

This is our second visit with Earth Wind And Fire. We covered the song “Shining Star” back on Episode 56– check that one out if you haven’t heard it yet. It’s one of my favorites.  So let’s recap just a little of Earth Wind and Fire’s history here.

Maurice White was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1941. For a while he played with Booker T in Memphis before he moved to Chicago to live with his mother and stepfather. He attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music, played drums around the scene, and worked as a session drummer at Chess Studios, where he played with many of the greats: Etta James, Chuck Berry, Junior Wells, Muddy Waters, just to name a few.

In 1969, he formed the Salty Peppers with Wade Flemings and Don Whitehead. Eventually he moved to LA and changed the name of the band to Earth Wind and Fire, based on his astrological sign. In 1970, his brother Verdine White joined the band as their bass player. Earth Wind and Fire released their first self-titled album in 1971. Their second album, “The Need of Love”, came out the same year, and a third album, “Last Days And Time”, was issued in 1972. That was the first album with vocalist Philip Bailey, who would share vocals with Maurice White and become a critical factor in the band.

“Head To The Sky” came out in 1973, and “Open Our Eyes”, their fifth album, in 1974. This album features “Mighty Mighty”, which was kind of their first big crossover hit.

In 1975, they released “That’s The Way of the World”, their 6th album. It was also the soundtrack to the film That’s The Way of the World, and the band appears in the movie. “Shining Star” is from this album, and it would become their first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. See our previously-mentioned Episode 56 for more details.

The title cut was also issued as a single.

Maurice White was a musical visionary, but he was more than that, too. He envisioned bringing people together spiritually through his music. He viewed their next album, the album that would become “Spirit”, as their most important album so far. He was also interested in showing a different vision of black masculinity than what you typically got from celebrities. He wanted to present the band as “sons of a royal and noble Africa”.

The album cover featured the band all dressed in white, eyes closed in meditative poses with three large white pyramids behind them. This was the first of many album covers that would feature eastern and Egyptian imagery.

He wanted to awaken spirituality among his audience. Not so much religion, but spirituality. His goal was to share his interests– mysticism, Buddhism, Egyptology. As Maurice said, “Our vibe was definitely afro-centric, but not a separatist one. It was about community, the family of man.”

Sadly, as they were working on the “Spirit” album, they lost a key member of their family. Charles Stepney had worked closely with the band on their last few albums as producer, arranger and contributing songwriter. He died on May 17, 1976 from a heart attack. He was 45 years old. He was a close friend of Maurice White and the whole band, really. The album would be in many ways a tribute to Stepney. “Spirit”, their 7th studio album was released in September 1976.

After the success of the “Spirit” album and the massive tour that followed, by now, Earth Wind and Fire were putting on an amazing stage show and they were a huge concert draw. But Maurice White was exhausted. He needed a break. He took the first vacation of his life, spending two months touring South America. He visited drum schools in Brazil and absorbed the sounds and rhythms of the various cultures. When he returned home, he brought these fresh ideas to the next Earth Wind and Fire album, which would be called “All In All”, their 8th album of all new material.

Now, you would think at that pace, eight albums plus a live album, all within six years, that they would have run out of steam. But many people consider “All In All” to be their best album.

“Serpentine Fire” is the song that opens the album, and what a way to kick it off. It was written by Maurice White, Verdine White and Reginald Sonny Burke. It was produced by Maurice White.

\Maurice has described the song as “profoundly odd, an idiosyncratic mixture of African music, tango and gospel blues, with an abstract lyric about Kundalini energy.” Kundalini is a form of divine feminine energy located at the base of the spine. When awakened, it leads to spiritual liberation. Kundalini is a Sanskrit word meaning “coiled, or coiled like a snake”.

Maurice White says “Serpentine Fire” is Earth Wind and Fire’s most ambitious single because it’s so musically abstract. The song begins with an intro played by the bass, keyboards and percussion, with the horns joining in after the first four measures. You can already hear that Latin feel in the percussion.

Let’s go back and listen to the keyboards because it’s a very dense mix. A lot going on. Sometimes it’s hard to pick out the individual parts. There are at least two keyboard parts, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the right has a phasing effect on it. From there, it’s going to break out into a supremely funky track.

Let’s break that down a bit. Like all good funk songs, at the heart of the groove is the bass guitar. Adding to this syncopation is both the percussion and the horn parts. So let’s listen to those.

Little further down in the mix are the keyboard parts.

And there is one guitar part in the left channel. Let’s hear all of that together again. Now for the first verse.

Let’s check out the vocals. This is Maurice White with an occasional harmony by Philip Bailey. The vocals are doubled with a decent amount of reverb on them.

Let’s continue with the rest of that verse. This is the chorus where Philip Bailey takes over. Philip was renowned for his falsetto, and the way it contrasted and complemented Maurice White’s vocals is one of the most magical things about Earth Wind and Fire.

