#0044: Solomon Burke - Rock & Soul [***]

I first heard the name Solomon Burke when Phil Collins mentioned him at a Genesis gig in the middle of a big medley they'd been steadily adding to as a finale to their show, which included the Solomon Burke co-penned classic Everybody Needs Somebody To Love made infamous by the Blues Brothers.

Other people may have sought out more Solomon Burke to listen to.  I just thought it was cool that my favourite band were doing something from one of my favourite films.

I wish I'd discovered this guy sooner though.  In general I expected something punchier so it was a surprise to find Goodbye Baby, the unlikely opening track, was a country-gospel fusion with Burke's voice bleeding like a wound through the weave.  Cry To Me picks up the pace then it's my favourite track on the album.  Its seductive, urgent but somehow simultaneously lackadaisical groove just makes me start bumping and grinding right here at my desk.

Won't You Give Him offers another change of pace and features an acoustic guitar line that underlines the variety provided by this collection.  It doesn't hold out for long though as over the next few tracks we slip into a rut where the backing singers become overused,  They sound like gospel singers as opposed to a group of soul backing vocalists and that makes the sound a little square for my liking.  One of them is louder than the rest by some margin and either that internal balance in the group or their presence in the general mix becomes off-putting.

We get a break from all the partial lyric repetition in Hard Ain't It Hard, Can't Nobody Love You.  At least it seems that way as these are stronger songs and break what has become the enduring sound of the album.  Just Out Of Reach is also an exception but not in a good way.  It plods along like an old trail song and Burke's emery board voice is quite incongruous in the setting where all that's missing is a guy with two coconut shells.

The final song is yet another ballad but, like so many of these early albums, it is the one they got right.  He'll Have To Go is a haunting and seditious exposition of the love triangle theme.  I've been on both ends of the two-guys-chasing-the-same-girl situation and take it from me, on either foot the boot kinda pinches.  But there is something about this song that makes you forget about the fact this guy is trying to steal another man's girlfriend*.  You just feel the pain of his longing.

If it had more meat in the sound and the backing singers didn't linger like some cheesy vocal group named after an impossibly square sounding bloke like The Kenneth Braithwait Singers, I'd give this four stars.  But it's gonna be three; and mostly because of Cry To Me and He'll Have To Go.





* - If love triangles are your thing I wrote a song called Stolen Girl once you may be interested to hear.  If I ever record it, I'll post a link.