Tag Archives: Soul

3 - Soul

3 –  Soul

Leave a comment

Table of Contents

3 – Soul

Soul music is gospel-influenced R&B music that splintered off from R&B starting at the end of the 50s, by the early 60s soul was its own and went on to spawn many derivatives of soul music.

A – 60s Soul

60s Soul was the seat of modern dance throughout the decade alongside older styled R&B. The new soul music was upbeat and had a crispness it utilized horn, rhythm, and string sections to add color and flavor to the music.

Soul music dominated the pop charts as the decade progressed. Successful soul labels were startups like Motown & Stax Records, as opposed to the prestigious Atlantic Records, Prominent soul cities like Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans or studio sounds like Muscle Shoals.

1) Architects of Soul – Ray Charles – The Father of Soul, James Brown – the Godfather of Soul, Sam Cooke The King of Soul, Etta James, Berry Gordy – Motown, Smokey Robinson. Aretha Franklin Queen of Soul.

2) Soul Influences – R&B stars that influenced soul music. Sonny Til and the Orioles, Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Solomon Burke, Jerry Butler & the Impressions, the Isley Brothers.

3) 60s Soul Music – 60s soul music was comprised of many different labels, regions, and studios. Doc Pomus, Phil Spector, 

a) Atlantic Records – Lieber & Stoller, The Drifters, Ben E. King. Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin,

b) Motown Records – Carla & Rufus Thomas, The Miracles, Mary Wells, Martha & the Vandellas, the Temptations, the Four Tops,  the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Junior Walker & the All-Stars, Stevie Wonder,

c) Stax Records – Booker T & the MGs, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Joe Tex, Isaac Hayes

d) Other sounds – Keen, New Brunswick, Chess Records, ABC Records, Gene Chandler, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Jerry Butler, Sly & the Family Stone. 

4) 60s Soul – top 10 hits – R&B influences of soul 1959-1962 and yearly lists for 1963-1969. 

5) 60s Soul – top 40 hits – Detailed 1959-1969 top 40 hits and other relevant songs.

6) Blue-Eyed Soul – The Righteous Brothers, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Steve Winwood, Hall & Oates, Adele

7) Psychedelic Soul – The late 60s Temptations,  Sly & the Family Stone, Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix, Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield.

B) 70s Soul

70s soul was a lot different then the high paced active soul of the 60s, 70s soul, slowed down a bit and concentrated on ballads and love songs. It became more topical and led to several soul album masterpieces. Soul became a genre that could be as light, easy-listening music, as light jazzy funk or to be as of a novelty in an “old- style” R&B.

As this was happening, funk music grew out of soul and psychedelia and began to transform popular music with its bass fidelity or funkiness.

1) 70s Soul – Soul became very progressive after its late 60s and early 70s spiritual triumphs. Soul was now open to concepts and styles only hinted at in the 60s. Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”; Roberta Flack, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Stevie Wonder “Innervisions”, “Songs in the Key of Life”; Earth Wind & Fire, Jackson 5, Diana Ross, LaBelle, Natalie Cole, Luther Vandross.

2) 70s Soul – top 10 hits – The ballads, the light songs, the funky ditties, the epic suites and the love songs.

3) 70s Soul – top 40 hits – Detailed top 40 hits with many relevant album tracks.

4) Northern Soul – A whole vast sub-genre of American 60s soul rarities that became popular during the 1970s, but only in northern England.

5) Philly Soul & Disco – Thom Bell, Gamble  & Huff, the Delfonics, Barry White, the Stylistics, the O’Jays, the Spinners, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergast, TSOP and many early funk and disco classics.

C) 80s Soul & Contemporary R&B

1) 80s Soul – Newer sounds from Hip Hop and Hi NRG started to influence soul. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, DeBarge, Lionel Ritchie, Miami Sound Machine, George Michaels, Sade, Soul II Soul. 

See New Wave & 80s Pop

 

2) Contemporary R&B –  Contemporary R&B has an easy. smooth, silky, well-produced sound, with breathy, lush lyrics and vocal arrangements and flawless computer generated beats and instrumentation. Influenced by pop, rhythm & blues, soul, funk, hip-hop, gospel and electronic dance music.

The production is so perfect you’d think a machine did it, oh wait that is exactly what was done. Think of a Quincy Jones production of the albums “Off the Wall” or “Thriller” by Michael Jackson

Check out Janet Jackson’s 2 late 80s albums “Control” and “Rhythm Nation 1814” , the master producer Quincy Jones, master producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Stevie Wonder, Al B. Sure, Whitney Houston, Guy, Jodeci, Bell Biv DeVoe, Boyz to Men, R. Kelly, Timbaland, Aaliyah, Craig David, Destinys Child, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige.

 

3) The Quiet Storm – Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Sade, Frankie Beverly, Maze, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Barry White, Gil Scott-Heron, Bill Withers, All of Philly Soul, Peabo Bryson

 

4) Neo Soul –  Neo Soul has less of contemporary soul’s slick, polished, digitized production yet it is an album-oriented form of music. The influential genres here are jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronica, pop but with African music and rhythms as the identifier, the crucial ingredient. Inspired by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson.

Prince, Terence Trent D’Arby, Joi, Mint Condition, Sade, Soul II Soul, Caron Wheeler, the Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, Lisa Stansfield, Zhane, Groove Theory, Tonu Rish and Me’Shell NdegeOcello. Mainstream break through D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Tony! Yoni! Tone!, and Maxwell 90s. Also in the UK, Young Disciples, Omar Lye-Fook, 

 

4 - Funk

4 – Funk

Leave a comment

Table of Contents

4 – Funk

In 1967, James Brown started a revolution in music and rhythm.  He gave the drums the most important role of the song and basically turned the entire band into a drum set (or machine, if you will).

