5 posts tagged “soul”
Here's Eddie Floyd, direct from Soulsville, USA, Memphis Tennessee. There's been a lotta Stax around here just recently. The album is Soul Street, from 1974, and it's worth a look.
I've been fiddling with a Steve-Cropperish descending-thirds thing and trying to remember what it reminded me of, other than Steve Cropper. I now know that it reminded me of this, is what it reminded me of. Dunno much about these guys. It's from 2001. The album's weak in spots, but I dig the big boomy hip-hoppy take on the old Stax thing.
Also funny, because I was telling somebody about spring reverb the other day, and that cheesy fake thunder sound is somebody kicking a (cheap, I suspect) guitar amp with a spring reverb unit. The only amps I have with spring reverb these days are a Fender and a Boogie, and their reverb tanks won't do that. Bummer! My piece of solid-state crap I had in high school would do it, though. Way cool.
I'm not going all Jesus-y on you here or anything, but I've been listening to the Staple Singers quite a bit. You've probably heard "I'll Take You There" (that's on Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, 1972), which is just about the best thing anybody ever did. I like this one, too. It's from The Staple Swingers, 1971.
The Staples started out doing straight gospel in the 1950s, and then took in interest in the Civil Rights thing when that came along. Lots of great music, but the late 1960s and early 1970s were their great period, in my view.
Wow, I was just digging around some Stax samplers on emusic.com and look what I bumped inta! R. B. Hudmon? A new one on me (most things are, of course). Nifty track. Dunno anything about this guy except he released this on Stax no earlier than 1972 and no later than 1975. OK, nobody released anything on Stax after 1975 or so, right? Because it ceased to exist. So we've settled that, at least, provided I'm not full of shit.
(Did I forget to mention -- speaking of Stax -- forget to mention Big Star? Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks? Gotta remedy that.)
But... oh, right, soul! Cool song, fine singer, no unforced errors in the arrangement, deadly band. Must everything be radically original? Mmmm... nope! It's pretty good.
P.S. On that Stax compilation, check out "The Martian Hop" by the Newcomers. Now that one's not exactly original either, cough cough, but hey. Whaddya want?
Welcome back, Moron! I druv far, to visit family, and fixed my brother's bass. What had been done to it by a previous owner was, well... we don't like to talk about that. Not where the children might hear.
The Bar-Kays. Oh, crap, something on the close order of most of these guys died in a plane crash with Otis Redding. A dark day for aviation, and darker yet for soul. They were Redding's backing band on that tour. That was 1967. Earlier in 1967, they released Soul Finger, a platter not unreminiscent of Booker T. and the MGs, but yet different. You can see where I'm coming from here, in wavelength terms, I guess? Yes. You can. Because I said so. No, just shut up.
Great tune. "SOUL! FINGERRR!"
I love what you might call the Modularity of Soul, in those days: Bands without singers, singers without bands, horn sections with none of the above; mix and match as needed. Magic.
