(Solomon Burke together with Heikki Suosalo)
SOLOMON BURKE
A big man, a big voice and now... a big
void. Solomon was phenomenal. He belonged to that special group of classic
soul artists, who were both thoroughly soulful in their delivery of music, and
immensely talented in more genres than one and who had a style of their own.
They were original, individual and usually instantly recognizable. Unfortunately
that group has become more and more thin lately.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Burke and
talking to him over the phone numerous times. He was an ideal interviewee. He
could describe his music, recording sessions and fellow musicians in a lively
and profound way, and often he would come up with piquant stories.
Solomon lived a
rich and eventful life. He was born in Philadelphia on March 21, 1940. His
grandmother, Eleanore, founded a church for him. Solomon: “The church
existed twelve years prior to my birth. I came into the church at the age of
seven... I became the pastor and the spiritual leader of the church at the age
of twelve.” As Wonder Boy Preacher Solomon had a radio broadcast called
Solomon’s Temple for seven years.
FIRST RECORD AT FIFTEEN
By the time he
was fourteen, Solomon had founded a spiritual group of his own called the
Gospel Cavaliers. In 1955 he went to a local program alone – the other
boys didn’t want to go – sang The Old Ship of Zion, and was signed on
the spot by Bess Berman to the Apollo Records. In December 1955 in New
York they cut six songs, but the first single – Christmas Presents from
Heaven/When I’m All Alone – was released only in early ’56, so ironically
it just missed the festive season. So Solomon was actually fifteen, close to
sixteen, when cutting it.
Solomon still
released nine singles on Apollo, and you can read some of his comments on those
recordings in the latter half of the interview at Soul Express.
One of those singles was a mellow spiritual called You Can Run, But You
Can’t Hide, which is credited to Joe Louis. “The song was not
written by Joe Louis. Mr. Bernstein and other writers wrote the song for me,
and they used the title without the permission of Joe Louis’ agency. We were
sued by Mr. Louis. His wife was his attorney and manager, and we had to
relinquish the copyright to him.”
LITTLE VINCENT
Solomon's last and
best Apollo single, You Don’t Send Me Anymore/Always Together, was
released in 1961under the pseudonym of Little Vincent. “My father’s
name was Vincent. I figured that if I can make a song by the name of Little
Vincent, maybe I could just thank him.” Already before that, in the late 50s,
after a disagreement about the money with his manager at the time, Solomon hit
the rock bottom in his life – “how low is low?” – which meant living in the
streets and begging. Enter Babe Shivian. “Babe Shivian was my manager,
who was like a knight in shining armour. He came into my life at a very
special time, not to take but to give.” Solomon went back to school, graduated
from college and became a mortician.
Under Babe’s
guidance Solomon also hooked up first with Singular Records for two singles
(and five more tracks, which were unearthed later) in 1960 and finally with
Atlantic, signed in ’60 by Jerry Wexler, who was looking for a heavy
replacement for Ray Charles and Bobby Darin, who had just left.
That was the beginning of an eight-year fruitful period for Solomon with six
albums and thirty-two singles on Atlantic.
STORIES ON SOME ATLANTIC SONGS
I’m not going into
details about those recordings, because the whole 2-part Solomon Burke feature
with an interview – 15 pages altogether – is available in our printed papers in
# 4/2000 and # 1/2001. However, I chose some pieces of information on certain
songs.
Just Out Of
Reach (rel. in 1961) – “They weren’t happy with my rendition, because I
felt I had to talk. We did it several times and I kept talking on the record.
Mr. Wexler said ‘I don’t think that’s gonna work. At that time Mr. Paul
Ackerman and others said ‘leave it in. We don’t know what we’re doing
anyway. This is something new we’re trying. No black artist has ever done
country music before, so let’s see what’s gonna happen’. That was the turning
point of my career – after that, international artist worldwide.”
Down in the
Valley is an old folk song known as Birmingham Jail. “I rewrote the
song on a train. I put my own feelings and words to it, and was lucky enough
by the grace of God to capture the song, when it was in P.D., able to have a
copyright on it.”
There was a
battle on If You Need Me between Solomon and Wilson Pickett, and
here Solomon has a story that slightly differs from Jerry Wexler’s version. “Wilson sang the song for me in a bus on a tour. I loved it so much that I got Wilson to do it. Atlantic refused to sign him at that time, so we got Wilson to release
the song on the Lloyd-Logan label. We were the best of friends. As a matter
of fact, I promoted his record and he promoted mine.”
The Price is a magnificent deep soul song. “The song
was written live at the Apollo Theater. It’s a dramatic, drastic story. It
wasn’t something that was prepared. I had received some uncomfortable news
from Philadelphia concerning my wife, my family. I had to go on stage at that
moment. I could not respond to what was going on and I just told my band just
to play the vamp and I would think of something.”
Got To Get
You Off My Mind – “It was written in California the night of Sam Cooke’s
death. I learned of Sam Cooke’s death after leaving him two hours prior to
that. At the same time I learned about my wife wanting a divorce. A special
delivery letter was at the desk waiting for me in the hotel... so all of these
things came about very quickly and very drastically.”
ON JAMES BROWN
For the bio
Solomon also told colourful stories about some of his fellow colleagues. When
asked about James Brown, he hits back jokingly “who is James Brown?”
