Saturday, June 27, 2015

Al Green (b. April 13, 1946): Legendary singer, songwriter, musician, ensemble leader, arranger, and minister


SOUND PROJECTIONS

AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE

EDITOR:  KOFI NATAMBU

SPRING/SUMMER, 2015

VOLUME ONE              NUMBER THREE


CHARLIE PARKER
 

Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:

DUKE ELLINGTON
April 25-May 1

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO
May 2-May 8

ELLA FITZGERALD
May 9-15

DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER
May 16-May 22

MILES DAVIS
May 23-29

JILL SCOTT
May 30-June 5

REGINA CARTER
June 6-June 12

BETTY DAVIS
June 13-19

ERYKAH BADU
June 20-June 26

AL GREEN
June 27-July 3

 

CHUCK BERRY
July 4-July 10

SLY STONE
July 11-July 17



Music

Al Green, the soul legend and Kennedy Center honoree, is still tired of being alone

By Chris Richards
December 5, 2014
The Washington Post

MEMPHIS


The moms are digging in their purses for marshmallows.


Because the kids are getting restless. Because they’ve been stuck in the pews for nearly three hours. Because the adults don’t want to go home. Because the man at the pulpit is singing in a celestial falsetto that seems to know the contours of heaven. Because he’s Al Green.


Toward the back of the church: tourists from France, Brazil, Israel, Denmark, South Africa. They’ve come to hear the man sing.


Toward the front: ladies in fabulous hats, men in boxy suits, marshmallow moms and their antsy children. They’ve come to hear the Reverend preach.


If the story of American R&B unfolds in the tension between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Green may be its truest protagonist. In the early ’70s, he sang about devotion and desire with a gospel-grade elegance that made him a star, a sage and a sex symbol. And then, at the height of his fame, he started answering to a voice more sublime than his own.

Green says that God first steered his car to this church back in 1976. To get there today, head south toward the outskirts of Memphis, down Elvis Presley Boulevard, past Graceland, past the fast food, past the nail salons, hang a right on the road with the November foliage worthy of a jigsaw puzzle, and look for the small white church with the big white Mercedes-Benz parked outside.


Inside the Full Gospel Tabernacle, the paint is chipping and the pews are creaky. But the music is glorious. Ordained as a Baptist minister, Green has been leading this modestly sized, nondenominational church for nearly 40 years, and this Sunday’s service is a free-form mix of Scripture, sermon and song, with Green’s voice soaring high above his choir’s.

He smiles — happy to be surrounded by the sound, surrounded by the Spirit and, perhaps most important, surrounded by the people.


Because even though Green’s greatest hits exalt the bliss of human communion, he lives alone in rural seclusion. That bliss has slipped in and out of his hands since childhood. More than four decades after writing “Tired of Being Alone,” Al Green is still very much exactly that.


Al Green performs at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in 1972. (Fred A. Sabine/Fred A. Sabine/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
 
Al Green performs at the Essence Music Festival in 2002. (Douglas Mason/AP)

‘Yeee-haw!”


This is what he howls when he’s excited, and on Monday morning the office behind his church is filled with yeee-haws. It’s also filled with media folk who have traveled to Memphis to ask the 68-year-old how he feels about receiving one of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

During our 45-minute window, Green is energetic, quick to laugh, even quicker to break into song. But his left foot won’t stop tapping anxious 16th notes into the carpet.

One-on-one conversation seems difficult for him. He answers most questions with forthright brevity, then darts off on scattered digressions.


Ask about his relationship with his church, he laments the rise of the drug trade in Memphis. Ask whether stardom made him a better preacher, he volunteers the fact that his first love was a prostitute who introduced him to a dangerous social circle. Ask about his mentor, producer Willie Mitchell, Green reminisces about an unrelated bar fight that required him to neutralize an opponent carrying a switchblade. “Always hold the hand with the knife!” he shouts, offering hard-knock-life tips with a belly laugh.


Perhaps these broken strands of communication are Green’s way of explaining that he has seen life on the other side and that instead of examining his current struggles, he’d rather purge up memories of traumas conquered long ago.

He certainly had plenty to overcome. Albert Greene was born in Forrest City, Ark., in 1946 to a religiously devout sharecropper who dreamed that his sons — the Greene Brothers — would find success on the gospel-music circuit. (As an adult, Greene would drop the “e” from his name.)


As a child, he was an outcast, prone to isolation. As a teenager, he was trouble, prone to using his fists. He also had insatiable ears, and he fell hard for the angelic voice of Sam Cooke at a tender age. But “the devil’s music” wasn’t allowed beneath his father’s roof, and as a teenager, Green was banished from the house for secretly listening to a Jackie Wilson record.


It didn’t stop him from wanting to sing in the skyscraping falsetto of his idols, and in 1968, the success of his first single, “Back Up Train,” helped Al Greene and the Soul Mates get all the way to Harlem’s Apollo Theater — but not much further.


Aimlessly touring the country as a solo act in 1969, Green shared a bill with Mitchell at a Texas nightclub and eventually followed the bandleader and producer back to Memphis. That’s when everyone’s luck changed.


Together, the two began crafting some of the most exquisite songs to ever grace the American consciousness — “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still in Love With You” — a series of hits recorded for what Green once described as one long, never-ending album, blurred by the time-smearing effects of instant fame.


But stardom did nothing to soothe Green’s crippling loneliness or tame the chaos he perpetually seemed to attract. He made strange headlines in 1974 when his girlfriend, Mary Woodson White, assaulted him with a pot of boiling grits and then committed suicide in his home. Two decades later, Green was back in the news, facing allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, Shirley Green. (He says their relationship today is no longer “distant and hateful.” In fact, she was visiting Memphis the day prior, attended Green’s church and even came to the front at one point to lead the congregation in song.)

But the defining pivot of Al Green’s life took place before all that, in 1973, in a hotel room in Anaheim, Calif., after he’d performed a late-night concert at Disneyland. Green went to sleep exhausted. When he woke up, he was born again.


Describing today that moment when he first heard the voice of God, he goes calm and quiet.


“He said, ‘Come, come, come to me,’ ” Green says, softly fluttering his fingers. “And when I got in those arms, I could just let my whole spirit down. I could relax. I felt so much better. . . . I surrendered. And you have to surrender. Then you get to build up again.”



Before Al Green found God, Willie Mitchell found Al Green.

It was Mitchell, a Mississippi-born musician fluent in jazz, rock and soul, who nurtured Green’s sound, finessing it into something delicate and indelible. Mitchell believed that a song’s momentum should always push upward, ascending like the slope of a mountain into the unknown. To get there, he needed Green to scrub the growl out of his voice and stop imitating the guys who were recording for Stax Records, just a few blocks away.


