With anything you really care about, you’re bound to have a bit of love/hate relationship going on and right now, I’m close to nadir with my records. I haven’t even managed to pack up 1/4 of my shit and I’m already sick of looking at ’em (let alone packing these %&*()@@! things). With any luck, most of these will stay boxed in a garage until we move some place permanent and I can just keep ’em all neatly stacked, patiently awaiting the day when I might actually need to slice open the tape for some reason. In the meantime, here’s four female soul songs that I thumbed past while organizing the packing and decided to put out for ya’ll.
Marcia Griffiths: Here I Am Baby
From Sweet and Nice (Wild Flower, 197?)
She doesn’t have the greatest voice if you ask me, but this reggae-fied version of Al Green’s “Here I Am Baby” still gets props for just being so damn funky. Check how those back-ups singers jump on towards the end…they’re more interesting to listen to than Griffiths by this point in the song. A nice cover regardless.
Jackie Moore: Time
From Sweet Charlie Baby (Atlantic, 1973)
Backed by a heavyweight rhythm section that includes guitarist Dennis Coffee [sic] and the Memphis Horns, this Jackie Moore song is a stand-out, mid-tempo groover especially compared to the rest of the album which leans more sedate and doesn’t cook with the kind of snappy bump that “Time” rolls by with. That rhythm is infectious – don’t fight the feeling.
Sharon Cash: You’re My Life, My World
From S/T (Playboy, 1973)
Hey, I wouldn’t blame you for being suspect about a soul artist headlining for Playboy but this album was surprisingly good. I went with “You’re My Life” because I liked how melancholy it was but much of the album is more uptempo. That said, the way this song slowly and patiently builds to crescendo improves the song’s musical nuances (reminds me a bit of the Roberta Flack song I posted up the other week).
Donna Washington: It’s Something
From Going For the Glow (Capitol, 1981)
I threw this last one one here because…I felt like it. Wooohooo, modern soul up in here! (It’s 1am and I’m slightly delirious or doesn’t that show yet?) I used to think early ’80s soul uniformly sucked but clearly I didn’t know what the f— I was talking about. This isn’t a great Donna Washington album but it is a great song. Enjoy it know before some rapper decide to interpolate it to make a remix cut or some stuff like that .
chatter