Shades R&B; History - 3

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Soul was the term adopted to describe black popular music as it evolved from the 1950s into the heady heights of the 60s and through to the early 70s. There are those who saw it as simply a new term for Rhythm and Blues but this interpretation does miss one of the most important facets of the soul era - many of the great performers of the period did much to redefine R&B and black popular music in general, radically reinterpreting the sounds of the rhythm and blues pioneers. Critically many, though not all, found success with the white record buying public in a way that would have been unrecognised by the R&B pioneers of the 30s, 40s and even the 50s.

Staple Singers

Very simplistically put, if rock'n'roll can perhaps be seen as a white artist interpretation of rhythm and blues, then soul was quite clearly a return to the roots of black music - to the blues and in particular gospel and the church. The style retains similarities with the blues; the emotional honesty, the vocal intensity, the use of call and response. Ray Charles may well have been the first to secularise pure gospel songs, but it reached full maturation in the work of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Atlantic Records were again at the fore of black music evolution, first producing Aretha in 1967 ('I Never Loved A Man') at the start of one of the greatest series of soul recordings of all time. But even before the work of Aretha, soul music had broken through in the work of a range of southern artists on southern oriented labels such as the legendary Stax Records.

Stax (based in Memphis) was built on an unshakable belief in the quality of straight ahead soul. Singers of the stature of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and the Staples produced vocal performances of such intensity they took you straight back to the blues shouters of the 30s and 40s. Atlantic used southern recording environments such as Fame Studios and Muscle Shoals to produce wonderful material from the likes of Wilson Pickett and Solomon Burke as well as Aretha. The arrangements were always relatively sparse and often spontaneous, with incredibly strong horn lines supported by a rock solid rhythm section.
Other artists, frequently already successful, looked to the southern studios to regenerate their careers. Etta James recorded the great 'Tell Mama' in Muscle Shoals and Percy Sledge's 'When A Man Loves A Woman', recorded nearby in Sheffield, became the first southern soul song to reach number one on the straight pop charts (and has hardly been out of the charts since!)

There were of course a number of different approaches to the soul musical form and the Motown sound from Detroit has divided opinion and stimulated debate amongst soul commentators and historians since the mid 60s. It's lighter, more pop oriented approach and its determined effort to appeal to as broad an audience as possible have led many commentators to dismiss its output as the light, less authentic alternative to the Stax / Atlantic southern soul ideal. This is largely ill founded for two reasons, the most important of which is that alongside the poppier material from artists such as the Supremes the label produced artists and material with real gospel grit - the early Contours material, classic early Marvin Gaye, the superb vocal performances of the Temptations, it all goes straight back to the church and the gospel heritage. Motown was often regarded as inferior simply because it packaged its material so well, and in so doing managed to appeal to the white teenage audience as well as the traditional black market place.
The second reason? Take a listen to a Motown Box Set, especially the first six CD box set which covers the glory days of the label - incredibly high quality soul from start to finish, a huge variety of styles and material - some of the best vocalists in soul music singing material from the finest songwriters!

Percy Sledge

Soul wasn't just about the southern states and Detroit either. Chicago followed up on its influence on electric blues with its fair share of soul successes. One of the greatest exponents was Curtis Mayfield, who added his own distinctive social consciousness to the soul music movement. The Chess label also followed its blues and R&B hits with a range of soul music successes, including material from the very wonderful Dells and superb stuff from the likes of Mitty Callier, Theola Kilgore and Fontella Bass. And in New Orleans, you could listen to an altogether different sound - funky, expressive and full of the undeniably feel good factor of Louisiana. And the music continued to evolve, with the Philadelphia sound of Gamble and Huff virtually reinventing the genre in the 70s through the music of groups such as the O'Jays, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes and the underrated Spinners.

Soul has become a permanent part of the language of American popular culture, although much of what it now defines has little in common with what's of interest to this site. The underlying virtues of the music described in the Primer are direct emotional delivery, a pride and artistic integrity, a feeling within the music which transmits itself to the listener - you can call it blues, R&B or soul, but it has to have those ingredients to truly succeed. So, by and large, with a few notable exceptions, this is the music upon which the Primer concentrates. Most of it glorious, uplifting and heart wrenching, sometimes beautiful or achingly sad, and occasionally no more and no less than just plain good fun. Always true to a spirit, an emotional honesty, that is hard for other styles to match. 

Don't be fooled into thinking that this music has no currency in the 21st century. There is still plenty of it to be found in the current music scene. There are any number of great artists flying the flag. It could be an original great such as B.B. King still producing the goods, others like 'Keb 'Mo imbuing the tradition with a modern feel and commercial sheen and some, such as Mighty Sam McClain, proving that high quality deep soul is still being produced and appreciated by the record buying public. And recent albums by Beverley Knight ("Music City Soul" - 2007) and Amy Winehouse ("Back to Black" - 2006) also prove you can create genuinely soulful albums for the 21st century without simply creating a facsimile of the past. 

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