Soul Music: FIRE from the Streets

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Soul Music FIRE from the Streets
Chapter 9
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Black Day in July

• Detroit, July 22, 1967
• Worst Civil unrest in US
• Players
• Mayor Cavanaugh Gov. George Romney Pres.
  Lyndon Johnson
• 43 dead 2,250 injured 7,200 arrested
• Jan-Sept 1967, 131 cities experienced race riots
• Watts Riot in L.A. August, 1965
• Martin Luther-King Assassinated April 4, 1968
• Riots in Washington Chicago Kansas City

Gordon Lightfoot Song

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Soul Music

• Reflected the militant search for
  African-American Identity
• Jazz Antecedents
• 1957 Swing and Soul by Lou Donaldson
• 1958 Soultrane by John Coltrane
• 1959 Blue Soul by Blue Mitchell

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Soul

• Around 1965 SOUL linked with struggle for Black
  dignity
• Claude Brown (page 168) Soul is sass...
• Arnold Shaw Soul is black, not blue, sass,
  anger and rage
• Soul food Soul Brothers/Sisters

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Soul as a musical style

• RB with a gospel infusion
• Political always represented Black pride
• Highly emotional
• Soul music is usually wedge-shaped
• Soft to loud
• Few instruments to many
• Simple rhythm to greater complexity/syncopation
• Melisma

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Pioneers of Soul

• James Brown
• Ray Charles
• Sam Cooke

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R B Roots Soul Brother 1

• James Brown Godfather of Soul and Funk
• Please, Please, Please (1954)
• With Famous Flames
• Added more complex/dominant rhythms
• Staccato, punchy horns
• Live at the Apollo (1963)
• Out of Sight (1965)
• Papas got brand new bag (1965)
• I got you (I feel Good) (1965)
• Stunning stage act
• Hardest Workingman in Show Biz
• Rhythm takes over Cold Sweat

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Ray Charles Genius of Soul

• Born Albany Georgia, 1930
• Ray Charles Robinson
• Grew up very poor Blind at 5
• Musically trained wrote, arranged and produced
  his own music
• Autobiography orphan / addict / womanizer
• Confession Blues (1949)
• Toured with RB acts Ruth Brown
• 1952 Picked up by Atlantic Jerry Wexler

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Ray Charles Genius of Soul
Died June 10, 2004

• Atlantic Years Birth of Soul
• Ive got a Woman (1952) breakthrough 1
• Hallelujah I Love her so (1958) 1
• Whatd I say (1959) 1
• Hit the Road Jack (1960) 1
• Brother Ray symbol of black pride
• Switched to ABC label, then Paramount
• Eclectic production

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Whatd I say
Hey mama, don't you treat me wrong Come and love
your daddy all night long All right now, hey hey,
all right See the girl with the diamond ring She
knows how to shake that thing All right now now
now, hey hey, hey hey Tell your mama, tell your
pa I'm gonna send you back to Arkansas Oh yes,
ma'm, you don't do right, don't do right See the
girl with the red dress on She can do the
Birdland all night long Yeah yeah, what'd I say,
all right

• Gospel-ish moan, pleading vocals
• Latin-influenced piano riff
• Provocative lyrics
• Banned by many white radio stations
• Call response with horns at the end

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Sam Cooke

• Son of a minister born 1931 died 1964
• Sang with gospel group, Soul Stirrers
• Went pop in 1956 (songwriting and producing)
• Crossover success with RCA
• Another symbol of black pride
• 1957-64 26 Top 40 hits, 5 top 10 hits
• Definitive soul singer
• Never signed away his rights own publishing
  company
• Died mysteriously in L. A. on Dec. 12, 1964

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Sam Cooke

• Clean articulation and phrasing yearning tone
• Mentor to many young singers
• Model for Al Greene, Rod Stewart
• You Send Me (1957) 1
• Breakthrough / crossover
• Bring it Home to Me (1960) 13
• Chain Gang (1960) RB 1
• A change is gonna come (1960) RB 1

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Gospel Foundations

• Sam Cooke (Soul Stirrers)
• Wilson Pickett (Falcons)
• Percy Sledge (Singing Clouds)
• Sam and Dave Solomon Burke boy preachers
• Otis Redding and James Brown sons of preachers
• Ray Charles changed spiritual to secular
• e.g. This Little Light of Mine This Little
  Girl of Mine
• Aretha Franklin daughter of minister (radio
  show)
• Met Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland

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Southern Soul (Deep Soul)

• Grittier, harder sound
• influenced by gospel and R B
• Wanted to appeal to R B crowd not obsessed
  with crossover success
• Black singers, black and white musicians
• Key Labels
• Atlantic Records (NY / Memphis)
• Stax/Volt Records (Memphis)
• Fame Studio (Muscle Shoals, AL)

