It is a truism, easily substantiated by numerous examples but beyond the need of proof, that gospel strongly influenced r&b, then soul. In that process, also many spiritual tunes were turned into »secular« songs and eventually lost every connection to their origin. It happened much more rarely, at least in the '60s, that the conversion went the other way round. One such instance is the Swanees's 1966 release on Federal # 12542.
The Swanee Quintet (whose members debuted on this blog some two weeks ago) were a staple of Nashboro records into the mid-1960s when they had lost, after 15 years with the label, much of their former appeal. However, they had a special fan in James Brown who knew the Quintet since his early days (actually from before he started his own career) in Augusta, Ga. Brown had once worked as a shoe shine boy outside the WGAC radio station in Augusta (where the Swanees had their afternoon radio programme). The shoe shine boy grew up listening to the Swanee Quintet and in his teenage years secularised the sound of Ruben Willingham and the Swanees ... (quoted from here). In 1966, therefore, JB once again became the producer, and the result was the Federal single # 12542. That the billing on the label doesn't say »Swa- nee Quintet« or the like but »Rev. Willingham and His Swanees« might preannounce the solo career of Ruben Willingham which started soon after.
The Swanees '66 single features a »gospelized« version of JB's former hit »Try Me« and kind of a rock-gospel sermon by Willingham underlaid with a heavy beat and possibly with the participation of the brass section of the JB Band, based on JB's »Ain't That A Groove«. »Try Me Father« is often referred to merely as a gospel version of Brown's 1958 hit »Try Me« which is a pretty unfair description. Over a sterling arrangement, Johnny Jones rarely swoops into his more customary falsetto (in my opinion, there are a lot of places in the song where it almost sounds like Wilson Pickett is leading the song) but instead captures the intensity of the lyrics. ... this is not just a doo-wop-styled ballad, but rather a serious soul meditation which ... is one of the strongest records they released during their prime (quoted from here). »Try Me Father« is an obvious variation on James Brown’s classic 1958 proto-soul »Try Me« ... But turnaround is fair play, because The Godfather of Soul ... owed much of his early stage histrionics from the sound and style of gospel music performance. ... A typical Swanee track it’s not; »Try Me Father« is much better: a quintessential case of gospel borrowing from soul borrowing from gospel (quoted from here).
And certainly, typical church tunes they're not; but wonderful examples of crossover, albeit in the more unusual direction. Quite ahead of their times, really. Listen here:
Rev. Willingham and His Swanees: »That's The Spirit« / »Try Me Father« on Federal # 12542 (1966):
Let's just pick up last Sunday's thread with the Mighty Clouds Of Joy. The follow-up album to their Live At The Music Hall LP was Peacock LP # PLP-151 (if we disregard their Best Of album, Peacock # 136, which came in between). There's some confusion about when this LP (that is, Presenting: The Untouchables) was released, and dates from the mid-'60s to 1973 have been proposed. However, 1968 seems to be the most probable date; Hayes/Laughton's Gospel Discography corroborates this.
Peacock LP # 151 back cover
This album is flawlessly produced and the tunes are much varied in style. Maybe it does lack a standout tune. If I had to chose one it would be the hymn »I'll Trust In God« (aka »My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me«), a beautiful solo performance by Ermant Franklin, but it's too much of a funeral song and I can't bear hearing it today. But Ermant Franklin it is, so we go with his »Call Him Up« and »He's Real To Me«. (E. Franklin sings lead on most songs, leaving only »Pray For Me« and »How Far Have I Stray- ed« to W. Joe Ligon).
»Call Him Up« (»... I got a telephone in my bosom, I can call him up on my own ...«) is known under many titles: »Jesus On The Mainline« or »Go Tell Him What You Want«; The Caravans (feat. Albertina Walker) recorded this song as »Tell Him What You Want« (States # 154). Parts of the lyrics also crop up in Richie Valens's Woodstock performance of »Free- dom«, since he had sung gospel back in the '50s in Brooklyn (read more about it here: Denise Sullivan: Keep On Pushing. Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-Hop, Chicago 2011, p. 101 ff.). On the Peacock LP, the song is credited to »E. Franklin« (i.e. Er- mant Franklin, I presume) what is weakly justified by the fact that the song as performed by the Clouds is not exactly identical to any other version I know of (there are myriads, though). The song was for the first time recorded in the late '30s, but the peculiar charm of the lyrics hasn't worn off. - Read also the postscript.
