The first time I posted this it was the truncated CD Version, but now thanks to Unky Cliff I am able to offer the full original double LP with 22 extra minutes of goodness!One thing for damn sure - Otis Clay is best enjoyed live. He is one hell of a dynamic performer. Bullseye/Rounder saved so many of these guys from total obscurity, thank god for Scott Billington and the rest of them for doing this in time to catch a Johnny Adams, an Otis Clay or James Booker before it was too late. For me the 'Moment" here is Clay's tribute to old friend O.V. Wright with his cover of "A Nickle and a Nail".
"All of Otis Clay's albums are worth hearing, but
this one--a 1983 concert recorded in Tokyo--is not only his masterpiece
but one of the best live soul albums since the mid '60s heyday of the
Stax/Volt Revue. Backed by an incredible band (mostly the guys who
played on Al Green's hits), Clay roars through a set that includes a
couple of Green tunes that he thoroughly makes his own. He also quotes
Sam Cooke to fine effect on the gospel-ish "Precious Precious," and
nearly convinces the audience that he's the second coming of Otis
Redding. This is an essential album for any soul music collection."Recorded live at Yubin Chokin Hall, Tokyo, Japan on October 22, 1983. Includes liner notes by Robert Pruter.
Personnel: Otis Clay (vocals); Mabon "Teenie" Hodges (guitar); Henri "Hank" Ford (tenor saxophone, background vocals); Paul Howard (trumpet, background vocals); Bill McFarland (trombone, background vocals); Charles Hodges (organ); Dedrick Blanchard (keyboards); Leroy Hodges (bass); Howard Grimes (drums).
Living Blues (1/92-2/92, p.51) - "...Clay still reigns as the Windy City's top soul man, as the reissued "Live In Japan" soulfully demonstrates..."
"Thankfully, Otis Clay is an artist who refused to change with the times. When the R&B audience embraced disco and, later, urban contemporary, the hard-edged belter wisely stuck with the type of raw, unapologetic-ally Southern-sounding soul that put him on the map. Though he calls Chicago home, Clay's approach has always shouted "Memphis!" in no uncertain terms. A 41-year-old Clay was clearly very much in his prime when this magnificent live date was recorded in 1983. Sparing no passion on such treasures as "Holding on to a Dying Love" and Al Green's "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," Clay illustrates why his small yet devoted following holds him in such high regard. One of the most pleasant surprises is the ballad "Love Don't Love Nobody." While the Spinners' excellent hit version boasted a sleek Philly soul production, Clay takes the gem straight to Memphis. " AMG
24 comments:
What a gem, both of these Clay posts are huge KC, just huge!! My wife also wanted to thank you as she is enjoying all of the soul joints from your spot. She is also thankful that less jazz will be played around here!! ouch...
Otis Clay is a national treasure.
Thanks KC for these 2 OC albums
I only have odd single tracks from this man so I've never given him the space to grow on me - This will put things right I hope
Cheers
The first shorter version you posted was wonderful and I played non-stop for two days. I'm looking forward to hearing the extra music and thank you and Unky Cliff for generously sharing the two-disc recording.
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Etta James, and Otis Clay posted at once and it's not even my birthday or Christmas. I can die a serenely happy man now; there's not much that can surpass this.
Great, KC! I didn't have this version of Ellie.
There is another good live in Japan album from the 70s, which also came out on CD in truncated form.
Looking for discographical clarification about these concerts on the web, I happened to stumble on Robert Cristgau's blurb on Otis Clay, a "journeyman" who is not worth listening to at all. I guess that you might interpret that as a compliment coming from somebody who doesn't even think that Sam Cooke was a great singer. How clueless can you get and still be a famous American music critic? :)
Pres,
The "other" live in Japan was a Waylo reissue of the same show. To clarify, the Rooster Blues issue (Soul Man - Live In Japan) was a 2 LP set. The original CD reissue dropped side 4, the Waylo reissue ("Live" In Tokyo) from 1989 dropped the last track from side 2 (B-3 Holding On To A Dying Love) and the first from side 3 (C-1 His Precious Love)
There were indeed a number of confusing multiple releases of the 1983 Tokyo concert. But there is another concert floating around on CD and LP (Victor Label) as well that reportedly is also from Tokyo. I have one of the CDs. Maybe I will post it here. The set list is different:
I Got To Find a Way
Let Me In
Precious, Precious
If I Could Reach Out And Help Somebody
Slow And Easy
Is It Over / That's How It Is
Turn Back the Hands Of Time
Trying To Live My Life Without You
Die A Little Each Die
Supposedly, the LP version also included I'm Qualified and All Because of Your Love.