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Atlantic Records (NY)

• Founded by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson (1947)
• Jerry Wexler (Producer)
• Specialized in RB, Gospel, and Jazz
• Solomon Burke
• Got to Get You off My Mind (1965)
• Percy Sledge (Arthur Alexander)
• When a Man Loves a Woman (1966)

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Stax/Volt Records

• Memphis distributed by Atlantic
• Founded by Jim STewart and Estelle AXton in 1958
• Stax Sound Booker T. and the MGs
• Inter-racial band
• Booker T. Jones (keyboards)
• Al Jackson (drums)
• Steve Cropper (guitar)
• Donald Duck Dunn (bass)
• Green Onions (1962)
• Agreement with Atlantic Records distribution for
  access. Tom Dowd gives Stax a technical upgrade.

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Stax/Volt Records

• Main Artists
• Sam and Dave
• Otis Redding
• Wilson Pickett

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Sam and Dave Double Dynamite

• Sam Moore and Dave Proctor (Miami)
• Strong gospel influence-call and response
  style/one of the most exciting live acts ever
• Issac Hayes/David Porter (songwriters)
• You Dont Know Like I Know (1966)
• Hold on Im Coming (1967) 21
• Soul Man (1967) 2
• Black anthem of the 60s

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Soul Man

• Comin to you on a dusty road
• Good loving, I got a truck load
• and when you get it, you got something
• don't worry, 'cause I'm coming
• I'm a soul man
• Got what I got, the hard way
• and I'll got make better, each and every day
• So honey, I said don't you fret
• 'cause you ain't seen nothing yet
• Well grab the rope, and I'll pull you in
• Give you hope, and be your only boyfriend ya ( ya
  ) ya ( ya )

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Otis Redding King of Soul

• Born in Macon, GA 1941 son of Minister
• Influences James Brown, Sam Cooke
• Audition at Stax These arms of mine
• Singer/songwriter- Respect Sitting on the
  dock of the bay
• Monterey Folk Festival 1967
• Crossover success
• Tragic death Dec 10/1967

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Otis Redding King of Soul

• Hits
• Pain in My Heart (1964)
• Ive been loving you too long (1964) 21
• These Arms of Mine (1964)
• Respect (1965)
• Try a little tenderness (1966)25
• (Sittin on) The Dock of theBay (1968) 1
• Albums
• Dictionary of Soul
• Otis blue

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Wilson Picket

• Born in the south, grew up in Detroit
• Signed by Atlantic (Jerry Wexler)- big break goes
  to Stax to record
• Writes songs with Steve Cropper- breakthrough
  hit Midnight Hour
• Later goes to Muscle Shoales to work with Rick
  Hall- Mustang Sally, Hey Jude

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Wilson Picket

• Powerful emotional delivery
• I Found Love with The Falcons (1962)
• In the Midnight Hour (1966) 21
• Mustang Sally (1967)
• 634-5789 (1966)
• Land of 1000 Dances (1966) 6
• Funky Broadway (1967)
• The Commitments (movie 1991)

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The decline of Stax

• The death of Otis Redding Dec. 1967
• The end of the Atlantic-Stax partnership
• Fall out from the Atlantic deal
• Stax discovers that Atlantic owns all of their
  masters.
• All Stax has is its artists. Stax has to start
  from scratch.

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Muscle Shoales

• Four studios in the Northwest corner of Alabama
• Most important Fame run by Rick Hall
• Atlantic sends its artists down there to make
  authentic southern soul
• Black singers but all the musicians were white

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Aretha Franklin

• Brought soul to white America
• Daughter of a minister from Detroit
• Struggled doing jazz with Columbia
• Atlantic took over in 1966
• 1967-70 dominant force in pop music
• Frantic chaotic style/great pure voice/
  unapologetically black

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Aretha Franklin

• Queen of soul-southern soulstyle
• Muscle Shoals Alabama sessions with Wilson
  Pickett
• I Never Loved A Man (the Way I love You) (1967)
• Respect (1967) (Ottis Reading)
• Natural Woman (1967) (Carole King)
• Chain of Fools (1967)

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Respect

• Anthem of the 60s/ written by Otis Redding.
• Smash hit for Aretha Franklin in 1967.
• Signifies blacks want (demand) respect from
  whites. Also with Franklin singing women want
  respect from men.
• Great hook R-E-S-P-E-CT, Sock it to me, sock it
  to me.

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Souls importance

• Music from the black church community
• Music about the struggle for black liberation and
  equality in America
• Music of optimism
• Music responding to political change Black
  power, Black Panthers, Martin Luther King/Malcolm
  X, Muhammad Ali.
• Souls musical dominance ends on April 4th,
  1968.

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End