»He's Real To Me« is likewise a standard tune and usually credited as traditional. It's one of the songs on this LPs where you can hear the Clouds backing the lead singer (or actually the lead sermonizer) with falsetto voices. Best I leave you now to the songs with the nice headline you find on many a Peacock LP above the song list: Your Program For This Performance! And here it is. Happy Sunday all!
Mighty Clouds Of Joy: »Call Him Up« / »He's Real To Me« from the Peacock LP # 151 (1968?):
POSTSCRIPT Oct 29, 2011
On the Melting Pot blog, you'll find a thoughtful review of the 3-CD set Fire in My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007) released in Oct. 2009 (get info here). This review (read it here) is pertinent to topics often raised in this blog of mine, viz. the question concerning the relation between pop (secular) music and gospel and, a closely related point, how (and whether) to appre- ciate gospel music with or without regard to its sacred character. In addition, there are interesting remarks about the song »Call Him Up« aka »Telephone In My Bo- som«. I would like to quote here some passages from this review:
It’s the sacred character I’d argue that sets many of these performances above the standard fare produced in similar times. There’s a feeling in these performances that is shared in other sacred musics, but not as readily found in more secular, popular sounds (except not surprisingly when artists come from the Church, i.e. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Donny Hathaway, etc, etc, etc.). However you want to appreciate this music, what’s most important is that you DO experience it. Regardless of your own religious belief or feeling, this music is deserving of your attention and your ears will be richly rewarded once you delve into this fine set.
For those of you into Gospel Funk, there are plenty of choices here too. Lula Collins’ “Help Me” from 1973, is a track that could have just as easily ended up on obscure Tennesee funk comp. by itself. Aside from some relatively minimal religious references, it is easy to take this song on very secular terms. That’s a more difficult task with a song like “Telephone In My Bosom,” from the Amazing Farmer Singers of Chicago. While the sound has a bit of Sly & Funkadelic, the lyrics keep you focused on the sacred, which is, after all, the true point of this music. You can appreciate it simply on its sonic merits, because it’s very funky, it rocks, it swings, is deeply soulful or just has a certain sound. But it’s very important to understand the context this music was recorded and to remember that even at its most rockin’ it remains sacred music.
Sometime in late 1966, the Mighty Clouds Of Joy played the Music Hall in Houston. The concert was taped and released on Peacock LP # PLP-134 in February or early March 1967.
By many seen as the most successful gospel quartet in history, the Mighty Clouds were riding high in the mid- to late 60s (and beyond that as well). They had their stage suits made by the same tailor who made clothes for The Temptations; from early on, they had adopted electric guitars and developed an elaborate stage choreography. Horace Boyer called their distinctive style »hard gospel«, i.e. »singing loudly and rhythmically at the extremes of their vocal range« (The Golden Age of Gospel p. 239). Or in other words: »The Clouds reached the top by being the hardest-driving, best-dressed, house-wrecking- est group in the business« (Alan Young: Woke Me Up This Morning, Jackson 1997, p. 60).
None better testimony for their »hard gospel« than their live album of 1967. It's a real house-wrecker indeed! A Billboard critic said in the March 11, 1967, issue that it was a »rousing album that will bring sales in r&b markets«. Yet it isn't in any way close to r&b, except in instrumentation. The performance of the Clouds is much too intense for that, as you can hear below. It is 100% spiritual, if that includes songs like »I'm Glad About It« (aka »It's Another Day's Journey«) which are really about everyday life: if you got money to give it to a pauper eating out of a trash can, be glad about it; if you got eyes to lead the blind, be glad about it and thank the Lord for your eyesight. The lead voice in the live version is that of Willie Joe Ligon, founding member of the Clouds. The song is kind of a sermonette, often employed by Ligon, somewhere between singing and preaching. Or, in the useful definition put forward by Alan Young, »a morality tale, usually told by the lead singer while the rest of the singers hum or sing softly in the background« (Woke Me Up This Morning, p. 63). In 1966, this tune was also released on Peacock single # 3099.
