My brothers and I got our love of music from our mother. She introduced us to R&B and soul artists from Gloria Lynne to Roy Hamilton to Sam Cooke. She bought me the first record I ever owned: “I Ain’t Got a Home” by Clarence “Frogman” Henry (Rod Stewart “borrowed” the song’s signature vocal riff for “Some Guys Have All the Luck”).
For as far back as I can remember we always had a record player in the house and through the years she amassed an awesome collection of great music.
As so often happens, a lot of those great old records got lost through the years, but the supply was always refreshed with new material from the latest acts. By the mid 1970s, however, we boys had long since been listening to our own music and mom’s collection became frozen in time. The collection went to my older brother, who’s had them for years. I visited him recently and spent a couple of hours browsing through the old stack of wax. “Take whatever you want”, he said.
The selection wasn’t inspiring. There was a lot of Motown; Four Tops (one of mom’s favorites), Supremes, OJays, Dionne Warwick etc. Time hadn’t been kind to many of these records. The more popular the artist, the worse they were beat. However, I did come across a few gems in decent enough shape to schlep back to Tennessee with me:
The Best of Solomon Burke: Much to my great shame, I never listened to a lot of Solomon Burke. Preacher, gospel singer, R&B pioneer, soul balladeer, Country singer, Burke has done it all. Why he never attained the kind of acclaim accorded to James Brown is one of music’s enduring mysteries.
The Good Life With The Drifters: Not a greatest hits album, but a standard release featuring covers of songs from movies and Broadway. Best all, it contain my favorite Drifters song: “Saturday Night at the Movies”. You can listen to that great single and other tracks from the album at the link above.
The Best of Solomon Burke: Much to my great shame, I never listened to a lot of Solomon Burke. Preacher, gospel singer, R&B pioneer, soul balladeer, Country singer, Burke has done it all. Why he never attained the kind of acclaim accorded to James Brown is one of music’s enduring mysteries.
Jerry Butler/Soul Artistry: “Peace of Mind” might be the standout track on this 1967 effort, but Jerry Butler’s string of hits stretches back to 1958’s “For Your Precious Love” recorded with The Impressions.
Jackie Wilson/Count Basie-Manufacturers of Soul: Really? Jackie Wilson and Count Basie covering “In the Midnight Hour” and “Ode to Billy Joe”? I have no idea what to expect from this 1968 album.
Thelonius Monk’s Greatest Hits: Ok, this might not have been one of my mom’s but I snagged it nonetheless.
Chuck Jackson-Tribute to Rhythm and Blues: This 1966 record features mostly covers including “Satisfaction” and “Quarter to Three”. But Jackson recorded one of those songs I don’t think any cover version will ever touch: “Any Day Now”.
The Satin Sound/Brook Benton: A two record set that includes two duets with Dinah Washington. Benton is probably best known for “A Rainy Night in Georgia”, butI always liked “The Boll Weevil Song”.
To Sir With Love Soundtrack: Great movie (1967), great single, but I took the album for “It’s Getting Harder All the Time” by the Mindbenders.
Spirituals in Rhythm-Sister Rosetta Tharpe: I have to go straight to Wikipedia here:
I listened to portions of a few tracks on Amazon and am
blown away! It’s clear that Mavis Staples picked up some pointers from the good Sister. And Sister Rosetta plays a wicked good guitar! I would happily sacrifice all of the other albums on the list to keep this one! Can’t wait to get this treasure on the turntable!
“Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was a pioneering gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of gospel music in the late 1930s and also became known as the “original soul sister” of recorded music.”
I listened to portions of a few tracks on Amazon and am
blown away! It’s clear that Mavis Staples picked up some pointers from the good Sister. And Sister Rosetta plays a wicked good guitar! I would happily sacrifice all of the other albums on the list to keep this one! Can’t wait to get this treasure on the turntable!
There are a few albums I found which were not moms:
Tomita-Pictures at an Exhibition: One of mine. Isao Tomita cut his teeth composing music for Japanese television before he was directly influenced by the synthesizer work of Wendy Carlos. He quickly became an innovator of electronic music in his own right. Great album from a great artist.
Thrust-Herbie Hancock: Hancock played the Ryman Auditorium a few days ago. I would have killed to see him. This follow up to “Headhunters” probably belongs to my older brother George. I’m looking forward to playing it.
A couple of “also rans”
Dancing Percussion-The Music of Jerome Kern: Ah! What a wonderful bonus discovery! An album of cocktail music by the completely unknown Noro Morales!
Display Case: A Warner/Reprise sampler (just the record, no jacket). A couple of Faces tunes, Captain Beefheart, “Wonder Girl” by Halfnelson (later Sparks) and a bunch of Jerry Garcia tracks.
All in all, a pretty good haul of music; most of it pretty rare on vinyl. It‘s going to be nice to place the tone arm down on these discs which haven’t been played in 30-40 years. And while they’re playing, I’ll be looking over the well worn jackets and reading the legend, in neat, cursive felt-tipped marker on the back of each one: Mary Nevin, Rockville, Conn.