In his autobiography, Green remembers Mitchell coaching him: “Let them be gritty. You be smooth. Remember, Al. It’s silky on the top. Rough on the bottom.”


If ascension and tenderness were two of the secret ingredients floating around Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studio, the third was intimacy.


Charles Hodges — the keyboardist who performed on much of Green’s early work alongside his brothers, bassist Leroy Hodges and guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, and drummers Howard Grimes and Al Jackson Jr. — says the “spiritual chemistry” that filled the air at Royal in the early ’70s was one of a kind.


“We all became so close that we could just feel each other’s heartbeat,” Hodges says today. “Everything we touched turned to gold.”


The effortless feel of their most golden music had everything to do with efficiency. The vocals to “Let’s Stay Together” — that ecstatic pledge of commitment that would define Green’s career — were written 15 minutes after Mitchell presented his pupil with the music. This is Green’s gift as a songwriter: the ability to go so deep so quickly.


“It’s spontaneous,” Green says of the creative moment. 

“You’ve got to let yourself drop so you get to the point where you feel. Then you work to bring it on up, bring it on up, bring it on up. You start with something, and in it builds. It builds. And builds. And builds.”


And then Green starts singing beautiful curlicues of nonverbal nonsense, as if what he’s trying to say is beyond words or beyond his patience to find them.

Green in his office in Memphis. The legendary singer is a recipient of the 2014 Kennedy Center Honors. (Jesse Dittmar/For The Washington Post)


In the 1984 documentary “Gospel According to Al Green,” filmmaker Robert Mugge asks his subject where he sees his ministry headed in the decades to come.


Green replies with unflinching zest: “I shall be one of the greatest evangelists in the world. In the world! And not only will we fill auditoriums, and coliseums, and stadiums, but we will multiply blessings to people around the world.”

It hasn’t turned out that way. But Green says he’s at peace with his faith and his ambition. “I am completely satisfied with what God has done,” he says. “I’m grateful to be where I am now, in the mind-set I’m in now.”

He never really stopped recording. In 2003, Green released “I Can’t Stop,” his first secular album since parting ways with Mitchell to pursue gospel in the late ’70s. Green says he wanted to reconnect with his old mentor, who was suffering from the complications of diabetes and drinking heavily at the time.


“I told him, ‘You’re not going to get better with all this Grey Goose in the back of your car,’ ” Green says. “Willie needed to get better. And he did get better.”


Their rekindled success allowed the duo to record another album — 2005’s “Everything’s OK” — before Mitchell’s death in 2010. Green’s most recent songbook, 2008’s “Lay It Down,” was co-produced by Questlove of the Roots. It features two duets with Anthony Hamilton, one of the countless contemporary singers who learned about empathy and honesty by listening to Green.


“[He taught me] that whatever it is you’re feeling, it’s okay to be as pure as you want to be in that moment. You don’t have to apologize for it at all,” Hamilton says. “And for the fans, for people who are afraid to express themselves, he allowed people to open up and be in that moment, too.”

In addition to reviving his pop career, Green’s return to secular music also refreshed his image as a conflicted soul man torn between pleasure and piety. It’s a narrative that Green dismisses outright. “It’s all in your heart,” he says. 

“If you’re not divided in here” — touching his hand to his chest — “you’re not divided out there. . . . I’m not torn at all. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been at this church for 37 years.”


But Green doesn’t hesitate to say he’s still haunted by his inability to keep people close. “I’m still a loner,” he says.


Which means visits with family are brief. Visits with friends are rare. When his housekeeper shows up at his home 25 minutes from downtown Memphis, Green might quietly sing along to the hum of the vacuum cleaner, the way the Greene Brothers used to try to harmonize with the purring car tires on their Sunday road trips. Music is still his companion — and creatively, loneliness is still his resource.


“You have to have a well to draw from,” Green says slowly, as if running out of words.


Ask him if he’s still lonely today and he can find only two.

“Yeah. Always.”




Chris Richards has been the Post's pop music critic since 2009. He's recently written about summer songs, festival fatigue, metal drumming and D.C. rap star Shy Glizzy.

http://www.biography.com/people/al-green-37614










Al Green is known for the hit song "Let's Stay Together," and for leaving his musical career at its height in the 1970s to become a reverend at his own church.

















Synopsis

 
Born on a farm in Dansby, Arkansas on April 13, 1946, Al Green became a popular soul singer whose hits include 1971's "Let's Stay Together." While at the top of his career in the 1970s, Green became a reverend and chose to focus on gospel music. Years later, Green found a balance between his religious calling and secular music and went on to release several new albums.

Early Life

 
Al Green was born Albert Greene on April 13, 1946, in Dansby, a small town down the road from Forrest City, Arkansas. He began performing at a young age, singing gospel music with his family as part of the Greene Brothers. Even after the Greene family moved to Michigan, the Greene Brothers continued touring on the gospel circuit.

After being kicked out of the family home for listening to the secular music of Jackie Wilson, Green started a group called the Creations, which later became Al Greene and the Soul Mates. The Soul Mates had one hit, "Back Up Train," which brought them to a successful appearance at New York City's Apollo Theater.
 
Commercial Success


After the Soul Mates failed to capitalize on their one hit, the group broke up and Al Green struck out out his own. It was at this time that he decided to drop the final "e" from his last name.

In 1968, while on the road in Texas, Green opened for producer Willie Mitchell. Impressed with what he heard, Mitchell signed Green to Hi Records of Memphis, Tennessee. As he started working closely with Mitchell, Green's soft phrasing and falsetto embellishments took soul in a new direction. In 1971, Green had a popular cover of The Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You." Mitchell also produced Green's other huge hits of the 1970s, including the number one "Let's Stay Together" and "I'm Still in Love with You." With his ballads, his gifts of long-stemmed roses to female concertgoers and his golden voice, Green became a true star.


Reverend Al Green


While on the road in 1973, Al Green was born again as a Christian. Despite his revived faith, Green continued touring and releasing music much as he had previously, though he did leave audience members taken aback by occasionally pausing to sermonize during performances. But Green's life changed on October 18, 1974, when Mary Woodson, a woman who had walked away from her family to be with Green, attacked him in his bathroom with a pan of boiling hot grits. Woodson then shot and killed herself in Green's Memphis home.

During the long recovery from his third-degree burns, Green devoted himself to his faith. When Green had healed, he bought a church, the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis, and began leading services there. In addition to becoming a pastor, Green turned back toward spiritual music. As Willie Mitchell didn't want to work on gospel songs, Green's 1977 album, The Belle Album, was self-produced. The new direction Green's life had taken was evident in the song "Belle," about a man torn between his love for a woman and his love for God.

