What Is Hip?: The Tower of Power Anthology (1999)

About this title: Having played on hundreds of hit records, it was only fitting that this Oakland-based group of studio hornmen should strike out on their own and this two-disc anthology from Rhino captures the ups, downs, ins, and outs of T.O.P.'s 30-year career. In many ways, the group retrospective is not just a document of the group's evolving sound, but a microcosm of the changing sound of R&B throughout the '70s and '80s. The soul band sound of early tracks like "Knock Yourself Out" sound as if the group is doing a muscular workout at a soul music revue and the oily R&B of "Back on the Streets Again" and ... read more

Tracks:

1. Knock Yourself Out [Kupka/Castillo]
2. Back on the Streets Again [Kupka/Castillo]
3. Sparkling in the Sand [Kupka/Castillo/Lope]
4. Down to the Nightclub [Kupka/Castillo/Gari]
5. You're Still a Young Man [Kupka/Castillo]
6. You Got to Funkifize [Kupka/Castillo]
7. What Happened to the World That Day? [Kupka/Castillo]
8. What Is Hip? [Kupka/Castillo]
9. Will I Ever Find a Love? [Kupka/Castillo]
10. This Time It's Real [Kupka/Castillo/Bart]
11. So Very Hard to Go [Kupka/Castillo]
12. Soul Vaccination [Kupka/Castillo]
13. Below Us, All the City Lights [Kupka/Castillo]
14. Can't You See (You Doin' Me Wrong) [Kupka/Castillo/Will]
15. Squib Cakes [Thompson]
16. Oakland Stroke [Kupka/Castillo/Gari]
17. Don't Change Horses (In the Middle of a Stream) [Williams/Watson]
18. Time Will Tell [Kupka/Castillo]
19. It's Not the Crime [Kupka/Castillo]
20. I Won't Leave Unless You Want Me To [Kupka/Castillo/Adam]
21. Only So Much Oil in the Ground [Kupka/Castillo]
22. Willing to Learn [Kupka/Castillo]
23. You're So Wonderful, So Marvelous [Kupka/Castillo/Bine]
24. Just Enough and Too Much [Kupka/Castillo/Bine]
25. As Surley as I Stand Here [Kupka/Castillo/Thom]
26. Stroke '75 [Kupka/Castillo]
27. The Soul of a Child [Kupka/Castillo/Cont]
28. You Ought to Be Havin' Fun [Kupka/Castillo/Tubb]
29. Simple as That [Kupka/Castillo/Bine]
30. Credit [Kupka/Castillo/Whit]
31. A Little Knowledge (Is a Dangerous Thing) [Castillo/Milo/Meyer]
32. I Like Your Style [Castillo/Milo/Kupka]
33. Soul With a Capital S [Castillo/Kupka]
34. Souled Out [Castillo/Kupka/McCl]
35. So I Got to Groove [Castillo/Kupka/Matt]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.