soul :: Blog
In the Museum: Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin was only 24 years old when she signed with Atlantic Records in November 1966, but she had already been making records for much of her life, first as a child gospel singer, then as a pop singer of only modest success.
Born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, Aretha Franklin was raised in Detroit. Her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, was the charismatic pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church, which he turned into a large and thriving institution. From an early age, Aretha sang at her father’s behest during services at New Bethel. Her first recordings turned up on an album called Spirituals, recorded at the church when she was only 14. Although she was firmly rooted in gospel, Franklin also drew from such blues and jazz legends as Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughn as she developed her singing style. On the male side, she was inspired by Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke (both with and without the Soul Stirrers). From the emerging world of youthful doo-wop groups and early soul, Aretha enjoyed the likes of LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Little Willie John, the Falcons (featuring Wilson Pickett) and Frankie Lymon ...
Remembering Bobby Rogers of the Miracles
For someone who wasn’t a star in the Motown stable of artists, Bobby Rogers was a recognizable figure among fans and commanded the respect of his peers. Tall, strapping and bespectacled, Rogers was a founding member of the Miracles, who distinguished himself through his role as a foil to his better-known band mate, Smokey Robinson, and as a collaborator in the only group on Motown that wrote and produced the bulk of its own material.
Bobby Rogers and Smokey Robinson were fated to be friends and musical partners. They were born on the same day – February 19, 1940 – at the same hospital in Detroit, and grew up together singing. Their first musical group, the Five Chimes, formed in the basement of Rogers’ cousin Claudette’s home. With her, Pete Moore and Ronnie White, they became the Matadors. Eventually taking the name the Miracles, they were spotted at a local talent show by Berry Gordy Jr., then a fledgling songwriter with ...
Album Notes: The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St.
I was seven years old when Exile on Main St. was released in 1972. It wasn't until later in the decade that I first heard the album, though I was already a Rolling Stones fan by then. My earliest rock and roll mentors – friends and family, and musicians and writers that I admired – told me Exile was the Stones record to have, so I picked up a used, well-worn copy on vinyl. The dog-eared double LP jacket was ragged and looked like hell; long gone were the dozen postcards that came with the original packaging. However, the scratched wax delivered an electric sound.
Those sounds – like my battered copy's packaging – were gritty, rough, perfectly unpolished. The album was filled with bravado, the songs seemingly shambolic, unrehearsed and the playlist was sprawling, with more than a dozen tracks. The Stones tapped into America's eclectic songbook, borrowing lines from country, blues, soul, swamp and the heyday of the rock and ...
Interview with 2009 Hall of Fame Inductee Bobby Womack
Born on March 4, 1944, Cleveland-native Bobby Womack grew into a soul and gospel legend whose contributions as a songwriter, singer and guitarist have kept him and his music relevant for decades.
The son of a steelworker, Womack and his siblings got their start as a gospel group. On tour with the Soul Stirrers, the Womack brothers – Bobby, Cecil, Curtis, Harris and Friendly Jr. – were introduced to the Stirrer's lead singer, Sam Cooke. With a move from gospel to secular soul, Cooke asked the Womack brothers to join him in California, and 16-year-old Bobby Womack made the trip.
Billed as the Valentinos, Bobby and his brothers cut two R&B classics: “Looking for a Love” (later covered by the J. Geils Band) and “It’s All Over Now.” The Rolling Stones’ cover of the latter song beat the Valentinos’ own version onto the charts, giving the Stones their second Top 40 hit in the States and first Number One hit ...
Essential Bobby Womack: Top Songs from the Bravest Man in the Universe
On Friday, February 22, 2013, Hall of Fame Inductee Bobby Womack will perform live at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Joined on stage by his full band, including horn section and backup singers, Cleveland native Womack promises a setlist brimming with fiery classics from his storied recording career, as well as cuts from his 2012 release, The Bravest Man in the Universe.
In advance of Womack's concert and interview in the Museum's Foster Theater, the Rock Hall looks at six brilliant Womack songs covering the period of 1964 to 2012.
The Valentinos – “It’s All Over Now”
Bobby Womack sings lead on this 1964 song he wrote with Shirley Womack, and recorded with his brothers Friendly, Jr., Curtis, Harry and Cecil. Within a month of its release, the Rolling Stones had their first Number One hit in the UK with a cover of this song. Womack continued to make the song his ...
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "The Tracks of My Tears"
Born on February 19, 1940, Smokey Robinson is among the most enduring songwriters of the 1960s. He also produced great records, notably by his own group, 2012 Hall of Fame Inductees the Miracles, and by the Temptations, Mary Wells and Marvin Gaye. Finally, Robinson was a great performer, the longest-lasting aspect of his career. But performing was Robinson's least predictable talent. He couldn't really be called a soul singer. Jackie Wilson influenced every first-generation male Motown singer, but even at the Miracles' most raucous, Robinson was no belter like Wilson. His singing bore traces of doo-wop and 1950s R&B, but no gospel. He was the most controlled of the great soulsters, at his best as an unruffled ballad singer – Motown's answer to Bing Crosby, or at least Billy Eckstine. "The Tracks Of My Tears" may be Robinson's greatest record. Without disparaging his beautifully disciplined voice, its power comes from elements in the arrangement: huge drums, a ...
Cleveland Soul: Interview with Lou Ragland
Musician Lou Ragland was born in Cleveland in 1942. His first instrument was saxophone, his choice after rejecting his high school music teacher’s suggestion he play tuba. Inspired by everyone from Brahms to Nat “King” Cole to Ella Fitzgerald, Ragland locked onto soul at 13, when he heard Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers sing “Goody Goody.”
In the early ‘60s, Ragland sang in the storied doo-wop group the Sahibs (along with Hesitations founder Art Blakey and current Hesitation George Hendricks, who taught Ragland rudimentary guitar). He first recorded with the Bandmasters, releasing “Never Let Me Go/Party in Lester’s” on Way Out in 1965. The group waxed that 45 at Cleveland Recording on Euclid Avenue. “The Bandmasters was the music and the Sahibs were the voices, and I sang lead, ” says Ragland, who also recorded for Way Out under the name Volcanic Eruption, with George Hendricks.
“I was the first artist they produced on Way Out, but after they found out that I could engineer and play instruments, they didn’t do anymore on me,” says Ragland. “They didn’t want to lose me to the art world, they wanted me to pump out these songs.” Way Out ...
Remembering Bobby Bennett of the Famous Flames
2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Bennett of the Famous Flames passed away on January 18, 2013, at age 74. For 15 years, the Famous Flames provided impassioned vocals and frenetic choreography alongside James Brown, helping to create among "the greatest stage shows of all time," according to former Rock Hall president and CEO Terry Stewart. Bennett – previously Brown's valet – joined the group in 1959, and along with Bobby Byrd, Johnny Terry and "Baby" Lloyd Stallworth, helped form the definitive lineup of the Famous Flames.
The Famous Flames were a vital element in Brown's success, as their electric stage presence made Brown's performances legendary. Before being dubbed the "Godfather of Soul," Brown was a Famous Flame, and it was his years with that group that made him a driving force in the world of soul music. "A lot of people didn't know that James Brown was the same as I was: a Flame," said Bennett in an April 2012 interview with the Rock Hall.
The group is audible on the 1963 classic album Live at the Apollo. Bennett and the other Famous Flames can been seen in footage from The T.A.M ...
