I love discovering music I somehow missed along the way.I recently picked up a Silver Fox label compilation released by Sundazed (check the Sundazed website for My Goodness, Yes!) and stumbled upon this gem and a whole host of brilliant tracks from the small Nashville imprint.“You Got To Pay The Price” started out as an instrumental written and performed by Al Kent in 1967. The version here was cut by Gloria in 1969, but Al went and cut another vocal version with The Supremes(post Diana Ross) in 1970. The song really didn’t see any chart action, but that gives us all the more reason to discover and enjoy this long lost gem from Ms. Taylor.
People are always quick to point out the lineage of hitmakers like Julian Lennon, Jeff Buckley or Jakob Dylan. Or Roseanne Cash & Hank Williams, Jr. But, R&B seems to get a bit of a snub when it comes to offspring. Case in point: million-seller Gerald Levert. Not only did he and his brother Sean front LeVert, but they were the sons of O’Jays lead singer Eddie Levert. When Gerald went solo, his first album – Private Line – went platinum and boasted a number of great tracks including today’s DFD selection. And, that was just the beginning of a multi-million selling career. Sadly, Gerald passed away in 2006 – he would have been 44 today. Brother Sean died in 2008. For all the joy & music the Levert family has brought us, while we groove to today’s selection – people all over the world, join hands.
“Ring all the bells, sing and tell the people that be everywhere, that the flower has come.”It’s the first line of the chorus from this beautiful song and a declaration of the arrival of Minnie Riperton onto the musical scene back in 1970.After singing backup for a number of Chess artists in the ‘60s and singing with the funky rock-soul group Rotary Connection, Minnie debuted her first album Come To My Garden to deaf ears.At the time it barely registered but now is considered her finest work by many critics and fans alike. The album introduces her soft jazz-pop ballads, lush orchestration, and five octave vocal range that in a few years would make her famous.After her monstrous success with “Lovin’ You” in 1975, she revealed to the world that she was battling breast cancer (one of the first artists to go public with her diagnosis) and passed away from the disease on this day back in 1979.
Here’s a freedom song that’s rarely played for Independence Day. The Clash’s Joe Strummer once dubbed Lee Dorsey the “hidden jewel” of soul, and the title fits in both respects. The goofy simplicity and eccentric New Orleans rhythms of his hits make it easy to write the man off as a novelty singer, and innumerable covers of Dorsey discs by artists like Devo and The Pointer Sisters (not to mention personal faves The Artwoods) further obscure the originals. But overlooked as they may be, the original versions are indeed gems, thanks largely to the man behind the music, Allen Toussaint. Most of Dorsey’s best sides were written and produced by the Crescent City genius, and “Freedom For The Stallion” is no exception. Opening with a martial drum beat, stately piano and some wonderful female backing vocals, Lee pleads for freedom for the stallion, the mare, the colt, and the baby child who has not grown old enough to vote. There may be better-known civil rights anthems but none more inspiring — this record is so dripping with soul you could put a pan underneath it and make gravy!
Note to my future exes – when it comes time for you to break up with me, blast some old school Philly soul-disco from Gamble and Huff as you start by telling me “I don’t love you anymore – it’s just that simple.” I want horns and strings playing off each other when you say “We can’t work it out, no, not this time.” Give me plenty of percussion when you tell me “We can’t be together, we can only be friends.” Use your baritone growl to make it clear you “tried doing everything that I can but we can’t make it.” Bring in backup singers to emphasize it’s not like before. If I must go through the end of another relationship I want to enjoy it. It’s just that simple.
Ahhhh it’s Friday and time for a little butt-shakin’ and rump-waggin’ . Today’s tune-to-make-you-move is from Dallas soul shouter Bobby Patterson.“Quiet! Do Not Disturb” is the song , but also the sign that Bobby puts out when he’s ready to get “busy” because he DOES NOT like to be distracted or interrupted.It’s a funkalicious slice of early ‘70s R&B.Bobby recorded for the Jetstar label in the ‘60s turning out a treasure trove of regional hits.In the early ‘70s, he switched to Paula Records and while he didn’t have any chart success, his tracks continued to be of the same high quality.I highly recommend digging deeper and finding the Jetstar material, as well as the rest of his Paula tracks.They’re a great example of what was going on outside of the Memphis/Philly/Detroit R&B hubs of the time.And if you’re in Dallas these days, he’s a DJ on Soul 730 AM from 9a-12p. Come on and move it with me.
