Solomon Burke - Blue and Soulful

Solomon Burke - Blue & Soulful

Was Solomon Burke the greatest soul singer of all time? Well producer Jerry Wexler, writer Peter Guralnick and Philly DJ icon Jimmy Bishop will all say that Solomon was The Dude any day of the week even with a borrowed band!

If you listen to the the stunning variety of vocal tones and colors he exerts in the 60 songs here it is pretty easy to understand their enthusiasm; quite simply THIS GUY COULD SING ANYTHING! Across these songs he seems capable of taking on ANY song, Any style, Any sound or even any diction and he sounds completely effortless.

Almost any singer who has been featured here on the blog was within his seemingly limitless range. In the course of this exploration we have seen one great singer after another prove incapable of conquering inferior material. Wynonie Harris, Little Willle John, and countless others prove unable to maintain excitement without good songs that fit them. With Burke it really does not seem to matter, he likely could have sung the Yellow Pages and made it riveting, he was just THAT good. From deepest baritone to highest falsetto there was never even a hint of loss of control that I have ever heard, NOBODY else could do that.

In his mid teens during his first music career he toured in a show with Little Willie John and Joe Tex and stole the show every night. During his second music career he toured with a show that included Otis Redding, Joe Tex and Garnet Mimms.....Burke was the unquestioned headliner. Today he is somehow remembered more for his girth, throne and crown than his blinding talent.

When Ray Charles left Atlantic in 1959 it sent shock waves throughout what was then the greatest R&B/soul label going. Ahmet Ertegun felt deeply betrayed and retreated from the labels' R&B permanently, focusing first on pop like Bobby Darin and Sonny and Cher and later rock bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin and Buffalo Springfield. Jerry Wexler was still committed to black music but without his star he was lost. Between 1959 and 1961 Atlantic had lost it's per-eminent position in the music and sales declined sharply, then one fine day in late 1960 a giant fresh faced young man appeared in Wexler's office and over the next four years not only saved the label but carried them to previously unheard of heights. Go to Wikipedia today and they act like he was never as successful as Charles, Brown, Pickett or Redding but that just isn't true when you look at the actual history. Were it not for Burke, the Atlantic of 1965 that boasted Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding would likely have never happened.

Burke and his family carefully crafted an entire mythology about his birth, his grandmother claiming a vision of him 10 years before his birth and knowing the path his life was destined for. Burke claimed to be born in 1940 (at least 1 source claims 1936) and was a child preacher by age 7. He included gospel singing in his ministry and soon began to attract wider attention. Without question the preacher persona was the source of the comfort and easy confidence he felt on stage. Very few people in history have dominated a room the way this man could, his 'presence' and charm were actually far greater than his considerable size. 

At 15 Burke was signed to Apollo records and from 1955 to 57 and he enjoys a fair amount of success but when he began to ask uncomfortable questions as to whether his label and manager are dealing straight with him, his career ends abruptly. Burke was devastated to the point of withdrawing from the business and the world as a whole, according to him spending some time begging on the street until an epiphany moment which includes him being hit by a car driven by a relative who owned a mortuary. (Like I said there is more than a bit of mythology to his story) The woman sent him to mortuary college and in short order Burke became a successful mortician and returned to his ministry. We may well have never heard any more of him were it not for the determination of a man named Babe Shivian who so wanted to manage Burke that he essentially blackmailed him by parking his inappropriate bright red Lincoln in front of Solomon's funeral home each day until the singer relented. (Shivian then gave him the car)

After a couple of singles Solomon marches into Jerry Wexler's office and answers all of Wexler's prayers; the question of what to do after losing Ray is answered in this total package that shows up on his doorstep fully formed and ready for damn near anything. Burke embarks on his second music career with of all things a country song "Just Out Of Reach", replete with a white chorus and fiddle, he delivers the song completely straight, sounding for all the world like a better Elvis. After a few machinations the song is a hit with most of it's audience having little clue that the singer was black.

