Charles Stepney - "That's The Way of the World" // original demo of Earth, Wind & Fire classic OUT TODAY
Photo by Rubie Stepney
That’s the Way of the World
Today, we are immensely honored to release the latest lead single off Step on Step, the forthcoming double LP collection of home recordings by the late and under-sung legend Charles Stepney, out September 9th.
Today’s single is a pristine, uncut 4-track demo version of “That’s The Way of the World,” encapsulating an iconic piece of music history. The final studio version of this song, co-written by Stepney and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice and Verdine White, and arranged by Stepney for the EWF album and film of the same name, would become one of the biggest recordings ever released by the band, eventually being included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.
This recording of “That’s The Way of the World” offers an unprecedented look into Stepney’s creative process and helps us understand what EWF lead singer Philip Bailey meant when he said in 2001: “The success of Earth Wind & Fire, and all our great songs that we made in that era, would not, could not, and wouldn’t have been made without Charles Stepney. He was very much an equal part, or more, than all of us put together.”
The digital cover art for today’s “That’s The Way of The World” is an old family photo of Stepney’s youngest daughter Chanté (who was just a toddler when her father passed away in 1976), in a high chair at their family home on the Southside of Chicago.
About the photo, Chanté says: “People often ask if I’m sad that I don’t remember him, and while I wish I could recall more, my family has done an amazing job with giving me a full understanding of who he was as a man, father, musician, etc… I’m told wonderful stories of how he would prepare my breakfast and put me in the high chair to eat. A couple years ago, Shirley Wahls told me that the lyrics to “That’s the Way of the World” were partially inspired by my birth… Everyone thought it was pretty cool that Charles and Rubie were having a BABY at their age!”
A Chicago born and bred arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Charles Stepney is known for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, and as a staff producer for Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many more. In the decades since his passing, the presence of his name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly underappreciated figure… a genius relegated to the shadows.
The forthcomiing Step on Step, Stepney’s de-facto debut album that releases almost 50 years after his passing, features 23 tracks, most of which are original compositions by Stepney that were never again recorded by him or any other artist. It also features prototypical, seedling-style demos of Stepney compositions for Earth, Wind & Fire, including today's “That’s The Way of The World,” “Imagination,” and “On Your Face,” as well as the original version of “Black Gold,” which would eventually be recorded by Rotary Connection (as “I Am The Black Gold of The Sun").
Tyler The Creator Digs Stepney
The album’s announcement and lead singles “Step on Step,” “Daddy’s Diddies,” and “Look B4U Leap” have brought on excitement from many longtime fans of Stepney’s work, including most recently Tyler, The Creator, who played “Daddy’s Diddies” on Louise Chen’s NTS Radio show as he bantered: “Charles Stepney…Genius!”
The Stepney Sisters
All of the otherwise unrecorded, previously unnamed original compositions contained on Step on Step were given their titles by Stepney’s daughters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté Stepney (aka The Stepney Sisters) whose voices are also heard throughout the album, telling stories and sharing memories about their father. The Stepney Sisters, who produced this album over many years, have long been engaged in efforts to celebrate their father’s legacy and bring his work into brighter light. They’ve cherished the tape reels left behind by their father in the basement of their home, transferring the audio on multiple occasions, and originally compiling the recordings for an ultra-limited CD on their own DIY label (The Charles Stepney Masters) in the early 2010s. “We always talk about how we were trying to develop this and would go to different people and they would go ‘what is this raw stuff…’ It was just the first level of something that became something really great,” says Chanté. “To get this type of intimate look into an artist’s process is really unknown and unheard of… so I just really appreciate the opportunity to give this. I am very happy for my Dad that we’re able to share this with the world in this way, with this amount of respect.”
This new double LP collection presents “a genuine, beautiful, deeply emotional and personal effort by three women to reconnect with their father and validate their own memories of his passion and brilliance,” says IARC co-founder Scottie McNiece. And it’s a long-overdue fulfillment of Stepney’s unsatiated plan to release a solo album – which he once vowed to his daughters that he would do, and that he would name it: “Step on Step.”
Summer of Stepney
In celebration of Step on Step, The Stepney Sisters and International Anthem are hosting a series of events across Chicago this summer. Dubbed the “Summer of Stepney,” these events will extend through September and include performances by a new large ensemble – Rotary Connection 222 – under the musical direction of International Anthem recording artist Junius Paul. Rotary Connection 222 was created by Paul in collaboration with the Stepney Sisters, and in its current state features Makaya McCraven (drums), Jackson Shepard (guitar), Alexis Lombre (keys), Meagan McNeal (vocals), and Stepney’s granddaughter Brandice Manuel (vocals), with new arrangements written by De’Sean Jones and Jeff Parker.
Summer of Stepney highlights will include a series of documentary webisodes created by filmmaker Brian Ashby (Scrappers, The Area, Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists), performances, in-stores, live streams, interviews, and an August 18th show called Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows on Chicago’s grandest public performance stage, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park
Summer of Stepney Hits Dusty Groove
Chicago, July 23rd
The next Summer of Stepney event is a day party at iconic Chicago record store Dusty Groove on Saturday July 23rd, featuring DJ sets by writer Ronnie Reese, and more guests TBA. Stay up on the event via the FB page here.
For more information about Charles Stepney, Rotary Connection 222, Summer of Stepney events, and the Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows performance at Millennium Park, visit www.summerofstepney.com
*Deluxe Vinyl Package*
Certified Gold color vinyl
Step on Step comes on two 140-gram vinyl LPs (pressed by Pallas in Germany and Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a reverse-board gatefold jacket, with IARC obi strip and dome-patterned inner-sleeves.
And, as always, we have a limited edition color vinyl option for the first pressing only, available via our Bandcamp page only, which is 555 copies of *Certified Gold* color vinyl.
Distribution via RedEye for US, Canada, North & South America
This album will also be available on CD, Cassette, and Classic Black Vinyl (same package specs as listed above).
Retailers in the United States or Canada or anywhere else inside of North, South and Central America... Please reach out to your sales rep at RedEye Worldwide if you are interested in making wholesale purchases of this album, or any other album in our catalog. Don't yet have a RedEye rep? Please just reach out to us and we'll get you hooked up!
Distribution via !K7 for Europe, UK, Australia, and ROW
This album will be distributed by our good friends at !K7 and their various territory partners in Europe, UK, Australia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.
If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!
To keep abreast of all our Summer of Stepney activities, events, performances, and releases, bookmark this webpage:
