UPDATE -BILLY GRIFFIN – NEW CD – “LIKE WATER” (The Extended Version)
Billy
UPDATE -BILLY GRIFFIN – NEW CD – “LIKE WATER” (The Extended Version)
UPDATE: “Like Water”, The Extended Version
This fall RNB Entertainment is releasing….
“Like Water”, The Extended Version
With two brand new songs added to the original lineup!!!
Many folks will ask “Why are you releasing an extended version of this CD?”
It’s an effective way to combat “Music Piracy” in the new Millenium!Yes Piracy,
it’s more prevalent than ever before…from Paris to South Africa…China and Brazil.
The former European distributor of “Like Water” is selling Billy Griffin CDs along with countless other Classic R&B artists to smaller “Pirate Distributors” throughout the world. These Pirate distributors then in turn charge anywhere from $45 to $108 on internet sites gouging the original price of $12 to $15.
So we are re-releasing this CD with new distribution partners, new packaging and adding 2 brand new songs in order to best circumvent this “out of control” price gouging. Thus making the original release obsolete.
In closing, we are promising you (our international family)…..that we intend to keep our music @ $12 to $15 per CD.
SONGS
Like Water
All The Way To Love
Livin’ De Ja Vu
Oxygen
Weak
Be Unto Me A Lady
Oblivion
It’s Bad Karma
Joy And Happiness
Sincerity
Like Water (reprise)
2 NEW SONGS:
It Takes A Little Time
If You Really Loved M
Check out Billy’s Official website for more details:
http://www.officialbillygriffin.com
CD Review: Billy Griffin – “Like Water”
|
When it comes to Billy Griffin, I am extremely biased (so I may as well tell you that up front). In my opinion, he is one of the most underrated and under recognized artists in the history of Soul music. Here are some of the facts that you need to know about Billy Griffin: Motown “Don’t Let It End (‘Til You Let It Begin)” (1973) R&B: #26 US: #56 “Give Me Just Another Day” (1973) R&B: #47 US: #111 “Do It Baby” (1974) R&B: #4 US: #13 “Don’t Cha Love It” (1974) R&B: #4 US: #78 “Gemini” (1975) R&B: #43 US: #101 “Love Machine – Pt. I” (1975) R&B: #5 US: #1 UK: #3 “Night Life” (1976) R&B: #60 Columbia “Spy for Brotherhood” (1977) R&B: #37 US: #104 “I Can Touch the Sky” (1977) “Mean Machine” (1978) R&B: #55 How many other artists do you know of who sang lead on ten charting hits that get as little respect as… “Mr. oh I can’t remember his name but he is the guy who took smokey robinson’s place”…
Well now history and popular sentiment have the opportunity to make a long overdue correction with the release of Billy’s awesome new album called “LIKE WATER“. If all was right with the world (and music industry politics) Billy Griffin is a name that should never have left our consciousness. By all rights, after the commercial demise of the Miracles in the late 70’s Billy should have by all rights been one of the top “soul men” of the 1980’s right along with names like Luther, Teddy, Peabo and the rest of his peers. Oh that’s not to say he didn’t have solo success with hits like “Hold Me Tighter in the Rain”, but it wasn’t enough for him to remain in the public consciousness and after a while he simply became… “Mr. oh I can’t remember his name but he is the guy who took smokey robinson’s place”…
One of the things that we understand as we get older is that everything happens for a reason and somewhere there is in fact a “master plan” etched in stone for all of us. Maybe in Billy Griffin’s “master plan” it says that “in 2006 he is supposed to pick up where artists like Luther, Teddy, Peabo, etc. left off and become the guy who resurrects from the dead, the whole tradition of “Black Male Solo Singers”. On the album “Like Water”, Billy Griffin does exactly that! Those fans that are only superficially familiar with Billy’s group work with the Miracles are going to be in for a pleasant surprise. Here are two facts about Billy Griffin that most people have forgotten: 1) Billy did one of the first concept albums at Motown (“Love Machine”) and 2) Billy Griffin was a protégé of Marvin Gaye, who in fact was the producer of the song “I Love You Secretly”, which just happens to be one of the most romantic songs ever laid down on wax. (From the Miracles legendary “Renaissance” LP). Once you remember those two facts, “Like Water” makes all of the sense in the world. It’s a “concept album”, with a thread that runs through all of the songs. The album is designed to be listened through without interruption. Check out the track listing for “Like Water”: Like Water All The Way to Love Forgive Me If You Can Livin Déjà vu Oxygen Weak Be Unto Me Lady Oblivion It’s Bad Karma Joy and Happiness Sincerity Like Water Now go back and read those titles again, only this time in your mind take all of the titles and put them together into a single statement and you can clearly see (without even hearing the music) as you move from song to song, that a cohesive story is being told in this album and that the songs are intended to be listened to as an entire suite of music. “The whole is more than the sum of it’s parts” The idea of telling a whole story being told in an album is not a new concept in Black music. Billy’s mentor, Marvin Gaye was a master at it and here on the album “Like Water”, Billy Griffin demonstrates that he took his lessons well. In fact I can’t remember listening to an album quite like this in a long time. As I sat here and tried to separate the songs on the album to try and figure out which ones I liked best, I am unable to really do it. There are several songs that are great and could easily become “instant classics” (“Like Water”, “Forgive Me if You Can, “Like Water”, “Oblivion”) but honestly in my opinion it almost does a disservice to the album to separate these songs from each other. So what’s the bottom line here, whose gonna dig this album? 1. If you were a fan of Marvin Gaye’s romantic/concept albums, then you will be a fan of “Like Water” 2. If you were a fan of the R&B Sounds of artists like Luther, Teddy, Peabo, then you will be a fan of “Like Water” 3. If you are young lady who longs to be swept off her feet by an album of “romantic intelligence”, then you will be a fan of “Like Water” 4. If you are a brotha on the make, it’s a Friday night and you will be entertaining a young lady that your “just not sure of yet”, then “Like Water” may just be what you need to “tilt the odds in your favor” And if you should suddenly discover yourself in the position on a Saturday morning, that the odds were “tilted in your favor” on a Friday night by “Like Water”…. Be sure to log on to your computer and send Billy Griffin an email to thank him, since he wrote the lyrics and crafted the story that just “got you over” the night before… And be sure that while you are thanking him; tell him thanks also for creating one of the best albums of the decade (so far)
–Bob Davis |
