How does one follow their own greatness and feed a now heightened expectation from the masses? A nonplussed Al Green & Willie Mitchell seemed not to miss a beat. A true testament to the passion of driven men, through Hi Records Al Green and Willie Mitchell produced four stellar, critically and commercially acclaimed recordings within 24 months-a feat never before or never since mirrored.įollowing decadence is often an insurmountable task. While Detroit, Muscle Shoals, and even Memphis were already going full steam with their own brand of soul, Green and Mitchell harvested something completely separate from any factory or assembly line recordings, though they recorded and released them in a similar fashion. ![]() Combined Mitchell and Green created a truly new sound. ![]() While Green had a firm handle on the vocal department, Mitchell assembled one of the grittiest southern session crews to accompany and support Green's unique texture. As the most emotionally astute vocalist to date, on rousing cuts like "I'm Glad You're Mine" and "Love and Happiness," he was able to cry, yearn, and arouse at will, depending on what the lyric called for. The emotionally vexing aspect of Green is that he was just as persuasive on the sensuous as he was on the sanctified. It was the voice of guidance and advice as opposed to the aural co-signing of misery-and it was welcomed. It was moving and spiritually resonated in a different way than any choir could convey. With a 2nd tenor/baritone, Green commanded a different set of emotions whenever he chose to access his pulpit voice. But, unlike the golden altar boy or choir lead Cooke undoubtedly represented in both appearance and voice, Al Green was representative of the presiding pastor in pure harmonic mode. In this definition of soul and soul singing, Sam Cooke is undoubtedly the Father. ![]() In this context, "soul" must be defined as the marriage of gospel and blues, that is, the root of African-American music: field hollers and Negro spirituals-the exorcism of pain through song to God, the Father cries in praise of life despite despair, or pleas for freedom from it. It is impossible to think of Al Green on I'm Still In Love With You and not think of the definition of soul. Two truths of Al Green and Willie Mitchell: 1.) nothing before or after sounded like the production of Willie Mitchell's Memphis-based studio, mixing and musicians, and 2.) no one before or after Al Green has vocalized the perfect balance of sanctified and sensuous, whether on his originals or the covers he would eventually own. As raw as that lopsided ‘fro denotes, if Al Green hadn't so brilliantly covered the Righteous Bros, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, The Temptations et al., we and the musical colleagues of his 1970-77 run would have no reference for this alien being, who has been unequivocally ordained the last soul singer of the ‘70s.
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