Browse Sections
Interactive
Popular Sections
Partly cloudyMagazine
Al Green - doing it for us all over again
by Conrad Astley30/ 6/2005
OPPORTUNITIES to see legends like Al Green don't come along very
often, so it is hardly surprising both his concerts have now sold
out. However, this is an opportunity that might never have
been.
Green turned his back on the soul music that had made him an
international star after a series of incidents ripped his world
apart in the mid 70s.
The Rev prefix appeared before his name and he spent years working
as a preacher and performing exclusively gospel music.
His official website might still include a large religious section,
containing prayers, sermons and an invitation to his church in
Memphis, but Al Green the soul man is definitely back.
His reunion with Willie Mitchell - the man who helped build his
career in the early 70s - was something for which fans had spent
decades waiting.
The conflict between the music of God and the devil had been a
feature of Green's early life when the Arkansas-born singer formed
a family gospel quartet at the age of nine.
The Greene Brothers - he later dropped the e - toured the south in
the mid 50s, and then continued to play in Michigan when the family
relocated north.
However, the youngster was thrown out of the group by his dad after
he caught the singer listening to R&B star Jackie Wilson.
Undeterred by this setback, he formed Al Greene And The Creations
with high school friends. The band later changed its name to The
Soul Mates, and had an early hit with Back Up Train in 1968.
The singer's first meeting with Willie Mitchell came the following
year while he was on tour in Texas.
The vice president of Hi Records liked Green's voice and persuaded
him come and record for the company - reputedly agreeing to the
singer's insistence that he would only move to Memphis if Mitchell
gave him $1,500 in cash up front.
The pair created an immediately recognisable sound characterised by
a slick groove, smooth strings, and Green's falsetto vocal.
After his 1970 debut album Green Is Blues, and the follow-up Al
Green Gets Next To You, the singer had hit after hit with songs
like Let's Stay Together, Tired Of Being Alone, Look What You Done
For Me, and Sh-La-La (Make Me Happy).
But just as the singer's popularity was it its peak, an
ex-girlfriend broke into his house and poured boiling hot grits (a
southern U.S. potato dish) onto him while he was in the bath -
giving him second degree burns - before shooting herself.
Having just recovered from this, he injured himself by falling
offstage at a concert.
As if that wasn't enough, the rise of disco began making his smooth
soul sound dated and record sales fell.
Green interpreted these events to be a calling from God, decided to
retire from secular music and turned to the church.
He was ordained as a minister, bought a church, and became founding
pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church.
What was first a decision to quit the wicked ways of the flesh soon
turned into a second career as Green consistently topped the gospel
charts throughout the 80s and 90s.
His first steps back towards soul may not have been the best
planned comeback - a duet with Annie Lennox on the soundtrack to
the 1988 Bill Murray film Scrooged - and other R&B albums he
released were largely ignored.
But things changed significantly when he got back together with
Mitchell for the 2003 album I Can't Stop.
Released by legendary jazz label Blue Note, the album was an
exercise in repeating whatever the pair had got right in the 70s.
It was made in the same studio, featured many of the same
musicians, and even used the same microphone and recording booth
Green had sung through 30 years earlier.
The exercise proved a success, as the album was universally
praised, and the pair decided to repeat the formula on this year's
Everything's OK.
Green's management were forced to book an extra date after his
appearance at the MEN Arena sold out, but tickets for the second
date are also now hard to come by.
MEN Arena, tonight
(Friday, July 1) and July 12
Got an opinion you want to share?| Company | Typical APR |
| Platinum Exclusive Loan | 7.8% |
| AA | 7.9% |
| Sainsbury's Personal Loan | 8.2% |
| Alliance & Leicester | 8.7% |
| Lloyds TSB | 8.9% |
| Abbey Personal Loan | 8.9% |
| Provider | AER* |
|
ICICI BANK HiSAVE Savings Account |
4.50% |
|
FIRST DIRECT Everyday e-Saver |
1.75% |
|
SAINSBURYS FINANCE Internet Saver |
2.25% |