Alex Henderson

The Modulations
"It's Rough Out Here"

When one thinks of southern soul in the 1960s and 1970s, names like Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MGs, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas and Wilson Pickett immediately come to mind. Those artists epitomized the raw, tough, rugged style of R&B that Memphis, Muscle Shoals and other southern cities were known for in those days. But some southern R&B artists looked north of the Mason-Dixon Line for creative inspiration, and there is no better example than the Modulations. When Buddah Records released the male vocal quartet’s debut album, It’s Rough Out Here, in 1975, many listeners assumed that the Modulations (Larry Duncan, Henry O. Channell, Hoyal Saunders and Larry “Little Nick” Allen) were from Philadelphia, Chicago or Detroit. It’s Rough Out Here draws heavily on the lavish, heavily orchestrated soul of Philadelphia, with elements of Chicago soul (especially the Dells and the Chi-Lites) and Detroit soul asserting themselves as well. But in fact, the Modulations were based in Durham, North Carolina—and they had been active on the Durham R&B circuit for seven years when It’s Rough Out Here came out.

Formed in 1968, the Modulations recorded an obscure, little known single for the Mozel label (“Who's Going to Lose”) before signing with Buddah in 1973. Buddah released their single “I’m Hopelessly in Love”/“What Good Am I” in 1973 before putting out another single, “I Can't Fight Your Love”/“Your Love Has Me Locked Up” in 1974—and in 1975, Buddah chose “Worth Your Weight in Gold”/“I'll Always Love You” as the single that would be used to promote It’s Rough Out Here.

The main producers and songwriters on It’s Rough Out Here include Robert Curington, Thomas Lester and Walter Lester, all of whom do their part to help the North Carolina residents maintain the northern soul polish that they wanted. It’s Rough Out Here gets off to a highly sociopolitical start with the funky title track, which describes economic hard times and brings to mind other sociopolitical smokers of the 1970s such as the Chi-Lites’ “(For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People” and the O’Jays’ “Rich Get Richer.” But for the most part, It’s Rough Out Here addresses romantic concerns rather than political or social concerns—and 1970s R&B doesn’t get much more romantic than silky ballads and slow jams like “Worth Your Weight in Gold,” the sentimental “I’ll Always Love You” and the nostalgic “Those Were the Best Days of My Life.” The latter is pure Philly soul, bringing to mind the gossamer recordings of the Stylistics, the Delfonics and Blue Magic (who didn’t actually work with Bell or his frequent collaborator, the late Linda Creed, but had a strong Stylistics/Delfonics influence).

In 1975, Philadelphia soul was huge. Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International Records (home of the O’Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the Intruders, Billy Paul and the Three Degrees) had become as much of an R&B powerhouse as Motown or Stax, and Philly-based producer/songwriter Thom Bell had enjoyed considerable success with the Delfonics and the Stylistics. “Those Were the Best Days of My Life” is quite mindful of Bell’s lush output and is very much the type of song he would have produced and/or composed during that era. Other times, however, the arrangements on this album are closer to Philadelphia International. The influence of Gamble & Huff is impossible to miss on more uptempo (or at least medium-tempo) tracks such as “I’m Hopelessly in Love,” “I Can’t Fight Your Love,” “Head On Collision with Heartbreak” and the hopeful, optimistic “Love at Last.”

“Worth Your Weight in Gold” became a minor hit, peaking at #79 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. In early 1976, the Modulations appeared on the popular television program Soul Train, lip-synching “Worth Your Weight in Gold” and doing a brief interview with legendary host Don Cornelius (Betty Wright and Wilson Pickett appeared on the same Soul Train segment). But regrettably, It’s Rough Out Here didn’t receive nearly as much attention as it deserved to. Nonetheless, the Modulations did enjoy a small cult following, and vinyl LP copies of It’s Rough Out Here eventually became a collector’s item (sometimes selling for $60, $70 and up at record conventions). The Modulations recorded a second album: Moving in the Right Direction, which went unreleased for a long time but finally saw the light of day when it was released as a limited-edition CD by P-Vine Records in Japan in 1998.

Funky Town Grooves’ expanded edition of It’s Rough Out Here isn’t the album’s first release on CD, but it is by far the most generous. In addition to the nine songs that were heard on the original 1975 LP, this CD contains no less than five bonus tracks: “What Good Am I” from 1973, “Your Love Has Me Locked Up” from 1974 and the 7” single versions of “Worth Your Weight in Gold,” “I Can’t Fight Your Love” and “I’ll Always Love You.” It’s interesting to compare the Modulations’ pre-Buddah recording “Who's Going to Lose” to “What Good Am I”; there is a strong Temptations influence on the funky, Motown-ish “Who's Going to Lose,” but with “What Good Am I,” the Durham residents clearly moved in a much more Philadelphia-minded direction.

Over the years, some people have confused Durham’s Modulations with a different southern group of the 1970s that was also called the Modulations (or at times, Glenn Jones & the Modulations). But the other group, which hailed from Jacksonville, Florida, was a gospel outfit that featured Glenn Jones as their lead singer (after going solo and switching to secular music, Jones became one of the top romantic male R&B singers of the 1980s).

In a perfect world, the Modulations would have become much better known. But the fact that these southern providers of northern soul didn’t sell millions of LPs doesn’t make their output any less valuable. And 37 years after its initial release, It’s Rough Out Here continues to hold up pleasingly well. 

—Alex Henderson, September 2012

Alex Henderson is a veteran journalist whose work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record and many other well known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) has also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.