Millie Jackson - Live and Uncensored

Mildred "Millie" Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter and comedienne. Three of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies.

Her vocal performances are often distinguished by long, humorous, and explicit spoken sections in her music, which she started doing on stage to get the attention of the audience. She has also recorded songs in a disco or dance music style and even some country styled songs. She is the mother of Keisha Jackson.

Born in Thomson, Georgia, Jackson is the daughter of a sharecropper. Her mother died when she was a child and subsequently, she and her father moved to Newark, New Jersey. By the time Jackson was in her mid-teens, she had moved to Brooklyn to live with an aunt. She occasionally worked as a model for magazines like JIVE and Sepia.

Jackson's singing career reportedly began on a dare to enter a 1964 Harlem nightclub talent contest, which she won. Although she first recorded for MGM Records in 1970, she soon left and began a long association with New York-based Spring Records. Working with the label's in-house producer, Raeford Gerald, her first single to chart was 1971's deceptively titled "A Child of God (It's Hard to Believe)," which reached number 22 on the R&B charts. In 1972, Jackson had her first R&B Top Ten single with the follow-up, "Ask Me What You Want", which also reached the pop Top 30, then "My Man, A Sweet Man" reached #7 R&B; all three hits were co-written by Jackson. "My Man, A Sweet Man" retains its popularity today for northern soul enthusiasts and is played on the radio in the UK and quoted as an example from this musical genre as is her 1976 recording, "A House for Sale". The following year brought her biggest single success and her third Top Ten hit, "It Hurts So Good," which made #3 on the R&B charts and #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. The single was featured on the album of the same name and in the blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones, also appearing on that film's soundtrack along with the song "Love Doctor".

In 1974, she released the album Caught Up, which introduced her innovative style of raunchy rap. The featured release was her version of Luther Ingram's million-seller, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", for which she received two Grammy nominations. By now, she had switched producers to work only with Brad Shapiro, recording at Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama with the renowned Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. She continued to record most of her material for Spring there, including the follow-up album, Still Caught Up.

Over the next ten years, Jackson had a string of successful albums and numerous R&B chart entries, the biggest being her 1977 version of Merle Haggard's country hit "If You're Not Back In Love By Monday". That hit single was followed by many more, including her version of the Boney M. song, the disco single, "Never Change Lovers In The Middle of The Night." This single peaked at #33 on the Black Singles chart in 1979.

Jackson recorded an album in 1979 with Isaac Hayes called "Royal Rappin's" and the same year saw her release a double album, "Live And Uncensored", recorded in concert at Los Angeles venue, The Roxy. Jackson also formed and produced the group Facts of Life. They had a major hit in 1976 with "Sometimes" (#3 R&B, #31 Pop). wiki

Millie Jackson - On The Country Side

I am taking some degree of malicious glee in using THIS album as my first Millie Jackson post. Of course if this is your first exposure, then YOU are one of those having the friendly joke played on you. In others words, this album is nothing like your average release from this Chitlin Circuit Queen.

"The Bitch Is Back

Rock and roll from the ‘50s was credited with mixing white musical styles, such as country and pop, with black music, such as R&B and gospel. However, by the early ‘70s, the genres had separated. Classic soul and country rock were being created with little ethnic intermixing, which reflected what was going on in the larger society. But the truth is country and soul came out of the same Southern places before rock even existed, and the influence the two had on each other has always been clear to discerning listeners.

Consider Millie Jackson. Her deep soul albums of the ‘70s, such as It Hurts So Good, Still Caught Up and Feelin’ Bitchy, contained a country leavening in the way Jackson accentuated the language and phrased her way across a melody, not to mention the fact that she frequently covered country songs on these albums. There was also something about her attitude. You couldn’t call her a redneck, but then again she retitled “Redneck Crazy” as “Black Bitch Crazy” on the one new song on this collection. They are pretty much the same things.

Anyway, it should not seem a surprise that Jackson released a straight country record back in 1980 called Just a Li’l Bit Country. She covered such deliciously emotive material as Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”, Tammy Wynette’s “Till I Get it Right” and Howard Harlan’s “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down”. She also, for some reason, included a few non-country items, such as Neil Diamond’s “Love on the Rocks”. The album flopped, which Jackson attributes to personnel changes at the record company. That may be true, but the original album was spotty and not all the songs top notch.

Which is probably why there are only five of 10 Just a Li’l Bit Country tracks included on the recent anthology of Jackson’s country music, mostly recorded between 1977 and 1981, featured on The Soul Country Collection. The 17-cut collection contains some real gems, including her 1977 top 10 soul cover of Merle Haggard’s “If You’re Not Back in Love By Monday” and the 1978 top 40 soul hit version of Kenny Rogers’ “Sweet Music Man”. These work because Jackson takes these songs straight on. There is nothing gimmicky about them.

Less successful are the more disco-fied and less sacrosanct covers, like Barbara Mandrell’s “Angel in Your Arms”. She camps it up too much, and the instruments blare over her voice in a lackluster arrangement. Mitchell’s too good to have to be trendy to succeed. Sure, it may be fun to change Kris Kristofferson’s bawdy “Anybody That Don’t Like Hank Williams” into the irreverent “Anybody That Don’t Like Millie Jackson”, but the joke wears thin before the song is over.

Jackson’s a major talent who doesn’t always get her due because she often performs blue. That was and is her trademark, but there is little of that here. Instead, this disc offers a chance for listeners to hear a neglected side of an overlooked artist. Soul lovers may revel in the already available classic albums from the past, but there is much to offer music fans here." By Steve Horowitz 6 November 2014