Description
The Analog Vault // Essential Listening
James Baby Huey Ramey left behind just one album, recorded in 1970 and originally released posthumously on Curtom in 1971, but its impact has rippled across decades. Produced by Curtis Mayfield, The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend merges psychedelic soul, funk and gospel fervor into a set both raw and visionary.
Originals like Hard Times and Listen to Me bristle with streetwise urgency, while his expansive take on Sam Cookes A Change Is Gonna Come turns lament into cosmic catharsis. Hueys booming voice and commanding presence loom over every track, even as the arrangements stretch into orchestral psychedelia. Though overlooked on release, the album became a cult classic, sampled widely in hip-hop and revered as one of souls great what-ifs. The Analog Vault
Baby Huey’s only album, released after his untimely death, is titled The Living Legend with good reason. He was legendary in his appearance, a 400-pound man with a penchant for flamboyant clothing and crowned by a woolly Afro, a look that is best illustrated by one of several rare photos included in the Water Records edition that shows our man in a wide-lapeled polka-dot shirt with a lime-green jacket. Beyond his unusual appearance, though, he was graced with a stunning, fierce voice on par with Otis Redding and Howard Tate, wailing and howling one moment and oddly tender and sentimental the next.
Nowhere on Living Legend is his range more apparent than the opening track, “Listen to Me,” where listeners are introduced to both the enigma of Baby Huey and his diamond-tough psychedelic funk backing band, the Baby Sitters. The high-energy instrumental workout “Mama Get Yourself Together” is worthy of the J.B.’s and a hazy, spiraling ten-minute rendition of Sam Cooke’s chestnut “A Change Is Going to Come” confirms that the Baby Sitters could hold their own with Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Further lore that catapults The Living Legend from good to great: the production was helmed by Curtis Mayfield, reason enough to make it near essential, and is highlighted by three of his compositions, “Mighty Mighty,” which Mayfield and the Impressions recorded a few years earlier; “Running,” a classic Mayfield cut that can only be heard here ripped to glorious bits by a band that is trying to let every member solo; and “Hard Times,” which Mayfield himself would revisit on his 1975 album There’s No Place Like America Today, although Baby Huey’s razor-edged reading remains the definitive version – no small caveat considering Mayfield not only wrote the tune, but could rightfully be considered one of the architects of soul to boot. (via AllMusic)
As you probably know, February is Black History Month, and as such, weve been commandeering some of our regular features and utilizing them to spotlight artists to commemorate the occasion. Today, were taking another Deep Dive, this time to check out the one and only Baby Huey, an R&B artist whose death at age 26 still has people wondering, What might he have accomplished if only hed lived longer?
Born James Thomas Ramey on August 17, 1944 in Richmond, Indiana, the boy who would later become known as Baby Huey suffered from a glandular disorder which led to him weighing 350 pounds when he was 19. Thankfully, he had a sense of humor, which is why he borrowed his stage name from a giant animated duckling.
In 1962, Huey moved to Chicago and started a band with guitarist Johnny Ross and organist/trumpeter Melvyn Deacon Jones called Baby Huey and the Babysitters, who found enough of a fanbase for them to release a handful of singles that found local success. As the decade continued, the band evolved both musically and visually, taking their cue from Sly and the Family Stone. Regrettably, however, their focus was so firmly on their concerts that they never got around to recording enough additional songs to release a proper album.
That said, their concerts gradually became legendary in Chicago, so much so that in 1969 their agent successfully convinced Donny Hathaway to come see them perform, and Hathaway walked away so impressed that he talked Curtis Mayfield into seeing them the next night. The end result: Mayfield who at the time was the head of Curtom Records wanted to sign Baby Huey, which seems like great news right up until you discover that he only wanted to sign Baby Huey. Although the Babysitters were involved in the recording of Hueys album, tensions were running understandably high in the studio, resulting in both Jones and Ross quitting before the LP was completed.
And now the story gets even more tragic: in addition to his existing medical problems, Huey developed an addiction to heroin and, on top of that, had also started drinking heavily. It was probably the combination of all of these factors that led him to top out at over 400 pounds, but the heart attack that took his life in a Chicago motel room before his debut album had even been released…? That was absolutely the drugs. (The coroner confirmed it.)
Produced by Curtis Mayfield, The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend was released in February 1971, having been finished by Mayfield and Hueys manager, Marv Stuart. It wasnt a smash success, as one might expect, since the artist who recorded it wasnt around to promote it and hadnt yet made enough of an impact outside of Chicago to have caught the attention of a larger audience. Over the decades, however, the LP has become a cult classic, one which has a still-increasing fanbase amongst R&B and rap artists.
Give it a listen and do the same thing the rest of us have been doing since we discovered it: loving what weve heard and wondering what mightve been. (via Label)
Label: Rhino Records, Curtom
Series: Rhino Reserve
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 180g
Reissued: 2025 / Original: 1971
Genre: Funk / Soul
Style: Soul, Funk, Male Vocals
File under: TAV Essential Listening
File under: Funk/Soul
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