J. Blackfoot: “No one at Stax had ever
heard me sing. I was a big hit in every neighbourhood, standing on the corner
singing, drawing people… draw the police, too. They were wondering what was
happening, when the crowd was gathering around me. I sang for them and the
policeman said ‘he can stay’.”
“I knew of David Porter. There
was a liquor store on McLemore. We were behind it. We were drinking wine, and
everybody was listening to me sing. We all tried to harmonize. David walked from
Stax, across the street. He was getting some liquor to take back to Stax. The
guys stopped him and said ‘you got to hear this guy’. So we went to a café
across the street – they were calling it ‘the juke joint café’ – and I put a
quarter in a juke-box for two records, I’m in Love and Shout Bamalama,
a song written by Otis Redding. David said ‘hey man, I want you to come
by Stax. I want people to hear you’. That’s what I did. I went by there. Allen
Jones played piano and tried to see could I follow him.”
“Soul Man hadn’t been released.
They just had cut it. Otis Redding was in the studio. They were listening to The
Dock of the Bay and another song. Booker and the whole band were
inside the studio. So David wanted everybody to hear me. They took me in, and
I did A Change Is Gonna Come and Wilson Pickett’s I’m in Love,
because I could really get into the songs by those guys. They said ‘Otis, we
would like you to take him on a trip with you to let him get a little
experience’. If there had been room, I would have been on that plane.”
By this J. Blackfoot (further Jay) is
referring to the plane that crashed in December 1967 and claimed the lives of
Otis and most of the Bar-Kays members. Before that Jay tells about his
entrance into the Stax company in 1967. You can read about Jay Blackfoot’s early days
and other points of his career at a general level here,
but in this article we’ll have a closer look at his Soul Children and
solo days.
CONGRATULATIONS
Like Jay says in the interview above, as
a young man he ran into trouble with law and he spent some time in Tennessee
State Penitentiary in Nashville. Jay: “You had to be tough in the neighbourhood
I grew up in. You had to fight. The only guys I knew were crooks, and we did
petty crime. As a matter of fact, some people were about to make a movie of my
life at Stax before it folded.”
Jay got locked up in 1964. “We had a
group there in the penitentiary. They called themselves the Prisonaires,
and Johnny Bragg was a pretty big guy. He had this record, Just
Walkin’ in the Rain. He sang his way out.” The lead singer of the
Prisonaires, Johnny Bragg (1925 – 2004), had cut Walking… for Sun already
in 1953. He was sentenced to prison as many as three times, and his second
period (1960-66) coincided partially with Jay’s.
“They came to interview Johnny Bragg. Then
they wanted to interview people, who could sing in the prison, and everybody
told them about me. We talked about it, and they said they wanted to record
something on me. I was writing at that time, and I wrote these two songs, Congratulations
and Surfside Slide, because everybody was into surfing thing. They
took us outside the prison, and I recorded that. As a matter of fact, we only
had three pieces. There was a drum, a bass guitar and a keyboard. That was
it.”
Jay’s debut single was released under his
real name, John Colbert. It came out in 1965 on Sur-Speed 222, a label
out of Nashville. “I bought it and some of my friends bought it (laughing).
It could have been, but it wasn’t. It just wasn’t. I did a great job on it,
but that was it. It just wasn’t there. That was my second time recording in a
studio. Years ago I did a thing with my group, when I was about
twelve-thirteen, and we did background behind some people. But this was my
first time in the studio really recording.” The John Colbert singles on Bee
and Big City labels in 1966 are not by our John.
The Bar-Kays re-grouped after the plane
crash and chose John to be their lead singer. By this time he was already
known as J. Blackfoot. “When I was real young, I didn’t like to wear shoes.
When I walked, the pavement was tarred and my feet would get black on the
bottom. A young man – his name was Spookie – started calling me ‘Blackfoot’,
and the name stuck with me. I just took ‘J’ from my real name John and put
with the Blackfoot.”
John didn’t record anything with the
Bar-Kays during the half-year plus period with them. “David Porter recorded me
on I’ll Understand, but we never put it out. Then we re-recorded it as
the Soul Children and put Anita Louis on it, too.”
In 1968 Stax had lost Sam & Dave to
Atlantic, and (the late) Jerry Wexler took them soon to Muscle Shoals to
record, so David porter and (the late) Isaac Hayes started looking for a
new act - this time two ladies with two men, in order to avoid the obvious
copy.
NORMAN WEST
Norman Richard West, Jr. was born in Lake Providence, Louisiana, on October 40 in 1940. Norman: “My father, Norman Richard
West, Sr., was a minister, and that’s how I got my start in early childhood –
playing piano and organ and singing before my father’s sermon. My aunts all
sang in church and my mother, Evelina, sang. She persisted that I would take
piano lessons and she wanted me to go to college.”
“I had started doing talent shows in Monroe, and the principal of my school was the local entertainment promoter and he had me
to open shows. My first show was with Wilbert Harrison, and Little
Sonny (Warner) was on the same show – There Is Something on Your Mind (singing).
