I was aware of Al Green for the first time when I hear Tina Turner's rendition of Let's Stay Together. Her version, with her passionately quivering voice and explosive chorus delivery, was very attractive for a freak of America's hit charts like me. And then I heard the original Al's. His soft whisper and heart-grabbing falsetto is also good, though, I felt time went by too fast for the tune's pop and simple composition. It's true that songs of about 3 minutes in the early 70's taste less salty and lighter than those of 4 or 5 in the 80's with rich arrangements. With such a notion I borrowed Al's "Greatest Hits" of Hi years from a library, however, I was truly indulged in it. Less notes of horns, strings, rhythm sections and so on generate slow and tight grooves which give me temperate strain and comfort. Al Green's way of ride on the rhythms is just that of gospel, so his voice wrapped in a soft cotton candy sometimes reveals his gospel strength. The series of songs like Tired of Being Alone, Call Me, I'm Still in Love with You, Here I Am, Love and Happiness, You Ought to Be with Me, Look What You Done for Me, Sha La La, L-O-V-E flows into my ears and blows away my feeling of unsatisfaction in Let's Stay Together. This sense of melodies floating in among blues and jazz and pops you can have only on his tunes of that period. Not to mention for the first time, I am still thrilled with it. After getting his "Greatest Hits" in my hands I was so fully satisfied with it that I had left myself untouched to his other albums, while I sometimes thought of them.
His recent album "I Can't Stop" was released from Blue Note (which has not only jazz but Norah Jones nowadays). I heard a few songs from this on the radio and found them sounded almost like Hi years in his heyday. Though I guess "nothing can be changed now", I got the CD. This is not always concentrated on the sweetness of Hi sound and contains a funky tune like I've Been Thinkin' 'Bout You which strikes my mind. In the liner notes there is a photo of Al and the producer of Al's fine works, Willie Mitchel side by side, which shows that they together get old and do the same as they used to be. After the accident in which his ex-girlfriend poured grits (one of southern soul foods served in the pot) on Al and gave him serious burns and killed herself with his gun, he had his own church and became a pastor. I remember that and then I start pursuing by his albums what happened between Hi years and today.
His late 80's A&M compilation "Testify" also contains tunes in which he teamed up with his old friend Willie Mitchel. They remind me of familiar Hi sounds. Other sides are contemporaries of the 80's backed by electronic sounds. Put a Little Love in Your Heart for the film "Scrooged" is produced by Eurythmics. When I listened, I guess "Well, I remember this was a hit of those days". Since I became less interested in hit charts, I couldn't find this Al Green at first listening. Moreover, the voice of Annie Lennox and the falsetto of Al Green are put on together in the same range of tones and singing part, so I myself feel less impressed by him. He once had been said to be away from secular music and to have gospel albums, though, finally he has decided not to leave from the ministry and do secular music again. The wall between gospel and secular is likely to be more obscure today than in the days of Sam Cooke or Ray Charles. As soul singers who came from gospel find success and acceptance, the religious world began to allow them to "use their own good point and do good for the society" as a sign of belief, don't you think? As for me in Japan, where there are less christians and the relation is weaker between religion and music and people tend to ask religion a virginity, I have a sense of incongruity or contradiction in Al Green's attitude as a born entertainer appeared on some photos. On "Tokyo ... Live" you can hear how he was so religiously exalted at Nakano San Plaza Hall concerts, when his Belle won the Grand Prize for Best Vocalist of the "Tokyo Music Festival" in 1978. (This festival has other competitors like Kate Bush or Blondie.)
When I listen to his 4 CD set Hi compilation "The Immortal Soul of Al Green", first I am interested in the recordings before Hi sound was settled. When you listen to his Otis-Redding-like rendition of the Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand or James-Brown-like Get Back, Baby, you can find his other side different from his sexy voice like a tender sheet. You'll be knocked out by his great days' tunes like a ultra ballad of the Bee Gees' How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, a blue and cool dedication to his distant cousin and bluesman Little Junior Parker, Take Me to a River. Hi was one of Memphis labels like Stax. While Stax became rather pop before and after Booker T & The MGs was disbanded, Hi seemed to take over the previous Stax sound even if Hi used strings or lyrical guitar licks. This is because The MG Al Jackson Jr. often joined in Hi recordings and initiate the Hi Rhythm Section (the crutial members are Howard Grimes (drums), Teenie Hodges (guitar), Leroy Hodges (bass) and Charles Hodges (keyboards)) into the secret of Memphis Sound, "groove and be simple". Accompanied with the sound like smooth silk, Al Green whispers love songs and sometimes utters such words as he is conscious of the divine. Since his mind was oscillated between the world and the religion, his voice of the golden age made a glitter which cannot be resurrected by his calmer manner as a pastor and singer, I guess so.
After I wrote above, Al Green keeps cutting new ones. On "Everything's OK", by the same team with Willie Mitchel as "I Can't Stop", Al Green put 'the reverend' on his own credit and his voice engine seems to catch. His rendition of You Are So Beautiful is getting on well with himself. His powerful preaching on the ad lib of Another Day is kind of telling the sequel of the story of two after Al went to gospel. (After I wrote above, Willie Mitchel passed away. I wish him rest in peace.) And his new "Lay It Down" is co-produced by neo-soul generators James Poyser and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson instead of Willie Mitchel. On this album they take the technique of reproducing, that is, the world of Love and Happiness, whose floating melody was the coolest among his tunes. This is a pretty work revealing the fine aspect of hip-hop sters' "taking the cream of the old school". The softness of his falsetto puts itself ahead of the strongness of his gospel, and I'm so knocked out by Take Your Time, getting his voice intertwined with the amiable but impressive vocal of Corinne Bailey Rae. Collaborating with Anthony Hamilton or John Legend, today's youngsters with heartful delivery, Al brings a work which satisfies those who know little of modern music. Al Green appears on its sleeve in the same vein as before. He changes so little that it makes me scare somehow. (2005/08/28)(2009/02/05)(2010/01/17)