Working in Two Worlds

After falling off the stage during a 1979 concert, Al Green chose to focus on his church and released only inspirational music. But by the late 1980s, Green was singing some of his secular hits along with his gospel music. He then branched out to duets with Annie Lennox and Lyle Lovett, and even appeared on the TV show Ally McBeal.

In 2003, Green released the album I Can't Stop, which was produced by his former collaborator, Willie Mitchell. Green also explored new musical avenues on his 2008 album Lay It Down, working with producers Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of the Roots and keyboardist James Poyser.

After turning away from the songs that had made him famous, Green has become comfortable with both his popular music and his religious vocation. In recent years, the famed musician was named on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/al-green-david-letterman-late-show-20141209

Watch Al Green Blow David Letterman's Mind With 'Late Show' Performance

Soul legend, still wearing his Kennedy Center Honors medal, performs "Tired of Being Alone" and "Let's Stay Together"

By









al-green-singing-late-show-with-david-letterman-2014
al-green-late-show-with-david-letterman-singing-2014



A night after being celebrated by President Barack Obama and other D.C. dignitaries at the Kennedy Center Honors, Al Green visited the Late Show With David Letterman. The soul legend – still wearing the rainbow-colored ribbon and medal around his neck and accompanied by Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra – performed a pair of Green's best tracks, "Tired of Being Alone" and "Let's Stay Together," two of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.










The performance was so rousing that Letterman exclaimed "Oh my God!" four times following "Tired of Being Alone." The late night host, a longtime Green fan, was also at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony Sunday night to pay tribute to actor Tom Hanks. At that ceremony, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Earth, Wind & Fire and Mavis Staples with Sam & Dave's Sam Moore all performed Green tracks to celebrate his contributions to music.

When Rolling Stone caught up with Hanks at the Kennedy Center Honors, he talked about his love for Green's music. "Look, I'm from Oakland, California, a funky town. And we had one of the greatest soul stations in the world, KIDA, Lucky 13. Al Green, 'So Tired of Being Alone,' 'Let's Stay Together,' it goes on and on and on," Hanks said, adding that he wasn't familiar with Green's gospel work but was looking forward to changing that. "When I get back to my laptop, I'm going to download. I want to be able to tell Al Green, 'I've got all your records, including the gospel stuff.'"

http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/al-green-strives-for-perfection/ 

Al Green strives for perfection

by Matt Rogers

Wax Poetics

Al Green

“Since I can remember, women have wanted to get next to me, and when I sing, it’s like they’ve received a personal invitation. There’s no use denying it. I’ve tried.”
–Al Green 1
“All I know is that I met him, and he’s the luckiest motherfucker who ever lived.”
–Willie Mitchell 2

Originally published as “Labor of Love” in Wax Poetics Issue 28, 2008.

“Do I act normal to you?”

When one of the greatest pop icons to ever grab a microphone asks you this, you just might be forgiven for thinking you’ve misheard the question. For it is safe to suggest few geniuses—musical or otherwise—could ever be mistaken for us and our genus normalis brethren, and the Reverend Al Green is no exception. In fact, “normal” would not be high on the list of adjectives most would ascribe to this indisputable soul legend. “Smooth,” definitely. “Charismatic,” of course. “Hitmaker,” uncontestable. “Lady-killer,” without a doubt. “Normal?” Uh…

Despite an excellent documentary film and readily available autobiography for those curious enough, Al Green’s life still baffles, still exudes mystery, lore, and rumor like no singer before him. Still trying to get a grip on Al Green? No worries, so is he.

“The truth is, introducing the real Al Green is like introducing three different people…and more often than not, they’re all fighting with each other…. You never know which Al you’re going to get. And neither does he.”1

Fact is, it’s hard to imagine someone who has lived a less “normal” life. Long before he defined early ’70s pop and soul, selling millions and millions of records the world over, Al Green was one Albert Greene. And he was poor. Born April 13, 1946, in Dansby, Arkansas, a town too small to warrant a stop sign, he and his family of twelve came from a long line of sharecroppers, whose only two certainties in life, for generations, were poverty and the church. Everyone in the family went to church, and everyone could sing. Albert would lie in the bed he shared with his four brothers, dreaming of one day becoming like his cousin Herman, who was starting to make a splash around Memphis as Little Junior Parker and whose 45s, like Al’s cherished Jackie Wilson’s, were forbidden fodder in the Greene’s two-room shotgun shack. Instead, Al’s father tried to channel his sons’ energies within the family’s gospel group.

“They call it show business. I call it indentured servitude.”1

Life would be turned on its head, though, when the family abruptly uprooted from Arkansas to the Northern promise of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and its enticement of factory jobs. Rural dirt was replaced by urban soot, and it was here that the young Al would get his first taste of street life. His father, unable to find a job, became more determined for the family’s gospel group, which would perform locally and regionally but failed to make a dent. The choir was the only thing holding Albert in school, and by the time he was sixteen, he had his own R&B group, the Creations. His foray into secular music, however, got him (and his busted 45s) kicked out of his family’s abode and onto the street, which is where the other side of Al Green would become cultivated. He found refuge with a prostitute and got dapper. Honing their vocals, the Creations performed regularly in town backed by a pre-Motown Junior Walker and his All Stars, before changing their name to Al Greene and the Soul Mates and cutting a few records, including a minor hit, “Back Up Train,” in ’68 that landed them a gig at the Apollo Theater. But Green knew the group wouldn’t last. He dropped the last “e” from his last name and set out on his own.

“One year, I’m a rock star; the next year, I’m a gospel preacher. I don’t understand.”3

Like one of his idols, Sam Cooke, the Reverend fits into the crowded pantheon of gospel and pop singers who have been tormented by the tug-of-war between church and club. It’s no secret the pulpit has informed and shaped popular music, let alone soul music, from the get-go—there is a list of singers perhaps as thick as the Bible itself who’ve crossed the pew lines and brought that sacred fire and phrasing to the land of milk and honey(s). “The battle between the secular and the sacred,” he writes in his book, Take Me to the River, “has brought down more great Black musical artists than drugs or loose living or any other hazard of the trade.” None, however, have been enmeshed any deeper, or had such internal battle play out so publicly as Al Green.

