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- Date Released: September 20, 2005
- Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
- Style: R&B
- Label: RCA/Legacy
- Copyright: Originally Recorded 1963. All rights reserved by BMG Music
The plain truth: Cooke could sing like no other man before or since
-
We Say...
1963, Miami, Florida — below the Mason Dixon line. Jim Crow was still law, Martin Luther King was just about to march on Washington, and the bluntly named Chitlin Circuit (the collection of clubs where black artists played and sang for black audiences) was still in full operation. Sam Cooke had been a star for most of his life by the time of this now-legendary gig at the Harlem Square Club. At 32, the singer already had a best-selling Greatest Hits album, and had entranced legions of church-goers as a certified gospel sex symbol through the fifties (including a very young Aretha Franklin, who has always admitted her melismatic signing style was a straight-up tribute to her friend's liquid vocals). Cooke had been working his audience members, especially those of the female persuasion, into bosom-heaving frenzies for years — and not just because of his movie-star good looks. The plain truth: Cooke could sing like no other man before or since.
This live recording shows off all of Cooke's gifts. "It's All Right," is the gospel classic "Touch the Hem of His Garment" (which, not coincidentally, Cooke had already made into a hit with the Soul Stirrers), secularized. Except instead of praying to Jesus for mercy, Cooke advises each man in the audience to "shake and wake" his woman up when he comes home at night, wait until she "wipes all the sleep from her eyes," and tell her "Believe me baby, it's all right." A perfect lullaby.
Songs such as "Cupid" or "Twistin' the Night Away" may sound retro now, even corny at times, especially to ears used to the tough funk of James Brown or George Clinton. But that's because it's almost impossible, in our current Yes We Did era, to imagine what it must have been like back then for a soul singer whose rough edges were so easy to smooth. Cooke could charm with such ease, it would have been a piece of cake for him to go the Sammy Davis route. But he didn't. And JB and Dr. Funkenstein, not to mention Prince and (early, fantastic) Michael Jackson, wouldn't have been the same if he had. Live At the Harlem Square Club does have a bit of a preserved-in-amber quality. That's not the record's fault, however. By 1964, Cooke was dead, shot to death in a motel under circumstances that were never clear (his last masterpiece, the introspective, heartbreaking, "A Change is Gonna Come," was not released until after his death). It's wonderful to be able to hear his voice here, so relaxed and true, and with the audience he knew and loved the best. As Cooke tells the ladies in the crowd, and they ecstatically croon back, "I think of you every morning, and dream of you every night." -
They Say...
Not only is this one of the greatest live soul albums ever released, it also reveals a rougher, rawer, and more immediate side to Sam Cooke that his singles only hinted at, good as they were. Working with a merged band that included guitarist Cliff White and drummer Albert "June" Gardner from Cooke's regular touring outfit and saxophonist King Curtis and his band, Cooke brings a gospel fervor to these whirlwind versions, which are fiery, emotionally direct, and hit with uncommon power. Every track burns with an insistent, urgent feel, and although Cooke practically defines melisma on his single releases, here he reaches past that into deeper territory that finds him almost literally shoving and pushing each song forward with shouts, asides, and spoken interactions with the audience, which becomes as much a part of this set as any bandmember. "Chain Gang" is stripped down to a raw nerve, "Twistin' the Night Away" explodes out of the gate like a runaway rocket, and Curtis' sax breaks on "Somebody Have Mercy" make it sound like the saxophone was invented for this one song alone. Throughout Cooke's voice is a raspy laser that makes it obvious what Rod Stewart picked up from this recording, and it is impossible not to hear Cooke's voice looming behind Stewart's once you've heard this amazing live set. Although recorded January 12, 1963, at the Harlem Square Club in Miami in 1963, RCA didn't release it as an album until 1985. The set was remixed from the original first generation three-track tape for 2000's The Man Who Invented Soul box, and while the music (and Cooke's vocals in particular) sounded much cleaner, much of the crowd noise from the 1985 mixes was toned down, robbing the recording of some of its claustrophobic, frenzied power. The mix used here seems to more or less split the difference, but the crucial key is and was always Cooke's vocals, and while he was a marvelously smooth, versatile, and urbane singer on his official pop recordings, here he explodes into one of the finest sets of raw secular gospel ever captured on tape. It is essential listening in any version.
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| 01. |  |
Soul Twist/Introduction |
1:23 |
|
| 02. | |
Feel It (Don't Fight It) |
2:55 |
|
| 03. | |
Chain Gang |
3:11 |
|
| 04. | |
Cupid |
2:45 |
|
| 05. | |
Medley: It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons |
5:12 |
|
| 06. | |
Twistin' The Night Away |
4:19 |
|
| 07. | |
Somebody Have Mercy |
3:39 |
|
| 08. | |
Bring It On Home To Me |
5:26 |
|
| 09. | |
Nothing Can Change This Love |
2:40 |
|
| 10. | |
Having A Party |
5:04 |
|
10 Total Tracks, 36:34 Total Length
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Credits
- Sam Cooke - Vocals // Sam Cooke - Vocals // Rod Stewart - Author // Rod Stewart - Author // Rod Stewart - Author // King Curtis - Saxophone // Cornell Dupree - Guitar // Tate Houston - Saxophone // Bob Ludwig - Mastering // Luigi - Supervisor // Steve Rosenthal - Mixing // Steve Rosenthal - Analog Transfer // Tony Salvatore - Engineer // Bob Simpson - Engineer // George Stubbs - Piano // Clifton White - Guitar // David Gorman - Package Design // Jimmy Lewis - Bass // Rob Santos - Reissue Producer // Tom Psipsikas - Assistant Engineer // Nathan Sedlander - Project Director // Arthur Nakata - Package Design // Albert "June" Garnder - Drums // Paul Guralnick - Liner Notes // Brian Thorn - Analog Transfer
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