Not far from my house the Little Melvin band was doing its thing locally,
and I would sneak in there and do a song or two with them. This is how I got
my first experience in doing night club performances.”
“In Monroe there were several gospel
groups. One gospel group that I worked with was called the Kingdom
Travelers. One of my cousins sang in the group with me. His name was William
Herbert.”
“The Del-Rios came to Monroe to be managed by a guy, whose paper boy I was. When I finished my job, I would
stop by this hotel they were staying at and I’d put in a quarter and play five
records at the time. I was playing some Sam Cooke songs, and these guys
were sitting over in the corner. I didn’t know them. I was singing along with
Sam Cooke, because I loved Sam Cooke. Harrison Austin (tenor in the
Del-Rios) told me that if I ever decided to leave Monroe I can come over and
stay with him. ‘You got a job, if you just show up’. Against my father’s
rejection, I left town and I moved to Memphis.”
The Del-Rios was a group out of Memphis that cut singles for Meteor, Bet…T and Stax in the late 50s and early 60s. The
group was fronted by William Bell, and his 2-part feature with an
interview – also on the Del-Rios – will appear on this site later this year. “In
Memphis I was also a paper boy for one single artist in Memphis that I
idolized, Ivory Joe Hunter. He was considering managing the Del-Rios after
William Bell had put his first solo single out” (You Don’t Miss Your Water in
1961).
William Bell left the Del-Rios soon after
the group had cut their final single for Stax (Just across the Street/There
Is Love) in 1962, and Norman West stepped in. Those days he also cut his
first solo single for Christy Records out of Memphis. The label belonged to Clifford
Miller, who owned a local club called the Flamingo Room, but today Norman isn’t able to recall even the titles of the single. “At the time I didn’t know
anything about the music business. These guys would ask me to sing, and I
would sing. That was when I was still with the Del-Rios.”
DAY DREAMIN’
Norman worked with the Del-Rios for about
one year, but by 1964 the group had practically dispersed with members trying
their luck elsewhere. Norman went on to cut five more solo singles during the
next four years. “The Del-Rios was performing at the Flamingo Room in Memphis on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and on Monday nights Willie Mitchell and
his ensemble would perform. I would just be there, and he kept telling me ‘I’m
gonna record you’. I said ‘whenever you’re ready, I’m ready’. So one day he
just came to my rooming house that I was staying in and said ‘come on down,
everybody’s waiting down at the studio. The track has already been done’. I
worked with Willie for about a year, a year and a half.”
Norman cut two singles for Hi Records in
1964, Day Dreamin’/Angel of My Dream (Hi 2073; as Norm West) and Burning
Bridges/Five Pages of Heartache (Hi 2082; as Norman this time) and one
single for the M.O.C. subsidiary, Hey Little Girl/Baby Please (M.O.C.
664; as Norm West again). The slowly swaying and soulful A-side (Hey Little
Girl) bears a slight resemblance to what Garnet Mimms used to record
those days. “It was written by Don Bryant, who was one of the staff
writers at Hi Records. After he wrote it for me, he was singing it for me to
show how it went. I didn’t learn it. I sang it from the paper” (laughing).
In 1967 Norman had two singles released
on Smash, Let Them Talk/Miss Personality (Smash 2100) and What Kind
of Spell (Is This I’m under)/Words Won’t Say (How Much You Mean to me) (Smash
2123). “Smash Records was one of Mercury’s subsidiary labels. They sent some
people down. We recorded at Hi, because it was either at Stax Records, or at
Hi. Those records sold some, enough for me to get to do some things out of Memphis and the Tri-State area, like in Louisiana and Texas.”
Norman was recruited to the Soul Children
as the fourth wheel. “I was the last member of the group. Before that Colors
Incorporated, which was Jerry Lee Lewis’ rhythm section, asked me to
become their vocalist. After the Jerry Lee Lewis thing they had been working
in the San Francisco area, and they were a rock-orientated band. We became
very popular in the Memphis area. We worked in the bottom lounge of the Chisca
Plaza Hotel on Main Street. Isaac Hayes and David Porter came to the hotel and
asked me, if I wanted to be a member of this group. Steve Cropper was
with them. They all knew me from singing at different clubs around town.”
ANITA LOUIS AND
SHELBRA BENNETT
Two Memphis ladies rounded up the Soul
Children. David was introduced to Anita Louis (soprano), who had sung in WDIA’s
Teen Town Singers earlier, and she became one of the background vocalists
on his and Isaac’s recordings. Shelbra (alto) made a timely entrance into the
Stax building and simply announced her wish to become a singer.
The first single David and Isaac produced
and wrote for the group was an uptempo scorcher titled Give ‘Em Love
(Stax 0008; # 40-r&b; ’68), and it was backed with a soul slowie called Move
Over. Norman: “My favourite song was Move Over. It’s a very
beautiful tune and not recognized for its beauty.” Jay: “one of my favourites
of all the songs we did is Move Over, but I love all the hit songs, the
money songs” (laughing).
