James brown, an extraordinary singer known as the "number one soul brother", hobbles backstage, wears a noble cloak and puts on a personal redemption drama on the stage every night; Wilson Pickett is an ardent admirer of Archbishop Julius Cheeks. His hoarse cries, harsh screams and clumsy hymns shocked the audience. Sam Cooke preached to secular believers with the painful and sweet harmony and polite manners of his famous "Soul Agitator" band. Otis redding, dressed in an elegant suit, showed amazing hesitation and maintained his radiant dignity. However, the singer Joe Tex was unexpectedly appointed as a Muslim deacon after his popularity disappeared, and became a symbol of black mythology since the slave age. Of course, there is the aforementioned Solomon Burke, who used to be a licensed undertaker. Since 12 years old, he has been a little priest at home, delivering the blessing of the Lord like a bishop. It seems that this is really a serious career in the hearts of soul singers.
It is a kind of optimistic music, and it is no accident that it became famous in the early 1960s. At that time, the self-esteem of black people was awakened, and the progress of civil rights movement and racial concept seemed more real than illusion. The open-minded "kindness" in soul songs has brought great influence to this music. Music itself is inspired by the deepest part of African-American history. Black people showed such wit in this experience because they not only adapted to the foreign culture and environment, but also created their own rich language, which has continued from any white society to today. In other words, this language is the foundation of soul songs, and soul songs under this feeling must be recognized and realized as a conscious mistake of the times. One way to trace the source is to subvert the assimilation influence of the old century and refuse to enter a white society called the mainstream.
In this feeling, you will understand why soul music-approaching the spiritual home with its unified and pure style-is doomed to die out early. For example, just like the development of Chicago blues in the late 1940s, the mountain rock born in Memphis in the 1950s, its musical style is too single to adapt to the changing trend. Moreover, almost all artists of this genre have developed under the protection of a relatively single record company. Chicago blues belongs to chess records; Shanshi is a sun record company, and Lingge is associated with the name of Atlantic record company. Jerry Wexler, vice president of The Atlantic, is the director, and Solomon, Otis, Wilson and Joe are the main actors. Those are complicated and fascinating stories, and only a rough description can be made in this limited space.
In a sense, the birth of soul songs should be the success of Solomon Burke's song "Just Out of Reach (My Open Arms)" in 196 1. Of course, ray charles achieved great success in The Atlantic, and james brown and Sam Cooke became popular one after another. Each of these singers is regarded as an independent phenomenon by onlookers, because only the rise of Solomon and the Atlantic can be regarded as the beginning of a movement.
Solomon Burke recorded a large number of music works in Apollo Records in his early years, both gospel songs and secular songs. It was not until he published his second record in The Atlantic that he achieved real success. Strangely, that song turned out to be a country song, which is not surprising to Jerry. "This change, this structure, the whole feeling is about the gospel and country music." Later, this feeling was also adopted by ray charles in the recording for ABC company a few months later. In any case, Solomon enjoyed the joy of success in 196 1 and 1962. After the publication of the fifth album, his style was stereotyped and he became a soul song in a strict sense.
"One day," Jerry wexler recalled, "a demo containing eight Detroit songs caught my attention, and one of them, If You Need Me, was the only song that moved me. The singer who sang in the audition tape is Wilson pickett. " The story that happened next is both interesting and historic. "If you need me" has become a classic in the style of soul songs, with fanatical emotions, sincere tunes and strict gospel changes. The Atlantic immediately bought the publishing rights of this song, but somehow forgot to buy the ownership of the demo tape. When they were ready to publish Salomon's Passion, they found that the original Wilson sung by Lloyd Price and Harold Logan had been overwhelming in the market. Angry Jerry had to go back to the studio to make a new record. Later, that song became Solomon's main hit, and finally brought Wilson pickett into the Atlantic. "Two years later, Wilson personally came to my office with a tape in his hand. I said,' Dude, don't you feel sad?' He said,' That's over. "Jerry said.
This Wilson, the "bad guy" Wilson, is a singer with more explosive power than Solomon, with more obvious emotions and perhaps more instinctive excitement. He plays out of line in the use of sound and dramatic effects. Jerry took him to the recording studio of Memphis Stax Records. 1965 In the first half of this year, this company has recorded songs such as My Love Is So Strong, Mr. Poor Man, I have loved you for too long and Respect, all of which were sung by an unknown singer otis redding (who used to be an imitator of Little Richard). "Atlantic" and "Stax" have had a sales agreement since 1960, that is to say, Booker T and MGS, r T and Kara Thomas, William Bell and later Sam & Dave are all indirectly gathered under the banner of "Atlantic". As part of the agreement, otis redding's first album was released by a subsidiary of Atlantic Monthly. For Jerry, the unique hard sound style in Stax is very suitable for Wilson's taste. It turns out that he did the right thing. When Wilson and guitarist Steve Cropper sat together to design the rhythm, the popular soul song "Midnight" was born.
Ironically, either because of the success of Wilson's single or because of more complicated commercial disputes, "Stax" shut out all the artists in "Atlantic". As a result, Jerry reached a cooperation agreement with a recording studio named Fame in Florence, Alabama, and "Fame" already has some gospel singers with deep roots in the South like Joe Tex.
Joe Tekes is a music traveler. By the time he came to the famous studio, he had been wandering in the music circle for 10 years, singing every style of works, but failed. Only in Fame did he find his own pattern, neither as sober as Solomon nor as indulgent as Wilson. Some of his songs, such as "Grab What You Have", are full of cunning narratives and witty aphorisms, just like moving sermons.
His success in fame can only be compared with Wilson after 1966. In the studio of fame, an unknown singer, Percy Sledge, recorded a very famous song when a man falls in love with a woman. This work, which imitates the feeling of church atmosphere with Bach organ and high notes, is an exquisite masterpiece of soul songs.
1February, 967, Jerry signed a new female singer and released his first record under the banner of "Atlantic". This is an artist who everyone predicted that she would become a star. Even she started recording commercial works seven years ago. Although she has been in the commercial environment of records, she has hardly brought her potential into full play in her life. The artist is Alisha Franklin. She has published many works on Columbia Records, but none of them received much response. But this time is different. An epoch-making masterpiece-"I have never loved a man as much as I love you" [I have never loved a man (the way I love you)] went straight to the top of the soul song list and entered the top ten of the pop charts, with sales exceeding one million.
To some extent, this is the end of the Linger era. Of course, that ending will not disappear as quickly as a smoke. Some artists are still defending their reputations in the revival of their careers, but more artists have disappeared. Solomon left the Atlantic at 1969, and Wilson and Joe also left at 1973. As early as 1968, "Stax" ended its cooperation with "Atlantic", which was shortly after Otis died in an air crash in 1967+02. In fact, people may say that there is another obvious reason why the Linger era ended in a painful and disturbing form: the assassination of Martin Luther King, the black leader, in April 1968. The beautiful beliefs in many soul songs were shattered by ruthless facts, and soon, more combative hymns and music appeared.
However, soul songs continue to this day, although the times no longer belong to soul songs. But after all, it has reached an artistic height and has its own unique style. When you listen to spiritual songs, it's like attending a church sermon. This kind of music transcends class and age, and every listener seems to be a member of the family, behaving appropriately and working hard. For a foreign white audience, the only response is to follow them unconsciously for spiritual wandering and some self-comfort.