At the end of the chorus is a short section where they bring in the gospel influence. You can see how they’re blending all kinds of elements together.

That brings us back to the main riff. I love that vocal bit at the end there.

We’l pick it back up for the next verse.

That groove is so great. I want to hear just a little of the bass, the horns and the percussion. We’ll keep a little of the guitar in there, too.

I want to hear more of Maurice White’s vocal track.

And I’d like to hear just the vocals on that part, too.

There’s kind of a big finish there this time around. They could have ended the song right there, but just when you think it’s done, they kick back in.

Notice how there’s tuned percussion.

And that brings us to the last chorus. The guitars and keyboards are going to make their way forward a bit in the mix here at the end. The guitars are still difficult to make out, but there are two guitar parts in there. That’s pretty crazy, right? And of course, there are still the two keyboard parts. And of course, that killer bass guitar part that I just got to hear it by itself one more time.

All right, let’s go back to the final mix. We get another round of the chorus vocals, then the horns take over as the song fades out.

“Serpentine Fire” by Earth Wind and Fire. The “All In All” album was released in November 1977. The album cover featured artwork by Shusei Nagaoka. Shusei didn’t speak English, and Maurice didn’t speak Japanese, but they met and Maurice was able to articulate his ideas by showing him books on Egyptian art and UFO’s. Nagaoka sketched out some ideas and a relationship was forged that would result in a whole string of album covers for Earth Wind and Fire. Nagaoka created a bunch of other album covers for ELO, Jefferson Starship, and Deep Purple, but my favorites of his are the covers he did for Earth Wind and Fire.

Thanks for being a part of this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. You can find all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for us in your favorite podcast app.  We’ll be back in about two weeks with another new episode. Until then, check out some of the other great podcasts on the Pantheon Podcast Network.

It’d be great if you left a review wherever you listen to the show, and if you’d like to contact us, you can find us on Facebook, or send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.

If you’d like to support the show, the best thing you can do is to tell a friend about it, because your recommendation really does mean a lot. As always, remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. And thanks for listening to this episode on Earth wind and Fire with “Serpentine Fire”.

Earth Wind & Fire – “Shining Star”

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Earth Wind & Fire - "Shining Star" (Maurice White, Philip Bailey and Larry Dunn) Copyright 1975 (Renewed 2003) EMI April Music Inc.

Earth, Wind & Fire’s 6th album, That’s The Way of The World, was ostensibly a soundtrack album; when the film bombed, the album was on the verge of fading away, too– until “Shining Star” was released as a single and it became their first (and surprisingly only) #1 Top 10 Hit. The whole band is on fire here; beneath the pop sheen is the heaviest of funk grooves, with particularly tasty guitar & bass work. Let’s climb inside this funk machine & see what it took to create this stellar track.

Earth Wind & Fire – “Shining Star” (Maurice White, Philip Bailey and Larry Dunn) Copyright 1975 (Renewed 2003) EMI April Music Inc. 

TRANSCRIPT:

There are only twelve notes in Western music. A total of only twelve potential notes in virtually every song you’ve ever heard. Less than that, really, because the combination of some notes just don’t work together. The combinations are not infinite. And yet, there are millions of songs out there, each with their own unique listening experience. A song is more than just the individual notes that go into it. This is the I’m in Love with that Song podcast, where we explore a different song each episode to discover what makes it tick beyond just the notes. What goes into making a song great? So let’s listen to one of my favorite songs, “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind & Fire.

I’m your host, Brad Page, and we are all musical explorers here. I try not to use words like “dissect” or “analyze” for what we do on this podcast because, well, that’s just too clinical. What we’re doing here is some in-depth listening, trying to get inside of a song and focus on the moments and the performances that make a song really work. This time, we’re listening to one of the great funk tracks of all time, “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Maurice White started Earth, Wind & Fire in Chicago in 1969. Their sound combined jazz, Latin rhythms, and African beats built on a foundation of solid funk: bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, an incredibly tight horn section, and the contrasting vocals of Maurice White and Philip Bailey. What a band! Earth, Wind & Fire signed to Warner Brothers Records and released their first album in 1971. That same year, they worked with Melvin Van Peebles to create the soundtrack to Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, a classic movie and the first of the so-called blaxploitation films.

In March of 1975, Earth, Wind & Fire released album number six, That’s the Way of the World. And it’s a soundtrack album, too. Sig Shore, the director of the classic film Super Fly, was working on a new film about a band trying to make it in the cutthroat music business. The movie starred Harvey Keitel as a record producer, and Earth, Wind & Fire not only created the music for the film, they were cast in the movie as the band known only as “The Group.” The movie, called That’s the Way of the World, was a flop, but the soundtrack album by Earth, Wind & Fire was a hit, featuring three classic Earth, Wind & Fire songs: “That’s the Way of the World”, “Reasons”, and “Shining Star”.

