BLACK 45’s

Recent years have seen the forthright injection of social commentary into soul music. The trend started with tunes like James Brown�s �Say It Loud (I�m Black and I�m Proud)� and Curtis Mayfield�s �We�re A Winner.� Within the last year the movement has been toward self-criticism and purging the ghetto of negative thought and characters that hold the black struggle down. Curtis urges people to �Check Out Your Mind� before they can push on to change society. In �Stone Junkie� he attacks the dope crisis that ravages black communities. Paul Kelly did a. song called �Stealin� In The Name Of the Lord� that exposes one of the ghetto�s most notorious parasites - the fly-by-night store-front preacher. According to Kelly he�ll steal your money and your woman and tell you all you need is him and Jesus.

Another leech whose role is not much different from that of the preacher is the pimp. He�s the cat who cruises around in his *71 Cadillac keeping an eye on his corner meat markets of human flesh. He�ll take most of his girls� hard humped cash and beat them if they didn�t turn enough tricks to buy him a new wardrobe. GENE & JERRY (Chandler and Butler) attack the pimp and his world in 4*Ten And Two (Take This Woman Off The Comer)� (Mercury 73195), an up-tempo super production that utilizes a throbbing bass foundation for a shifting array of voices, strings, brass, fuzz guitar, and street, noise. The tune was written by James Spencer, who recorded the original version last year on Butler�s Memphis label, and is packed with street imagery — the numbers in the title refer to the price of a quick fuck and a cheap room.

Willie Mitchell has been around Memphis for some time (he played trumpet on B. B. King�s first sessions in the late Forties) but only lately has begun to receive just-recognition for his efforts as the producer keeping the �Memphis sound� alive. Both �Driving Wheel� (Hi 45-2188) by AL GREEN and �I Pity The Fool� (Hi 45-2186) by ANN PEEBLES are effective Mitchell re-shapings of early, now-classic Duke material. Green goes after Junior Parker�s oldie, capturing all the bass, brass-studded qualities of the original and, with the addition of some fine tone-setting guitar work, chums out an outstanding gospel-choked vocal. Perhaps even more exhilirating than Green doing Parker is Peebles doing Bland. The tune is Bobby Bland�s giant early Sixties hit and we will venture to say that this medium-tempo performance ranks with the slower original. Above a tight Bland band-sounding backdrop (drums heavy, guitar single-noting and horns pushing) Miss Peebles wails and assertivelyevokes all the loneliness and abandon that the lyrics contain: �Look at the people I know you�re wonderin� what they�re doin�./They�re just standin� there watchin� you make a fool of me.� Another Mitchell-arranged rocker is BILL CODAY�s �When You Find A Fool Bump His Head� (Galaxy 779). The screaming vocal, surging organ, and solid 4/4 bottom make for an intense, cold-sweat dance record that is even stronger than his previous hit, �Get Your Lie Straight.� The slower side of Mitchell could be matched with no better singer than O.V. WRIGHT, a former gospel artist in whose style can be found the finest of both the Otis Redding and Sam Cooke traditions. �When You Took Your Love From Me� (Back Beat 620) sets Wright�s powerfully controlled, preach-pleading voice against a chanting chorus and mellow riffing horns that are the essence of the Southern soul ballad.

Allen Toussaint is on the verge of breaking the New Orleans Seventies sound wide open, just as he did: in the early Sixties with the likes of Ernie K-Doe and Chris Kenner. Three new Toussiant-Marshall Sehorn productions attest to the still-budding genius of this man who developed Bourbon Street barrel house romps into a complex style that few outside New Orleans have been able to copy. While LEE DORSEY�s �Tears, Tears And More Tears� (Spring 114) is a nice record, it is the �B� side, titled �Occapelle� (sic), that has the possibilities of becoming a monster hit. Its infectious syncopation and catchy melody make you wnat to hear it again and again as the dry-voiced Dorsey and a warm, humming Toussaint work out in a duet that includes a �we don�t need no music� section. A more intricate song and arrangement is LOU JOHNSON�S �Frisco Here I Come� (Volt 4055) — to the tom-tom stomp, bent-note guitar stings, and organ chord under-crust are added a female chorus, punching horns, and shimmering, sliding strings as Johnson moans an involved tale of woe. Balance always being an essential ingredient in any Toussaint recipe, the heavy production is briefly intersected by the relief of a circus-like organ solo. The relative simplicity of THE METERS� �Doodle-Oop (This World Is A Bit Under The Weather)� (Josie 45-1029) is merely a surface quality, for Toussaint is as sly as he is brilliant. This danceable ditty contains some of the most delicately interwoven action between four musicians (organ, guitar, bass and drums) to be found anywhere.

