BBC Review 1bj6o
The second, and best, of DeVaughn’s three albums.
Daryl Easlea 2012
Washington, D.C.-born William DeVaughn is one of those forever fascinating yet peripheral figures in soul music. With only three albums to his name, his devout alignment with the Jehovah’s Witnesses meant he only recorded sporadically.
DeVaughn is known primarily for his greatest hit, the sublime, shining, Be Thankful for What You Got. Originally released in 1974, it sounded like a great, lost Curtis Mayfield track, with its positive Civil Rights-influenced message. It became an underground smash and eventually broke through, becoming a US R&B No.1, selling two million copies.
When DeVaughn returned to recording six years later, he updated Be Thankful for What You Got for the disco era and it was put pride of place on his second album, Figures Can’t Calculate. The swampy, Deep South sound of the original was replaced with taut, choppy guitar and a fluid bassline, but with the same unbreakable tune still at its core. Its oft-quoted chorus – “Diamond in the back / sunroof top / digging the scene with the gangster lean” – is arguably one of the greatest couplets in R&B.
Like it had done in 1974, the single stalled in the lower reaches of the UK chart, but its influence sunk deep in the psyche. It was sampled by NWA, Doug E. Fresh and De La Soul, and a relatively straight cover of it became one of the standout tracks on Massive Attack’s debut album, Blue Lines.
The rest of Figures Can’t Calculate is sweet, soulful and, at times, slightly generic. The title track, reminiscent of Love Won’t Let Me Wait by Major Harris, is a meandering quiet storm number, with its requisite smooth groove and seductive saxophone.
De Vaughn goes all Smokey Robinson on Love Comes So Easy, especially when he croons “It’s from you I get my pleasure.” Although the up-tempo tracks fare less well, it’s hard to deny the spirit and bounce of Boogie Down.
Never a man to rush things, it’s a pity that DeVaughn didn’t record more. A third album, Time Will Stand Still (which included another updated version of Be Thankful…), appeared in 2008.
Although DeVaughn was committed more to his church than commercial music, Figures Can’t Calculate for the most part demonstrates the greatness he truly had.
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