I just listened to it again. It is an earlier Tokyo concert professionally recorded. I will post it here at the blog soon, along with a another private recording from 1991 that I am particularly fond of.
@Preslives
You may find it reassuring that I have never heard of Robert Cristgau before your mention. And I take that as proper indication of his alleged fame. This, too - I typed his name into Google and the second option offered to me automatically was "Robert Cristgau is an idiot". So you are clearly not alone in your opinion of his opinion. Found also that he also calls himself "The Dean of rock critics". Overly-pretentious preening little git. Cream of rock wankers might be more apt. Ralph J Gleason always seemed to me the only guy in the US who really knew what he was talking about in terms of roots and popular music. Cristgau is an irrelevance. I miss Ralph.
Anyway – I have heard of Otis Clay – even though I have not yet listened to his work yet, I know it exists.
Sadly, I am now made aware that Cristgau’s work exists.
What a pointless waste of life.
Looking forward to listening to Clay.
Thanks, KC.
Pres is correct. There was a Japanese Victor LP of a live show release in 1978. Clearly not the same show as the Rooster Blues / Bullseye / Waylo release(s). As for my close friend R C (no not K C) he is an excellent critic with a particular bent. I can forgive his bias in many areas, it is quite easy to spot, because he has successfully steered me to far more good material. It isn't about what a critic dislikes but about what he likes. Spend some time reading the 30 years of reviews in the Consumer Guide portion of his web page and IMHO he is right far more than he is wrong.
Thanks for that comment. I have some friends whose musical knowledge I greatly respect who also assure me that some of Robert Cristgau's writings and opinions are very worthwhile. I guess that I find some of what I have read (mostly on R&B/blues)to be so aggravating that it is hard for me even to get up the nerve to dig deeply into his writings. The last complete piece that I read of Cristgau's was his review of Peter Guralnick's book on Sam Cooke, which I found to be rather outrageous. I agree that the book has its weaknesses, although it is still quite an accomplishment. But Cristgau's main line of attack was that the book fails to make the case that Sam Cooke is even important enough to warrant such a long biography, and then goes on and on with his usual rant about how Sam Cooke was nothing in soul music compared to Al Green, and that if we can listen to Al Green, we don't need Sam Cooke, bla, bla, bla. Of course, establishing the legitimacy of Sam Cooke's greatness was not even one of the objectives of Guralnick's book. Most of us have no problem taking that for granted.
Is it fair to say that Cristgau's deep insights pertain much more to Rock music than R&B?
I guess that may well be a fair thing to say about Cristgau, but I would be completely unqualified to comment on that, having only belatedly been made aware of his existence. Glad that he is making a living by writing, in the same way that I welcome the success of anyone in making music. But that is simple basic pragmatic professional respect. It sure doesn't mean that I can support any claims for other intrinsic merit or value.
There is a young pop-writer for the New Yorker whose work I love to read. He is a pop-musician himself on the contemporary self-consciously N.Y. arts-pop scene. All the stuff he thinks is the absolute business I usually rate as absolute shite and in my opinion he knows NOTHING. But he writes about it so bloody well that reading his piffle is a pleasure. Disagreeing with his point of view is also a pleasure. At least I can enjoy the delusion of active dialogue with another fully conscious sentient being.
Meanwhile, I can't find any comparable rewards in my admittedly paltry trawl of Cristgau's stuff. As I said, I am happy he can make a living, respect... blah blah..., but, when all is said and done, 30 years of Consumer Guide reviews proves him as a skilled specialist professional hack who meets his deadlines, as all good pros must, but there are other qualities required to qualify as an "excellent critic".
I think that being able to write beautifully is one such requirement. Love is another essential. A deep and catholic knowledge and awareness of culture and context are also proposed as prerequisite. Cristgau fails in all dimensions.
Mind you, it would be pretty unrealistic to harbour any such expectations of a rock-critic - an essentially oxymoronic concept, after all - it is hardly a job for a grown-up, really. It's a job for a professional hack. One which not just anyone can perform and yet Cristgau delivers. Good job. But "excellent critic"? Spare me.
