Recorded in October 1972 and released the following spring, Do You See What I See? remains the Bar-Kays’ most strident social statement for Stax. But it also documents how badly the reconstituted band struggled to find their own direction after most of the original members perished in the Otis Redding tour plane crash. Do You See What I See? is full of songs, styles and sounds that had made other artists rich but had little to do with the Bar-Kays.

Whether you called it “black rock” or “psychedelic soul,” Bar-Kays’ mentor-producer Allan Jones saw the commercial and artistic potential of Sly Stone’s music of this period and made sure that this album opened (the title track) and closed (”People, Unite to Save Humanity”) with that charged, electrifying sound. In “You’re the Best Thing That Happened To Me,” they sound like Marvin Gaye, soft yet throaty soul music that pours out liquid blue love and testifies to glorious carnal pleasures. Their spoken interlude to “God is Watching” and introduction to “Your Good Thing is About to End” even try on Stax superstar Isaac Hayes, though more by codifying Hayes’ rap-singing style than honoring it.

My own two favorites don’t sound like the Bar-Kays, either: “It Ain’t Easy,” a very relaxed yet thoroughly soulful groove mining the backwoods country soul that Bill Withers brought out from West Virginia; and a killing floor blues version of Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her,” which the rhythm section slows down just enough to turn its feel from a jump to a stomp.

Judging from its two singles - “You’re Still My Brother” in March ‘73 and “It Ain’t Easy” in July - Stax had no more idea who the 1973 Bar-Kays were than the band had. “Brother” kicks out a cheerful groove that’s pleasant enough but not much more; neither single broached the R&B or Pop chart. In retrospect, the first and last songs were more thematically and musically connected and would have made a much better two-sided single.

Do You See What I See? released on CD in 1996 features five bonus tracks: “Son of Shaft / Feel It” and their Otis Redding tribute “I Can’t Turn You Loose” from the Bar-Kays frenetic performance at Wattstax, and three early instrumental singles released on Volt Records, which we’ll look at next time.

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