DE-ACCELERATION MUSIC

There aren't many singers smoother than Al Green. You've heard his stuff, "Take Me To the River", "Love and Happiness" and so on. Hearing him sing covers of other people's hits is a little different. His cover of the Doors' "Light My Fire" begs the question: Is stoner soul a thing? Because  that sucker sounds like  someone got blazed. Not because of studio trickery or unintelligible singing. It's the pace of it. So fucking laid back it's hard to listen to without sinking into an overstuffed couch. But you know what? I dig it. Part of it is Green's delivery, but what really sells it is Willie Mitchell's production.

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Listen:
Al Green - Light My Fire mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - Summertime mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - Get Back mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - The Letter  mp3 at Internet Archive

THE WHOLE PACKAGE

Oh man, I just revisited Al Green. The very first notes of "Here I Am" hooked me, changed my mood. The production is so fucking good I had to drag out an f-bomb just to tell you how good it is. Willie Mitchell was the producer, as he was for a lot of Al Green's hits. Obviously the songs are good and Green's voice is amazing, but the production just wraps around you. Check the intro to "Love and Happiness". If that doesn't suck you in it's your loss. Here's a few of Green's and two earlier cuts by Mitchell himself.

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Listen:
Al Green - Here I Am mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - Love and Happiness mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - Take Me to the River mp3 at Internet Archive
Willie Mitchell - Monkey Jump mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Woodchopper's Ball mp3 at The "B" Side

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 8

This should kill more than a few hours. These were first posted here five years ago, but it's worth a bookmark, especially not knowing how long the stay at home orders last. Without just repeating what was said when I first posted these, I'm just slapping a new title on the post. Here's what I said back then:

Dude looks pretty square doesn't he? Assuming you don't know who Hoss Allen is, if someone were to tell you that he hosted a syndicated TV show you'd probably think it would be fairly tepid, right? Wrong. He hosted The !!!! Beat, a 1966 music series with insanely solid line-ups of soul, R & B and blues artists all performing in the studio, most in front of a live band. The list of performers includes (prepare to drool here) Etta James, the Bar Kays, Louis Jordan, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Freddie King, Willie Mitchell, Barbara Lynn, Sam and Dave, the Mighty Hannibal, Joe Tex, and on and on. Yeah, budget a night or two, get a six pack, and for fuck sake, turn off that phone.

Seriously you guys, this is insanity. For just a couple teasers of what can be found in random samplings, click here for Barbara Lynn doing "What I'd Say", with Clarence Gatemouth Brown on guitar. (Oh yeah, that's another thing. Brown was part of the house band! Holy shit and what not!) And one more quick one before you leave, click here for a goosebump inducing clip of Etta James doing "Only Time Will Tell". Those two are just completely random. Here's some links to entire shows, but there's lots more at Youtube.

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Listen:
The !!!! Beat, Vol 4 Show #15 at YouTube Louis Jordan and the Tympani Five (five songs) and Freddy King (two songs, one with Clarence Gatemouth Brown)
The !!!! Beat, Vol 6 # Show 26 at YouTube Otis Redding (guest host!), Percy Sledge, the Bar Kays, Sam and Dave, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, and more.
The !!!! Beat, Vol 1 # Show 2 at YouTube Joe Tex, Etta James, Little Milton, Gatemouth Brown, and more.
The !!!! Beat - More episodes (over fifteen) at YouTube

GREAT DRUM HEADS IN HISTORY

What? Like, with a band name like Vic Pitts and the Cheaters, you're not gonna bite? It was an instantaneous reflex for me. When I see a band name like that, the song is definitely going to get listened to. What exactly name like "that" is, I'm not sure. All I know is that if you do enough scavenging, those kind of names stick out like fishing lures. Sometimes the clicks pay off.

Dig the fruits of clicking, Vic Pitts and the Cheaters "The Trip". a funky as hell instrumental. It's posted at AM, Then FM, one of two blogs by Jeff Ash, a man apparently of taste. The other, The Midnight Tracker is where I am now. As it says on his sidebar, it's named after a late night FM radio show of the same name, back in the day,. That;'s what sucked me in. I can remember a time when FM radio was so wide open, stations would do shit like that. Anyway, the album side I was just digging on is a Willie Mitchell LP, and it's classic Mitchell. In other words, like Booker T and the MGs got really stoned at the Stax barbeque, as a buzzed Packy Axton looked on, rolling his eyes. Let that one run, it's six songs in fourteen minutes. Once you get past the first two, your pace will have slowed enough to be really digging it. Stick around until 9:34. you'll be rewarded with a really swanky cover of  "Hawaii Five-O".

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Listen:

Vic Pitts and the Cheaters - The Trip mp3 at AM Then FM Plus a cut by Sharon Jones.

Willie Mitchell - Side 2 of Soul Bag at The Midnight Tracker Go there to get it. Six songs in fourteen minutes.

L.L. AL G.

I'm probably going to get ten kinds of shit for saying this, but if you've ever dated a woman with even a passing interest in soul music, chances are they had some Al Green. And, even if they had all of his albums, they had got that greatest hits LP. You know the one I'm talking about, the one where he's shirtless. You ladies, we're on to you. 

Seriously though, what's not to like? He's Mr. Nice Guy, the kind of person we all should be. The difference is we can't all be as smooth doing it. I ran into the YouTube video of a Soul Train appearance totally by accident. What the hell right? I expected to like it. I didn't expect to be sucked in, blown away, and all those other phrases I overuse. I give up. I'll never be as smooth doing anything.

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Listen:
Al Green - Love and Happiness mp3 at Wandervogel Diary
Al Green - Let's Stay Together mp3 at Suck My Caucus
Video:
Al Green - Love and Happiness (Soul Train) at YouTube

HI DAD

Once you get past Stax and Sun, and start looking into other Memphis labels, the next one that's likely to pop up is Hi Records, home to Al Green, O.V. Wright, Syl Johnson, and Ann Peebles. Willie Mitchell ran the show during the salad days, functioning as producer, arranger, songwriter, and musician. He also put out his own solo stuff, and he was no slouch. Check "Bum Daddy". That's Memphis right there, like some weird cross between Booker T and the MGs and "Soul Finger", with a dash of Packy Axton between benders.

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Listen:
Willie Mitchell - Bum Daddy mp3 at Crate Diggers Gold
Willie Mitchell - The Champion mp3 at Soul Donuts
Willie Mitchell - Monkey Jump mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Woodchopper's Ball mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Up Hard mp3 at Royal Punkness
Willie Mitchell - Soul Serenade mp3 at LC Center
Visit:
Willie Mitchell at Wikipedia

SAY HEY WILLIE

Willie Mitchell is one big reason why I troll. When he died a few years ago, some of my favorite haunts did tribute posts, and if they hadn't it probably would have been a while before I would have been properly introduced to his work. As I now know, he was an indispensable part of the Memphis soul sound, with his solo work and as a producer, notably most of Al Green's better known stuff.

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Listen:
Willie Mitchell - Monkey Jump mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Woodchopper's Ball mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Up Hard mp3 at Royal Punkness
Visit:
Willie Mitchell bio at The B Side

NAMES TO KNOW: WILLIE MITCHELL

Why: Produced a whole mess of awesome 70's soul for Hi Records (Al Green's hits for starters). A really great profile and follow-up at The "B" Side. A couple instrumental cuts (a good groove + a good mix = aauughh):
Willie Mitchell - Monkey Jump mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Woodchopper's Ball mp3 at The "B" Side