Another Jay’s favourite is the second
single, an intense deepie called I’ll Understand (Stax 0018; #
29-r&b; ’69), and the third one is again a slow and terrific deep soul song
named The Sweeter He Is, which became the first real hit for the group
(Stax 0050; # 7-r&b / # 52-pop). In-between they released Tighten up My
Thang (Stax 0030; # 49-r&b), an energetic mid-tempo song.
Norman: “One of my favourites, of course, is The Sweeter He Is, because I got to do
the lead on part 2.”
Isaac and David produced the impressive debut
album, Soul Children (Stax 2018; # 9-soul / # 154-pop; ’69), which
featured downtempo, gospel-infused material on the A-side – including When
Tomorrow Comes - and fast tracks on the B-side. Jay: “David and Isaac just
had some great songs. At that time everybody was just recording great songs,
and I was happy being with Stax. You woke up in the morning and you wanted to
go to Stax, just to be in the building. It was just a family thing. It’s hard
to explain.”
Norman: “It was a very enjoyable
adventure, and it was new to all of us. It was an honour to work with the
guys, who had put together the Sam & Dave situation.” Jay: “David and
Isaac were one of the best producers at Stax at that time. They were working
with us, Sam & Dave and the Emotions. Professionally they knew what
they wanted, what they wanted out of us, and that’s what they got.” Soul
Children goes down in history as one the most magnificent albums in the
history of soul music. Among the musicians you can spot such names as Booker
T. Jones on keyboards, Isaac Hayes on piano, Steve Cropper on
guitar, Donald “Duck” Dunn and James Alexander on bass and Al
Jackson, Jr. on drums.
HOLD ON, I’M COMING
The group cut a strong, slowed-down
version of Sam & Dave’s gold hit four years earlier, Hold On, I’m Coming
(Stax 0062; # 48-soul; ’70), which didn’t appear on any album. Norman: “That was David Porter’s idea.” Jay: “We were just trying to do something
different.”
The next three singles in ’70 and ‘71,
however, didn’t chart. Put Your World in My World was a fast and
infectious dancer, Let’s Make a Sweet Thing Sweeter and Finish Me Off,
back-to-back, were both marvellous downtempo songs and Got to Get Away From
It All (remember Mitty Collier?) was a big-production ballad with a
strings sweetening.
All four songs were placed on the next
album titled Best of Two Worlds (Stax 2043; # 20-soul / # 203-pop; ’71),
produced and mainly written by David Porter and Ronnie Williams, a
former session musician at Stax. Norman: “Ronnie Williams and David decided to
work together after Isaac had decided to do his first album. Ronnie Williams
was a musician that David had chosen to work with, and he was a very good
musician.” Jay: “It was a great thing working with Ronnie. I had a great
respect for him, and I knew Ronnie for quite a while before that. When he came
to Stax, we got to know each other a little better.”
In contrast to the debut album, Best
of Two Worlds didn’t produce any hits. Norman: “This is just my opinion.
We were put on the back burner, because at the time a lot of things were not
recognized. They had other ideas. Isaac was the thing at the time, and a lot
of ideas were overlooked because of the excitement of the Hayes situation.”
Jay: “David and Isaac had been such a close knit thing, and when Isaac went to
a solo career he forgot about David. During that period David wasn’t on his
craft as well as he should have been, and we just didn’t get much out of that
album. The company didn’t believe in the album and they did not promote it.
That’s the real deal.”
There were some nice songs hidden on the
album, such as a ballad called Thanks for a Precious Nothing and The
Hangs Ups of Holding On (8:22), an experimental, multi-tempo jam, and even
two poppy ditties, the fast Give Me One Good Reason Why and the
mid-tempo Wrap It Up Tonight. The set was recorded at Muscle Shoals
Sound Studios, so quite naturally Barry Beckett (organ), Jimmy
Johnson (guitar), David Hood (bass) and Roger Hawkins (drums)
were among the players.
HEARSAY
The third album was titled Genesis
(Stax 3003; # 36-soul / # 159-pop; ’72), and this time it was produced by Jim
Stewart and Al Jackson, Jr. Norman: “That was Jim Stewart’s idea. He was
the president of the company, so of course we’d do what he wanted us to do”
(laughing). Jay: “Jim saw what was happening with David. We talked about a
lot of things with David, and I knew what was happening with his mind. I was
with him through his ups and downs. That’s why we’re so close right today.”
On the album the strings were arranged by
Dale Warren, and the rhythm section consisted of the MG’s boys
with some help from Raymond Jackson, Bobby Manuel (guitars), John
Keister and Marvell Thomas (piano and organ). On the final track,
the funky and rousing Get up about Yourself, the Bar-Kays were in
charge.
This time there’s a number of cover songs
on display. Deep soul fans remember Lorraine Ellison’s gorgeous reading
of I Want to Be Loved, and the Soul Children come up with a stirring
version, too, and really let loose towards the end of this
eight-and-a-half-minute rendition. Johnnie Taylor had cut earlier two
fine songs, the haunting Don’t Take My Sunshine and the irresistible Just
the One I’ve Been Looking For, whereas Eddie Floyd’s Never Get
Enough of Your Love gets a slowed-down treatment from the group. Jay:
“That was all Jim’s ideas. You know how that goes. The main guy in the
company asks you to something, and you do it” (laughing).
