Sweet Soul Music

Cafe Society
1

I love soul music. I just wish I could define it.

There a lots of songs that people can point to as soul music, but I’ve never read a description that captures the sense of it. Is there one out there?

My picks for soul classics are songs like “In the Midnight Hour”, “Respect”, “Stand By Me”, “What’d I Say”, “Green Onions”, “When a Man Loves A Woman”, “Heard it through the Grapevine”. But lots of songs get listed as soul, from the Jackson 5 to Barry White. How do you define Soul Music? And is any being produced today?

2

Sounds like you’re a Motown fan. Or 60s R&B. No, I don’t think anybody’s making that kind of music these days. Well, that’s probably not completely true, but you know what I mean…

3

I can think of two recent singers who are reminiscent of that old tymie sweet soul. Jamiroquai and Maxwell. After the 60’s there was (and still is) Luther Vandross and Kool and the Gang. I thought Aaliyah was working her way towards some new good old fashion soul. Mary J Bligh is already there.

But the golden days do seem to be gone.

4

Hrm, I was about to say you should check www.allmusic.com, but I just looked at their definition of soul and it’s not so hot. (For one thing, the allmusic definition calls soul the result of the urbanization and commercialization of R&B during the 1960s, when R&B was already plenty urbanized and commercialized by the late 1940s.) So I’ll give a shot myself. (Takes a deep breath…)

Soul music is the result of the mixture of 1950s R&B and 1950s (black) gospel music. The two defining events in soul music history are Ray Charles’s 1955 “I Got a Woman,” based on a gospel song, and Sam Cooke’s 1956 departure from the gospel group the Soul Stirrers to pursue a pop music career.

This mixture of gospel and R&B was an instant hit, and by the early 60s soul had become the most popular form of R&B. By the early 60s, two dominant styles had emerged: northern soul and southern soul.

Northern soul was slick, pop oriented and often heavily produced (with strings, etc.) The “Motown sound” out of Detroit was quintessential northern soul: the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, etc.

Southern soul was rawer, and stuck closer to soul’s blues and gospel roots. Stax Records in Memphis produced many of the classic southern soul records by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T and MGs and others. (There’s a great bit in Peter Guralnick’s book Sweet Soul Music about the rivalry between northern soul and southern soul fans.)

The peak of soul was in the mid-60s. By the early 70s, soul had begun to fracture and transform–James Brown had turned soul into funk, while in Philadelphia the ultra-slick Philly Sound, exemplified by Barry White, made Motown’s records sound postively primitive. And then along came the disco phenomenon. By the end of the 70s, soul had petered out as a force in popular music.

Soul was hugely influential in its day–the style of a zillion rock performers during the 70s and 80s was permeated by it–and soul still pops up on the charts from time to time. Macy Gray’s 1999 hit “I Try” was a soul song, for example.

And many of the original performers are still at it, too. If you like soul music, you should run, not walk, to your nearest record store and buy Solomon Burke’s latest album, Don’t Give Up On Me. Burke was one of the great soul singers of the 60s (and he’s quite a character–read Guralnick’s book.) He’s in top form on this album, singing brand new songs by Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and others.

5

A couple of years ago I saw Wilson Pickett perform. For a man close to 60, he sure still had it.

It’s sort of a shame that while a lot of rock performers that same age (Dylan, McCartney, Clapton, the Stones) still perform at “A list” venues, and get exposure and promotion for their new releases - older soul stars are pretty much confined to the nostalgia ghetto.

6

First off, thank you Wumpus! What an excellent contribution to fighting ignorance.

I’ve got a wonderful CD called “Atlantic Soul Classics” which illustrates the diverse music sometimes lumped under the Soul label. It’s got “Soul Man” by Sam and Dave, “I’ve Been Loving You” by Otis Redding, and “Green Onions” by Booker T. and the MG’s, but also “Yakity Yak” by the Coasters and “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” by Joe Turner. The last two clearly don’t seem to go with the rest of the CD.

The Atlantic Soul sound certainly seems to have come out of the MGs and the Stax musicians. The same people show up on dozens of the best soul music of the era. Add the Funk Brothers from Motown who clearly crafted their own sound and I can see the northern/southern division forming.

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Has anyone seen “Standing in the Shadow of Motown”?
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It’s kind of hard to picture Barry White and James Brown both coming out of the same style of music, but I’ve never really listened to their earlier stuff. That music didn’t spring out of the ether in its final form, I’d love to hear it evolve. Any recommendations on the origins of funk, especially?

I’ve always thought of “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles as the quintessential soul track, though I think you could nominate a dozen songs that would equally fill the bill. Probably next on my list would be some songs by Wilson Picket or Otis Redding, but Sam Cooke is right up there as well.

Who are some of the better female soul singers, besides Aretha?

7

For the history of funk, get James Brown’s 20 All-Time Greatest Hits. That’ll take you from staight soul (Please Please Please) to funky soul (I Feel Good) to pure funk (Sex Machine.)

Female soul singers: I’m a huge, huge Etta James fan. There are many famous female Motown singers: Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves, Mary Wells, Kim Weston and of course Diana Ross with the Supremes. On Stax, there was Carla Thomas. Typical of soul music, there are also all sorts of female artists who made a couple of great records then disappeared: Fontella Bass (“Rescue Me”), Jean Knight (“Mr. Big Shot”), Barbara Mason, Lorraine Ellison, Barbara Acklin, etc. etc.

8

I actually have the JB 20 All-Time Greatest Hits CD, I’d forgotten about it but it does really show his range. I need to listen to that again. I love “It’s a Man’s World”.

Etta James I’ve always thought of as straight blues. Aside from the ladies of Motown the only one of the others I’ve heard of is Carla Thomas. I’ll have to go look for the others.

Any recommendations for a good Sam Cooke CD?

9

For great modern soul, try Erkah Badu. It’s a little bit R+B, a little bit hip-hop, but it’s still most definitely soul, and it’s very good. I like the album Mama’s Gun.

10

Well, I’m sure Erkah Badu is good too, but I meant to recommend Erykah Badu.

11

I have several collections of soul oldies from Rhino Records. They are well worth it. Check out their website at:

For information on past and current soul music, collections, concerts, etc., you might want to check out my friend’s site:

http://www.soul-patrol.com/

They also have their own net radio programs which are pretty cool.

12

Thanks to a tangle of legal problems, there aren’t all that many Sam Cooke CDs out there. The up side of that is that it makes it easier to get started with him.

First, you’ll want his hits. You can get them either on a single disc Greatest Hits album, or on a 4-CD box set called The Man Who Invented Soul.

After that, you may want to try Night Beat, a great bluesy set with a small combo that includes Billy Preston on organ and Barney Kessel on guitar.

Rhino does indeed do great compilation CDs–in fact, the best introduction to soul is their 6 CD set Beg, Scream, and Shout. Though it’s sadly out of print.