People…Hold On was
Eddie Kendricks’ second solo album; released in May 1972, it is a strikingly
assured piece of work and is generally regarded as the first true disco record.
The reason you don’t know anything more about it is in part due to Motown’s
typically ham-fisted approach to its own back catalogue – a “limited edition”
CD reissue (presumably limited to about thirty copies, all purchased by
middle-aged men named Spike who subsidise their record collecting with the proceeds
from drug-dealing) appeared in 2016 to no fanfare whatsoever. I suspect that
this situation would not have come about if the album had been recorded by,
say, David Bowie or Rod Stewart - let alone the lavish repackaging of records by even the most minor of eighties pop stars.
The inherent racism of the music industry and music
consumers aside, the record’s acclaim ensured that Kendricks got the best solo
start of any ex-Temptation. “Keep On Truckin’,” the first single from his
fourth album, Boogie Down!, easily
made number one in late 1973, and the title track nearly pulled off a double
for him.
Even more concentrated on mood and groove than “Truckin’,” “Boogie
Down” makes no concessions to any outside audience – you have to feel it even before listening to it,
although really you should be dancing to it. Best experienced in its
full-length album version, arrangers Leonard Caston Jr, Frank Wilson and David van de Pitte have a ball playing cat and mouse with strings, rhythm, voices and
perspective. Like the best disco, the record could theoretically go on forever,
and it gives us a preview of perhaps the biggest overhaul of pop since the fifties
later that same year. Welcome to the newness of 1974 – and check out Eddie’s
lucky shades of green in the Soul Train
performance below.
Date Record Made
Number Two: 9 March 1974
Number Of Weeks At
Number Two: 2
Record At Number One: “Seasons
In The Sun” by Terry Jacks
UK Chart Position: 39
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