Shining Star Index

The Seventies Soul Dharma in eight Earth, Wind & Fire songs

I’ve written about eight Earth, Wind & Fire songs to reveal the elements they bear of what I call the Seventies Soul Dharma (which extends backward before the Seventies and forward into the future, and includes a lot of music that you won’t find in the “Soul” section of the record store.) Some of the beauty and endurance of this music owes to the Buddhist (but not only Buddhist) precepts and messages encoded in these songs. Our listening takes us to a range of other artists, including James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, the Manhattans, Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Curtis Mayfield, War, Donny Hathaway, Joseph Sanza and Étienne Ngbozo, Konono No. 1, Ted Taylor, Kendrick Lamar, Slum Village, Jean and Doug Carn, Amiri Baraka, Joe McPhee, and more.

Artwork inside Earth, Wind & Fire’s album All ‘N All (1977)

Here are links to each of the individual pieces in “Shining Star: The Seventies Soul Dharma in eight Earth, Wind & Fire Songs”

1. “Shining Star” part 1

2. “Shining Star” part 2

3. “Keep Your Head to the Sky”

4. “Moment of Truth” and “Fan the Fire”

5. “Kalimba Story” (live)

6. “Be Ever Wonderful”

7. “Let’s Groove”

8. “That’s the Way of the World”

This is the first part of a planned long-form/too-long-form project on the Seventies Soul Dharma entitled Keep Your Head to the Sky. The second part is entitled “The Lotus Flower”. Watch this space for more!