“They’ve staked a no-man’s-land in my soul, separating the sacred and the profane. What you see is what you get, depending on who’s winning the war, from day to day and from hour to hour.”1

It’s a fool’s game, certainly, but draw up your list of the greatest male pop singers, and though some may be as good—Sam, Jackie, Smokey, Marvin, Curtis—none were better than Al Green. Particularly at helping you and that special someone slip into something just a little bit more comfortable. Armed with a quiver of slinky, sensual songs that praised love, beauty and happiness, and delivered with an unmatched tenor and charisma, unmoored and siphoned from the church, Green created music that got under you skin, while your skin got under the sheets.

“That influenced my pop, because of the magnetics that I got out of the gospel to be inspiring and to inspire and to have that electricity—see, it takes electricity! You can’t create the charisma for fire. Either you have the fire, or you don’t have the fire.”3

His song titles say it all: “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still in Love with You,” “Love and Happiness,” “Simply Beautiful,” “Livin’ for You,” “L-O-V-E (Love).” The people listened as his songs blanketed the top of the charts again and again from 1971 to ’75. Of course, he didn’t achieve such dominance alone. He had become part of an indomitable hit-making team led by the indefatigable Willie Mitchell at Memphis’s Royal Studios. Having met the down-on-his-luck twenty-two-year-old Green at a shared gig in Midland, Texas, in ’68, Mitchell took Green under his musical wing. In relatively short fashion, the producer established the singer, the studio, and the record label for which they recorded, Hi Records, as Memphis’s crown jewel. It was a team that would become Memphis royalty. Elvis may have been the King, but Al Green was soon its High Priest.

Mitchell harnessed Green’s creative, spiritualized energy, buttressing it with a steadfast, creative team of musicians, fortified primarily by the Brothers Hodges—guitarist Teenie, bassist Leroy, organist Charles—drummer Howard Grimes, the Memphis Horns, as well as a White trio of honey-voiced backup singers, Chalmers, Rhodes, and Rhodes. In Robert Mugge’s ’84 film, The Gospel According to Al Green, Willie Mitchell recalls telling the eager singer “to soften up some…you need to settle this music down…[so] I began to write some jazz chords and try to get another sound for Al.” It was a sound that Green—who moonlighted in the jazz clubs of Grand Rapids—would embrace, a perfect combination of the dynamics demanded of a jazz singer with the verve of soul. It also didn’t hurt that one of pop music’s greatest drummers and key element to crosstown rival Stax Records’ 1960s success, drummer Al Jackson Jr., was a frequent presence at Royal. He would help pen such Green smashes as “I’m Still in Love with You,” “Call Me,” and “Let’s Stay Together,” before his murder in 1975.

It was a tragedy that had followed another tragedy in Green’s life a year earlier, one that helped hasten the sacred pull Green had already started to feel in ’73 while at the height of his commercial success (check out his ’73 Soul Train performance of “Jesus Is Waiting,” broken arm and all). Mary Woodson was her name, and she wanted Al Green for her husband. They were friends, and, unbeknownst to him, she was already married and had three kids. Late one night, having just finished a recording session at Royal, they were at his house. She mentioned marriage; Green demurred. Soon after, Green found himself writhing in unspeakable pain, a pot of scalding grits having just found his back: “I seen this whole pot of water, and, all of a sudden, I’m full of it! Boom. Man, I’m in total pain and shock… Reached back, man, and I got two fingers full of skin.”3 Moments later, Woodson would be dead from two self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

“I gotta figure out what to do! I mean, I got a million-dollar career goin’ here, and I’m telling folks they need to be born again. I mean, this is trippin’ me out, I tell ya!”3

The clarion call of the pulpit was growing stronger, and he would at times find himself in mid-trance, preaching to his audience during his sets, raising the eyebrows of both his band and fans alike. It was something he couldn’t deny nor control, so he bought a Memphis church, named it the Full Gospel Tabernacle, and began life as a preacher. Mitchell sent the Reverend on his own, and, in ’77, Green delivered his last secular album, Belle. And then his secular career was, more or less, over.

Al Green never disappeared, however, and he never stopped making music. Ironically, he never won a Grammy for his pop gems, but throughout the ’80s and ’90s picked up several. In 2003, tempted once again by the secular music world, he teamed with his former producer, Willie Mitchell, and crew for I Can’t Stop, singing once again into his favorite mic number nine. Two years later, Everything’s OK would follow.

Five years into his secular comeback, he tells us, “Al Green is back on that stuff!” Lay It Down marks his third album for Blue Note Records. And while I Can’t Stop and Everything’s OK were better than just okay, they failed to approach Green/Mitchell’s golden ’70s touch. LID gets closer to that heyday. Languid, yet excitable, full of Memphis vibe and church stomp, the songs are soaked unabashedly once again with hope and love.

The good reverend was kind enough to take a break from his busy Easter schedule and share a few words. He wants you to know that “it’s gonna be a hot summer!”

Al Green

How different was recording Lay It Down for you compared to the last three or four decades of your recording career?

I don’t think it was any different so much. We wrote the songs right there on the floor, right when the band was trying to get the changes down. So it was like fresh cream, baby. We wrote it right then and there! Wasn’t like having some songs sitting twenty years in the closet or nothing. This is fresh out the cow’s milk bag, baby! [howls]

So it was similar to how you, Willie Mitchell, and gang would record at Royal?

Yeah, that’s how we used to do it, just sit at the piano and write it out! That’s the way we write. I don’t know what we’re gonna do with all the songs we wrote way over the years that we’ve had all this time. ’Cause when we getting ready to do a project, we just go get a brand-new motorcycle, get it all shined up, and do it! That’s kind of like that song on [Lay It Down] called “I’m Wild About You.” It’s about wild passion, about wild love. It’s about wild, wild, wild! I mean, I don’t wanna ask for it, that would be criminal! You know I wanna take it, if I take it, then I sure hope you ain’t mad at me! [laughs] I like that one.

Do you feel like your songwriting has changed much over the years? The inspiration?

I don’t know, I don’t know. No, it hasn’t changed for me. That’s what’s called baby-makin’ music.

You got that right! How many babies do you think have been made while listening to your music over the years?

Well, over in London, they say a heck of a lot! So I guess they’re right. I don’t know, I haven’t really thought of it like that! I was in London, and a guy was saying that we make baby-makin’ music. I asked my manager that was with me, “What did he say?” He says, “You make baby-makin’ music,” and I’m like, “Really?!”

I think you’re probably responsible for your own population boom.

Yeah, I think that’s why they keep following that “Love and Happiness” and “Let’s Stay Together.” A lot of folk was born when that music was hot, ya know?

So you came up singing with your family.

Yeah, I came up singing with my brothers and my dad. We traveled around doing that. Just gospel.

When you were traveling with the family, were you on with other gospel acts like the Swan Silvertones?