“James is one of the greatest entertainers in the world. He is a perfect
example what you can do, if you believe in God and believe in yourself.”
“We didn’t get
along too well. We had a lot of clashes and a lot of funny incidents. James
thinks that I spent all of my money buying a train in Atlanta, Georgia, to come through on a concert. We had a record called Goodbye Baby, and James was
the star of the show and I was the co-star. Back in those days we did
challenges like who’s gonna steal the show – the battle of the stars. James
was back in his dressing room getting his rollers in his hair and getting ready
to come on and I went on right before him. In the song there’s a little line
that says ‘I see that train coming down along lonesome tracks’. We’re in the
black stadium in Atlanta, and just as I said that, a train came down behind the
stadium. Just at that moment! And James went crazy. He said ‘this man bought
a train. He’s trying to steal the show with a train’. Of course, the audience
went up, because they thought it was such a perfect timing for the train to
come down saying ‘uu-uuu’.”
PROUD MARY
After Atlantic, Solomon co-produced with his manger and fiancée at the time, Tamiko Jones,
an album titled Proud Mary for Bell Records. “We went to Muscle Shoals
and recorded Proud Mary, which they didn’t like at all. They thought it
was stupid to record a song Proud Mary, which was already on the
charts. I was explaining to them that it was a very big record, but it’s a
very white record, a pop record. We will redo the record, open up the doors
for it to get on the r&b charts and make the black stations to play the
record... It was a Solomon Burke record made in Muscle Shoals. We proved that
we can make a hit record without Jerry Wexler eating sandwiches with us. This
record was a hit without anybody’s help. Proud Mary was only promoted
by Tamiko Jones and myself.”
Solomon hooked
up next with MGM/Pride for the next three years, and his first album – The
Electronic Magnetism – in ’71 is one of the most underrated ones in his
career. “I think it’s one of the greatest albums I ever did.” The three
follow-up albums were Cool Breeze, We’re Almost Home and History of
Solomon Burke, which alongside new songs included six re-recordings of his
Atlantic sides with new arrangements and fuller orchestration.
Under a deal
between MGM and ABC, Solomon’s next project called I Have a Dream was
released on ABC in 1974. “...once again this record was black-balled. This
album was dedicated to Martin Luther King. You will never hear this
record played on any station during the Martin Luther King celebration, because
this record was banned. It was too direct, too much of a message – and it
wasn’t black enough! MGM gave me all the freedom to do this album. I used
live musicians, forty strings. I did everything that I wanted to do.”
After two albums
for Chess (1975-76), one single on Amherst (’78), one album on Infinity (in
’79, one side produced by Michael Stokes and the second by Swamp Dogg)
and one single on Soul Town in ’81, Solomon had four albums released on Savoy
in 1981-84. “I did three albums for Savoy. Those records were reproduced and
purchased by Malaco. I have never been under the contract to Malaco. We never
received any royalties from any of those records that were ever done by Savoy.”
We also have the complete Solomon Burke discography available.
SOUL ALIVE!
In 1984 Rounder
released an exciting live recording that was cut three years earlier. “Soul
Alive! was done live at the Phoenix Club in Washington D.C. That tape we
had sitting around and I think I gave the master to my son, Selassie.
He was like sixteen years old at that time. He said ‘dad, this old tape, what
do you want me to do with it?’ I said ‘it was something I recorded live on a
Willcox recorder. It’s only two tracks’. He said ‘can I go into the studio
and play with it with the new sixteen-track’. Can we put it up on three or
four tracks and hear what happens’? ‘I don’t think that’ll work, son’. We did
that. You can’t believe the sound’!”
After one more
album, A Change Is Gonna Come in 1986, Solomon parted ways with
Rounder. “Not happy with Rounder as far as the promotion, getting your
royalties... In the beginning it was a very beautiful relationship, but then it
didn’t continue the way we would have liked to continue. I felt it was time to
move.”
The final 80s
album, Love Trap, was followed by Home Land in 1991, and it
contains one of Solomon’s hidden gems, a powerful, almost breathless, preaching
gem called Stayin’ Away. Two following 90s albums on the Black Top
label feature Solomon on familiar, old r&b tunes (Soul of the Blues)
and blues standards (Live at the House of Blues). The Definition of
Soul (on Pointblack in ’97) is practically created inside the Burke family.
THE COMMITMENT
Solomon comments
his three next albums - Not By Water, But Fire This Time, Christmas All Over
the World and the magnificent Commitment in my
2000
interview with Solomon Burke, when he turned sixty.
Solomon went on
to regain his throne in the 2000s by releasing strong CDs on Fat Possum and
Shout! Factory, by being inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and
receiving numerous other awards. I met Mr. Burke after the release of his ’02
CD, Don’t Give Up On Me, and you can read Mr. Burke’s comments here.
The CD won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
His latest album
is probably the best traditional soul album of 2010.
We discussed Nothing’s
Impossible five months ago.
Solomon meant a
lot to me, so it was heart-breaking learning about his passing on October 10.
Luckily there should be an autobiography in the pipeline and at least one more
gospel CD from this giant of a man.
GENERAL JOHNSON
After writing my
tribute above, I learned that another long-standing soul man, General Norman
Johnson, passed away on October 13. Please read my
interview with
General Johnson about his career way back in 1994.
Best regards
Heikki
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