Ship Ahoy (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Ship Ahoy
Type = studio
Artist = The O'Jays


Released = Start date|1973
Recorded =
Genre = Rhythm and blues, Philadelphia soul
Length =
Label = Philadelphia International Records
Producer = Thom Bell
Gamble & Huff
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:09fwxqe5ld0e~T1 link]
*PopMatters (favorable) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/o/ojays-ship.shtml link]
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/318134/review/6068231/shipahoy link]
Last album = "Back Stabbers"
(1972)
This album = "Ship Ahoy"
(1973)
Next album = "Family Reunion"
(1975)

"Ship Ahoy" is a rhythm and blues album by Philadelphia soul group The O'Jays, released in 1973 on Philadelphia International Records. The album was a critical and commercial success, reaching #1 on Billboard's "Black Albums" chart and #11 on the "Pop Albums" chart and launching two hit singles, "For the Love of Money" and "Put Your Hands Together." Conceived as a theme album built around the title track, "Ship Ahoy" includes socially relevant tracks and love songs under a cover that is itself notable for its serious subject matter. The album, which achieved platinum certification in 1992, has been reissued multiply, including in a 2003 edition with a bonus track.

ongs and music

The songs on "Ship Ahoy" balance the romantic with the politically and socially conscious.allmusic|id=10:09fwxqe5ld0e~T1|label=Ship Ahoy] In its review of the 2003 re-issue, "Rolling Stone" noted that the album's "main achievement was proving that it was indeed possible to be thoughtful and articulate without losing your funk."Lechner, Ernesto. (May 21 2003) [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/318134/review/6068231/shipahoy Ship Ahoy: The O'Jays] "Rolling Stone". Retrieved 2008-08-18.]

The album's lead single was "Put Your Hands Together," a song urging cooperation and optimistic prayer for "a better day to come." [Gamble, Kenneth and Leon Huff. (1973) " [http://www.mtv.com/lyrics/ojays/put_your_hands_together/1621791/lyrics.jhtml Put Your Hands Together] ". Lyrics hosted with permission at MTV. Retrieved 2008-08-18.] Rickey Vincent, author of "Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One", describes the song as "fairly standard musically", "with a strong gospel feel." [citebook | last=Vincent | first=Rickey | title = Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xS9dwaa_gSgC&pg=PA134&dq=%22Put+Your+Hands+together%22+O%27Jays&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U3KZV60LjeC3V6Q1JBoJHQd7wyPMw#PPA135,M1 | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1996 | page = 134 | ISBN = 0312134991] The second single, "For the Love of Money," is a protest against materialism with a groove that "Rolling Stone" described as "downright orgiastic". The song was written around a bass line composed by Anthony Jackson, which in 2005 "Bass Player Magazine" described as "landmark."Jisi, Chris. (September 1 2005) "The O'Jays' 'For the Love of Money'" "Bass Player Magazine". [http://www.mywire.com/pubs/BassPlayer/2005/09/01/1581322?extID=10051 Excerpt] at Mywire. Retrieved 2008-08-18.] "Bass Player" went on to note that the song has "become one of the most recycled singles ever, sampled continually by rappers, and appearing on over 75 compilation CDs, numerous movie soundtracks, and, most recently, the theme for TV's "The Apprentice"."

The album's title song, "Ship Ahoy," was built around the theme of African captives being transported in a slave ship as part of the Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. It had originally been penned by Gamble and Huff for inclusion in the soundtrack to "Shaft in Africa", but the producers decided instead to give it to the O'Jays as part of a concept album centered around slavery.cite book | last = Jackson | first=John A. | title= A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=AXfvmkm-BzEC&pg=PA133&dq=%22Ship+Ahoy%22+%22O%27Jays%22&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U0UooxPHDB5FZMG_xqGY8DYFVKRZA#PPA133,M1 | publisher = Oxford University Press US | year = 2004 | ISBN = 0195149726 | page = 133] The song brought in the sounds of waves and cracking whips to add immediacy to lyrics which, according to PopMatters, personalized "the 'voyage' in ways that few black popular artifacts had previously done so—some three years before the publication of Alex Haley's "". The book "A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America" notes that unlike the seminal work by Haley, "Ship Ahoy" is a hopeless, ominous song that offers "no sense that things are going to work out fine." [citebook|last=Werner | first = Craig Hansen | title = A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=TRnEdRBTih4C&pg=PA202&dq=%22Ship+Ahoy%22+%22O%27Jays%22&lr=&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U0hdfNpwK_7aahCgSXhDx43PIH69Q#PPA202,M1 | publisher = University of Michigan Press | year = 2006 | page = 201-202 | ISBN = 0472031473] In its 1974 review of the album, "The New York Times" characterized the song as "dark and occasionally spine-chilling." [Palmer, Robert. (January 6 1974. "The sound that sells a million; Pop" "The New York Tims". ARTS AND LEISURE, Page 126.] In 1993, "The Miami Herald" called it "a dark, atmospheric, frightening masterpiece that'll send a shiver up your spine." [Pitts, Jr. Leonard. (July 17 1993) "So joyous, so angry, so O'Jay" "The Miami Herald". Page 1G.]