Three should-be-smashes from soul veterans. JOE TEX offers another of his good-timey essays on ghetto life with �Bad Feet� (Dial 1001), a problem common to many black folk. The song�s happy two-beat rhythm brings to mind Huey �Piano� Smith, with whom Tex was briefly associated. Unfortunately, Mercury, who recently acquired Dial from Atlantic, made it the �B� side of �I Knew Him,� an uninspiring attempt at cashing in on the Christ-rock fad. PERCY SLEDGE brings all his mellow yet tough vocal expertise to the fore in �Help Me Make It Through The Night� (Atlantic 45-2754), a cover of Sammi Smith�s record. More than ably supported by a burr-edged guitar, chanting chorus, bold horns and seductive organ, Sledge effortlessly changes the matrix of the song from c&w to r&b. For some weird reason this soul-searing disc is not getting air-play, while an inferior version by the usuaUy-great Joe Simon is. The Sam and Dave refugee, SAM MOORE�s up-dating of �Stop� (Atlantic 45-2791), the Howard Tate oldie,.is inescapable. Moore wails like the old days and uses dynamics to the nth degree over a fine King Curtis produced mixture of psychadelic guitar, organ, and punctuative horn section that accents the lyrics perfectly.

Two innovative singles are beautiful examples of advanced recording technology applied to soul music. �What�s Going On� (Tamla 54201) by MARVIN GAYE is a stylistic departure for Mowtown and is his biggest hit in a couple years. The Gaye-produced echoic barrage of over-dubbed vocal noises borrows from the Chicago school of Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway yet maintains an individual identity. From the big-toned alto sax intro to the blanket of strings and churning conga that supports Gaye�s high, gliding vocal this is an absolutely remarkable disc. The words that plead for an end to polarization and the lyrical melody are also flawless. AL WILSON�S �Falling (In Love With You)� (Carousel 30,052) is being ignored like his previous release �I Hear You Knocking.� Producer Ugene Dozier operates with the brilliance of an Allen Toussaint in this mind-shattering array of. superbly arranged musical effects that are an amalgamation of the Moody Blues, Procol Harum, and a Moog Synthesizer, as Wilson shouts the begging-for-love lyrics.

A couple .nice sides out of the Southern realm of country-soul ballads. JOHNNY ADAMS has one of the most unique wide-ranging voices ever and uses it to full effect on �Something Worth Leaving For� (SSS International 831), a four-minute exercise in the art of singing. The disc is marred by some obtrusive over-arranging, but Adams� dynamic overdrive and glass-shattering high-notes make it worthwhile. BIG AL DOWLING�s rough-throated baritone contains elements of both Otis Redding and Ray Charles and is perfectly suited for the torchered sentimentality of �I�ll Be Your Fool Once More� (House of the Fox HOF-4). Against a choir-like horn section and Memphis reverb guitars, Dowling moans lost-love lyrics like; �My darling, I beg you please don�t leave. But it�s only make-believe./So darling touch me and I�ll be your fool once more.�

On down and out to the mellow back easy sides of the month. �You Wants To Play� (Top & Bottom 405) by blues man OSCAR WEATHERS has alert lyrics (�Why do you keep askin� me honey, honey just listen to me, let me talk to you./If I really love you, can�t you see it in my eyes honey, you�re just too stupid and blind.�) and succinct accompaniment (squealing guitar, striving horns, shadowy piano and a reverberative chorus) that result in a sleeper with that slow drained-out Joe Tex sound. �How Can A Broke Man Survive� (Ronn 48) by LITTLE JOHNNY TAYLOR is the wail of a fallen man on the edge of bankruptcy whose wife tells him he�s not a man anymore. Shades of Sam Cooke and Little Willie John are present in Taylor�s voice, yet neither ever bled this openly. We hope this record signals a strong comback for this Los Angeles-based blues singer whose mid-Sixties� hit, �Part Time Love," is a blues classic.