Sam & Dave, Otis, Percy, Aretha, Sam Cooke....

will there ever be music as good as that again? Gifts from the music gods!

But don't forget the Wicked Pickett. :)

MAN, what a voice!

x(

Too many no-talent hacks out there. Record companies won't invest in anyone with real talent...and the productions end up being too synthetic and processed anyway. Back then, real live humans laid the rythym tracks live, playing off each other. Some artists still do this, but they're in the minority. I wish more would do it this way (and that lables would knock the LOUD-CD crap off!)

I doubt we'll see a singer with the gut-wrenching emotion of Otis Redding again, though. Un-freaking-believable. Ever hear his rendition of White Christmas? Incredible...and the backing of Booker T & the MG's doesn't hurt that track either. There was a LOT more to Otis than Dock Of The Bay (why oh why won't oldies stations play any of his OTHER songs???) Cigarettes and Coffee...Send Me Some Loving...Try A Little Tenderness...Dreams To Remember...I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)...list goes on.

Funny thing...this stuff was cut in the segregated south, but the rythym sections were mixed...no segregation inside the studio. Didn't matter if you were black, white, purple with orange polkadots, whatever. You just had to play. Only thing that mattered was the music. And the music was pure freaking magic.

Todd in Beerbratistan, B-3 organ player and Stax lover

Most people only know Janis from "Me and Bobby McGee" because radio has such little imagination. There are tons of songs by Otis and these other masters that never gets played. Hidden jewels.

??? :wtf:

and honorable mention to Smokey Robinson

sitting in the morning sun
i'll be sitting when the evening comes

sigh

(Sorry, I just love that Tim Robbins butchering of Otis from 'Bull Durham')

Otis was the man. Taken at just 29... what he could have done since then boggles the mind.

I am a soul sister from the sixties. I listen to these artists
every day. And I never undertake a long drive without a good
stock of Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson CD's.

I think Jackie Wilson's voice is what the voice of God must be
like. I love the way it soars out into space... beautiful.

before it all gets away!

One of the best concerts I went to was Sam & Dave, twenty five years ago. Still have very fond memories.

And you're leaving out one of the all time greats, Al Green! Nobody, but nobody could beg better than the Righeous Reverend Al!

From Pittsburgh. Does a great soul show. Wonderful big band. One of my other local favorites are (somebody, somebody and) the Milwaukeans, I'm blocking on his name right now. Also, much props to Jackie Wilson.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Sock it to me! Sock it to me! Sock it to me! Sock it to me! Sock it to me! Sock it to me! Sock it to me! Sock it to me!

Otis Redding wrote that song? His original version is actually more uptempo and driving....then Aretha grabbed it and infused it with her infectious attitude, and the rest was history.

Aretha had a knack for spicing up other writers' tunes. Her staggeringly vast improvement of Burt Bacharach's "Say A Little Prayer" is another one. Much more soulful and grooving than Dionne Warwick's Bacharach-arranged version...Bacharach's horn arrangements sound like they came straight from the produce section of a supermarket...Muzak all the way. It doesn't groove at all...no "traction".

Todd in Beerbratistan

one of my favorite vocalists. I love that smoky quality to her voice.

And the Pips.