Solomon Burke is one of the less known treasures of the Atlantic soul catalog. Although he has been covered by a number of greats including The Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett and the Blues Brothers, Solomon never quite attained the same mainstream success as Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin. However, one listen to today’s track and I think you’ll agree that he rightfully deserves a seat amongst the great soul singers of our time. The song “Cry to Me” went over very well when it was first released in 1962, and also turned a few heads in the ’80s when it used in the film Dirty Dancing.
It speaks volumes about Aretha Franklin–whom we celebrate today on her 68th birthday–that even God couldn’t turn her down. (For you wee bairns out there, that’s “God” as in “Clapton is God,” the anonymous graffiti first scribbled on London’s Islington Tube Station’s walls in 1965.) Eric Clapton is credited with “guitar obbligato” on “Good to Me as I Am to You,” the soul-deep, slow-cooked blues moan (co-written by Franklin and then-husband Ted White) from 1968’s Lady Soul LP, yet he’s no more (or less) a hired gun than Tom Cogbill (whose conversational bass lines cut a calm counterpart to the singer’s increasingly frenzied vocals), or the all-star horn section (as airtight as James Brown’s Famous Flames, and as wise as a Greek chorus). Make no mistake, “Good to Me as I Am to You” is all Aretha: begging and demanding within the space of a single note, flirting with chaos at the edge of tonal control, uncompromising, undeniable, and, for nearly seven decades, absolutely unequalled.
To cover a song well, you’ve GOT to bring some heat to the table. Wilson Pickett was a master of that game. While he was a master songwriter in his own right, the wicked Pickett could make any song his own. Case in point: Johnnie Taylor recorded Isaac Hayes and David Porter’s “Toe Hold” in 1966, but Pickett put his own spin on it for 1969’s Hey Jude album. Maybe it was fuel from his heated relationship with Stax, but Wilson burns this track up. His classic delivery sails and pleads and cuts straight to the core. And, who’s playing that smokin’ guitar? None other than a cat named Duane Allman. On what would have been his 69th birthday, give it up for Mr. Wilson Pickett!
Al Green. Aretha Franklin. Any number of the greatest singers in the history of soul have put their own distinctive spin on this heartbreaking civil rights anthem since Sam Cooke heard Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” as a clarion call to weigh in on the sorry state of race relations from a black man’s point of view. But no one’s ever done it with more soul than Otis Redding. One of three Cooke classics Redding cut for Otis Blue in tribute to his fallen hero, who was shot to death 11 days before his own recording hit the airwaves as “Change Gonna Come,” it proved the perfect vehicle for Redding’s aching vocal style. You’d almost swear that melancholy horn chart in the intro had brought him to tears as he trembles his way through the opening line, “I was born by a river, oh my.” And it only gets better from there until he’s pleading with his family to give him the help he needs with a desperate cry of “I said mother, I’m down on my knees.”
Long before Justin Bieber, Nick Jonas, and even before young Michael Jackson, little Stevie Wonder had all the girls combatively running after him, owning the term child idol. Despite being blind from birth, by age eleven Stevie caught the interest of record producer Berry Gordy Jr. and was signed to Motown Records at the age of eleven. A few years after landing his record deal, Stevie found early success with his song “Fingertips (Pt. 2),” released when he was thirteen years old. If that doesn’t say much, Wonder played a large role in bringing synthesizers (keyboards for everyone else) to the forefront of popular music as it was Wonder’s urging that led Raymond Kurzweil to create the first electronic synthesizers that reproduced the sounds of orchestral instruments. So enjoy this selection from one of the most influential artists ever; after all it’s just from the guy who has won 22 Grammy Awards (the most any male solo artist had ever) and received the Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement presented by president Obama.
