The CD box set "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974" was an epoch-making thing which settled what kind of music I love. In my school days, it was one of my delights to make a 'pilgrimage' through libraries in Tokyo which collected various CDs, especially in Bunkyo and Minato Ward whose CDs suited my taste. In course of borrowing them and copying them to tapes, I began to make the endless journey of music since when I heard the 7-CD set at that time. To start with thinking ''I want to hear more songs of this person'', I pursued it and came to guess ''I've come across this name and I wanna know who (s)he is and what kind of songs (s)he sings''. Although there increased songs I have not heard for a long time, I sometimes yearn to know other songs associating with them by fits and starts.
Brook Benton released Rainy Night in Georgia from a label Cotillion under the distribution of Atlantic, which feels like penetrating into my body and soul as I get old. The sentimental guitar, the organ which is heard from afar, and the strained tone of strings. Besides them the electifying low voice vibrates and spreads, giving me the view and mood of rainy night during a lonely journey. It means nothing but taking what he feels rather than searching what it says. I guess it is a part of wonderfulness in a song. In case of other songs of Brook Benton, however, the set I mentioned contains only Rainy Night in Georgia, and then So Many Ways, on a CD I borrowed (I forgot its name), has a sweetish country-flavored arrangement, which has made me hesitate to run after his other songs.In some time I restlessly became dying to get his compilation, so I got various kinds of bests. But there seemed to be no ultimate album in the catalogs of sites. Moreover, there mingled unthankful re-recording CDs with them, one of which I bought in vain. Despite it, I managed to hit his comprehensive bests "The Millennium Collection (Mercury)" , "Greatest Hits(Curb)" and his UK edition Mercury best "The Best of (Spectrum)" and his Mercury duets and minor hits compilation "For My Baby(Spectrum)".
Brook Benton was at his best during the stay at Mercury from 1959 to 1965, and, with his partner Clyde Otis, co-wrote and released sweet songs which were easy for whites to listen to like Nat King Cole's. Enterprises of those days wanted soft ones for the reaction against hard rock'n'rolls like early Elvis. The two man, who came to see a chance of selling to whites (crossover), made a right choice to make such songs, and Brook's voice was suited to them. Although they include sometimes exaggerated arrangements of the orchestra and chorus, his tunes around in '60 hold a large amount of rhythm & blues elements because they have faster rhythms than jazz or blues singers' ones around in '50. His breakthrough hit It's Just a Matter of Time is a keenly moving tune and suggests that he should bloom after going through behind-the-scene years, during which he and Clyde Otis had made and sold their demos to others like Nat King Cole. A rather up-tempo and brave Endlessly is quite impressive. His baritone still resonates comfortably when you listen to Kiddio and Fools Rush In and Hotel Happiness and more, which are deliberately crafted under the condition of sweet orchestra arrangements where you can hardly find any wild saxophone or guitar solos. His rendition of House is not a Home, a Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition, was a modelate hit but a comfortable reading. You can also hear their skillful and mature singings and pleasant exchanges of words by an intimate couple for a long time in Baby (You've Got What It Takes), A Rockin' Good Way, which are duets with the then jazz and blues queen Dinah Washington. I think early Marvin Gaye's solos and duets should be obviously influenced by Brook Benton. Besides his romantic sides there are also many novelties like The Boll Weevil Song, playing a funny dialogue between Boll Weevil (a cotton bug) and the farmer, and Shadrack and Hit Record, which now sound naive. Though you can hear RCA sides like Mother Nature, Father Time or Atlantic sides like Don't It Make You Wanna Go Home on "Greatest Hits (Curb)", I think those at his best are superior to them except Rainy Night in Georgia.
If 'Be what you are' had been the theme of Soul since the latter half of '60s, Brook Benton, also a composer and great deliverer, should have been its pioneer. But in order to the restriction and limitation of the age he often seems to be misunderstood as remains of the past. Especially as there is a huge difference in things and thoughts between in early '60s and in late '60s, it is hard to find the one's virtue if you have already had interests in the other's. Either in old days or nowadays, however, a singer lives on singing and it's exactly 'Be what you are'. (2004/07/30)(2006/01/01)