Peacock LP # PLP-134, back cover
However, before that we'll have another tune from that live album, »Stand By Me«. Last Sunday I posted Mavis Staples's version of that song which she recorded back in 1961. The live version of the Clouds (lead vocals Ermant Franklin, another founding member) is in as good as every respect the very opposite of Mavis's interpretation: while hers is calmly intense, soulful almost, deep like her spine-shivering contralto, Ermant's version is rough, desperate almost, out-crying and ... well, house wrecking in the best sense. Take a seat. If I had a little more time ... happy Sunday all!
Mighty Clouds Of Joy: »Stand By Me« / »I'm Glad About It« from the Peacock LP # 134 (1967):
Further reading about the Mighty Clouds Of Joy:
Robert Darden: People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music, New York 2004, pp. 283-87.
Alan Young: Woke Me Up This Morning. Black Singers and the Gospel Life, Jackson 1997, pp. 60-64.
Jerry Leiber has died, aged 78. The sad news has been known for some days now.
His is a name that needs no introduction, and so I won't give any. Just some words about his early years.
He grew up in Baltimore, and his first language was Yiddish. His neighborhood was mainly Polish and Italian, with many Jews and blacks around. Jerry was one of the »Jewboys«. Aged 12, he moved to L.A. with his mother and sister. All was to begin there, and it was there that he teamed up with Mike Stoller. They had their first record out in 1951.
In memoriam of Jerry Leiber I thought I might play today three songs: words by Jerry, music by Mike. The framed photo above shows them both seated at the piano; standing behind, Jerry Wexler from Atlantic (2nd from left) and the Coasters.
Actually, Leiber & Stoller did not produce many songs over the decades, but almost all of them charted. Two of the most famous, and most widely covered over the years, are »Kansas City (Here I Come)« and »Hound Dog«. Equally popular are some tunes they wrote (or co-wrote) for the Drifters during the '60s, such as »On Broadway«.
Kansas City. One of their first songs, written in 1952 for Little Willie Littlefield. Here, you can hear the version of Shirley Ellis, from her 1965 LP »The Name Game« (Congress # CGL-3003, mono). In order to fit her »female version«, the lyrics were changed to »... they got some crazy little fellows there and I'm gonna get me one« (instead of »they got a crazy way of loving there and I'm gonna get me some«).
Shirley Ellis: »Kansas City« from the Congress LP »The Name Game« (1965, mono):
Hound Dog. This song was penned in 1953 for »Big Mama« Thornton. There are quite a few anecdotes about how this happened and what the chemistry was like between the singer and Jerry. According to Jerry, the song had »a country-funky feel« (Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, with David Ritz: Hound Dog. The Leiber and Stoller Autobio- graphy, London - New York 2010, p. 62). Infamously, the song's lyrics, much to the dismay of Leiber, were changed substantially in order not to offend the white public when the song was re-recorded by a Tupelo-born celebrity. It was this version by Elvis that made the song worldfamous. The original lines, as written by Jerry, run »... quit snooping 'round my door. You can wag your tail, but I ain't gonna feed you no more«, and appeared in Elvis's version as »... crying all the time. You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine«. Jerry later said: »To this day I have no idea what that rabbit business is all about. The song is not about a dog ... Elvis's version makes no sense to me, and, even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote« (Hound Dog, p. 94). Yet he also acknowledged that the tremen- dous sales success of Elvis's »Hound Dog« »took the sting out of it«, that is, he accepted the garbled lyrics, went along with it and cashed in on the credits. After
all, Jerry Leiber was a song-seller, not a moralist. In the following, you can hear
the rather unlikely cha cha cha-version of the song as recorded by Betty Everett in October 1963. Good thing is that Betty's version has the original lyrics. The song title is given as »Hounddog« on the cover, as »Hound Dog« on the label of Side 1.
