POP MUSIC REVIEW : Mayfield Performs Cream of His Crop of Hits

At 50 minutes, just about the worst thing you could say about Curtis Mayfield’s first of two sets on Friday at the Palomino was that it was too short. If you count all the songs he wrote, as well as the ones he recorded solo and as the leader of seminal ‘60s soulstars the Impressions, the veteran singer/songwriter only left out a good two dozen of his hits.

Mayfield got the cream off the top, of course. Backed by a cat-footed, five-piece band, the funky, finger-style guitarist with the distinctive soft burr of a falsetto delivered four of his finest Impressions chartbusters and the three biggest tunes from his now-classic “Superfly” sound track before closing with . . . a number he wrote for Gladys Knight to sing on the “Claudine” sound track? Odd choice, strong tune.

Wearing a black leather cap, aviator glasses and a fetching acid-washed black denim jeans ‘n’ shirttails-out ensemble, the gray-mustached Mayfield looked every stitch the freak-flag-flyin’ soulman whose rooted-in-the-church songwriting mirrored not only the emerging black consciousness of the ‘60s, but also the more personalized approach to black music that developed during the same timeframe.

Mayfield’s movement from the artfully contrived pop mysteriosity of “Gypsy Woman” and the relatively conventional “I’m So Proud”--a lovesong as delicate as dewdrops on a spider’s web--to the obvious secular rewrites (“People Get Ready” and “It’s All Right”) to the chillingly deadpan social commentary of “Freddie’s Dead,” “Superfly,” and “I’m Your Pusher Man” is at least as significant a journey as those experienced by almost every artiste who’s ever graced the cover of Rolling Stone.

For one thing, he’s had more hits, like Jan Bradley’s “Mama Didn’t Lie,” Jerry Butler’s “He Will Break Your Heart,” and Major Lance’s “Monkey Time.” Plus, his tunes keep turning up on records by such contemporary hepcats as Fishbone, UB40 and Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart.

Two more reasons why Mayfield deserves induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than that lil’ countercultural giant Paul Simon or even such a pan-cultural genius as Bob Marley: One, Marley’s Wailers began their career imitating the highly stylized, three-part harmonies of Mayfield’s Impressions, and it’s Curtis and company’s harmonies that’ve been de rigueur among just about every Jamaican vocal group in the last 30 years.

And two, echoes of Mayfield’s fluid, down-home, altogether idiosyncratic guitar style can be heard in such less-obvious settings as Jimi Hendrix’s “Castles Made of Sand” and--more directly--in Jeff Beck’s one moment of restraint on “Beck, Bogert & Appice,” namely the remake of “I’m So Proud.”

So, given that the Impressions already did the big 25th Anniversary tour (back in ‘83, no less), what else can a not-so-poor singer/songwriter who nevertheless hasn’t had a major hit in 15 years do? Make records with Fishbone? Tour England with the Blow Monkeys backing him? Play two sets to packed houses on a rare L.A. tour date? Answers, anyone?