Al Green, Call Me
The Reverend Al at the peak of his seductive powers and taking his first steps back to the church
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 hard to imagine not taking the poor guy back, but who knows — maybe she's the kind of woman who just doesn't like horns?
Finally, "Jesus is Waiting," the album's final song, deserves special mention. Green hadn't yet officially made his conversion from secular singer to man of the cloth in 1972, but he'd been raised in the church and never strayed too far. When he sings "Help me, help me, help me," and the Memphis strings wail their answer, it's hard not to hear that this was truly his way back home.
