Shirley Murdock . Husband by capitainfunkk

Yes the questions posed in the title to this post may sound absurd to some, but go with me for a second… the other night for no apparent reason I pulled up this track from Shirley’s second release for Elektra 1988′s A Woman’s Point of View and after listening a few things immediately sprung to mind:

1. The keyboard wizadry of Billy Beck of Ohio Players fame is all over this track, he is a co-writer of not only “Husband” but “As We Lay” from Shirley’s 1986 eponymous outing. But whereas “As We Lay” was more theatrical and somewhat traditional in its construction, “Husband” was something all together different for that time period. “Husband” was another in the lineage of the synthesis of sanctified and secular music. If you think about the music that was contemporary to “Husband” in the secular music world it didn’t sound anything like this production. The intro to “Husband” was so good it feels like someone straight up just lifted it for SWV’s “Weak” which would appear four years later. (more…)