Generally I’m wary of cover versions, especially if the song being covered is already well known in its original form or is otherwise identified with a particular artist. There is not much you can do to improve on, say, Bridge Over Troubled Water other than to strip the song down and rework it completely. Not many artists have succeeded in doing so. But for an example of how a well-known song can be totally reworked, one might look to Otis Redding’s version of Try A Little Tenderness (originally recorded by Bing Crosby). Or listen to what Donny Hathaway does with the standard Misty on this mix.

The songs covered by soul artists come almost exclusively from a non-soul tradition. Some are standards (Don’t Fence Me In, Misty, Nature Boy), some country (King Of The Road, Harper Valley P.T.A.), some were pop or rock hits. Only two songs here were originally soul numbers, though For Once In My Life had traversed genres before Gladys Knight & the Pips released their take in 1973 (see HERE). The other, originally by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, is redone here by Chic man Bernie Edwards in a rather nice poppy way. Merry Clayton (whom we last encountered HERE) may be covering a Rolling Stones song, but it is she who sang on the Stones in the first place, so it’s really half a cover.

I’d be interested to know which covers worked for the listener, and which fell flat. As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R , and a front and back cover is included.

TRACKLISTING
1. The Isley Brothers – Listen To The Music (1973)
2. Merry Clayton – Gimme Shelter (1970)
3. Erma Franklin – Light My Fire (1969)
4. Stevie Wonder - Bang Bang (1966)
5. Jackie Wilson – Eleanor Rigby 1969)
6. The Dells - Wichita Lineman/By The Time I Get To Phoenix (1969)
7. Isaac Hayes - It’s Too Late (1973)
8. The Delfonics – Alfie (1968)
9. Donny Hathaway – Misty (1970)
10. Grady Tate - Don’t Fence Me In (1974)
11. Joe Tex – King Of The Road (1965)
12. Vivian Reed – Harper Valley P.T.A. (1970)
13. Flaming Ember – Spinning Wheel (1971)
14. The Supremes & The Temptation - Got To Get You Into My Life (1968)
15. George Benson - Nature Boy (1977)
16. Bernard Edwards feat. Jocelyn Brown – You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me (1983)
17. Charles Brimmer – We’ve Only Just Begun (1976)
18. Gladys Knight & The Pips – For Once In My Life (1973)
19. Roberta Flack – Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye (1969)
20. Billy Paul - Mrs. Robinson (1970)
21. Voices Of East Harlem - For What It’s Worth (1970)

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Some people will reel in disbelief and perhaps go on by shouting out the first names of assorted soul deities as I proclaim: The 1970s were the golden age of soul music. Of course, ’60s soul was fantastic, as the two volumes of Any Major’60s Soul compilations proved (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2). But by the late 1960s and early ’70s soul had acquired such a breadth of variety which the still nascent form of the previous decade did not have, by force of progress. The soul shouters were giving way to smooth guys, often singing in falsetto, and the Muscle Shoal horns went out and the string arrangements came in. And Motown and Stax had lost their way. As smooth as ’70s often was, however, it still retained depth. For the first half of the decade at least, soul produced some of the most gorgeous sounds ever in music.

In this series, we’ll follow the decade’s soul music in two-year cycles, starting with the years 1970/71. I have tried to find a middle-way between including the obvious and the obscure, cutting out many favourites from the former category and leaving the connoisseurs of the latter to indulge their needs over at the great Funky16Corners blog.

Followers of pop in this decade will recognise the sample lifted from the Chi-Lites Are You My Woman (Tell Me So). If to the listener the Chairmen of the Board song sounds a lot like something by the Four Tops, then that is because they were the flagship band on the Invictus label founded by erstwhile Four Tops songwriters Holland/Dozier/Holland (it helps that General Norman Johnson’s voice sounds not unlike that of Levi Stubbs). Also from Detroit and recording under HDH were 100 Proof (And Aged In Soul), which included Stubbs’ brother, and the Flaming Ember, the only white soul act in this collection (the Rare Earth fell victim to the brutal cull which I needed to exercise to keep this mix to a CD-R format length). Some acts were carry-overs from the 1960s (Franklin, Ruffin, Delfonics, Wonder, Five Stairsteps), some began productive careers in the timeframe covering this mix (Earth, Wind & Fire, Main Ingredient, Bill Withers), and others appeared in the charts briefly and disappeared again (The Fantastics, Jean Knight, 100 Proof Aged In Soul, Honey Come, The Beginning Of The End).

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TRACKLISTING
1. The Beginning Of The End – Funky Nassau
2. The Chi-Lites - Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)
3. Jean Knight – Mr. Big Stuff
4. 100 Proof (Aged In Soul) – Somebody’s Been Sleeping
5. Flaming Ember – Westbound #9
6. Chairmen Of The Board – Give Me Just A Little More Time
7. Earth, Wind & Fire – Love Is Life
8. Stevie Wonder – If Your Really Love Me
9. The Delfonics – Didn’t I Blow Your Mind
10. Curtis Mayfield – Miss Black America
11. The Presidents – 5, 10, 15, 20, 25-30 Years Of Love
12. Freda Payne – Bring The Boys Home
13. The Fantastics – Something Old Something New
14. Honey Cone – Stick-Up
15. Betty Wright – Clean Up Woman
16. Ronnie Dyson – (If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) Why Can’t I Touch You
17. Jimmy Ruffin – It’s Wonderful (To Be Loved By You)
18. The Supremes - Stoned Love
19. The Five Stairsteps – Behind Curtains
20. The Main Ingredient - Spinning Around
21. The Persuaders – It’s A Thin Line Between Love And Hate
22. The Dells - The Love We Had (Stays On My Mind)
23. Aretha Franklin – Call Me
24. Bill Withers - Grandma’s Hands

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As noted earlier, I had to conduct a ruthless cull to keep the mix down to a length suitable for burning on a standard CD-R. But there are three songs which are too essential to withhold entirely: Donny Hathaway’s great The Ghetto, which is as potent a jam in this studio version as it is on the mindblowing live album. Gil Scott-Heron arguably is not a soul singer, though this track certainly is. Baby Huey died in October 1970 at 26; his only LP, the Curtis Mayfield-produced The Baby Huey Story: A Living Legend (which features a fantastic nine-minute version of A Change Is Gonna Come) was released the following year. Running is a great fusion of soul and rock, much like Sly & the Family Stone, whom Huey used to support.

Donny Hathaway – The Ghetto.mp3
Gil Scott-Heron – The Needle’s Eye.mp3
Baby Huey – Running.mp3

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