What follows over the next 4 years is well represented in the dizzying array of these 60 songs, although for my part they could have let out everything, no matter how many discs it takes. I defy any of you to listen to the lot of them straight thru and not come away stunned by the versatility of his voice; Elvis, Hank Snow, Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, James Brown? Yeah, no problem, got that covered. Al Green, Sam Cooke, Wynonie Harris? Yeah got all of them too. He even does the unthinkable in covering Lee Dorsey's "Get Out My Life Woman" and he absolutely crushes it! (Track 59)

The greatest soul singer ever? Well he sure as hell is in the conversation!

Soul Shots 3 - "Soul Twist" Instrumentals

Well, I thought I remembered that this one focused on women, but clearly I was wrong. This one provides a nice selection of instrumentals for your Jukebox.

No big surprises here, but if you don't already have them,you should.

Soul Shots: Volume 1, Dance Party

I know that not everyone is a huge fan of the compilations, but I would like to point out once again that most of the material presented here was released as singles and in a time where the Song rather than the Album was king. Those of you who have been stacking the compilations like Blowing The Fuse and Stompin' in your digital jukeboxes will be thrilled to add these wonderfully made Rhino sets from 1989 to that mix.

Thanks to that Uncle who shares my affliction I have the first 5 LPs for y'all; there are at least 21 volumes as far as I can tell. Some things here are well known old friends, some things are likely completely new to you, others still will be familiar but not in the version heard here. Each volume that I have heard is exceptionally well chosen and sequenced and of course the Rhino engineers did a lovely job on the sound.

btw Stompin' fans need not worry yet on that front, I still have 2 of those left and there are many more out there.

Wilson Pickett - Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Recordings (1962-1978)

Pres' fantastic Opal Nations Pickett collection spurred a request for new links on my first Wicked Pickett post. Well rather than just restore my post of the Double L album I've decided to shoot the works and give you the whole 6 disc Rhino Handmade box of all the Atlantic material including the Double L material which Jerry Wexler bought when he signed Pickett to Atlantic. It a bit of overkill but I'll let each of you pare it down as you will.

"Wilson Pickett was a force of nature, a one-man hurricane that blew everything out of his path. As he sang in one of his many Top 40 R&B singles, he was A Man and a Half, a title so fitting it served as a summary for Rhino's 1993 double-disc compilation, a collection that stood as the most exhaustive Pickett retrospective until Rhino Handmade unleashed the six-disc box Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Recordings (1962-1978), a monumental testament to the sweatiest, grittiest, soul singer who ever grabbed a microphone. This set may not be billed as the "complete recordings", but it is effectively that, rounding up all the master takes Pickett cut for Atlantic during those 16 years, dipping back for a few sides by his early group the Falcons, skipping his three-year sojourn at RCA from 1972-1975, adding some rarities, but essentially serving up all his prime titles in a handsome, hardcover book."

What has been glossed over by most writers when discussing Pickett is the REAL derivation of the name Wicked Pickett or Evil Pickett. The fact is he earned the name with an extremely volatile temper and a penchant for violence and weapons. His first session at Stax was largely responsible for the split between Stax and Atlantic as Wexler was told in no uncertain terms to never bring that crazy MF into their studio again. There was an incident of Pickett and the Isley brothers getting into a gun battle in the parking lot outside a show. Most people in the industry fully expected him to be the next Little Willie John and to end up in prison for having killed someone. Pickett was a stupendous talent no doubt, a great voice and dynamic stage presence, but apparently his ego and temper made him difficult to be around and a constant disruption on a tour because everyone had to walk on eggshells around him. At one point he erupted on someone who was attempting to compliment him because they included a reference to another singer in the compliment! You won't read too many warm fuzzy memories of Wilson as a young man.

So here is the whole shebang, all the Atlantic material -- I think it could really be distilled to 2, one of the hits and maybe one of the many  covers he did so relentlessly might be interesting. you get to decide.

Uptown Rulers - The Meters Live on the Queen Mary

I don't have any idea why his album has gone out of print while the rest of The Meters catalog is finally all back in-print and finally making money for the guys instead of just for Toussaint and Seahorn. I don't want to post any of those albums but this one seems to be fair game for the time being and it gives me a post of my boys.