An "excellent" critic - like my aforementioned Gleason geezer - may well have a preference for Al Green over Sam Cooke. But we should legitimately expect them to show eloquence and grace in their persuasions. We need the reason and rationale driving their aesthetic in order to engage with it. An "excellent critic" makes us think. But he doesn't make us think the writer is an idiot absent of understanding the broader cultural, social, and historical contexts within which the relative consequence and significance of Sam Cooke and Al Green are proven.
Personally, I just don't 'get' Johnny Cash, for instance. Never have, never will - he's a complete musical irrelevance to me. But I would be a fool to be blind to his profound contextual importance. Even if you can't dance to it properly. Even if they clap on one and three.
For me, Al Green can be the grooviest. But the world still needed Sam Cooke (and Nat Cole, and Harry Belafonte) in order to be able to get the opportunity to hear him in the first place.
OK.
I'll shut up now. We all have better things to be doing. Simply wanted to express how much the odd Cristgau tendency here and there can piss me off. Obviously. And to state clearly and loudly that calling him "an excellent critic" is so patently a ludicrous assertion.
Criticism should be art, too.
We are owed that much.
And we deserve it.
Lazz - Yes. There is certainly nothing wrong with having a strong preference for Al Green over Sam Cooke. But arguing that Sam Cooke is of limited importance to R&B/Soul singing is just plain and simply wrong. He was the inspiration for 1000s, including Al Green, and essentially created what we think of as "sweet soul singing."
I guess excellence is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I'm less concerned with such in a critic and much prefer one who steers me toward excellent music which I may otherwise have missed. In RC's case he has done that. I do think he has come to write in a form of shorthand, presuming at this point in time the reader already know his bias.
Not sure which of his "large" pieces about Cooke you read or, frankly, how you arrived at your opinion but I just don't get the same felling from either. Here are the links to the two I am aware of so that folks can make up their own minds.
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/cooke-nat.php
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/cooke-03.php
Thanks for posting those. I am sure that there is another review published somewhere that was more more critical of both Guralnick and Cooke. I will look for it.
Thank you, dear Anonymous.
Those articles were an absolute delight to read.
So much more fulfilling than that shorthand style to which I had been briefly exposed and from which I had immediately recoiled. They created the wrong impression for me. This other shit is more like it. He can indeed write beautifully, driven by love, informed by understanding and a sensitivity for the appropriate contexts that I was blindly and blithely bitching about previously.
I am corrected. The status of "excellent critic" is earned and well-deserved. I am a convert. Hallelujah. And now that my own pretentious criteria are better satisfied I am happier to follow the Anonymous measure and trust that the guy knows his onions and is likely make valid recommendations.
It is a lovely thing to have one's opinions challenged and reformed so roundly and convincingly and - however awkwardly achieved - I am grateful for the belated introduction to a writer capable of making me eat my own words and enjoy the taste.
That's a neat trick.
And a great job, Anonymous.
Thank you for your patience.
The penultimate paragraph of the Village Voice article shows a perfect distillation of style and ideas finely expressed. Enough for me to envy.
Cristgau is now someone I will look out for and take seriously. Nicely. And my own chosen favourite version of "You Send Me" - if anyone is interested at this juncture - is from Rachelle Ferrell on "First Instrument"
And I am enjoying this Otis Clay experience very much also.
Fot the record, not attempting to be anonymous just too slow to figure out where to put my name. KC has used Unky Cliff on the blog but calls me Captain Excess to my face. Personally I feel my cap says it all, JENIUS.
Thanks for the live Clay. This is a great set.
http://www.embedupload.com/?d=1IWUGWFEAW
And even more to thank you for...
Wayne
Thank you for all the great posts today, KingCake.
Thank you for helping us keep Clay's spirit alive by providing so many re-posts and new posts of his music. If Louisiana ever secedes to retain its musical uniqueness, I'd nominate you for Roi for all you have done to make us aware of it's importance to American music and for your devotion to southern soul and gospel. No one does it better and I'll rue the day when you and contributors like Poppachubby, Clash, Preslives, P-Mac, Guitar Gus and others retire from blogging.
Please re-up. All links are dead.
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