There was only one single release off the
album, but it evolved into a hit. The funky and powerful Hearsay (Stax
0119; # 5-soul / # 44-pop; ’72) was written by Norman and John. Jay: “In my
neighbourhood people are always talking about this person and talking about
that person, and people are saying ‘somebody said this’, and it’s only
hearsay.” Norman: “’Foot’ came to my house one day and he had the idea of ‘he
said, she said’, and together we just came up with the song.”
LOVE IS A HURTIN’ THING
The next three A-sides of singles didn’t
appear on any album, and they were all mid-to-up-tempo cuts. The brisk Don’t
Take My Kindness for Weakness (Stax 0132; # 14-soul / # 102-pop; ’72) was
written by the group itself, while the tight It Ain’t Always What You Do
(It’s Who You Let See You Do It) (Stax 0152; # 11 / # 105-pop; ’73) was
composed by Homer Banks, Carl Hampton and Raymond Jackson. The familiar
Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing (Stax 0170; # 59-soul; ’73) is arranged to an
almost funky and gloomy item. Jay: “That was John Gary Williams of the
Mad Lads. That was his idea. John Gary and Al Jackson produced that one.”
The Soul Children performed at the
Wattstax concert in August 1972, and two songs – Hearsay and the rousing
I Don’t Know What This World Is Coming To – appeared on the Wattstax:
The Living World soundtrack (Stax 3010). Norman: “When Rufus Thomas
left the stage, we had to cut some of our performance down, so we did what we
were allowed to do. We had about fifteen minutes, so that’s why we had to cut
our show down. We didn’t do what we had originally planned to do.”
I’LL BE THE OTHER WOMAN
The last album on Stax, Friction
(Stax 5507; # 38-soul; ’74), was now produced by Homer Banks and Carl Hampton,
who also wrote all the songs. Jay: “I felt that they would be the best
producers for us, because I knew that Homer was a great writer and he could
produce. But this album got caught in the Stax closing. If it wasn’t for the
Stax fall-out, I believe we would have gold on this album.” Norman: “Homer
Banks was always a friend and at the same time he was a good writer. We had
done some things with him before. It was a joy and something we had always
wanted to do.”
Already before the album they released a
powerful ballad, which became the biggest hit for the group. I’ll Be the
Other Woman (Stax 0182; # 3-soul / # 36-pop; ’73) was co-written by Raymond
Jackson and co-produced by Al Jackson. Norman: “That is Shelbra doing the
lead. They cut her one night, and I heard it the next morning. It blew the
top off my head, because she did such a wonderful job on it.”
Shelbra is also leading on a melodic
beat-ballad named It’s Out of My Hands and on an equally emotional slowie
as the hit song with an equally long opening monologue titled Love Makes It
Right, which was put out as the next single (Stax 0218; # 47-soul; ’74). The
final single, What’s Happening Baby (Stax 0230), didn’t appear on the
charts anymore. This time J. Blackfoot is leading on this very slow song,
which – surprise, surprise! – opens with a long monologue.
Just One Moment is a haunting and
pleading soul ballad led by J. Blackfoot, and at about the same time Johnnie
Taylor cut it for his Super Taylor album, too. Jay: “Me and Homer
were kids together, and Homer knew my voice. A lot of songs that he wrote, he
wrote in my style. As a matter of fact, it was a rivalry on Just One Moment,
and they say that my version was better. I don’t know. I just go by what they
say. Both versions were great versions.”
The energetic We’re Getting’ Too Close
is actually the only uptempo song on the album, which makes this an essential
record for deep soul fans; almost a non-stop fiesta of highly emotional,
heartfelt music. The only album to rival it is the debut set, Soul Children.
Jay: “Certain album - you just know! We had to really fight for them even to
record that album, to produce it. When Jim and Al were producing us, we got
two or three great songs out of those albums, but they wouldn’t listen to us.
There are some songs that I really didn’t want to record, but I went on
recording them anyway. If it ain’t in the pocket, don’t give it to me. After
that we went in and said ‘we want Homer and Carl’. They could write. I knew
we were going to have some hits.”
FINDERS KEEPERS
Soon after Friction and after
Stax, Shelbra Bennett left and the group became a trio. Norman: “We weren’t
doing very much then, and when we were contacted by CBS she had already left the
group.” Jay: “I guess she figured she could make it on her own. I haven’t
seen her for a long time. When we were re-grouping this new Soul Children, we
had a conversation, and it wasn’t a great conversation. But she’s a sweet
girl.”
After about one year Epic approached the
group, and the next album, Finders Keepers (Epic 33902; # 54-soul; ’76),
was produced by Don Davis and cut in Detroit, at United Sound. Norman: “It was really a pleasure working with him, because he had a history of hits with
Johnnie Taylor and he had a unique way that he produced. I also liked the way
his arrangements came out.” Jay: “Mr. Don Davis is another professional. We
worked with a lot of professional people. It was great working with him.”
