I am saved to large extent by reading Guralnick, Gilllete and Shaw and the magnificent book in the SAR set. (thanks Cliffy for all of those). Despite the obvious made for top 40 production of the early sides with Bumps Blackwell, and the next generation of similarly produced sides at Keen, there was still a different side of Cooke that is not so tame. I have chosen to chicken out and jump to that.
The fact is that Cooke still played far more Circuit style black venues than he did white venues throughout his short career; we are made more aware of gigs like The Coppa through choices made by record people. At first Sam cleaved to the careful sound and phrasing of his pop records and when touring black venues with Jackie Wilson in 1960-61, he was regularly 'cut up' each night by Wilson's drama and vocal gymnastics. By 1963 he had achieved the synthesis of what made him so special in Gospel with secular R&B. When Sams' management agreed to a second round of touring, Wilsons' people expressed wonder that he would subject himself to that abuse again. This time Cooke cut Wilson deep each and every night, leaving a trail of ecstatic, weeping women across the Chitlin Circuit. Now rearmed with the tools that made him the Gospel star he had once been, he was unstoppable.
As undeniably good as that wave of major market driven hits that launched Sam where, they can't hold a candle to Night Beat. This is Sam showing his true stripes as a soul god. Much more sparse and musically interesting arrangements, much more riveting songs and that voice......Good God that voice... so much better showcased in this context than in those previous gooey distractions. All by itself this album would place Cooke squarely in the center of our discussion at the end of the Burke post about greatest soul singers. BTW that is a 16 year old Billy Preston on organ! Cliff White and Barney Kessell are on guitars and that fine piano was Raymond Johnson.
More glorious Cooke coming soon, including the rare SAR set!
6 comments:
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congratulations for getting over the cooke hump, KC!
excellent post!
this blog would be sorely lacking without "night beat". it certainly is one of sam's two all-time best albums (live at harlem square club is my nr. 1).
Great post, KC. The murder of Sam Cooke robbed us of so much. The best was probably yet to come. The Soul era proper that he himself launched would have taken the distortions out of his music that he put there in search for. We have to be thankful for what we DO have, however, like the gospel recordings, this album, the Harlem Club date cited above, and the best of the pop hits.
I'll never forget when the Harlem Club recording was first discovered in the 1980s. I had no idea, and was driving my Dodge Dart in downtown Philadelphia. They put it on the radio. I had to pull over and just listen. What the f###!!!!!!
Great post KC and might I add, you have excellent taste. I think it's an awful shame that Cooke's RCA sides tend to be overlooked. It's hard to find much Cooke that doesn't have the syrupy music, so it's his delivery that really sets things apart.
This is the first Sam Cooke recording that I ever bought and my favorite. When I was a young boy in the early sixties, it seemed like Cooke was everywhere on the radio whenever my family would take a ride in the car. The story behind his death has always been suspect Preslives has it exactly right. I have always wondered what Cooker and Redding, respectively, might have recorded if they hadn't died so young. Hendrix, too, was headed in an interesting direction at the time of his death. To be banal, so much talent, so little time.
Nice Post KC
No surprises that I have this album (vinyl & CD)The 2005 cd version I have has a essay attached by Peter Guralnick where he writes about 'Night Beat', "It is a perfectly calibrated late-night mood piece that pays tribute in equal measure to Sam's roots in gospel music and the blues".
And a quote from Ray Charles on the rear cover =
"The one and only.He hit every note where it was supposed to be. And not only hit the note, but hit the note with feeling. Nobody else sounded like Sam . I mean nobody!".
Great praise indeed
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