I Sing the Body Electric (album)

I Sing the Body Electric is the second studio album released by the American jazz fusion band Weather Report in 1972.

Recording

The album includes two new members of the band: percussionist Dom Um Romão and drummer Eric Gravatt. The last three tracks were recorded live in concert in Tokyo, Japan on January 13, 1972. These tracks have been edited for this album and can be heard in their entirety on Weather Report's 1972 import album Live in Tokyo.

Title

The album takes its name from an 1855 poem by Walt Whitman and a 1969 short story by Ray Bradbury.

Critical reception

In his review for AllMusic Richard S. Ginell writes that "The studio tracks are more biting, more ethnically diverse in influence, and more laden with electronic effects and grandiose structural complexities than before. The live material (heard in full on the import Live in Tokyo) is even fiercer and showcases for the first time some of the tremendous drive WR was capable of, though it doesn't give you much of an idea of its stream of consciousness nature." https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-sing-the-body-electric-mw0000188920 Reviewing in ' (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Significantly less Milesian than their debut, which is impressive but not necessarily good—the difference is that this is neater, more antiseptic, its bottom less dirty and its top less sexy. I find myself interested but never engaged, and I'm sure one piece is a flop—'Crystal', described by the annotator as 'about' time. Sing the body electric and I'm with you. Sing the body short-circuited and you'd better turn me on."

Weather Report

Guest musicians

Production