The title tune became also the first
single (Epic 50178; # 49-soul; ’76), and this uptempo, boisterous song was
written by Jay and Norman. Norman: “I have always appreciated Blackfoot for
his creativity. When we worked together, it just came together.”
This time there are as many as three
songs that Don Davis had cut on the Dells a few yearsearlier.
We can enjoy a rather light version of We Got to Get Our Thing Together,
a funky arrangement of A Little Understanding and a deep, 6-minute
rendition of a truly beautiful tune titled If You Move I’ll Fall (Epic
50236; # 99-soul). Norman: “We went in to cut the songs that were originals,
and then we just followed suite on everything that he came up with, and he came
up with some wonderful ideas on the cover songs, different arrangements.”
The high quality of the album becomes
apparent still on such tracks as Good-bye Is Not the Only Way, a pretty
and gentle ballad written by Harvey Scales, and I’m Just a Shoulder
to Cry On, a saddish slowie, on which Norman leads this time and which
Johnnie Taylor was to record for his Rated Extraordinaire album a year
later. Midnight Sunshine is a pleasant beat-ballad, while Anita is
leading on a string-heavy, 6/8-time soulful slowie called One Broken Home
for Sale, written by Charles Richard Cason.
Jay: “When we went with Epic, they would
be saying they’d do this and they’d do that, but they didn’t do anything. They
did not promote us at all. When I say ‘at all’, that’s what I mean. I hate
that I went with them.”
WHERE IS YOUR WOMAN TONIGHT?
A year later another Epic album followed,
Where Is Your Woman Tonight (Epic 34455; ’77), and it was produced and
written by an old friend, David Porter. Norman: “We had never lost contact
with David. We were always friends.” Jay: “I went and got him, and asked him
to produce it. He produced a good album, but – like I said – if they don’t
promote it, you got nothing.”
The title tune, a swaying slowie, scraped
the bottom of the Billboard charts (Epic 50345; # 96-soul; ’77), but the
follow-up, a pleading and beautiful soul ballad called You Don’t Need a Ring
(Epic 50405), performed a no-show.
Once again, there are a couple of
thrilling and intense soul gems on display, such as If You Want a Woman Like
this (led by Anita) and You Got Me Over. The rest of the program
consists of three funky items, one fast disco number and the b-sides to the two
singles above - Merry-Go-Round is a melodic, mid-tempo toe-tapper,
whereas There Always is a catchy dancer. Also this Soul Children album
deserved better. Norman: “We were not promoted as an act at that time.”
CAN’T GIVE UP A GOOD THING
Fantasy Records out of California decided
to revive the Stax label in 1977 and asked David Porter to not only run the new
Stax office in Memphis and issue old material, but also sign new artists. One
of the first ones David signed and recorded was the Soul Children. The ensuing
album, Open Door Policy (Stax 4105; ’78), was produced by David Porter
and Lester Snell and arranged by Lester. Norman: “Sessions were very good, and
it was good again working with David, because David was our beginning. He used
Lester as the musical consultant. In the past Lester had worked with Isaac as
an arranger, so he was perfect.”
The most significant difference in music
is the number of disco cuts. There are actually only three ballads this time
and they are more simple and straightforward than deep and inspirational. Believing
is the prettiest of them. Can’t Give up a Good Thing – written by Joe
Shamwell - is one of the disco dancers, and this particular track became
quite popular as a single (Stax 3206; # 19-soul; ’78). Interestingly, the
b-side was a slowed-down, swaying version of Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m
yours (not on the album). Jay: “We did it part 1 and part 2. We did it
slow, and then we picked it up and did it fast. That version is somewhere in
the catalogue.”
The follow-ups – Summer in the Shade and
Who You Used to Be – follow the same disco pattern but missed the
charts. On the opening track, Stir up the Boogie (penned by Henderson Thigpen, James Banks and David Witherspoon), the title says
all. Norman: “the disco type of songs were the songs of that era.”
Jay: “That’s what was going on at the
time. They didn’t put the company together to really make money. I think that
the company was put together just to have a write-off. They didn’t care if it
happened or not. So there you go again… Can’t Give up a Good Thing wasn’t
a hit for us, as far as I’m concerned, because they didn’t want it to be a
hit. If they’d wanted it to be a hit, they would have got behind it all across
the country. They did not do that. They really didn’t want the company to
happen any way, for some reason or another. Only they know the reason.”
After eleven years and some of the best
music of the era, the group decided to call it a day. Jay: “Anita became a
pretty big wheel at Federal Express. She’s retired from there and went to
Time-Warner. She doesn’t want this any more, and I can understand that”
(laughing). These days Anita is also engaged in professional business training
and coaching.
Norman: “The things were not very strong
for us, and everybody kind of wanted to go their own way and catch on
economically to something. We all went our separate ways. I continued working
in night clubs, and then I eventually moved back to Louisiana and from there to
California and then back to Louisiana, and back to Memphis a few years ago. I
was working night clubs, and then I worked some in church. Still I would play
as a side musician, organist and pianist.” By invitation Norman sang on Ann
Hines’ and J. Blackfoot’s CDs in the 90s. “I recently talked to my brother
Joe. We have a gospel group called the West Brothers, and I’m going to
go down and record a song with them down in Louisiana” (www.myspace.com/normanwestjr).