Betty Everett: »Hound Dog« from the Vee-Jay LP # 1077 (second release) »It's In His Kiss« (1964):
On Broadway. One of the best-known songs of the Drifters. This tune was originally composed by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Mann had it conceived as »a Gersh- winesque kind of melody« (Ken Emerson: Always Magic in the Air. The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era, London - New York 2005, p. 137), and Weil added the lyrics because she was infatuated with Broadway. However, the song eventually wasn't satisfying. So in January 1963, Mann & Weil took the song to Leiber & Stoller. They re-wrote it to a great extent, thus earning their credits. The version you can listen to in the following was recorded in the Uptown Theatre of Philadelphia on July 24, 1964, and released on Atlantic LP # # 8101 (Saturday Night At The Uptown) later that year. It certainly is the most unusual version of the song you are likely to hear: apart from the excitement of the crowd, the song is done »properly« in the first part, but gradually slips into an ad-hoc group improvisation in the second part. During their performance, the Drifters at one point change »Broadway« into »Broad Street«, »in honor of the Philadelphia thoroughfare« as the notes on the back cover duly remark.
The Drifters: »On Broadway« (live) from the Atlantic LP »Saturday Night At The Uptown« (1964):
In July 1967, Atlantic placed an ad for the »Big Hit Albums of the Summer on Atlan- tic-Atco: 32 Exciting New Releases« (and this actually included seven LPs by Stax / Volt). In this ad, we find the illustrious names of Wilson Pickett, Carmen McRae, Percy Sledge, Herbie Mann, Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles, Arthur Conley, Darrell Banks, William Bell, Otis Redding, Joe Tex and Booker T & the MGs. And amidst the albums by these artists we have, quite singularly, also one Gospel album: »Shine On Me« by the Harmonizing Four, a male gospel quartet (and really a quintet if you include the guitarist).
Atlantic LP # SD R-005 (1967)
A great name in gospel music indeed! Accor- ding to most, the group was organized as early as 1927 in Richmond, Virginia. However, only in June 1943 they had their first recording session, in a New York studio. In the begin- ning, they performed as »Richmond's Harmonizing Four« (1943), »The Richmond Harmonizers« (c1947-8), »The Harmonizing Four of Richmond« (1951), but they dropped »Richmond« after the beginning of the '50s* (see note below). The known standard histories of gospel music will tell you the details of their career up to the '60s, and I can't go into this here. In 1957 they signed with Vee-Jay Records. They stayed with the Chicago label until it busted in 1966 (and had even a LP out on the ill-famed and short-lived Exodus label). Then, Atlantic took them on.
Atlantic shortly before had started their Religious Series of LPs (remember Sondra Williams!). So, they rushed the Harmonizing Four into the studio in mid-April '67 and released their first Atlantic album three months later, number 5 in the Religious Series. As said above, it was called »Shine On Me« (Atlantic LP # SD R-005) and adorned with a colorful cover featuring Flower-Power bubblegum letters. Obviously, the cover was meant to convey a message of hipness; it was designed by Atlantic's Religious Series producer Richard Simpson himself. The similarity with other covers of the period, above all Gordy LP # 922 (The Temptations' With A Lot O' Soul, also from 1967), is striking. It seems that there was a real »cover war« going on between Motown and Atlantic.
For the record, Gordy LP # 922 was released on July 17, '67, thus more or less about the same time as Atlantic LP # SD R-005; the copyright for Motown's album cover was filed on July 28, 1967. Thus it might be a coincidence that both covers are so remarkably similar. On the other hand, it doesn't look like pure coincidence. But, further information pending, there is no knowing who copied from whom, if so.
