With cover art and a title track depicting the passage of African slaves to the Americas, The O’Jays Ship Ahoy combines stark commentary with soul ballads in a 1973 release that went gold the next year and platinum in 1992. It was a big success for Philadelphia International and the songwriting team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who originally intended some of the material for the soundtrack to the film Shaft in Africa. The O’Jays released this a year after Back Stabbers, and released two singles, the sublime For the Love of Money and Put Your Hands Together. For the Love of Money combines Anthony Jackson’s phased and echo’d bass with a straightforward look at the root of all evil, and was apparently was the theme song for The Apprentice, so that might have ruined it for some of you. But I never saw The Apprentice, it sounds amazing and it’s impossible to ignore how uncompromising its view of money is.
Value