A) Funk Influences

1 – Soul – Soul veterans like Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye had several masterpiece albums each,

2 – Psychedelic Soul – A new revamped Temptations with masterpiece songs like “Papa was a Rolling Stone”, Isaac Hayes had “Theme from Shaft”.

B) Funk Pioneers

Starting off with James Brown, there came in rapid succession and almost all at once Sly & the Family Stone, George Clinton and Funkadelic, these three first artists I refer to as the “Funk Triumvirate”.

1 – James Brown-  On the One – The rhythm concept of funk. James Brown changed the emphasis of the pulse from a backbeat to emphasizing the “One” of each 4 or 8-bar measure.

2 –  Sly & the Family Stone

3- George Clinton

A – Funkadelic

B – Parliament

c – P-Funk

4 –  Other Funk Pioneer Bands – There were newcomers Dyke & the Blazers, War (starting off with Eric Burdon from the Animals), The JB’s (James Browns back up band featuring Fred Wesley & Maceo Parker and related artists like Bobby Byrd and Lynn Collins),  and another important band made up of session players the Meters helped to shape the new genre,

C) Mainstream Funk

Then other bands went on to turn Funk into the pop music of the day in the early 70s with acts like Al Green, the Dramatics,  Kool & the Gang, Average White Band, the Soul Searchers the Commodores and Heatwave.

1 – Funky Bass – The bass guitar became more innovative during this period and would change the sound of modern music and the role of the bass guitar as a lead, forever.

2 – Funk Influence

a – Mainstream Rock –

b – Disco –

c –  Hip Hop

3 – Major Funk Acts – in Tower of Power, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Earth Wind & Fire.

D) Modern Funk Music

4 - 60s Soul Top 10

60s Soul Top 10 – 50’s Gospel Influences

Leave a comment

60s Soul Top 10  –  50’s Gospel Influences

(12)

 

Gospel Influences in the age of Rock & Roll

Soul slowly grew out of “rhythm & blues” with its mixing with gospel music during the hey day of the fifties, the rock & roll era. There are many examples of early soul coming out of gospel music that never made the charts. (For a listing of these, please see the expanded page for 60’s Soul – Gospel Influences).

 

 

It was Ray Charles the “Father of Soul” who first took a nice spiritual gospel type of song and then, oh no, he added, well, shall we say… non-secular lyrics to create and record the epic song “I Got A Woman”. The song was a first in many ways. It was Ray’s first  R&B #1 hit in the beginning of the year late in January, nineteen fifty-five, when all the ruckus was started. The controversial song would go on to be named #235 of the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest songs of all time.

Almost sixteen months later, James Brown the “God Father” of soul and the “Founder of the Funk” came out with this, begging on his knees, “Please, Please, Please”. The song was a #5 hit on the R&B charts in April of 56′. James Brown would go on to shape and develop pop music for the next 30 years.

Clyde McPhatter went solo after being in the hit groups the Domino’s and the Drifters, he got into the top 20 pop charts with the hit “Treasure of Love” in the early summer of fifty-six. He would be known as one of the “Founders of Soul”

The “Rocking Roll Icon” and “Founder of Rock & Roll“, Little Richard had a soulful side to his singing, like this early hit “Send Me Some Lovin’” in mid-April in 1957. Little Richard would explore gospel music and other spirituals after his semi-retirement in late 1957.

Another rising star behind Sam Cooke was “Mr. Excitement”, Jackie Wilson and his pioneering soul classic”Reet Petite” in November of 1957. Jackie Wilson would go on to be considered one of the “Founders of Soul”.

The “King of Soul” Sam Cooke would have a top 40 hit soul song triumvirate in the late fifties starting with “You Send Me” when it hit the top of both charts (US and R&B) at the end of 1957.

 

“The Iceman” cometh, “For Your Precious Love” this top 20 hit, coming in at #11 on the Billboard & top 10 in the R&B charts in the summer of 58′, Jerry Butler & the Impressions sang quite lovely and melodically precious song with this favorite.

One of the first few successful Lady’s of Rhythm & Blues was LaVern Baker. She had a top ten mainstream hit with this soulful ditty “I Cried A Tear”, early in fifty-nine.  Along with Etta James and Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker would make a one of a trio of “Ladies of Early-Soul”.

After singing in Billy Ward’s Dominos, and starting the Drifters, Clyde McPhatter had another top ten hit on which he sang on, except this was his second solo hit in the beginning of 1959, as well as topping the R&B chart a third time.  “A Lover’s Question” made Clyde to be, one of the “Founders of Soul” along with Cooke, Butler, Ballard, Little Richard and Jackie Wilson.

Jackie Wilson hit the top ten again in February of 59′ and topped the R&B chart, as well. The song “Lonely Teardrops” was considered a soul classic and #335 of the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest songs of all time.

The Drifters, in their second incarnation, came back with the Ben E. King penned and sung “There Goes My Baby“. The song was a smash hit in the summer of 59′ going to #2 on the main charts and number one on the R&B charts. The Drifters were a vocal R&B group that was not only one of the 2 most successful vocal groups of the rock & roll era, but also one of the pioneering groups of soul with many great lead singers moving through their ranks such as Founder of Soul, Ben E. King.

For this beginning section and intro to soul music, it is quite appropriate that we should end with the Ray Charles. This next song is one of the greatest most fun songs of all times for all ages. The song utilizes call and response that is tremendous fun. “What’d I Say” was a top ten crossover hit at the end of the summer of 1959 after topping the R&B chart.