Philly R&B legend Ron Aikens returns to the stage for the first time in three decades.
Last Thursday at World Café Live, a miracle occurred. The skies opened, and with it came the soft, heavenly voice of Ron Aikens – the legendary vocalist for Philly’s sweetly toned soul band, United Image, and the even more renowned Graterford Prison R&B ensemble Power of Attorney.
If you don’t know all of Aikens’ personal sound of Philadelphia story – how a Philly band such as United Iage got signed to a Memphis label (Stax/Volt) with the benefit of a Motown song (1971 single “Love’s Creeping Up On Me / I’ll Keep Coming Back”), how his life went off track, was sentenced to prison in 1972, and made the most of a bad situation by singing with Power of Attorney and their signing to the Polydor label, check here…
For our purposes, and the purpose of fans awaiting Aikens’ return, Aikens’ story started over last week’s at World Café Live with his new band, Ron & The Hip Tones, a newly released single with local poet Ursula Rucker and Max Ochester’s Brewerytown Records’ People,’ and the promise of his first-ever solo album before 2023’s close.
Decked out in a red and white satin outfit and a matching red chapeau, a jovial Aikens greeted the packed house like old friends – many of which were, filled as World Café Live was with one-time band members and funky musical associates. “Oh my God,” were his first words on a stage in nearly 30 years.
Backed by a nine-piece ensemble whose deep, hollowed-out grooves, slicking rhythm guitars, and swirling organ sounds were reminiscent of Al Green and Willie Mitchell at their Hi! label peak, Aikens was at the top of his game.
Featuring cooly complex songs written by Hip Tones’ guitarists Doug O’Donnell (“Leave a Man Behind”), Dave Cope and all-star Philly drummer Fred Berman (the rest of the night’s original tracks), Aikens moved through the night’s air like a cloud, talking about his brand of music (“message songs”), and crooning atop the achingly beautiful melodies of songs such as “Life is a Love Song” and “Shame.”
While the flutey funk and rolling congas of “People” sounded like something Bobby Womack recorded for Across 110th Street, Aikens brought up the topic of current looting to introduce the hard-punching R&B of “Cold Wind” and its need for showing love over strife. After the slinky blues lament of “Tears on My Chin” and the simmering “Leave a Man Behind” (the latter complete with its “La La La La La Means I Love You” vamp), Aikens insisted on being “taken back to the good times because I’ve had enough of the bad” with the roaring “Take Me Back” and the aggressively grooving barnstormer – and crowd favorite – “Criminal” with its rousing up-front chorus, “I could be Jesus, I could be Buddha, I could cure cancer but I’m nothing to you.”
Pleas of redemption, of forgiveness, of love of his fellow man and woman in the past and the present – “This is all part of my comeback story,” said Aikens toward set’s end.
Images: A.D. Amorosi
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