Give Me My Mule

Sound Experience — "40 Acres And A Mule" (1971)

For a couple of years in my early teens, my enthusiastic answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was invariably “Archaeologist!”

Digging through the dirt of exotic locales for artifacts from vanished civilizations sounded like the coolest thing in the world to me, and I loved the idea of piecing together various clues and shards to gain a greater understanding of both the item you found and the era that produced it.

While I never achieved that particular goal — in part because I was warned off by a very prominent Egyptologist who advised, “Kid, get rich first, and then become an archaeologist” — it recently occurred to me that digging through a crate of old 45s totally scratches that old archaeological itch. The search for sweet wax requires patience, the willingness to get your hands dirty, and the ability to recognize important clues. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, it’s like the past is speaking directly to you via your excavations.

I had never heard of Sound Experience — a 10-piece funk band from Baltimore — until a couple of weeks ago. I would have pulled “40 Acres And A Mule” out of the bin just for its eye-popping label (and that great Philly Soulville logo) alone. But since said label also referenced Philadelphia’s legendary Sigma Sound studios, Delfonics producer Stan Watson and (despite the unfortunate “Sigles” misspelling) Philly soul great Bunny Sigler, I was fully convinced that I’d unearthed some sweet early 70s soul gold.

The single turned out to be golden, all right, but not at all in the way I was expecting. Instead of the blissfully smooth and sophisticated sounds that typically emerged from Sigma Sound (think MFSB, Lou Rawls, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, and the aforementioned Delfonics), both sides of the record are raw, bluesy, Detroit-style funk that sound closer to something off the first Funkadelic album. And while both Sigler and his “40 Acres” co-writer Phil Hurtt are well-known today for penning upbeat and positive songs — Sigler would later write the lovely “Sunshine” for the O’Jays and have a decent hit of his own with “Keep Smilin’,” while Hurtt had co-written “I’ll Be There” for The Spinners and would soon team up again with Sigler for Jackie Moore’s lovestruck “Sweet Charlie Babe” — “40 Acres And A Mule” is one serious slab of bummer-funk.

The lyrics of “40 Acres” are sparse, but clearly inspired by the compensation initially promised by the U.S. government to freed slaves in the waning days of the Civil War — a promise that was quickly rescinded by the loathsome President Andrew Johnson. “Whatever happened to the land you promised me?” Sound Experience asks, 106 years after Johnson decreed that the majority of captured Southern property should be returned to its white former owners. “Whatever happened to the mule?”

The horn section swings like crazy, and Sound Experience trumpet man Melvin Miles, Jr. (who also arranged the track) lets loose with a truly ripping solo right before the vocal breakdown. But this is no party; rather, this is an unapologetic (and deeply funky) demand for justice long denied, one which hits just as hard over 50 years after its release.

Despite the whiff of psychedelia in its title, the instrumental flip side “Blow Your Mind” is less about opening your third eye than bashing it in with a crowbar. The guitars and drums dig a down n’ dirty groove, those incredible Sound Experience horns come in again over the top, and the lead guitarist takes center stage with a fuzz solo that I can only describe as “dyspeptic”. Seriously, that guitar sounds like it’s just had spicy BBQ and malt liquor for dinner and a call from a bill collector for dessert…

Though “40 Acres and a Mule” was very much in tune with the socially conscious sentiments that were coursing through Black music in the early 1970s, it was ultimately way too gritty and confrontational to catch on with AM radio listeners of the day. The November 13, 1971 issue of Billboard spotlighted the song as a worthy candidate for their Soul Singles Chart, but the magazine never mentioned it again; “40 Acres” seems to have gotten some decent local airplay, but I’m guessing that few people outside the City of Brotherly Love ever got a chance to hear it.

Despite the single’s lack of success, Stan Watson would eventually bring Sound Experience back to Philly Soulville to record their 1974 album Don’t Fight It. But by then, their sound had changed to something much smoother and mainstream-oriented —think early Commodores meets early Kool & The Gang; and while the album does contain a few solid cuts, it’s not exactly a great lost funk classic.

“40 Acres And A Mule” definitely fits that description, however; in fact, I’m kind of amazed to see how little it currently goes for on Discogs, given its power, intensity and relative rarity. Maybe the single isn’t sought-after enough to be worthy of a display in the Museum of Funk, but digging it up sure made me feel like a funky Howard Carter for a day.

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