Ruth Copeland is a folksinger born in Durham, England, so the first album is some Soul/FolkRock, and the second album is much more heavier with Eddie Hazel's bleading guitar solos, and even some soulful gospel rock and two Stones covers, so this is indeed a rock album, but both the albums is something that I don't wanna live without, and now you got the chance to listen to these beauties, so when Ruth is from England you got a lot of English feels on these albums, and the Funkadelic is playing so marvellous on these albums, and this girl could both write great song and sing them, on the first album you got another great version of The Silent Boatman the song that even was
recorded with the Parliament on their marvellous Osmium album on Invictus to in 1971.
[color=red][b]Self Portrait 1971 LP Invictus 7303[/b][/color]
01 - Prologue: Child Of The North (4:59) (Copeland)
02 - Thanks For The Birthday Card (5:05) (Copeland)
03 - Your Love Been So Good To Me (3:21) (Copeland-Ross-Clinton)
04 - The Music Box (3:40) (Copeland-Wayne-Dunbar)
05 - The Silent Boatman (6:19) (Copeland)
06 - To William In The Night (3:22) (Copeland-Alawander-Wayne-Dunbar)
07 - No Commitment (4:04) (Copeland)
08 - I Got A Thing For You Daddy (2:58) (Copeland-Hazel-Clinton)
09 - A Gift Of Me (1:57) (Copeland-Wayne-Dunbar)
Ruth Copeland - Acc Guitar, Vocals, Background Vocals
Eddie Hazel - Lead Guitar
Tawn Ross - Rhythm Guitar
Bernie Worrell - Keyboards
Billy Bass Nelson - Bass
Tiki Fulwood - Drums
[color=red][b]I Am What I Am 1971 LP Invictus[/b][/color]
10 - The Medal (6:44) (Copeland-Baldwin)
11 - Crying Has Made Me Stronger (5:22) (Copeland-Clinton)
12 - Hare Krishna (3:18) (Copeland)
13 - Suburban Family Lament (3:47) (Copeland-Hazel)
14 - Play With Fire (7:32) (Jagger-Richards)
15 - Don't You Wish You Had (What You Had When You Had It) (4:45) (Copeland-Clinton)
16 - Gimme Shelter (8:03) (Jagger-Richards)
Ruth Copeland - Vocals, Background Vocals
Eddie Hazel - Lead Guitar
Ron Bykowski - Guitar
Ray Monette - Guitar
Bernie Worrell - Keyboards
Billy Bass Nelson - Bass
Dawn Hatcher - Bass
Tiki Fulwood - Drums
Both albums has the credit the producing to Ruth Copeland, but I think that her husband Jeffery Bowen
should at least have some co-producer credit, but he has still his Mowtown contract.
[color=green][b]Review on Self Portrait by Andrew Hamilton[/b][/color]
One of the poorest albums that George Clinton was ever involved with. Ruth Copeland couldn't decide whether she was a pop, folk, funk, or a soul singer. She was closer to folk than anything, but her weak voice even had trouble putting across material in that genre. Her songs bordered on the esoteric-absurd. Opinions differ, but some favorite tunes are Gift of Me, done a capella; Your Love Been So Good to Me, a rocker accented by Eddie Hazel's acid lead guitar; and I Got a Thing for You Daddy, the closest thing to the Parliarment/Funkadelic sound here. The Music Box as a single release isn't bad, it's just boring, but others like Thanks for the Birthday Card, William in the Night (ugh), and Bel Di (One Fine Day) will have you scratching your head and possibly breaking this record.
[color=green][b]Review on I Am What I Am by Jason Ankeny[/b][/color]
Ruth Copeland's second Invictus recording retains the services of Funkadelic vets Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell, Tiki Fulwood, and Ron Bykowski, but like the preceding Self-Portrait, I Am What I Am simply fails to jell. Without the leadership and focus of George Clinton, the music zigs and zags in too many opposing directions. Credit Copeland for ambition, the opening antiwar epic The Medal recalls the politicized psychedelic soul of Norman Whitfield-era Temptations classics like Cloud Nine and Ball of Confusion, while Crying Has Made Me Stronger shifts gears completely to embrace gospel, but her reach consistently exceeds her grasp. When I Am What I Am does come together, it's impressively heady stuff. Particularly noteworthy is the deep-fried funk outing Suburban Family Lament, which showcases Hazel's scorching guitar as well as Fulwood's much-sampled and monstrous introductory drum break.
[color=green][b]Biography by Amy Hanson[/b][/color]
A blues folksinger born in Durham, England, Ruth Copeland first came to attention after marrying Jeffrey Bowen, a staff producer at Motown. When Bowen followed songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland over to their own Invictus label in 1970, Copeland was one of his first signings as she joined the fledgling vocal group New Play to become the label's first white performer.
Collaborating with Edith Wayne and future P-Funk producer Ron Dunbar, Copeland wrote Music Box, New Play's debut single, and the second ever Invictus release. However, the group broke up soon after its release and Copeland began planning for a solo career. She also struck up an unlikely partnership with George Clinton and became a massively influential force on Parliament's debut album, 1971's Osmium. Not only did she co-produce the sessions, she also wrote what remain two of the most bizarre (and decidedly unfunky) songs in that band's entire repertoire, the haunting Little Old Country Boy and The Silent Boatman. Two further songs, Come In Out of the Rain (co-written with Clinton) and Breakdown (with Clinton and Clyde Wilson) appeared as Parliament singles in 1971 and 1972.
Copeland's partnership with Clinton naturally flowed into her solo career. Viewed today as a virtual twin of Osmium, her Self Portrait debut featured contributions from Eddie Hazel, Lucius Ross, Bernie Worrell, Billy Bass Nelson, Tiki Fulwood, and Clinton himself, while the co-writes included a new version of the epic The Silent Boatman.
Late 1971 brought the release of Copeland's second album, I Am What I Am, recorded with many of the same musicians as its predecessor, only now they were her own band. In an odd twist, Hazell, Worrell, Fulwood, and Nelson had all quit Parliament/Funkadelic, but remained together to back Copeland, first in the studio and then on tour as she promoted the album. The tour was a success; the shows were solid and the audiences receptive. Unfortunately, Copeland quickly found herself in an uncomfortable position. Touring as support to Sly Stone, she took to introducing her band as Funkadelic, much to the headliner's annoyance. The last straw came when she allowed the band to take one of her encores. Stone insisted she either leave the tour or lose the band. She lost the band.
Following her solo success in 1971 and 1972, Copeland faded from the spotlight. She would re-emerge briefly in 1976 with her third album, Take Me to Baltimore, but it did little and she once more retreated into shadow.
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