Song of the Day 5/3: Curtis Mayfield, “Blue Monday People”

Curtis Mayfield’s 1975 LP “There’s No Place Like America Today” seems to get more attention for its pointed cover image (slightly altered from a 1937 Margaret Bourke-White photo) than its content, which a lot of critics think is uneven, and some thought even worse; Robert Christgau gave it a D+, calling it “noodling” and “incoherent.” It only reached No. 120 on the Billboard album chart, a steep decline from three years earlier, when “Superfly” hit No. 1.

It’s easier to see the reaction in retrospect — Mayfield had traded the fluid soul/funk blend of “Superfly” for a wah-wah-soaked slow jam groove, enhanced on tracks like “So In Love” and “Billy Jack” by smooth but punchy horns. Only a couple of songs follow through clearly on the political message of the cover.

For all the album’s supposed faults, critics somehow failed to notice it contains some of Mayfield’s most beautiful music. “Blue Monday People” is my favorite — I like the way, after two verses and choruses, it breaks into a bridge straight out of the choir loft. Incoherent? I can’t tell you what Mayfield is saying line by line, but I know what he means.

“So In Love” was the LP’s single, but inexplicably stalled at No. 67 on the Hot 100 and only made No. 9 on the R&B chart. Maybe it was too languid even for those Barry White-loving times.

Mayfield did have a hit in 1975, though he didn’t sing it — the Staple Singers reached No. 1 on the R&B chart with the title track from Mayfield’s soundtrack for the Sidney Poitier/Bill Cosby vehicle, “Let’s Do It Again,” a follow-up to that pair’s hit film “Uptown Saturday Night.”