However, there is nothing much »hip« or »contemporary« on this LP; nothing of the gos-pop or soul-gospel stuff which was about to stir the gospel scene already in '67 and was destined to dominate the following years. And it would have been hard on the Harmonizers to do so: first, because they had, for all changes in style and taste (they switched from acoustic to electric guitar in the early '60s), a very solid and continuous tradition; second, because they were rooted in close-harmony singing and thus very much focused on vocals, leaving them little possibility to adopt newer styles via the instrumentation. Well, I for my part am happy that they didn't, because they sound great. But I am less sure if the music critics and the respons- ables at Atlantic found it much to their liking at the time. Look just at the insipid Billboard review (see pic above, from the Sept. 2, 1967, issue p. 43): »The cele- brated Harmonizing Four have a meaningful album here, mostly of traditional material ...« »Celebrated« obviously means »of former days' fame«, and they do old stuff in the old ways (»traditional material«). And their album is »meaningful«. Hmm?? Can't guess what this was meant to say. And if you expect some more hymnic praise from the back cover of their LP you will be disappointed. Richard »the Bishop« Simpson, who wrote the notes, remained equally vague and insipid. He stressed the celebrity of the group and repeatedly urges listeners to listen to them as if it were for the first time ... and invites those few others who have really never heard them. The only line in which Simpson really tries »to sell« the group to a contemporary audience outside the gospel field proper is when he wrote: »Soul, spirit and deep conviction are contained in this album ... All of these qualities are evident ...« At least once he utters the magic word of these days and accords »soul« to the Harmonizers. But it would have been in vain, and unfortunate as well, to turn the Harmonizing Four into something else. For they were true to their roots:
»"The Harmonizing Four were kind of hanging back," says folklorist Vaughan Webb at the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College, near Roanoke. "They were in this realm between the old stand-up-straight quartet singing and the more modern music." Webb was one of a group of researchers who, a quarter century ago, tracked down many of the then-living quartet singers to interview them. "The Harmonizing Four had a stronger grip than most groups on the roots of that tradition," he says.« (read more here).
The above-quoted Billboard critic was right in one thing, though, namely in singling out the title tune »Shine On Me« for special praise. It is truly a beautiful piece of »musical pastiche«, done in a narrative style. Alas, it goes on for almost 7 minutes. The remaining songs, with the exception of the closing »House, Picture & Prayer« all remain within the conventional 2-3 minute limit. To honor the decade-long tradition of the Harmonizing Four, I decided to post two hymns which underline their glorious »harmonizing« of old ... and probably what they did best. Both songs are credited as traditionals, and the first was sung and recorded by many gospel greats: »If I Can Help Somebody« was done by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson, among others. »This Rock Is Jesus« was, at first sight, never recorded before (or at least not under that title). But once again one tampered with a song's title, because »This Rock Is Jesus« is nothing but the known hymn »In Times Like These«, written by Ruth Caye Jones. She »reportedly found inspiration to write In Times Like These during World War II when she was moved by reading the words of 2 Timothy 3,1: "This know also that in the last days perilous times will come." As she read those words, inspiration for the song came, and she jotted lyrics on a small notepad she had in her apron pocket.« (Read more here). The song was recorded, among others, by Mahalia, Martha Bass, Albertina Walker and ... Little Richard.
A nice twist in hearing these two songs together is that in the first you can hear Thomas Johnson (lead vocals, tenor) on lead, while the second song features the group's second tenor, Lonnie Smith (who occasionally played guitar and piano as well). It's nice to hear the contrast between the two different tenors. The other members of the '67 lineup were Joseph »Gospel Joe« Williams (baritone), Ellis Johnson (son of Thomas, bass) and Jesse Pryor (on guitar). Both Th. Johnson and Williams belonged to the group's oldest members, having been with them since the '30s ... or, rather more exactly, they were the very core of the group. (Accounts about and by Joseph Williams differ considerably, some making him one of the original 1927 members of the group, others maintaining that he joined only in '33 or '36!). Lonnie Smith joined in 1943 (when he replaced John Scott, the group's original tenor, who was enlisted in the Army), Ellis Johnson in 1958. Although there were additional members or substitutes during the '50s and '60s, the lineup of 1967 was very much that of 1943. And no doubt, you can hear that on their '67 recording, and I say this as a praise:
The Harmonizing Four: »If I Can Help Somebody« / »This Rock Is Jesus« from the Atlantic LP # SD R-005 (1967):
*Note: There were other groups known as »Harmonizing Four« in the '30s, one from Alabama, possibly spurious and mis-attributed, another one often mentioned in connection with Arthur »Big Boy« Crudup (he toured with some »Harmonizing Four« in 1939/40). However, the latter (about which I know nothing) are not identical to Richmond's Harmonizers.