In 1995, "The Los Angeles Times" dubbed "Ship Ahoy", along with the song "Don't Call Me Brother" as among " [t] he cream of the vocal trio's angry music." [Hunt, Dennis. (April 14 1995) "The Vaults/CD Re-issues" "Los Angeles Times". Section Calendar; Part-F; Entertainment Desk. Page 14.] "Don't Call Me Brother" is a nearly nine-minute long album track that protests hypocritical claims of racial unity from backstabbers.allmusic|id=33:hjfrxvygldte|label=Don't call Me Brother]

=Cover

The cover of the album depicted the band in a slave hold with illustrations of slaves. In its review, PopMatters commented that the use by producers Gamble and Huff of this imagery demonstrated not only their freedom as the heads of Philadelphia International Records, but also "how seriously the duo viewed popular music as a vehicle to 'teach and preach'." According to "The Greatest Album Covers of All Time", the production of such politically conscious imagery from a band known for its popular music "was enough to make even the most myopic of white music fans take note that something was changing."citebook|last=Miles |first=Barry |coauthors= Grant Scott and Johnny Morgan|title=The Greatest Album Covers of All Time | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2ASyOEK3bDAC&pg=PA123&dq=%22Ship+Ahoy%22+%22O%27Jays%22&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U0Q_dBefOtarS0KdMG9xaIHp_elaA#PPA123,M1 | publisher= Sterling Publishing Company, Inc | date = 2005 | page = 123 | ISBN = 1843403013] Illustrator James Barkley was otherwise better known for illustrating children's books and a postage stamp—a 1972 image of Mount McKinley, Alaska—along with commercial design and other nature paintings. [Smithsonian National Postal Museum. [http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/artofthestamp/subpage%20table%20images/artwork/Artist%20Bios/jamesbarkley.htm James Barkley] Art of the Stamp. Retrieved 2008-08-18.]

Reception

"Ship Ahoy" reached #1 on Billboard's "Black Albums" chart and #11 on the "Pop Albums" chart and contained two hit singles, "For the Love of Money" (#3 "Black Singles", #9 "Pop Singles") and "Put Your Hands Together" (#2 "Black Singles", #10 "Pop Singles"). [allmusic|id=10:09fwxqe5ld0e~T3|label=Ship Ahoy Billboard] The album certified "Gold" by the RIAA on January 21 1974 and "Platinum" on August 11 1992. [ [http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinum.php RIAA Searchable database] . Retrieved 2008-08-18.]

In addition to its commercial success, the album was critically well-received. In a 1974 review, "The New York Times" described it as " [a] fine recent album" representing producers "Gamble and Huff at their creative best". [Riley, Clayton. (March 31 1974) "The Philly Sound of Brotherly Love; Pop." "The New York Times'. Section: AL, Page 34.] Allmusic describes the album in its review as " [t] he "other" O'Jays album masterpiece", with "shattering message tracks and stunning love songs".

Releases

The album has been multiply reissued by Philadelphia International was well as Epic Records, Legacy Records, Columbia Records, Sony Records and Sis Records. In 2003, it was re-released by Sony and EpicNeal, Mark Anthony. (May 9 2003) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/o/ojays-ship.shtml The O'Jays Ship Ahoy] PopMatters. Retrieved 2008-08-18.] with a bonus track, a live version of "Put Your Hands Together" recorded in London in 1974. [allmusic|id=10:azfrxqyaldse|label=Ship Ahoy (Bonus Track)]

Track listing

#"Put Your Hands Together" (Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff) – 4:06
#"Ship Ahoy" (Gamble, Huff) – 9:39
#"This Air I Breathe" (Gamble, Bunny Sigler) – 3:52
#"You Got Your Hooks in Me" (Sigler) – 5:34
#"For the Love of Money" (Gamble, Huff, Anthony Jackson) – 7:19
#"Now That We Found Love" (Gamble, Sigler) – 4:51
#"Don't Call Me Brother" (Gamble, Sigler) – 8:57
#"People Keep Tellin' Me" (Victor Carstarpehn, Gene McFadden, John Whitehead) – 3:54

Personnel

Performance

*Thom Bell – strings
*Leon Huff – keyboards
*Anthony Jackson – bass
*Eddie Levert – vocals
*MFSB – musician
*William Powell – vocals
*The Sound of Philadelphia – musician
*Walter Williams – vocals

Production

*James Barkley – illustrations
*Thom Bell – record producer
*Steven Berkowitz – A&R
*Kenny Gamble – producer, surround mix
*Norman Harris – arranger
*Leon Huff – producer, surround mix
*Don Hunstein – photography
*Ed Lee – art direction
*Bobby Martin – arranger
*Lenny Pakula – arranger
*Joseph M. Palmaccio – mastering
*Darcy Proper – mastering
*Al Quaglieri – remix producer
*Leo Sacks – reissue producer
*Joe Tarsia – engineer

References

External links

* [http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/ojays/albums.jhtml?albumId=307339 Audio samples] , hosted with permission at MTV.