In the unlikely event that Otis Redding’s first big hit, “These Arms Of Mine,” had failed to make a solid case for Redding as a new soul legend in the making, this one should have left no doubt. A gospel-flavored ballad packed with raw emotion and vulnerability, “Pain in My Heart” found Redding playing to the strengths that made “These Arms of Mine” so devastating. The tempo is nearly identical – just slow enough to smolder. The feel is the same, a stately, soulful waltz with the piano player holding down the triplets — only this time, there are horns, a future Redding staple. But the instrument that ultimately makes this record such a timeless treasure is, of course, the vocal, pleading its case — “said I want you to come back, come back, come back, baby” – with an urgency and passion rarely heard since Redding’s passing, at the tender age of 26, in 1967.
If you like your music with a twist of humor and a touch of exaggerated vanity, then you may enjoy listening to “The Oak Tree” by Morris Day.This track, released back in 1985, as part of the album Color Of Success, is in the same vein as “Jungle Love” and “The Bird”, two earlier recordings by The Time, which was fronted by Morris Day.You may remember Morris Day and The Time from the feature film “Purple Rain” where Morris Day played the antagonist to Prince, all of this taking place in the wild nightclub scene of Minneapolis in the early 80’s, of which I am proud to say, I was a part of.
Despite their moniker’s obvious allure and an impressive battery of hits, by the early 1970s the original Temptations were slowly coming apart. David Ruffin had packed his bark and split in 1968, followed three years later by a partner who swung so sweetly for the stars: Eddie Kendricks, with tones on loan from Heaven. The feather-light “Eddie’s Love” floated down the otherwise heavy stream of Kendricks’ sophomore solo sojourn, People…Hold On (1972), which found the ex-Tempt fretting over Vietnam and social unrest, among other topical subjects. But once he warmed that falsetto over a pep-in-the-step groove and sang of the simplicity of he and she, all the world was sun and moon. When Eddie was on, Eddie was it.
Originally made famous by the fictional band The Archies, “Sugar Sugar” was a hit that defined the bubblegum pop genre.A number of musicians including Bob Marley and Tom Jones would eventually cover this tune, but Wilson Pickett was the first to put his own spin on the track, recording his own take just a few months after The Archie’s version was released.Pickett’s passionately raw rendition transformed this poptastic diddy into a soulful R&B gem.
“Get Ourselves Together” is cut one, side one from the debut Delaney and Bonnie album, Accept No Substitute.George Harrison brought back a stack of this album back to England after discovering it while hanging with Dylan in Woodstock, giving one to his close friend Eric Clapton.Soon after, Clapton invited the band to open for the first and only Blind Faith US tour.As the tour went on, Clapton spent more and more time on stage with D&B during their opening set and eventually left Blind Faith to tour with them.He later picked up the backing band, which became the Dominoes.Rock ’N’ Roll just wouldn’t have been the same if this platter hadn’t made it across the pond.
My first two song choices for today, Thanksgiving Day, were: 1) John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey” and 2) William S. Burroughs’ “A Thanksgiving Day Prayer.”Lennon’s was ruled out due to the fact that his “people” do not allow any streaming of his music, so we’d only be able to give you a :30 second sample and that’s not the ideal experience here at DFD [note for people outside the U.S.: we know you can’t stream full songs, no need to post this to the comments board, we’re working on a solution].Burroughs’ brilliant 1990 poem set to music was ruled out…well…let’s just say it might be a little intense for some.In the end we decided on something a bit more upbeat and cheery, and what says upbeat and cheery better than sweet soul music: William Bell’s “Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday.”
Last year I made a mix CD for a friend that included Lorraine Ellison’s 1966 gem “Stay With Me.”His reaction:“That song made me hurl myself out my apartment window.”Luckily he lives on the ground floor.He felt Ellison’s pain.She was always there for this other person, taking care of them, and now this schmo is leaving her.She manages to keep herself together while singing the beginning of each verse, but as they progress she gets more anxious.By the time we arrive at the chorus, she’s practically hysterical, begging her soon to be ex to not leave.When she sings the chorus for the third time, she sounds like she’s having a breakdown.You may recognize this song from Bette Midler’s performance of it in The Rose, but check out Ellison’s original.Just be sure you don’t do so near any open windows.
