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Al Green VibeZ

Sixteen tracks from the most physically beautiful body of recorded sound in American popular music.

The essence of soul…..

Al Green

The records Al Green made in Memphis between 1971 and 1974 with the producer Willie Mitchell are, by a fairly broad consensus, among the most perfectly made in soul music. What makes them extraordinary is as much about the room as the singer.

Mitchell recorded at Royal Studios with the Hi Rhythm Section — the Hodges brothers and drummer Al Jackson Jr. — and he deliberately kept everything soft: the drums damped with cloth, the horns low in the mix, the bass round rather than punchy. Into that space Green sings in a voice that does more or less anything, moving from a conversational tenor to a falsetto sigh within a phrase.

He became an ordained minister in 1976 and turned to gospel for most of the following two decades, which makes the secular catalogue a finite and precious thing.

What to listen for

"Let's Stay Together" is the famous one and deserves its position — note how little the band does, and how much of the record is the gap between the notes.

"Love And Happiness" is the most structurally interesting: it opens with a guitar figure and an organ stab, takes nearly a minute to arrive, and then never resolves the way you expect.

"Tired Of Being Alone" was the first hit and remains the most emotionally raw.

"Simply Beautiful" is the connoisseur's choice — almost nothing happens on it, and it is one of the most sampled records in hip-hop.

"How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" is the Bee Gees cover and better than the original, and "For the Good Times" is the country song given the same treatment.

"Here I Am (Come And Take Me)" and "Call Me" are the uptempo peaks.

"Stay With Me (By The Sea)" with John Legend and "Take Your Time" with Corinne Bailey Rae are the late collaborations, and both are respectful in the right way.

Go deeper

Call Me (1973) is the masterpiece and one of the best albums of the seventies in any genre. I'm Still in Love with You (1972) and Let's Stay Together (1972) complete the run.

Then listen to the Hi Rhythm Section behind Ann Peebles and Syl Johnson. Same room, same players, same magic.

Listening note: the room is half the record. Damped drums, horns kept low, a bass rounded rather than punched — the producer deliberately built a soft space and then let a voice do anything it liked inside it. That is why these records sound physically different from everything else in soul, and why nobody has successfully copied them.

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