SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOBBY PATTERSON – IT’S JUST A MATTER OF TIME

Bobby Patterson
It’s Just A Matter Of Time
Real Gone Music

There’s plenty to celebrate with It’s Just a Matter of Time, the 1972 collection by Texas soul man Bobby Patterson. Despite its vintage, there is a freshness in the throwback sound of this reissue from Real Gone Records, that will surely shed new light on this musical gem.

Having spent the greater part of the 1960s recording for Abnak Records, Bobby Patterson enjoyed some regional chart success under that label’s Jetstar imprint, and his 1969 single “T.C.B. or T.Y.A.” charted nationally. Abnak records folded in 1971, and Patterson released his career-defining work It’s Just a Matter of Time, on the Paula label.

Stylistically, this album ticks a lot of boxes. While the influence of artists such as James Brown and Marvin Gaye can be found, this album is all Bobby Patterson. In addition to being a vocal powerhouse, Patterson also wrote or co-wrote all but one of the album’s songs. From the down-and-dirty funk of “If You Took A Survey” and “How Do You Spell Love”, to the smooth urban soul of “I Get My Groove From You”, this album is like an auditory time capsule, replete with hook-heavy production, steady grooves and sweet horns.

It’s Just a Matter of Time is a testament to what an interesting era the early 1970s was for soul music. Many of the tropes of love lost, or love gone wrong are present, but so is the heightened social and political awareness of the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. These issues were clearly on Patterson’s mind, in songs such as “Recipe for Peace” and “This Whole Funky World is a Ghetto”.

This is such a great album that one wonders: how did this music miss the mainstream when it was originally released? It would surely have been able to stand up beside work by Patterson’s contemporaries in the early ’70s. Whatever the reason, we can be thankful for the re-release of It’s Just a Matter of Time. Do you need to hear it? Yes. Yes you do.

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