“In Love We Grow” features a 21 year old unknown singer by the name of Chaka Khan. The 1974 album Rags to Rufus featured the band’s first major hit “Tell Me Something Good”, but “In Love We Grow” featured Chaka in a way that very few recordings do: just her and the piano. This album and this ballad showcased her incredible depth and range as a singer and established her as a MAJOR new find for female singers in the industry. Chaka was clearly different, she didn’t grow up in “the church” and she idolized Sarah Vaughn. She approached pop funk music in a way that no one had before her.
“Spooky” was originally an instrumental song by saxophonist Mike Sharpe, and it wasn’t until the following year that lyrics were added by The Classics IV. Although covered by a number of artists like R.E.M. and Imogen Heap, it’s Dusty Springfield that gives the track a serious groove with her smooth vocals and swanky horn section.
To cartoon fans, Baby Huey may be a plus-size duck in a diaper, but to music fans, he’s one of the great unsung heroes of R&B. Born James Ramey, Baby Huey shared his namesake’s girth, but was nowhere near as naïve. Years before hip-hop arrived, he specialized in sketches of good times and hard life on the street – not unlike Curtis Mayfield, on whose Curtom label Baby Huey & The Babysitters’ sole LP appeared (posthumously; the weight and drugs took Ramey at age 26). The trippy wah-wah licks that open and close “Running” are years-old remnants of psychedelia, but the tale of a fruitless chase for love sandwiched in between is timeless. For three and a half minutes, the woman of his dreams is always a few steps ahead of Huey, while a fat guitar line and funky horn section are only one step behind.
Jesse Stone’s “Shake, Rattle & Roll” had been around the block several times before young soul singer Arthur Conley, hot off his 1967 blockbuster “Sweet Soul Music,” jumped onboard later that year and made it a hit all over again. The Georgia-born Otis Redding protégé may have been familiar with blues shouter Big Joe Turner’s supremely earthy Atlantic original, a ’54 R&B chart-topper, which spawned a cleaned-up cover by Bill Haley & His Comets and a blistering Elvis treatment. But Conley’s main inspiration was clearly a subsequent rendition by Sam Cooke; he and Otis were both huge fans. Cut in Muscle Shoals with Redding producing, Arthur’s pile-driving revival opens with a startling horn blast that leads into a sturdy walking bassline. Conley’s elastic, melismatic vocal channels Cooke, the boisterous call-and-response action enlivening the venerable R&B chestnut like it was written for no one else.
Carla Thomas’ winsome 1961 smash “Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)” helped cement the relationship between Memphis-based Stax Records, then known as Satellite, and Atlantic. By 1966 Carla—daughter of ebullient deejay/Stax hitmaker Rufus Thomas—was no longer in her teens. The seductive soulstress was the undisputed Queen of Stax, and her string of hits included several duets with her proud papa. Carla had the songwriting and production team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter in her corner for the saucy “Let Me Be Good To You,” her biggest seller since she’d answered Sam Cooke with “I’ll Bring It Home To You” almost four years earlier. Duck Dunn’s supple bass leads into Carla’s understated yet irresistible offer to be good to some lucky stiff. Not a screamer, Carla stylishly entices as the MG’s and Stax’s in-house horns bring it up to a full-throttle boil on the crackling vamp out.
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were kids from the Fairfax district in L.A., a solidly Jewish, middle-class neighborhood, but they managed to write songs that captured the African-American experience of the ’50s and early ’60s with an uncanny accuracy. “Shoppin’ For Clothes,” based on a tune by songwriter Kent Harris, describes an experience most whites were unaware of at the time. Billy Guy sings lead on the sad tale of a young man going out to buy some sharp threads to up his game. The lyric describes an amazing suit, “a two-button, pure-herringbone model with custom cuffs and cut-away flaps.” Guy’s almost panting with excitement when the salesman tells him his credit has been denied. He almost weeps as he sings: “Pure, pure herringbone” and the salesman replies: “That’s a suit you’ll never own.” Life was hell before credit cards.
