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Spotlights [Issue
#
6 ]
Al Green:
Soul Not On Ice
By
Ken Micallef
I'm Still In Love
With You.” "Tired of Being Alone." "Let’s Stay Together."
If you grew up in the early 1970s these titles will spark a flood of memories
that begin and end with one of the world's greatest soul singers, Al Green.
From 1972 to 1975 Al Green owned the AM charts with his riveting funk grooves
saturated like silk by his wailing, moaning, highly emotional soul singing.
Even today, an Al Green single can make you act silly and lose your good sense.
Green’s is sweet soul music free of cliché; real soul as God intended.
And God apparently intended Al Green to serve him and not Mammon.
Riding high on multiple hits in October of 1974, Green was relaxing in his hot
tub when his former girlfriend, Mary Woodson, broke into his Memphis home and
dumped scalding hot grits on the singer, causing second-degree burns on his
back, stomach and arm. After toasting Green to a near cinder, Woodson killed
herself with his gun. Green saw the horrific act as a sign from God and he left
the music business for the gospel, and almost never turned back.
With mighty producer Willie Mitchell back on board and drummer Steve Potts faithfully
recreating the deep grooves of the late Al Jackson, Al Green returns! I Can't
Stop picks up where Green left off (at least for secular music lovers) back
in '75, creating sensational soul soirees that grab you by the heart like Jesus
and shake your butt like the devil himself. This is gospel-sanctified soul propelled
by the same rock and roll ghosts that dogged Robert Johnson and Elvis, grooves
reveling in sex and sin but saved by the redemptive power of Green's still magnificent
voice. The Mitchell-Green reunion may not have produced songs as simply stupendous
as those of Let's Stay Together (1972) or Call Me (73), but good
Lord! the spirit is willing and still on fire. Returning to Mitchell’s
Royal Studios where he used the same mic (an RCA No. 9) as on his '70s hits,
Green found the reunion a hallowed event.
"It was magic," Green says. "We got together because Willie said
he wanted to finish an aural painting. He said ‘We’ve got to finish
it and sign it.' "
To help recapture that '70s magic Mitchell not only recorded Green in the same
Memphis studio, he also brought in many musicians from those classic sessions.
"The atmosphere was way up in the sky," Mitchell explains. "After
we got through doing one of the songs, I said ‘Al, come on and sing it
again.' He said, 'What's wrong?' And I said 'Well, you know, the band’s
running over you.' And he said 'Nobody runs over Al Green!' But, yeah, then
he did another take and it was much better."
I Can't Stop comes surprisingly close to equaling the Mitchell-Green
classics, but only falls short in time, place and temperament. Nothing is ever
as fresh the second time around. But Green’s voice sounds eerily similar
to that ecstatic crooner of 30 years ago, a truly remarkable feat given his
tendency to jump into falsetto and scream like a man possessed (by Jesus). Fans
of Green's bedroom soul songs will surely warm to I Can’t Stop. But what
about Green’s parishioners back at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in
Memphis?
“Am I gonna hear about it? Hell yes!” Green told reporter Tom Moon.
“For a long time people would say ‘You can’t sing ‘Love
and Happiness’ because that’s not a gospel song.’ And then I
started to think ‘What’s the second verse of "Love and Happiness?"
(Sings) Be good to me and I’ll be good to you/We’ll be together to
see each other walk away with victory.’ Now, if we don’t want to see
each other walk away with victory then something must be wrong.” !
I Can't Stop
Blue Note
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