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Al Green is Trying Something New

I was sitting on the bed in my pajamas, on the phone with the publicity president at Blue Note, and we were talking about doing a duet album. But there was just so many people wanting to duet that there was too many to duet with.

Musical collaborations happen all the time. From Alicia Keys and Maroon 5 to The Killers and Lou Reed to Jamie Foxx and Rascal Flatts, many fans cease to so much as bat an eye when told news of a new pairing between musicians.

However, that's because most musical match-ups aren't nearly as cool as this one. Soul legend Al Green has new album (due May 27), which he worked on with The Roots' ?uestlove. Other artists featured on the album include John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae, and neo-soul singer Anthony Hamilton.

Luckily, ?uestlove seems to recognize the need for Green to make good with younger, hipper artists, all without crossing the line and transforming his persona and sound completely. In a recent Billboard.com article, ?uestlove is quoted as saying, "I'm not saying Al Green wants to do his version of [Chamillionaire's] 'Ridin'..."

Phew. Good thinking, ?uest.

Watch a sneak peak of some of the album's studio time below:

Related links:
AlGreenMusic.com
TheRoots.com
Paste: Al Green Records with ?uestlove, More

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They have recorded covers of White Stripes songs, have had successful careers as preachers, and have been produced by The Roots’ Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson. Yes, Joss Stone and Al Green sure have a lot in common.

All right, maybe just the ?uestlove part.

Although he’s working on the tenth Roots album, ?uestlove is also the guru on Al Green’s upcoming record, which will be released in spring 2008 on Blue Note. The album will feature collaborations between Green and Anthony Hamilton as well as D’Angelo, with a possible appearance by Justin Timberlake. “We also have been talking to Justin’s people,” ?uestlove told MTV.com. “Both he and Al are from Memphis.”

?uestlove also told MTV that he wants the album to have a rough, unpolished sound that will stand out among the omnipresent glut of slick, overproduced contemporary music. “A lot of the favorite records we sample from today, those were recorded in studios that were very lackluster,” he said. “Those weren’t the best studios in the world. Pretty much, I want this album to sound very cheap, very dirty.” Maybe Joss Stone will follow Green’s example, so that they can have another thing in common.

Related links:
AlGreenMusic.com
BlueNote.com
?uestlove on MySpace

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“Willie helped me find my identity,” Al Green has said of producer Willie Mitchell, with whom he recorded 10 classic albums and dozens of unforgettable tracks between 1969 and 1976. “The vibes between us are perfect.” So when the two legends reunited in 2003 for I Can’t Stop and continued their rekindled collaboration with 2005’s Everything’s OK, working—as always—in Mitchell’s hallowed Royal Recording Studio in Memphis, their only competition was their own younger selves. Green is now 58, Mitchell is 77.

After they parted ways, Green became a preacher and turned his back on soul music. His prodigious chops were still apparent in his gospel recordings, but without the sexiness—and without Mitchell’s knowing production—Al Green just wasn’t Al Green. “When he’d go somewhere else to record,” says Mitchell, emitting a quick, satisfied laugh, “it didn’t come out right.”

Their partnership may have been in the past, but their friendship never ?agged, and over the years Willie kept needling the reverend: “Man, with that voice you got, you gotta come back and make a record.”

Then, one morning in 2002, Green told his old cohort he wanted to talk. “He came to the studio and said, ‘You been talkin’ about makin’ a record,’” Mitchell recalls. “I said, ‘Al, I’m not makin’ no gospel record. If you wanna talk about a gospel record, you can go on back out the door, ’cause we got nothin’ to talk about.’ He says, ‘Let’s record!’”

After they’d worked up the material, they started tracking what would become I Can’t Stop, their first secular collaboration in 27 years. Only bass player Leroy “Flick” Hodges remained from Mitchell’s great Hi Records studio band, but the producer has a history of molding musicians into tight playing units, and his current crew was prepared to bring the signature deep grooves of Hi’s ’70s records back to life. For example, drummer Steve Potts, who had the daunting challenge of taking the place of greats Al Jackson and Howard Grimes, has been under Mitchell’s tutelage since 1979, so you could say he’s been groomed. “When Al came back in,” says Mitchell, “I was ready for him. I know Al Green, and I know how to put the color there; I know all about it.”

I Can’t Stop had its moments, but it certainly didn’t clear the extremely high bar Green and Mitchell had set three decades earlier. “I don’t think on the first album he was really down to it,” Mitchell acknowledges. “He never got in that groove. He had to get used to the musicians and the arrangements and everything, and it takes a minute to get the problems solved. So when we started the next album, I said, ‘Man, we gotta tighten up here. We can’t be short-steppin’.’ I’m the one guy can give him criticism—it don’t bother him ’cause he knows I tell him the right thing. This time he was more into it—a lot of the stuff on this new album he really meant.”

