The O’Jays – For The Love Of Money

23rd June 2021 · 1970s, 1973, Funk, Music, Soul

The O’Jays exchanged smooth soul for fat funk when they recorded For The Love Of Money at Philly’s Sigma Sound Studios.

When I think of Philly Soul I think of sweet soul ballads surrounded by lush orchestrations. When I think of The O’Jays I think chiefly of tight vocal harmonies and synchronised dance moves in white suits. This tune is neither of those things.

It’s all about the fat funk groove, built around Anthony Jackson’s booming bassline – and all about studio trickery.

Jackson, who also co-wrote those lyrics with Philadelphia’s premier songwriting duo Gamble & Huff, played his Fender Precision bass through a wah-wah pedal, but it’s then run through a phaser to give it that whooshing sound.

Joe Tarsia, the engineer at Sigma Sound Studio, had just installed a new Eventide phaser in his control room and was eager to try it out when The O’Jays came in to record, selecting Jackson’s bassline for the job. In a final inspired move, he added echo to the opening bars of the song, making the bass resonate even more. Gamble, the song’s producer, loved it.

In another piece of studio trickery, he faded the group’s vocal harmonies in and out as if two of the trio were in another room with someone opening and closing the door, using a “reverse echo” effect so that the echo actually precedes the vocal – an effect that Jimmy Page also adopted on Whole Lotta Love.

In fact the song’s entire production is unusual, with the bass and vocals to the fore; a sax and a trumpet play subdued solos surprisingly deep down in the mix, but nothing is allowed to interfere too much with the impassioned lead vocal and that irrepressible bassline.

For The Love Of Money didn’t do so well commercially but that’s hardly a surprise for a seven-minute song, and one with a very different sound to the smooth harmonies of The O’Jays’ previous hits. Its message, about money being the root of all evil, was informed not just by the sudden wealth accumulated by Gamble & Huff as a result of their many hits, but by Gamble’s recent conversion to Islam.

It was released at the end of 1973, only a year after they had given serious consideration to packing it all in after 15 years without a major hit. Having formed back in 1958 at high school in Canton, two of their original members (Bill Isles and Bobby Massey) left the group, leaving only Eddie Levert, William Powell and Walter Williams.

Their fortunes were transformed when songwriters and producers Gamble and Huff signed the remaining trio to their label Philadelphia International and their run of hits began with Backstabbers and Love Train.

And, demonstrating what good eggs they are, The O’Jays having profited nicely from For The Love Of Money being used as the theme music of Trump-hosted TV show The Apprentice – despite its lyrics clearly sending a message that money is “the root of all evil” – Eddie Levert later denounced Trump when he used their song Love Train at the Republican convention during his election campaign in 2016.