All of the Soul Children albums are
readily
available on CDs, except Where Is Your Woman Tonight and Open
Door Policy, and for hard-core soul music fans they come highly
recommended. There are also two worthwhile compilations from the Stax period –
Chronicle (12 tracks) and Hold On, I’m Coming (14 tracks), which
features mainly non-album single sides.
J. BLACKFOOT
Jay kept
on recording, and between 1983 and 2006 he released as many as ten solo
albums. During the next five years after the Soul Children broke up in 1978,
Jay worked mostly with Ben Cauley’s band in the Memphis area.The
melodic and haunting I Don’t Remember Loving you (b/w If I Don’t Love
you) was his first solo effort since 1965 and it appeared on Prime Cut 10001
in 1983. Jay: “I sang real high, because I was doing a demo for a lady to sing
the song, but I did it so well they just wanted to put it out. That’s a
country & western song. Prime Cut is a Memphis label. The owner was from New York. We just stuck it out there, just in Memphis. It started picking up, but he
didn’t have any money to promote it.”
TAXI
Jay’s actual come-back song and still
today his biggest hit was produced by Homer Banks and Chuck Brooks. “I
remember Homer from going to school together. We lived in the same
neighbourhood. He wrote a lot of songs for us at Stax. He was in California, but then he moved back to Memphis. A friend of mine told me he was back. I
went over to his house and told him I wasn’t doing anything. I was open. That
was it! We went to studio that week and recorded quite a few songs, and one of
them was Taxi. We recorded the song to give to Johnnie Taylor. He was
supposed to cut that song, but he was a little slow on it. I put the whistle
on it, and I told Homer ‘if you’re gonna send that to Johnnie, don’t send my
whistle. I don’t want to give him that good idea’. We sent it and Johnnie was
slow, and we recorded it. Later he said ‘hey, I’m glad you got that song,
because I’ve had so many hits’, and actually I needed that. It was the first
time by myself, and I needed that one.”
Hot on the heels of Taxi (Sound
Town 0004; # 4-black; ’83) they released Jay’s debut solo album, City Slicker
(Sound Town 8002; # 16-black; ’83), which included another magnificent soul
ballad, I Stood on the Sidewalk and Cried (Sound Town 0006; # 63-black;
’84). “I took it out of my show for awhile, because it’s long. In clubs I can
do it, but if I do it with a lot of artists they only give me a certain amount
of time. But in clubs I can’t take it out. They won’t let me.” On the album
another fine ballad, Can You Hang, deserves a mention, but other than
that the music is very much on the funky and uptempo side. Homer and Chuck
wrote all nine songs, except Bettye Cruther’s All Because of What You Did to
Me.
DON’T YOU FEEL IT LIKE I FEEL IT
For the second set, Physical
Attraction (ST 8013; ’84), Homer and Chuck wrote only three songs out of
eight. It spawned two charted ballads, Don’t You Feel it Like I Feel it
(ST 0011; # 62-black; ’85) and Hiding Place (ST 0015; # 77-black; ’85).
Jay also remade I Don’t Remember Loving You, and, by still adding the
mid-tempo The Girl Next Door to the group of high-class tracks this
time, we’re talking about a more enjoyable album than City Slicker,
which suffered a bit about the “Living for the City” concept.
“Homer was just a great writer and a
great producer. If you listen to his stories, they are so strong. That was a
good album. I really never cut a bad album. It’s just that I never had that
promotion that you really need. They were small labels and you don’t get that
promotion across the board. If those albums had been with a major label, they
would have been great albums.”
U-TURN
Sound Town didn’t last long, so next Jay
hooked up with Al Bell’s company. Homer Banks and Lester Snell
composed six songs out of ten on U-Turn (Edge 001; # 67-black; ’87),
which presents mostly soft and pretty music. As many as four songs were picked
up as plug sides on the next singles - U-Turn (Edge 7-001; # 33-black;
’86), Bad Weather (Edge 7-006; # 78-black; ’87), Tear Jerker (Edge
7-007; # 28-black; ’87) and Respect Yourself (Edge 7-012; # 58-black;
’87). On a ballad called Tear Jerker it reads “J. Blackfoot featuring Ann
Hines”. “Even though Ann Hines would sing Tear Jerker, disc jockeys
would say J. Blackfoot.”
For Jay’s ’91 album, Loveaholic
(Platinum Blue 4101), Homer Banks and Lester Snell wrote all eight songs, and
here the old pal, Norman West, is contributing on background vocals. Besides
the mellow and classy ballads – After the Tone, She’s only human and Just
One Lifetime, a duet with Ann Hines – a melodic mover named Leading Lady,
which Jay co-wrote, and a smooth mid-pacer titled Comebacks Don’t Come Easy
draw your attention.
Right after Jay’s next two albums hit the
streets I talked to him, so you can read his own comments on
Room Service(Platinum Blue 4103; ’93) and Reality(Platinum Blue 4105; ’95)
immediately after their release. Already prior to Reality, Platinum
Plus released a seasonal album (Platinum Blue Christmas; Pltb 4104;
’95), on which Jay is joined by such artists as Mark Bynum, Ann Hines (Ave
Maria), Charles Brown, Norman West and Denise LaSalle.
