It's a Soul Thang

You must familiarize yourself with Stax if you want soul-Johnny Taylor,Otis Redding, Sam and Dave,Booker T.and the MGs were their headliners.

Motown, for all its strengths, unabashedly tried to reach the "wider" audience, while Stax, generally speaking, was, (in my opinion) way more soulful.

I will send titles and more later- I have to look through the albums.

Here we go 4 (I hope I can be so informal!)

First, my biases. I consider Soul music to have emerged after Doo Wop and before the emergence of Funk. The heyday was through the 60's and 70's.

Also, although I have tons of soul albums with only one or two great tunes, the following recommmendations have great tunes throughout the entire disc.

That being said, my mandatory must have, skip the mortgage payment to get 'em recommendations in the Soul "Male Group" category are:

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes- I Miss You

Creative Source- Creative Source

Delfonics- Super Hits

The Dells- Freedom Means

The Dells- There Is

Stylistics- The Stylists

Stylistics- Round 2

Please stay tuned for nominations in the Soul "Female Vocalist" category.

Michael

In my opinion, female vocalists have been given a raw deal by record companies.

The quality and quantity of their work in the soul arena is sparse as far as albums are concerned. Singles are a different matter.

The short required list of albums follows:

Aretha Franklin- I Never Loved A Man the Way I love You.

Gladys Knight and the Pips- If I Were Your Woman.

Diana Ross- Touch Me in The Morning.

While not recorded in the day, Sade's "Promise" touches me.

Male Vocalists in mostly alphabetical order.

Marvin Gaye- I Want You
Marvin Gaye- Trouble Man

On each album, you are treated to explorations of themes introduced earlier on the album. Hypnotic.

I intentionally omitted the indescribably fabulous, and often noted "What's Going On"

Al Green- Call Me
Al Green- Explores Your Mind
Al Green- I'm Still in Love with You

With apologies to the Solid State fans, I think Al Green has tubes in his throat. He smokes on all of these albums. Seductive.

Donny Hathaway- Live. This is well worth searching for. The album alternately grooves and inspires. When I think of his performance of "We're Still Friends", I well up with emotion.

Isaac Hayes- Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes- Shaft

Eddie Kendricks- All By Myself. Another album worthy of a prolonged search. Pay what you must to get it. After leaving the Temptations, Eddie cut this. Meditative, contemplative, and provocative.

Curtis Mayfield- Superfly. This album is as great as the movie was dopey. Another one that has to be played and savored from beginning to end. Curtis Mayfield laid the political themes down lyrically with a heavy hand. His guitar licks are real traditional and also speak volumes. The arrangements bring the orchestration like Soul music is supposed to. "Superfly" qualifies as one to take to the deserted island.

And if you like this, graduate to his album "Curtis". That's right, the one where he is sportin' the yellow suit on the cover.

Smokey Robinson-Smokey. His work with the Miracles is justifiably popular. This album, unlike my other recommendations, is not strong throughout, and is somewhat quirky. However, his performances on "Sweet Harmony" and "Baby Come Close" are riveting and make this album worth acquiring. Here, you can hear Smokey take his time with the microphone. On top of this, you hear all the sweetening -cello, harps,vibes,violins-and none of the syrup.

Bobby Womack- Communication. I believe Bobby Womack can grunt and scream 100 scales. He needs no words. On side two he grooves on "Close to You"(Yes-Bert Bacarach's composition) for nine and a half minutes. Put this on, and if you ask the old lady, you can get some grinding!

Stevie Wonder- Buy any and everything he ever recorded with the caveat that many of his albums have a theme and progession from tune to tune and side to side. As a consequence, avoid the collections, and enjoy each album on its own. If you play guitar, get the songbooks and play along.

Good luck, and thanks for initiating a great thread. Now, I have to turn the lights down low...

Michael