The track features Verdine White on bass, Fred White on drums, Al McKay and Johnny Graham on guitars, Larry Dunn on keyboards, and Andrew Woolfolk, George Bohanon, and Oscar Brashear on horns. Maurice White and Philip Bailey trade off on the lead vocals. The song was produced by Maurice White and Charles Stepney. Stepney was a pretty important producer in the ’70s; he worked with everyone from Minnie Riperton and Ramsey Lewis to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and I think he’s pretty important to the sound of these early Earth, Wind & Fire albums.

“Shining Star” was written by Maurice White, Philip Bailey, and Larry Dunn. Maurice had the initial idea for the song while they were recording at the Caribou Ranch studios in Colorado. Outside at night in the Rocky Mountains with that huge sky overhead, he was inspired by all those shining stars. The first rough demos of the song sounded like this:

[Audio Clip]

That’s a pretty cool groove, but once the guitars, the horns, and the percussion come together, then the track really takes off. Let’s start with the intro.

[Audio Clip]

One of the things I love about funk is the interaction between instruments—the interplay. You can take a bunch of instruments and have them play different parts that may not seem like much on their own, but when you weave them together, you get these amazing grooves and rhythms. The way the instruments intertwine and bounce off of each other. This intro is a great example. You’ve got one guitar playing this:

[Audio Clip]

While a second guitar plays this:

[Audio Clip]

The effect on that guitar is a phase shifter. Then, after two measures, the bass comes in.

[Audio Clip]

Put that together, and you get this:

[Audio Clip]

When they hit that groove, I am all in. Let’s go back and listen to the two guitar parts here, too. Here’s guitar number one, laying down the rhythm with a classic funk guitar chord:

[Audio Clip]

Guitar number two is playing single notes, bobbing and weaving around the rhythm laid down by guitar one.

[Audio Clip]

Now let’s listen to those two parts together.

[Audio Clip]

Man, I love this stuff. Let’s go back and listen to all the parts together with the whole band rocking. You know, I’m going to say something here that some of you probably just aren’t going to get, and that’s okay, but hear me out: when the whole band comes in, horns and all, and they hit that groove, I think this is just as heavy as any metal band. It’s a different kind of heavy, I guess, but that thick, heavy funk hits just as hard.

[Audio Clip]

Maurice White sings the first part of the verse.

[Audio Clip]

Let’s listen to Verdine White’s bass part there.

[Audio Clip]

Now Philip Bailey takes over the vocals.

[Audio Clip]

Now we’ve reached the chorus, and there are some shifts in the arrangement. The guitars, which were up front during the verses, move to the back, and the keyboards come forward. The horns shift from playing short stabs to more fluid, longer notes.

[Audio Clip]

Let’s break down the chorus. Here’s what the horns are playing:

[Audio Clip]

The vocals are doubled and recorded in stereo.

[Audio Clip]

I think that part is all Maurice White. Then, Philip Bailey lays down a harmony vocal on top, also doubled and in stereo.

[Audio Clip]

Here are both parts together.

[Audio Clip]

After the chorus, they play that jazzy section that was part of the original demo. Then, there’s a hot little guitar solo.

[Audio Clip]

Let’s check out that guitar solo.

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There’s that pause for dramatic effect, and then they hit us hard with another verse. Again, Maurice and Philip share the vocals.

[Audio Clip]

There’s a cool little guitar lick here.

[Audio Clip]

And let’s spend a little time with the bass as it heads into the chorus.

[Audio Clip]

The music drops out at the end, leaving the vocals almost by themselves. The first two passes have a lot of reverb on them, but the final chorus is completely dry. It’s a stark contrast.

[Audio Clip]

“Shining Star”, Earth, Wind & Fire. Maurice White was the heart and soul of Earth, Wind & Fire. He grew up in Memphis and played with Booker T. for a while. He moved to Chicago and spent some time as a session drummer at Chess Records. Maurice was also a deeply spiritual man. Earth, Wind & Fire’s albums are rich with mysticism and spirituality; it’s right there in the band’s name. When he sings “You’re a shining star, no matter who you are, shining bright to see what you could truly be,” he means it. His lyrics aren’t just platitudes; he really believed in them, and he wanted to inspire you.

Maurice suffered from Parkinson’s disease in his later years. He died in his sleep on February 4, 2016. He was 74. But his music continues to inspire me. Thanks for checking out this episode, and I hope you’ll join us again here on the I’m in Love with that Song podcast. As always, if you’d like to leave feedback, we really do appreciate it. You can find us on Facebook—just search for the I’m in Love with that Song podcast—or tweet at us @popstafftweets. And we love it when you leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever it is you listen to the show. I will be back again in two weeks with another episode. Until then, I hope you find some inspiration in “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind & Fire.