JILL
Stealing Love (Basix 9328; ’98)
was produced and mostly written by Jay and Thomas Bingham. “He’s my
band director. Helen Washington was a young lady, who used to work for
Isaac. We were lovers at one time. At that time she was about twenty, and I
was about sixteen. Anyway, she told me about this musician that could play
guitar, keyboard, horns… so I started using him right after Taxi.”
Thomas is also known to be a member of the Hi Rhythm Section, and he has
worked with Willie Mitchell for over twenty years.
Reality was crammed with glorious
ballads, but now on Stealing Love Jay is presenting his uptempo side.
In this case there are no complaints, as all the dancers are rather melodic,
fluent and captivating. Among the four ballads there’s one above others. Jill
is a terrific deep soul rendition of a song that’s just grows and grows
(6:15). This powerful performance by the gruff-voiced Jay is one of the best
in his whole career, and hopefully this forgotten masterpiece has its
renaissance one day. The song, which was inspired by Peggy Scott-Adams’ Bill,
was written by Thomas Bingham, Willie Mitchell and Jay himself.
On Having an Affair (Basix 9335;
’99) the Bar-Kays boys step in, as the set is produced by Larry Dodson, E Z Rock
and (the writer) Henderson Thigpen. They also created most of the
songs. The highlights include a cover of Rich Cason’s thrilling cheating
ballad, I’ve Been Having an Affair – with Toni Green helping on
vocals – and a swaying beat-ballad titled Full Time, Part Time. Sometimes
and I’ll Be over When It’s Over are melodic floaters, whereas I’m
Not Your Man and Show Me are “full-of-fire” dancers.
I’ll Understand is a worthwhile
cover of the ’69 hit, and this time Toni Green is filling in. Ann Hines duets
on another song from the past, a cover of Gregory Abbott’s ’86 platinum
hit, Shake It Down. “Larry Dodson wanted me to record that.”
SAME TIME, SAME PLACE
Produced by Larry Dodson and for the most
part written by him together with Messrs. Wilks and Clayton, Same
Time, Same Place (Basix 9342; ’01) was recorded at Bobby Manuel’s
Highstacks Studios in Memphis. “Bobby was the engineer, and he played a lot of
guitar on most of those songs.”
This time there are no less than eight
good and mostly smooth slowies to enjoy, and of them Two Different People is
once again a duet with Ann Hines. On the uptempo front there’s a cover of Tony
Troutman’s ’82 splendid single, Your Man Is Home Tonight. “Tony
Troutman passed on about five years ago.”
You’ll find the review of Jay’s latest
CD, It Ain’t over Till It’s Over (JEA 0011; ’06) at www.soulexpress.net/deep106.htm
(please, scroll down a bit). Also, on a 2005 soundtrack called Forty Shades
of Blue on Memphis Int. Records Jay covers in a touching way Dark End of
the Street. In recent years he has visited on albums by such artists as Lynn
White, Zucchero, Kirk Whalum, the Bar-Kays, Archie Love and Stacey
Merino. “He’s a young guy that looked up to me and he sounded like me.
The Bar-Kays was recording him at the time, so I did songs on his album.” Jay
still visits the studio regularly. “We’re working on a new album now, and
probably it’s coming out next year” (
www.myspace.com/jblkfoot).
ANN HINES
Ann is one of the ladies in the new Soul
Children that visited the Pori Jazz Festival (www.porijazz.com)
here in Finland in July this year and gave three magnificent shows (I’ll
Understand, Hearsay, The Sweeter He Is, Don’t Take My Sunshine, I’ll Be the
other Woman etc). You can read Ann’s comments on her debut CD, Man Hunt
(Platinum Blue 4102; ’93), and on her earlier career in an
interview I conducted with Queen Ann Hines at that point.
Queen? Ann: “I got that name, when I
lived and toured in Italy in 1998 through 2002.” During the last twenty some
years Ann has sung on CDs by such artists as Lynn White, Zucchero, Chris
McDaniel, Three 6 Mafia, Kingpin Skinny Pimp, S.S.P. and Mass &
Confusion. “I’ve been with J. Blackfoot 27 years now, but also I’ve done
recordings for a lot of different other artists… country & western, rap,
whatever. Lynn White is a female artist out of Memphis. We did a lot of shows
and concerts with Lynn White.”
“Triple 6 Mafia (their early name in the
early 90s) is the one that got the Academy Award for the song (It’s Hard out
Here for a Pimp) in the movie ‘Hustle & Flow’. They’re a rap group out
of Memphis. They made a lot of money, and they’re still making a lot of
money. Mafia is one of the biggest rap groups out there. I was supposed to
get some out of that, but I didn’t take care of my business like I should
have. Sometimes you do things just as a favour. ‘If you do this for us and
things start happening, we won’t forget you’. Guess what? They forgot! But I
still see them every now and then.”