Here's the wiki stuff, liberally commented on by moi:
"The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977. The band played an influential role as backing musicians for other artists, including Lee Dorsey, Robert Palmer, and Dr John.

While The Meters rarely enjoyed significant mainstream success, they are considered, along with artists like James Brown, one of the progenitors of funk music and their work is highly influential on many other bands, both their contemporaries and modern musicians working in the funk idiom.

The Meters' sound is defined by an earthy combination of tight melodic grooves and highly syncopated New Orleans "second-line" rhythms under highly charged guitar and keyboard riffing. Their songs "Cissy Strut" and "Look-Ka Py Py" are considered funk classics.

Art Neville, the group's frontman, launched a solo career around the New Orleans area in the mid-1950s while still in high school.(the Hawketts - Mardi Gras Mambo, Art also recorded for Specialty and Imperial) The Meters formed in 1965 with a line-up of keyboardist and vocalist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr. and drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste. They were later joined by percussionist/vocalist Cyril Neville. The Meters became the house band for Allen Toussaint and his record label, Sansu Enterprises. (The early band rarely featured vocals, they were primarily instrumental, a New Orleans Booker T and the MG's, they also occasionally included sax player Gary Brown)In 1969 the Meters released "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Cissy Strut", both major R&B chart hits. "Look-Ka Py Py" and "Chicken Strut" were their hits the following year. After a label shift in 1972, the Meters had difficulty returning to the charts, but they worked with Dr. John, Paul McCartney, King Biscuit Boy, Labelle, Robert Palmer and others.

In 1975 Paul McCartney invited the Meters to play at the release party for his Venus and Mars album aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California; Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones was in attendance at the event and was greatly taken with the Meters and their sound. (In fact, his statement was that The Meters were the best f___ing band in the world.) The Rolling Stones invited the band to open for them on their Tour of the Americas '75 and Tour of Europe '76. (that didn't work out so well, The Meters kept stealing the show!) That same year, the Meters recorded one of their most successful albums, Fire On The Bayou. From 1976 to '77 they played in The Wild Tchoupitoulas with George & Amos Landry and the Neville Brothers. (and released their last two albums, Trick Bag and New Directions)

They appeared on Saturday Night Live on March 19, 1977, during the show's second season. The band broke up later that year. (Okay, this part they got wrong, the band really fell apart on the plane going to the Saturday Night Live gig, Art got off the plane and went home and they played without him on the show. They played a few more times together in 77, 78 and 79 but for the most part they played using other keyboard players.)


After the break-up, Neville gained fame as part of The Neville Brothers, Modeliste toured with Keith Richards and Ron Wood, while Nocentelli and Porter "became in-demand session players and formed new bands."
(also Zig moved to Oakland, Leo to L.A.)
When Hip hop and rap emerged it created a need for sampling. Their music has been sampled by musicians around the world, including rap artists Heavy D, LL Cool J and Queen Latifah, Musiq, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, NWA, Ice Cube, Salt N’ Pepa, Cypress Hill, EPMD, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Naughty by Nature, and Tweet. The Red Hot Chili Peppers pay homage to them in one of their hit songs, and bands such as the Grateful Dead, KVHW, Steve Kimock Band, Widespread Panic, Rebirth Brass Band, Galactic and String Cheese perform The Meters in their concert rotations. The Meters songs have also graced such movies as “Two Can Play That Game,” “Jackie Brown,” “Drum Line,” “8 Mile,” “Hancock,” and "Red".

In 2000, a "big offer" enticed all four original Meters to reunite for a one-night stand at the Warfield in San Francisco (an epic night); by this time Modeliste wanted to make the reunion a permanent one, but the other members and their management teams objected. It wasn't until Quint Davis, producer and director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, got them to "put aside their differences and hammer out the details" and headline the Festival in 2005 (another great show). The original Meters continue to perform at various one-off concerts such as the 2011 Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco, California.