Well, we never did threaten anybody as crazy as the Swan Silvertone singers, but, yeah, we were just on the placard with everybody else. Maybe if we shot a magic balloon up in there and floated it down in the middle of the concert and started singing, “Love and Happiness”… But we didn’t have enough money to buy a balloon! [laughs]

So when did your first group, the Creations, form?

Uh, when I was in eighth, ninth grade. That was Palmer James and Curtis Rogers. We had a group called the Creations, and that was my first singing outside of the family and the Book. We’d travel around, do Top 40 covers. I guess we sung about three, four years, different clubs, different affairs and things. Then I started to sing by myself for some reason, and my first job was in Cleveland or something like that. And then my next job was in the Apollo Theater in New York City. It scared me to death. I said, “My God, man, I am not ready for no Apollo Theater!” So I rehearsed. Well, at that time, I didn’t even have a band; I had to rehearse with the house band. I had rehearsed three songs, but they wouldn’t let me sing but one song, and that was “Back Up Train.” And they told me after that [song], that was it. Welcome to the Apollo! So I’d come out every show, sing my one song—tuh duhhh!—then that was it; I was gone off the stage. We got held over a week. [It was me], the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, and a lot of other folks. We would do, like, one, two, three shows a day.

Did you get to hang out much with the Staple Singers or Wilson Pickett?

No, because I’m not a hangout type of guy. I’m not the hangout type. I don’t hang out with people. I’m kind of like, um, I don’t know what I am. I don’t have any friends, I don’t have no hangouts, I don’t have no parties, I don’t have none of that. I’m just not a hangout type of guy. If they was sitting in my dressing [room], I still wouldn’t be hanging out with them, ’cause I’m like a—[laughs] I don’t know what I am, man! I can’t figure out what I am. I’m just the way I am, and that’s it! [pauses] Do I act normal to you?

I’m sorry?

Do I act normal to you?

Well, I wouldn’t know normal if it smacked me in the head, so I don’t know!

There ya go, thank you! That’s exactly what I was saying. Normal could be normal for someone else but not normal for another person!

Well, when did you really start seeing and hearing performers that inspired you, and you said, “Hey, this is what I want to do?”

Umm, I really had an Elvis Presley collection of records, myself. I lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I liked all the Elvis records. I never had any idea I would move to Memphis, Tennessee; I didn’t know Elvis lived in Memphis. I don’t know…Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, you know, I liked them. See, we were used to the Motown era and the Stax era.

And the Hi Records era.

Yeah, well, it don’t make no difference. Hi Records and Stax is all really Memphis.

So between Hi Records and Stax, was there much rivalry, or was it just a big collective making that great Memphis music at the time?

No, that wasn’t the way it was. It was very choppy. Everybody was very selfish; it was each company against the other. And now, later on, it turned out to be really all for the good. Because everybody would be cutting something to the best of their ability and making it the best they could make it, ’cause they knew that the people across town would try to match it with something else. So we did “Let’s Stay Together,” and then Sam and Dave did [sings] “I’m a soul man, bahdahdahdadadaa, I’m a soul man.” So I said, “Okay, then fine: [sings] Spending my days, thinking about you, girl!” And then they said, “Oh hell, then we gotta get Isaac” to do whatever. Oh man, that’s how it was.

So it drove people to do better.

There ya go. It makes people actually work harder. Even if there’s nothing but struggles, and the stressed-out part of every time you put out something, somebody’s trying to outdo it. And that was really healthy for both companies. ’Cause Isaac Hayes and the Hot Buttered Soul and the Shaft thing and that whole nine yards, well, that was fine, but Al Green came out with “Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy),” and that sold five, six million. So that’s the way it was at the time.

Now me and Isaac work on shows together sometimes and start talking about it and hug one another and laugh. It got really silly. I cut a song called “One Woman,” and the next week and a half, Isaac had “One Woman” out, and you know that peeved us off, “Damn, man, I just put out ‘One Woman’ last week!” So we laugh about it, ain’t about nothing. Memphis music was Hi Records and Stax!

You had Al Jackson Jr. working both studios, so crucial to both places.

Well, Al Jackson could play where he wanna play! That’s his prerogative, to play where he wanna play. If he wanna play on an Al Green session, he can play on an Al Green session! Who’s to tell him he can’t play with Al Green, ’cause he’s the drummer over at Stax? He can play wherever the hell he wanna play! Al Jackson Jr. was a visionary. He was a great guy, wonderful guy.

Was he playing on a lot of those cuts, or would he just be composing and then have Howard Grimes playing on them?

Yeah, he was playing! Yeah, there were two, three drummers around, four, five guitar players…a bunch of people hanging around. Teenie Hodges and Skip [Pitts] and various ones; sometimes two, three guitar players playin’ on the same song. Me and Al [Jackson] played on “Tired of Being Alone.” Yeah, I play on “Tired of Being Alone.” And now that I played on it, I just think, hmm, now how the heck did I do that?

Well, your guitar playing is always so tasty; when did you actually learn to play the guitar?

After my brother beat me over the head about nine times for messing with his.

Oh, that’ll do it.

Yeah, that’ll do it. He’d say, “You think you’re T-Bone Walker?” He used to have a guitar, a big red one, a Rickenbacker. And I used to sneak and play it when he was gone, oh man! And he’d come back home and take his guitar out, and his strings were out of tune, and he’d say, “Al, you been messing with the guitar?” And I’d say, “Nope!” Well, he let me have one upside the head a couple of times, said to leave it alone, and I’d say okay. He’d leave home the next day: I’d be playing it again! I couldn’t help it, man. I don’t know. I had a certain…I just didn’t know how to play the guitar, but I had the desire.

Do you write songs, ideas for songs, on your guitar? Like, say, “Simply Beautiful.”

Oh yeah, that’s right! That’s Al playing that! [sings intro guitar line] Yeah, that’s me. I forgot about that!

How could you forget that one?

Man, see down here where we are, we don’t wear our accomplishments on our sleeves. You do a thing, sometimes you forget you’ve done it. Right now, I’ve got one, two, three, four, five books open on this table, and I guarantee you I can’t read but one at a time. But I’m a bookworm, and I like to know stuff. I have a library; therefore, I get books and look it up. I don’t just sit around going, duh. You get the hell up and look it up! And then, therefore, it puts me in the position to skip the dull parts and say what it’s about. To know with some affirmative what it is. That’s what my daddy taught me.

Right.

