Lonely Man
Other male soul groups could step off the macho tip, but even theTemptationshad to pray for rain before letting their feelings flow. Eugene Record's Chi-Lites, on the other hand, didn't even allow themselves the face-saver of a loudly pained lead vocal. When Record wandered through the city looking for the most basic succor of a glimpse of his lost lover's face on "Have You Seen Her," his bewilderment and fear were fully on display. And rather than offer a full-throated paean to her replacement on "Oh Girl," issued a few months later in the summer of '72, the group instead focused on how wrecked the guy would be weresheto leave, too. The Chi-Lites' records were so perfectly conceived and performed, however, that even their occasional brazen leap into the tough-guy ("Are You My Woman") or social-comment slot ("Give More Power to the People") remained credible in light of the devastation that marked most of their work.--Rickey Wright