Lou Bond persists as something of a mystery figure, due in large part to the recording business overlooking him repeatedly across the decades. His singing approach evoked a rougher take on Jackie Wilson, while his often politically charged artistic perspective fused street poetry with Memphis soul. In the early 1960s he cut several incisive sides for Chess Records, yet most remained unreleased and drew minimal notice.
For the Stax Records subsidiary We Produce he delivered a singular masterpiece simply titled Lou Bond in 1974. The album, which recalled Isaac Hayes crossed with Richie Havens and an early coming of Grandmaster Flash, registered no commercial traction upon release and dropped out of print almost at once. Tracks such as the stirring “To the Establishment,” the wise “Why Must Our Eyes Always Be Turned Backwards,” and the haunting “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” nevertheless circulated underground, turning the album into a prized lost artifact.
Bond released two further singles—one on Fontana in 1966 and another on Brainstorm in 1967—before vanishing from view again, although later acts including OutKast and Prodigy sampled “To the Establishment,” deepening the enigma around his story. Light in the Attic Records reissued Lou Bond digitally in 2010, appending four live performances captured in the same era that placed Bond in the 21st century, even while the Chess material stayed unavailable and inaccessible.