And my momma said, [heavy drawl] “You gonna be a little different than the rest of the children.” And I’m going like, “Why?” Because, I mean, I got my brothers and sisters, so therefore, we got the same mom and daddy. Why should I be any different? And she says, [lilting] “Well, you gonna be a little different, Al, so you just gonna have to get used to it!” I said, “Well, what could be different?” And she says, “Well, Al, you just gonna have to wait till it comes now.” So I just don’t know how different, or if I’m different at all. I guess I’m different, ’cause my brothers and sisters, they don’t…they love me…but they don’t…really know how to show it.

Your father sang; your mother sing as well?

Yeah, my momma could sing like a jaybird! It was just in the family, everybody in the family could sing. Everybody sings.

Speaking of family, Little Junior Parker was a cousin of yours. Did you guys ever sing together?

No, he was way before my time. I was too young. [giggles] I was still takin’ sandwiches to school! [laughs] But, yeah, I got to hear a lot of great people. Like the Hendrix guy. Got to hear him play the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock stage, and I thought it was just… Number one, it’s just odd for someone to come out on a heavy metal–type rock-and-roll stage and play the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Number two, everybody at Woodstock was stoned except Jimi! Not one of the [other] times did I ever see him was he not stoned. And he comes up with this fantastic idea to play the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Awesome! And he made his guitar sound like the jet planes and all that stuff. I mean, it was incredible! My guitar player, Larry Lee, used to play with Hendrix and the Band of Gypsys. Larry used to talk about him all the time.

Your pop music had so much church in it. Can you talk about the Hammond organ and how people respond to it?

Oh, we know people respond to it! But I’m not gonna give away [organist Charles Hodges’s] secrets. But Jimmy Smith! Oh my God, Jimmy Smith, oh man, on organ, he’s just the top, top, top, top, you know! He’s kind of like the Sidney Poitier of the organ, the cream of the crop. Anything about organ, Jimmy Smith, gonna know it!

Well, I’ll tell you what, it was nice talking to you and have a good and blessed and happy day. Now Mahalia Jackson and Satchmo and Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, all these people are gonna be very upset with you, because you didn’t ask Al Green their influence in his career. Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, and all these people, Lou Rawls, they gonna be really unhappy with you, so you write all their names down and say, “Al said these people are gonna be 
very angry with me.” [laughs]

What about Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions?

[sings falsetto] “Keep on pushin’!” Oh yeah, I did a lot of shows with Curtis and the Impressions, yeah! My God, he’s just incredible, just incredible. Those guys, oh man, they came up with some songs! [sings] “People get ready, there’s a train a comin’.” I mean, really incredible stuff.
Yeah, that’s when I was just getting started. We started in Cleveland, Ohio—don’t know why we kept going to this Cleveland, Ohio; I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean; it was a hotbed for something—and from there, we would go to the Apollo, to Detroit, to Chicago, then, wherever.

Well, you know what Sam Cooke says? What he said on his records all the time?

No, what’s that?

I don’t wanna leave! [laughs] But I gotta go! [laughs] I like that one, man. Man, he just tore the house apart, you understand me? And then he goes, “I gotta go!” Then walks away from the mic a little bit, then turns around, wooo, what a big tease he was! He was really incredible. Take care yourself! Happy Easter now!

Artist Biography by

Al Green was the first great soul singer of the '70s and arguably the last great Southern soul singer. With his seductive singles for Hi Records in the early '70s, Green bridged the gap between deep soul and smooth Philadelphia soul. He incorporated elements of gospel, interjecting his performances with wild moans and wails, but his records were stylish, boasting immaculate productions that rolled along with a tight beat, sexy backing vocals, and lush strings. The distinctive Hi Records sound that the vocalist and producer Willie Mitchell developed made Al Green the most popular and influential soul singer of the early '70s, influencing not only his contemporaries, but also veterans like Marvin Gaye. Green was at the peak of his popularity when he suddenly decided to join the ministry in the mid-'70s. At first, he continued to record secular material, but by the '80s, he was concentrating solely on gospel. During the late '80s and '90s, he occasionally returned to R&B, but he remained primarily a religious performer for the rest of his career. Nevertheless, Green's classic early- '70s recordings retained their power and influence throughout the decades, setting the standard for smooth soul.

Green was born in Forrest City, AR, where he formed a gospel quartet, the Green Brothers, at the age of nine. The group toured throughout the South in the mid-'50s, before the family relocated to Grand Rapids, MI. the Green Brothers continued to perform in Grand Rapids, but Al's father kicked the boy out of the group after he caught his son listening to Jackie Wilson. At the age of 16, Al formed an R&B group, Al Green & the Creations, with several of his high-school friends. Two Creation members, Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, founded their own independent record company, Hot Line Music Journal, and had the group record for the label. By that time, the Creations had been re-named the Soul Mates. The group's first single, "Back Up Train," became a surprise hit, climbing to number five on the R&B charts early in 1968. the Soul Mates attempted to record another hit, but all of their subsequent singles failed to find an audience. 


Green Is Blues
In 1969, Al Green met bandleader and Hi Records vice president Willie Mitchell while on tour in Midland, Texas. Impressed with Green's voice, he signed the singer to Hi Records, and began collaborating with Al on his debut album. Released in early 1970, Green's debut album, Green Is Blues, showcased the signature sound he and Mitchell devised -- a sinewy, sexy groove highlighted by horn punctuations and string beds that let Green showcase his remarkable falsetto. While the album didn't spawn any hit singles, it was well-received and set the stage for the breakthrough success of his second album. Al Green Gets Next to You (1970) launched his first hit single, "Tired of Being Alone," which began a streak of four straight gold singles. Let's Stay Together (1972) was his first genuine hit album, climbing to number eight on the pop charts; its title track became his first number one single. I'm Still in Love With You, which followed only a few months later, was an even greater success, peaking at number four and launching the hits "Look What You Done for Me" and "I'm Still in Love With You." 
 
Call Me
By the release of 1973's Call Me, Green was known as both a hitmaker and an artist who released consistently engaging, frequently excellent, critically-acclaimed albums. His hits continued uninterrupted through the next two years, with "Call Me," "Here I Am," and "Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)" all becoming Top Ten gold singles. At the height of his popularity, Green's former girlfriend, Mrs. Mary Woodson, broke into his Memphis home in October 1974 and poured boiling grits on the singer as he was bathing, inflicting second-degree burns on his back, stomach, and arm; after assaulting Green, she killed herself with his gun. Green interpreted the violent incident as a sign from God that he should enter the ministry. By 1976, he had bought a church in Memphis and had become an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle. Though he had begun to seriously pursue religion, he had not given up singing R&B and he released three other Mitchell-produced albums -- Al Green Is Love (1975), Full of Fire (1976), Have a Good Time (1976) -- after the incident. However, his albums began to sound formulaic, and his sales started to slip by the end of 1976, with disco cutting heavily into his audience. 
 