Everything’s OK’s title song—which is as close as the collaborators have come to hitting the level of their ’70s work—almost didn’t get recorded. “We were through with the album,” the producer recalls, “and I began to mess with this thing, ‘Everything’s OK.’ I called Al and said, ‘I got somethin’ real good over here. We can’t let this album go—we got to record this song.’ He said, ‘I’ll deal with it,’ but he didn’t come that day. A few days later he came over and we worked on the song about three or four hours. I made him a tape to let him know how the song goes, like I always do, and he wrote the lyric to it. So we started recording the song and nobody liked it but me. I asked my son how he liked it, and he said, ‘Man, I got to go get some gas.’ He wouldn’t even listen to it. But I knew where the song was goin’, and when we got through with it, everybody liked it.”

It was risky to have Green tackle “You Are So Beautiful,” the Billy Preston song so closely associated with Joe Cocker, but Mitchell says he’s been hearing Green singing it in his head for years. “When I showed it to him, he looked at me funny. I said, ‘No, man, let’s don’t think about Joe Cocker; let’s think about Al Green. Just take this thing home and learn it.’ It’s always about the song, but it’s how you approach the song, and it just comes out more dynamic with Al. ’Cause when Al’s in there, he’s gonna stomp on it. He’s the best I’ve ever recorded.”

In classic father-son fashion, the Mitchell-Green relationship has its competitive side. According to Willie, “Every time he and I write something, he says, ‘I’m gonna out-write you.’ I said, ‘Son, you got a long ways to go.’” And the producer still pushes Green’s buttons to get the optimum vocal performance. “I tell him, ‘Man, you’re getting old—you’re gonna lose it,’ and he’ll sing better.”

According to Mitchell, Green is more than OK about the new music and the prospect of making more. “I’ve known Al since he was 19, and I’ll tell you what, he’s really excited now. And when he gets excited …”—Mitchell pauses to search for the right metaphor—“smoke goes up in the sky. So I’m real happy with the way things are going. We’re gonna get together and start another one soon.”

So what’s the secret he and Green share? “It’s all about the groove, and L-O-V-E love … More babies,” Mitchell says. As usual, he punctuates his words with the laugh of someone who’s been there, done that—end of story. It’s an attitude that’s easy to maintain when your name is Willie Mitchell and you live on Willie Mitchell Boulevard.

Between 1970 and 1975 there wasn’t a better soul singer on the planet than Al Green, and this 34-song, 2-CD Best Of collection wisely gathers the bulk of its material from the six timeless albums Al made during those years. The last of the classic soul singers, Al Green could do it all—croon like Sam Cooke, shout and testify like Otis Redding, and plead and moan with the suave assurance of Marvin Gaye—and this set proves it. All of the numerous Top 10 hits are here (“Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “You Ought To Be With Me,” “I’m Still In Love With You,” and many more), along with a smattering of the singer’s late ’70s material. Two previously un-issued tracks (good, but not Al’s best work) tempt the completist, but the real reason to spring for the extra CD—rather than settling on Motown’s comparable single-disc Greatest Hits compilation— is simply that you owe it to yourself to hear twice as much of that unmistakable voice meeting those strutting horns and silky strings. This is as essential as American music gets, and the genius of Al Green can’t be contained on just one disc. For those willing to delve a little deeper, Absolute Best is an excellent choice.

I’ll just come right out with it. With apologies to Van Morrison, Al Green is my favorite male vocalist, and has been for many, many years. So the prospect of a new Al Green album—his first “secular” album in 27 years after a series of mostly great gospel albums—is nothing less than thrilling. I Can’t Stop finds the Reverend Al reunited with producer Willie Mitchell, who masterminded all of the great soul albums of the early ’70s, and many of the superb Memphis musicians who appeared on those classic recordings. Al even went so far as to book his old studio, record in his old recording booth, and use his old microphone. It’s a clear attempt to recapture the old magic. The obvious question is: Did it work?

The answer is a qualified “Yes.” Al Green is the last of the classic soul singers, and he’s lost nothing stylistically. The title track finds Al doing what he does best: moaning, pleading, crying, whispering, sighing, and soaring off into that exquisite falsetto, all within the space of about 30 seconds. It’s a marvelous song, and ought to be a massive hit. Songs like “Million to One” and “I’ve Been Thinkin’ About You” reprise the classic formula—strutting, swaggering horns colliding with the lushest of string sections, with Al scatting, cajoling, and tossing off revelatory asides and exclamations that communicate nothing if not pure joy. “My Problem Is You” and “Rainin’ In My Heart” are prototypical Al Green ballads, featuring the bluest of blue grooves, wondrously greasy Hammond B3 organ solos, and vocal climaxes that build and build, with Al shouting and testifying for all he’s worth. As Sam Phillips once said of Elvis, this is where the soul of man never dies, and it’s as good as popular music ever gets.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems. “I’ve Been Waitin’ on You,” which maintains a superb funk groove, is still a note-for-note ripoff of The Temptations’ “I’m Losing You.” Great song, but let’s at least call it by its proper name. More problematic, though, is that Al has lost something in the vocal department, much as it pains me to write that. The falsetto still sounds otherworldly, but the normal register just isn’t what it used to be. Al masks it somewhat by singing with a bevy of backup vocalists, but several songs reveal the depressing effects of time and age. I Can’t Stop is still a good, nearly great, album, and I’ll listen to it frequently. But ultimately, it reminds me of why I love “Tired of Being Alone” and “Still In Love With You” so much. I’m really glad Al can’t stop. But it won’t make me forget when he started, either.