Eugene McDaniels

Legend has it that when Spiro Agnew heard McDaniels' 1971 sophomore album, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse, the Vice Prez snapped. He'd had it with this new generation of outspoken and political African American funk marshals, and he quickly fired off a letter to Atlantic Records demanding that the company shelve the album. Of course, McDaniels' calls for racial unity and class awareness seem tame in light of NWA, Public Enemy and the Coup, but for the time they were deemed too radical. Contrary to what you may assume, by Heroes' release McDanials was a seasoned music industry vet. He had a pair of pop hits in 1961 with "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and "A Tower of Strength." Later, after the Headless Heroes controversy, McDaniels would go on to become a noted jazz and R&B producer and composer. He even produced Roberta Flack's hit "Feel Like Making Love."