The Belle Album
In order to break free from his slump, Green stopped working with Willie Mitchell in 1977 and built his own studio, American Music, where he intended to produce his own records. The first album he made at American Music was The Belle Album, an intimate record that was critically acclaimed but failed to win a crossover audience. Truth and Time (1978) failed to even generate a major R&B hit. During a concert in Cincinnati in 1979, Green fell off the stage and nearly injured himself seriously. Interpreting the accident as a sign from God, Green retired from performing secular music and devoted himself to preaching. Throughout the '80s, he released a series of gospel albums on Myrrh Records. In 1982, Green appeared in the gospel musical Your Arms Too Short to Box With God with Patti Labelle. In 1985, he reunited with Willie Mitchell for He Is the Light, his first album for A&M Records. 
 
Don't Look Back
Green tentatively returned to R&B in 1988 when he sang "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" with Annie Lennox for the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged. Four years later, he recorded his first full-fledged soul album since 1978 with the U.K.-only Don't Look Back. Al Green was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. That same year, he released Your Heart's in Good Hands, an urban contemporary record that represented his first secular album to be released in America since Truth and Time. Though the album received positive reviews, it failed to become a hit. Green did achieve widespread recognition eight years later with his first album for Blue Note, I Can't Stop. One and a half years later, he followed it with Everything's OK. His third Blue Note album, 2008's Lay It Down, featured an updated sound that still echoed the feel of his classic earlier soul style.

https://www.facebook.com/algreen


THE MUSIC OF AL GREEN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MR. GREEN:


http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/al-green/bio/

Inductee: Al Green (vocals, guitar; born April 13, 1946)
With his incomparable voice, full of falsetto swoops and nuanced turns of phrase, Al Green rose to prominence in the Seventies. One of the most gifted purveyors of soul music, Green has sold more than 20 million records. During 1972 and 1973, he placed six consecutive singles in the Top 10: “Let’s Stay Together,” “Look What You Done for Me,” “I’m Still in Love With You,” “You Ought to Be With Me,” “Call Me” and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).” “Let’s Stay Together” topped the pop chart for one week and the R&B charts for nine; it was also revived with great success by Tina Turner in 1984.  In terms of popularity and artistry, Green was the top male soul singer in the world, voluntarily ending his reign with a move from secular to gospel music in 1979.
Beyond his chart-making abilities, Green set a new standard for soul music and essentially created a new kind of soul – one that combined the gritty, down-home sensibility of the Memphis based Stax-Volt sound with the polished, sweeter delivery of Motown. Over a fat, funky bottom, Green’s subtle and inventive voice would soar into falsetto range with beguiling ease. His finest recordings showcase a penchant for jazzy filigree and soulful possession rivaled by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. They also are the products of teamwork, as Green benefited immensely from a longstanding association with producer Willie Mitchell and the house band at Hi Records.
Green was born on an Arkansas farm in 1946 and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He sang gospel with the Greene Brothers, a family quartet, and belonged to the Creations and the Soul Mates in the Sixties. In 1967, Al Green and the Soul Mates had a Number Five R&B hit with “Back Up Train.” In terms of influences, “I was raised on the sound of Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers,” Green has said. A fateful crossing of paths between Green and Willie Mitchell in Texas, where both were performing, resulted in Green’s signing to Memphis-based Hi Records in 1969. Mitchell produced Green’s recordings and co-wrote material with him for the next eight years. It was a fruitful association that yielded high-quality albums (such as I’m Still in Love With You and Call Me), as well as 13 Top 40 hits that helped keep the sound of soul pure and alive in the Seventies.
Mitchell cut Green’s groove-oriented records at his Royal Recording Studio, a converted movie theater in downtown Memphis. Essential components of Green and Mitchell’s mix of silky ballads and bouncy funk included the Hi Records studio band: guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, bassist Leroy Hodges, keyboardist Charles Hodges and drummer Howard Grimes. In addition, drummer Al Jackson (of Booker T. and the M.G.’s) co-wrote and played on many of Green’s biggest hits. Strings, horns and backup singers added to the intricate tapestry. But it was Green’s light, skillful touch as a vocalist that made it all work so well.
Green’s breakthrough came in 1971 with “Tired of Being Alone” (Number Seven R&B, Number 11 pop). A slew of hits followed, keeping Green in the Top 40 (and often the Top 10) through 1976. His consistent quality and flawless phrasing prompted music critic Robert Christgau to pronounce him among “the half dozen prime geniuses of soul.” His peak work as an R&B master is contained on a string of hit-filled albums released in the early Seventies: Al Green Gets Next to You (1971), I’m Still In Love With You (1972), Let’s Stay Together (1972), Call Me (1973) and Livin’ for You (1973).
With The Belle Album (1977), Green made an overt turn toward religious themes. The album was self-produced, as Mitchell amicably parted ways with Green over his turn to gospel. The 12th album of his career, it was “the most important release of my life,” according to Green in his autobiography, Take Me to the River. He elaborated: “God had called me to a higher place, turned me away from earthly to heavenly love, and while it hurt to say it, I had to leave the sensual for the spiritual.”
During the Eighties, Green recorded inspirational music for the Myrrh label while serving as pastor at a church he founded. The Nineties found him returning to his soul roots from time to time, yet to this day he remains primarily a singer and preacher of the gospel. On most Sundays, Green occupies the pulpit at Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on Hale Road in Memphis. The public is welcome to witness Green’s sermons, which are no less full of fire and feeling than the flood of singles that set the standard for soul in the Seventies.







