''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. Dubbed the " Gentle Genius", he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious Afric ...

, released in 1975 on

Curtom Records Curtom Records was a record label founded by Curtis Mayfield and Eddie Thomas in March 1968 as an independently distributed music label. It was located at 8541 South Stony Island Boulevard. The name of the label came from a hybrid of the names "C ...

. It peaked at number 120 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, as well as number 13 on the Soul LPs 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) was an American documentary photography, documentary photographer and photojournalist. She was known as an architectural and commercial photographer for the first half of her career, ...

, 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, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' 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 criti ...

''. In 2013, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' 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 Phillip Upchurch (born July 19, 1941) is an American soul music, R&B, 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 Mayfiel ...

– 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 James Bateman (September 21, 1935 – September 14, 2009), known professionally as Henry Gibson, was an American actor, comedian and poet. He played roles in the television sketch-comedy series ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1968 to 1971, w ...

– 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 a number of Grammy Award nominations for his work on album covers and won a Grammy for Best Al ...

– 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 mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

) 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. It is a radio station for young people, currently broadcasting as an online-only radio station. A few of the prominent features ...

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