Call Me

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ALBUM INFORMATION
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Total Tracks: 9   Total Length: 35:39

eMusic Review

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Elizabeth Isadora Gold

eMusic Contributor

02.17.09
The Reverend Al at the peak of his seductive powers and taking his first steps back to the church
1999 | Label: Demon / Demon Music Group

Al Green's 1972 masterpiece Call Me might inspire some listeners to tangle in the sheets, but the album is just as likely to inspire passion of a more patriotic sort. Blame it on Hank Williams Sr. and Willie Nelson. Green's covers of Williams '"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and Nelson's "Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away," exemplify the special something that happens when a great soul singer records an equally beautiful country tune. For years, even musical miscegenation was dangerous business below the Mason Dixon line. These covers confirm the notion that American musicians have always been able to go where regular mortals couldn't or wouldn't.

Green's work tells a typical American story, a classic bildungsroman of success and redemption, and Call Me is a crucial chapter leading up to the tale's climax. From the first guitar twang to the last Hammond honk — not to mention Green's multi-bar pleading high notes — the title track is probably the grooviest-grooved come-back-to-me-baby song ever (okay, Green's own "I'm Still In Love With You" finishes neck in neck for the title). "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" covers the same emotional ground, but with a bluesier method. It's… read more »

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They Say All Media Guide

Al Green reached his creative peak with the brilliant Call Me, the most inventive and assured album of his career. So silky and fluid as to sound almost effortless, Green’s vocals revel in the lush strings and evocative horns of Willie Mitchell’s superbly intimate production, barely rising above an angelic whisper for the gossamer “Have You Been Making Out O.K..” With barely perceptible changes in mood, Call Me covers remarkable ground, spanning from “Stand Up” — a call to arms delivered with characteristic understatement — to renditions of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away,” both of them exemplary fusions of country and soul. Equally compelling are the album’s three Top Ten hits — “You Ought to Be With Me,” “Here I Am (Come and Take Me),” and the shimmering title cut. A classic. – Jason Ankeny

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