“I also did Lost in Yesterday.
That was Homer Banks’ song. As a matter of fact, that was the last one we went
into the studio with, when Homer passed. It’s on an album by a young man out
of Memphis, J.T. Johnson.” The album is titled Mantlepiece (JT
Records) and you can listen to this beautiful and plain ballad at www.myspace.com/babromusic.
Ever since the 80s Ann has done both
local shows, and extensive tours with B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Rufus Thomas,
Little Milton, Denise LaSalle, Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Solomon
Burke, Johnny Guitar Watson, James Brown and many others. “Also I did
background things on ‘Stax comes home’ with William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Mavis
Staples, Isaac Hayes and Al Green. Recently I worked with a lady
called Cat Power out of New York, and I’m doing my own concerts, too.”
“I’m now in the process of doing a new
album. I haven’t found the label I want to go with just yet. I’m doing
writing on it, and Thomas Bingham, who’s the musical director for the Soul
Children, is helping me in this.” The first taster is a strong Southern soul
beat-ballad, My Body’s Hott, with some big-voiced vocalizing from Ann
towards the end of the song.
CASSANDRA GRAHAM
The latest recruit to the new Soul
Children is Cassandra Graham, who was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on
September 8 in 1970. Cassandra: “I was born and reared in the church. Before
the Soul Children I sang gospel in the North Mississippi Acappella Chorus
from Hernando, Mississippi, and we have done three different recordings.” The
latest is titled A Double Dose of Praise.
“I was at Stax Museum. J. Blackfoot was
performing there and they had the audience to sing. Miss Ann Hines heard me
and she asked me ‘would you be interested in singing with us’, and I said ‘yes
ma’am, I would’, and from that day forth I’ve been with the Soul Children.
That happened last year.”
“I’ve loved J. Blackfoot for years. My
other idols are Otis Redding, Clarence Carter and Johnnie Taylor.”
Laughingly she adds Diana Ross, still. “I’m just an everyday girl.
This is my first time getting into this kind of business. I’ve always been a
gospel singer, and this is just something new for me. But it doesn’t take me
away from God. I don’t allow it to do that much.”
STILL STANDING
The Soul Children reunited in late 2007
in the line-up of J. Blackfoot, Cassandra Graham, Ann Hines and Norman West.
Jay: “that happened almost a year ago and that came about through Larry Dodson
and James Alexander”, both of the Bar-Kays fame. Norman: “That was out
of demand. I had moved back this way, and Blackfoot was here. The idea never
left, because it was too strong an idea to get totally abolished.”
Their recent CD, Still Standing (JEA
Right Now Records, JEA 0020; ’08), is a strong contender for the number one
album in 2008. Produced by Larry Dodson and Archie Love and also mostly
written by them (together with EZ Rock and Sam Fallie), the set was
recorded in Memphis and it has Toni Green as a guest vocalist on it.
The opening ballad, Long Ride Home,
is a melodic and swaying deepie, in a vintage Soul Children style. Norman: “It has that same flavour. When I heard the Long Ride Home mix, it was
like a message that we’re finally going back to the old idea.”
Other similarly impressive slowies
include the strongly gospel-flavoured Love You for Life, the vocally
powerful The 3 of Us and the intense More Than a Woman (by Jay).
Lil House Big Party is a hooky mid-pacer, whereas both Window
Shopping, and Too Hot to Hold are more in the Bar-Kays funk
territory.
The remake of I’ll Understand was
lifted from J. Blackfoot’s ’99 CD, Having an Affair, while Norman takes lead on a nice, mid-tempo floater called Tell Me How to Please You,
which was co-written by Bigg Robb. Norman: “I learned it off a
recording that had already been done. I got it from a demo.”
The 7-minute long The Sweeter He Is,
with a few bars of Shining Star in it, still sounds heart-warming after
all these years; in spite of the fake live effect. Norman: “That’s the
impression we wanted to give on it.” Jay: “It is a false live. That’s how we
do it on stage, but they didn’t get it off stage. As a matter of fact, it’s
not even in the same key. We had to drop the key, so the girl could sing it,
because it was right way out of her range.”
The final track, the pretty Goodbye Is
Not the Only Word, was taken off the Don Davis-produced Finders Keepers album,
but this time the song is credited to D. Jones and H. Harris
instead of Harvey Scales. Jay: “My favourites on the CD are Long Ride Home and
More Than a Woman. We’re getting great respond on this album already.”
Whichever way you look at it, the Soul Children is a magnificent
group and vocally one of the strongest there is and has been. Their history of
high-quality records is an impressive one. Today they are still in top form, so
should they come your way don’t miss them - and give a listen to their latest
CD, too.
Heikki together with Norman West, William Bell and J. Blackfoot
(Acknowledgements to the Soul Children,
Matti Laipio, Mikko Peltola, Juhani Laikkoja, Aarno Alen and Pertti Nurmi.
Photos by Pertti, Aarno and Juhani.
Sources: Rob Bowman’s excellent book, “Soulsville, U.S.A.”, and Bob McGrath’s “The R&B Indies”. Please visit also http://staxrecords.free.fr)