AL GREEN: CLASSIC OR DUD?

New track, cover of “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”:
https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/09/13/647053567/hear-al-greens-first-new-recording-in-nearly-a-decade

i love the recreated Hi Records sound

it could be included on any number of his classic records without sticking out, which is a very high bar to clear imo

i sure fucking hope this isn't going to be the album cover:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SKWRkMU0L._AA256_.jpg

i hope that didn't take longer than 45 seconds to put together

yeah, i'm kinda wondering what the deal is with new al green tracks in general, though! this new one is part of a compilation of that producer:

Green recorded the track at Sam Phillips Studios with Matt Ross-Spang, the brilliant producer and engineer who is the proprietor of that historic mid-century modern Memphis sound shrine. The recording is part of Amazon Music's new "Produced By" series highlighting the gifts of board masters like Ross-Spang; this week's offerings, all produced by him, also features new material from Margo Price, John Prine and William Bell.

which is cool, but...i mean, can we pretty please have 8-10 more new ones? i would love to hear more.

trying to make Matt Ross-Spang the star here... hmm...

Greatest album artist ever?

That run of albums is pretty hard to top.

The gospel albums sound like FIRE this morning.

^ I love The Belle Album ... what of his gospel discs should I get next?

I'll Rise Again

If I only know "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?" and I like it in a slightly "I could imagine Tindersticks covering this" sort of way ... what Al Green do I listen to next?

see my guide linked here last month

Oh, thanks - I'd missed that.

I'm going to enjoy exploring that.

who did this? 😂 pic.twitter.com/TzJZdbq0Xc

— Al Green (@algreen) September 2, 2020

(holy crap, apparently that's in my hometown!)

haha, yeah i think that was posted on another thread just yesterday. love that al saw it!

by chance, i just so happened to receive 2 al green LPs in the mail! two pretty obscure ones: I'm Still in Love with You and Let's Stay Together :)

is this the first "who did this" tweet where the person who tweeted it didn't do it or knew who did it but decided not to credit them

my al green collection currently:

I'm Still in Love with You *****
Let's Stay Together *****
Livin' For You ****
Call Me *****
Explores Your Mind ****
The Belle Album ******
Precious Lord **

sadly, the original tweet was from the day before, and they did reply to their own tweet with credit:

This is the artists Instagram pic.twitter.com/3KCSQom0Vj

— Barmelo Xanthony (@Actn_jcksn) September 1, 2020

but i guess when al green picked it up he didn't see the reply

my al green collection currently:

I'm Still in Love with You *****
Let's Stay Together *****
Livin' For You ****
Call Me *****
Explores Your Mind ****
The Belle Album ******
Precious Lord **

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, September 2, 2020 8:02 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

as good as it gets tbr

Y'all need Gets Next to You, like, now.

'all need Gets Next to You, like, now.

yep, that's the last one i'm missing that seems really important and obviousobv that was the case with Still in Love and Let's Stay Together, until this afternoon. but are there any others like that? Al Green is Love, Have a Good Time, Full of Fire - anyone have thoughts on those? i can't imagine any of them being _bad_

i had gets next to you once upon a time ;_;

They're not bad but the songwriting, once tight as hell, starts to develop flab.

god, I love Al. lucky enough to see him perform 8 years ago, and other than some high notes that were raspier than previously, he still had it.

need to dig into the albums proper, I just had collections.

playing the title track to "I'm Still in Love With You". every bit of it is fantastic, the chord progressions, his feather-soft vocalizations, that chorus, the backing vocals. gentlest falsetto in the game.

oi. down the rabbit hole I go.

Listen to "Beware." Savor that outro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pupeAPWStR4

minor coincidences on Let's Stay Together and I'm Still in Love With You:

- both released in 1972
- the first side of each features 5 songs, leading off with the legendary title track co-written with Jackson and Mitchell, along with a second co-write with one other musician, and 3 solo green credits.
- the second side of each features 4 songs, starting with 2 covers, and ending with 2 al green originals (although "Look what you done for me" has to ruin it by being a co-write with Mitchell and Jackson)

They're not bad but the songwriting, once tight as hell, starts to develop flab.

yeah, that was generally my feeling about Livin' for You, and allmusic reviews and the like kind of paint a similar picture with Is Love, Have a Good Time, and Full of Fire.

thing is, i would listen to him sing a phone book, so they're still solid. it's hard for there to be a bad al green song.

the thing about have a good time is that it has 'something' on it and that's easily his best ballad and maybe even his best song, full stop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX84PMkoCuE

also: not to worry, it's not the beatles tune.

oh dang, i will listen to that in a moment! that's exactly what i'm looking for - that gem that makes the whole album worth having, if you can find it.

i splurged the other night and got several albums that i've been meaning to get for a long, long time - the 2 ur-legendary al greens i mentioned above, but also Curtis and Muddy Waters Sings 'Big Bill'. my living room is a nice place to be, for a few hours

Livin' For You is a hair's breath less amazing than Call Me.

I was scared to open this thread. When I saw him at Jazzfest last year he was in noticeably not great health and voice. That billboard is beyond awesome.

I have everything from Al Green Gets Next to You through Livin' For You, an unimpeachable five album run, and I have The Belle Album which is also great, but I wound up selling off the four albums in between. The stuff I'd want from those four I already have on a compilation - and it is great stuff - but I didn't feel like those albums had the material to sustain them for the whole LP.

Beyond that, Love Ritual is a great archive/rarities collection, and for someone decades past his hit-making days, I Can't Stop and Lay It Down has some fine cuts. They don't hold up as great albums on closer listening, but there are a few great tracks and at minimum the albums sound good playing in the background.

Wish there was a great live video somewhere, but at least there's some prime shit on YouTube. (The live album from Japan isn't bad, but it feels lacking. Honestly, live albums feel more and more lacking in the age of YouTube.)

Like CCR, a casual fan could live with the famous Greatest Hits never suspecting how the studio albums boast gestalt, deep cuts, and looser arrangements.

*As with CCR

Marley's Legend, too. Wall to wall great tracks, but there's so much more out there.

oh dang, i will listen to that in a moment! that's exactly what i'm looking for - that gem that makes the whole album worth having, if you can find it.

teenie hodges deserves credit for some of those perfect but unlikely chord changes.

yup

I got to meet Teenie once. He was playing a club in New Orleans, and dressed like a ninja.

was he trying to play music in secret?

I was scared to open this thread. When I saw him at Jazzfest last year he was in noticeably not great health and voice. That billboard is beyond awesome.

― Orson Well Yeah (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, September 2, 2020 7:57 PM

Too bad. He looked well and sounded pretty good at his church when I saw him there in August 2017. Although he didn't sound quite as good as when I first saw him outside DC at Wolf Trap Farm Park many years before that.

I saw him in 2012, his "Amazing Grace" was fantastic that evening

Saw him in May last year, and he mentioned difficulties in the past year (alluding to health difficulties). But he was fine and in good spirits walking around, especially when handing out one rose after another. I didn't expect his singing to be in his '70s or even '00s form, especially at 72, but he was mostly fine and there were sublime moments.

I could never get into Al Green. Obviously his own voice is fantastic, but there's something about his stuff that's just really flat. I don't know if it's the production jobs or whatever, but the actual music invariably sounds a bit lifeless.

Lifeless ??
I mean, it's all a question of taste obviously, but lifeless is quite an amazingly mind boggling description of his music !
It's so vibrant and groovy and sensual. Love him.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEprvjwA4ZJ/

(Ah, of course that was what revived this thread in the first name--apologies for the double-poewhoawhoawhoawhoast [it is the Al thread after all])