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Further reading (and omitting the standard gospel reference works which, at any rate, say only little about the post-'40s Harmonizers):
One of the great summer hits of '64 in the U.S. was »Under The Boardwalk« by The Drifters. While the British invasion was at its peak the song (on Atlantic 2237) reached # 1 r&b and # 4 pop in June.
It was recorded in New York on May 21, 1964. Lead-singer is Johnny Moore, who returned to be part of the Drifters only that spring. As is well-known, the Drifters had, in their long history, several lead-singers some of whom went solo after their stint with the group. Between 1953 and 1971, there were 11 of them in all, among them Clyde McPhatter (1953-55), Bobby Hendricks (1955-56, 58-59), Johnny Moore (1956-58), Ben E. King (1959-61) and Rudy Lewis (1961-63). And in 1963 the group was already marketed as a classic and their '50s recordings were sold as »Golden Oldies«. It was a sign of the times: In May '63, Roulette Records had started a new Oldies-series called »Golden Goodies« (and that included some of the old Drifters' tunes as well).
Ad from Billboard (May 25, 1963)
But with »Under The Boardwalk« the Drifters still had contemporary success. The song was penned by Artie Resnick & Kenny Young after Leiber & Stoller had, for the time being, stopped to deliver material for the Drifters. Most see the song as »pop-soul«, and indeed it is more »pop« than »soul«. However, you will hear the song in a different way after having listened to the live version of it, and without the Latino-Soul gimmicks that characterize its studio version. In fact, there is a nice live-recording of that song, taped in the Uptown Theatre of Philadelphia on July 24, 1964.
This live-version was released on the Atlantic LP # 8101 (Saturday Night At The Uptown) in late 1964. It contains several songs by The Drifters, The Vibrations and Wilson Pickett and one each by The Carltons, Patti La Belle & Her Bluebells, Patty & The Emblems and Barbara Lynn. Quite obviously, the LP was part of the new craze for live albums which was fired by James Brown's »Live At The Apollo«. Soon after that, Sam Cooke, Gene Chandler, Ike & Tina Turner and Etta James appeared »live« on records, and most Motown stars (The Marvelettes, The Miracles, Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye) as well. A number of the earlier live-LPs were technically less than satisfying, and many of the Motown albums in particular were poorly produced. Not so Atlantic 8101. It may not be perfect judged by today's standards, but in the year 1964 it must have appeared well recorded and finely cut.
The intros are spoken by Georgie Woods and Jimmy Bishop, popular DJs from Philadelphia, and the guitar player who is addressed in the middle of »Under The Boardwalk« was Billy Davis. On the back cover of the LP we read:
The audience called for Under The Boardwalk: The Drifters sang their infectious summertime hit ... and the audience quickly joined in and sang with them.
And here we, too, join in ...
The Drifters: »Under The Boardwalk« from the Atlantic LP Saturday Night At The Uptown (1964)
I am interested in the music, not in the relative rarity of discs. I also listen with great pleasure to Aretha Franklin, because she has the voice of the century. Music is no Faith and therefore has no heretics.
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No music downloads on this site. All mp3s (with very few exceptions where noted) are ripped from original vinyl discs. If something on this blog is objectionable to anyone or should, for valid reasons, be re- moved from the net please let me know; it will be removed. And to reiterate: This is a non-profit blog.
