Listening today to the The Lost Generation’s “The Sly, Slick, And the Wicked,” it struck me how similar the bass line is to Lee Fields’ “Love Comes And Goes.”  The Lost Generation were a short-lived Chicago vocal group who had this one awesomely-named hit at the beginning of the 70s. It was the title track of their debut album and the standout; many of the other songs were covers of other vocal groups, like the Delfonics and the Moments.  The album’s title was cool enough that several groups then named themselves Sly, Slick, and Wicked (and one of those groups recorded “Sho’ Nuff,” which recently provided the soul sample for Justin Timberlake’s hit “Suit And Tie”).

Lee Fields included his song “Love Comes And Goes” on his 2009 album, My World, which signaled his transformation from a James Brown styled shouter to a much smoother, shimmering type of soul man. The bass is easier to hear in the more recent recording, but during the verses, both songs follow the bass through an exaggerated series of circles, as it moves back and forth indecisively over the same series of steps. When I saw Fields play live, the bass player was amazing.