I Want To Live High

A debut album that never was, Rokk’s I Want To Live High is that rare misshapen pearl clenched tightly between the shells of a music industry shucked long ago. Too soulful for its disco-era release date, the sextet’s 1976 Tollie-issued 45 “Patience” (as featured in Eccentric Soul: Omnibus) tracked well in Rokk’s hometown of Los Angeles, but was withdrawn before patience ran out with the spring rains of 1977. Tracked simultaneously was this entire shelved album full of Rokk’s mid-tempo grooves, flute-lead funk, sultry female backing vocals, slap bass, chorus-drenched guitars, and lyrics about getting baked and eating baked apple pie. Jazzy, with plentiful slices of Broadway, Innervisions, and Rokk’s own stoned brand of horn-rock, I Want To Live High, had it ever gotten so high as actual record store shelves circa late 1977, would’ve surely sobered up to the commercial onslaught of saturday night disco juggernauts and the pummeling forces of earth, wind, and fire.