Listen: Everybody Plays The Fool / The Main Ingredient MainIngEverybody.mp3

I think there were some redeeming moments out of many seemingly formula soul acts, I guess you’d call them, in the early 70′s. They appeared pretty faceless to me then: The Chi-lites, The Dramatics, New Birth. I was very put off by the decade’s version of 60′s Motown fashion, by then having evolved into leisure suits of questionable pastel colors. On further investigation, there were some great singles in there.

I overlooked the image straight away when it came to The Main Ingredient. I mean the sleeves to their albums were almost psychedelic, some designs resembling Hypnosis. I doubt it was intentional, but those albums helped plant the acid jazz seed that years later dj’s like Giles Peterson and and labels such as Talkin’ Loud would coin.

‘Everybody Plays The Fool’ got and, still deservingly, gets heard. I never switch it off.