If Paul Simon’s album looked back to the
American Folk of the Sixties, Al Green looks back to the Soul of the Sixties –
apart from a Bee Gees cover and one from the Stax stable, all of the tracks
were written by Green himself but it would not have surprised me to find
Holland-Dozier-Holland in the credits. Although it should; they’re Motown,
Green is Memphis Soul.
But it’s that kind of thing, with a very Sam Cooke feel to the music, smooth soul that highlights Green’s vocal ability. As with a lot of smooth music, Green makes it all sound so easy and effortless that it’s easy to overlook the talent involved in making it sound that way (see also my comments on Frank Sinatra). The title track is probably the best indicator of what to find on here, although some such as Old Time Loving, the aforementioned Bee Gees cover How Can You Mend A Broken Heart and the slightly more up-beat La-La For You all stood out above the others to me.
I know I’ve mentioned before that I seem to prefer music with a few hard corners to it, so this wasn’t really my kind of thing, neither was it of a level that converted me to a Southern Soul enthusiast, I’m afraid.
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