''There's No Place Like America Today'' is the seventh studio album by

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

, released in 1975 on

Curtom Records Curtom Records was a record label started in 1968 by Curtis Mayfield and Impressions manager Eddie Thomas. The label's name was a combination of Mayfield's first name and Thomas' last name. Mayfield had previously made attempts at a record lab ...

. It peaked at number 120 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, as well as number 13 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

chart.

Album cover

The album cover was based on a 1937 monochrome photograph by

Margaret Bourke-White Margaret Bourke-White (; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971), an American list of photographers, photographer and documentary photography, documentary photographer, became arguably best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take p ...

, titled ''At the Time of the Louisville Flood'', on which the advertising slogan was "There's No Way Like the American Way". The original photograph was published in the February 15, 1937 edition of ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' magazine.

Critical reception

The album was featured in ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

''. In 2013, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' placed it at number 373 on the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. *

– vocals, guitar, keyboards, production * Rich Tufo – keyboards, arrangement * Gary Thompson – guitar *

Phil Upchurch Philip Upchurch (born July 19, 1941) is an American jazz and blues guitarist and bassist. Career Upchurch started his career working with the Kool Gents, the Dells, and the Spaniels, before going on to work with Curtis Mayfield, Otis Rush, and ...

– guitar *

Joseph "Lucky" Scott Joseph "Lucky" Scott was an American bassist, and musical director. He is most recognized for his work with Curtis Mayfield, in particular the '' Super Fly'' album. While Lucky was predominantly the bassist and musical director for Curtis Mayf ...

– bass guitar * Quinton Joseph – drums *

Henry Gibson Henry Gibson (born James Bateman; September 21, 1935 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor and poet. His best-known roles include his time as a cast member of the TV sketch-comedy series ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1968 to 19 ...

– percussion * Harold Dessent - woodwinds * Roger Anfinsen – engineering *

Ed Thrasher Edward Lee Thrasher Jr. (March 7, 1932 – August 5, 2006), known as Ed Thrasher, was an American art director and photographer. He was the recipient of numerous Grammy Award nominations for his work on album covers and won a Grammy for Best Album ...

– art direction * Peter Palombi – illustration * Lockart – design * Marv Stuart – management

Charts

References

External links

*
''There's No Place Like America Today''
(

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...

) at

Radio3Net Radio 3 net is the former ''Radio România Tineret'' (or Radio 3). More than 20,000 albums are stored on Radio 3 net. A few of the prominent features available on the website are "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Mus ...

(streamed copy where licensed) 1975 albums Curtis Mayfield albums Albums produced by Curtis Mayfield Curtom Records albums {{1970s-R&B-album-stub