- See more at: http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/al-green/bio/#sthash.e3sG4b32.dpuf
Inductee: Al Green (vocals, guitar; born April 13, 1946)
With his incomparable voice, full of falsetto swoops and nuanced turns of phrase, Al Green rose to prominence in the Seventies. One of the most gifted purveyors of soul music, Green has sold more than 20 million records. During 1972 and 1973, he placed six consecutive singles in the Top 10: “Let’s Stay Together,” “Look What You Done for Me,” “I’m Still in Love With You,” “You Ought to Be With Me,” “Call Me” and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).” “Let’s Stay Together” topped the pop chart for one week and the R&B charts for nine; it was also revived with great success by Tina Turner in 1984.  In terms of popularity and artistry, Green was the top male soul singer in the world, voluntarily ending his reign with a move from secular to gospel music in 1979.
Beyond his chart-making abilities, Green set a new standard for soul music and essentially created a new kind of soul – one that combined the gritty, down-home sensibility of the Memphis based Stax-Volt sound with the polished, sweeter delivery of Motown. Over a fat, funky bottom, Green’s subtle and inventive voice would soar into falsetto range with beguiling ease. His finest recordings showcase a penchant for jazzy filigree and soulful possession rivaled by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. They also are the products of teamwork, as Green benefited immensely from a longstanding association with producer Willie Mitchell and the house band at Hi Records.
Green was born on an Arkansas farm in 1946 and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He sang gospel with the Greene Brothers, a family quartet, and belonged to the Creations and the Soul Mates in the Sixties. In 1967, Al Green and the Soul Mates had a Number Five R&B hit with “Back Up Train.” In terms of influences, “I was raised on the sound of Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers,” Green has said. A fateful crossing of paths between Green and Willie Mitchell in Texas, where both were performing, resulted in Green’s signing to Memphis-based Hi Records in 1969. Mitchell produced Green’s recordings and co-wrote material with him for the next eight years. It was a fruitful association that yielded high-quality albums (such as I’m Still in Love With You and Call Me), as well as 13 Top 40 hits that helped keep the sound of soul pure and alive in the Seventies.
Mitchell cut Green’s groove-oriented records at his Royal Recording Studio, a converted movie theater in downtown Memphis. Essential components of Green and Mitchell’s mix of silky ballads and bouncy funk included the Hi Records studio band: guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, bassist Leroy Hodges, keyboardist Charles Hodges and drummer Howard Grimes. In addition, drummer Al Jackson (of Booker T. and the M.G.’s) co-wrote and played on many of Green’s biggest hits. Strings, horns and backup singers added to the intricate tapestry. But it was Green’s light, skillful touch as a vocalist that made it all work so well.
Green’s breakthrough came in 1971 with “Tired of Being Alone” (Number Seven R&B, Number 11 pop). A slew of hits followed, keeping Green in the Top 40 (and often the Top 10) through 1976. His consistent quality and flawless phrasing prompted music critic Robert Christgau to pronounce him among “the half dozen prime geniuses of soul.” His peak work as an R&B master is contained on a string of hit-filled albums released in the early Seventies: Al Green Gets Next to You (1971), I’m Still In Love With You (1972), Let’s Stay Together (1972), Call Me (1973) and Livin’ for You (1973).
With The Belle Album (1977), Green made an overt turn toward religious themes. The album was self-produced, as Mitchell amicably parted ways with Green over his turn to gospel. The 12th album of his career, it was “the most important release of my life,” according to Green in his autobiography, Take Me to the River. He elaborated: “God had called me to a higher place, turned me away from earthly to heavenly love, and while it hurt to say it, I had to leave the sensual for the spiritual.”
During the Eighties, Green recorded inspirational music for the Myrrh label while serving as pastor at a church he founded. The Nineties found him returning to his soul roots from time to time, yet to this day he remains primarily a singer and preacher of the gospel. On most Sundays, Green occupies the pulpit at Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on Hale Road in Memphis. The public is welcome to witness Green’s sermons, which are no less full of fire and feeling than the flood of singles that set the standard for soul in the Seventies.







- See more at: http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/al-green/bio/#sthash.e3sG4b32.dpuf

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/al-green-on-career-success-and-new-album/








Al Green on his awards, hits and ministry

This piece originally aired on December 12, 2014.

The Kennedy Center Honorees represent the best in American arts and culture. But this year, the most soulful of them all is the legendary Al Green, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

At 68 years old, his voice still seduces and he said there's nothing to keeping it sounding as good as it is.

"Some people's voice change as they get older or different ages. But mine is still about the same," Green said. "I can hit higher notes now. Only thing you gotta do is step on my foot," he said laughing.

One of the great soul singers of his time, the Reverend Al Green's career has taken him from gospel to R&B and back, winning him the 11 Grammy awards that decorate his church office in Memphis.

The son of an Arkansas sharecropper, Green grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and said he pretty much always knew he wanted to be a singer.

After his father kicked him out of the house for playing Jackie Wilson records, he formed a group. Al Green & the Soul Mates had a modest hit with "Back up Train" in 1968. Then Green's voice caught the ear of producer Willie Mitchell.

"So Willie said, 'I wonder if you can come down and look at the studio?' I said, 'No.' So I went back to Grand Rapids," Green said.

There was a reason he didn't go.

"Cause I didn't know what he wanted. And I didn't see the vision that he saw," Green said. "He discovered Al Green. I didn't. I was tryin' to sing like Wilson Pickett and James Brown and all these other folks. You know, they were great people to me. Not Al Green. I mean Al Green, who's Al Green? Come on now."

But he changed his mind and went down to Royal Studios in Memphis, where Mitchell would push his protégé.

"And then he goes, 'Al.' I said, 'Yeah?' 'You're tryin' too hard. Relax and sing Al Green.' And I said, 'You see, I don't know how Al Green sounds,'" he recalled. "I said, 'Okay, now what do you want me to sing? I'm not even gonna try to put no emphasis in it at all.' He said, 'Well, okay.'"

It was 1970 and the next four years would be Al Green's golden era. He and Mitchell would score eight gold singles. You could say he had it all.

"But I wouldn't accept that. I don't want it all, 'cause that scares me," Green said. "Well, I don't wanna feel accomplished, like I've accomplished everything and so I don't have nothin' to worry about. You know, you gotta stay hungry all the time."

At the peak of his success, after a concert in Disneyland in 1973, Green had a dream and woke up born-again.

"I was scared to ask why it happened then that night. 'Cause I don't want nothin' to change. I said, 'Whatever your will is for me, I'll accept it,'" he said.

So for nearly 38 years now, the Baptist bishop has been preaching to his Memphis congregation at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church.

But he never gave up recording, and after eight gospel Grammys, he finally won his first for R&B in 2009. That year he also filled in at the last minute with Justin Timberlake after Rihanna and Chris Brown cancelled.

"Me and Justin did 'Let's Stay Together.' And we saved the world! Not really, but you know, we like to kinda fluff on it and think that we did help out a little bit," he said.
Green said he's working on more music, a gospel album. After that, the Reverend Al Green wants to go back to the American songbook.

http://www.npr.org/artists/14947959/al-green


Al Green










https://www.facebook.com/algreen

Al Green Greatest Hits (Full Album) - The Best Of Al Green"




"Take Me to the River" - Al Green-1999:


 

AL GREEN--"A CHANGE IS GONNA COME"

From the live concert UNITED WE STAND, 1999




Al Green - "Love and Happiness" - Live Performance Video (High Quality)--Performed live on the legendary music program "Soul Train" in 1973:


Al Green-The 37th Annual Kennedy Center Honors (2014):


http://museumofuncutfunk.com/2011/01/04/the-funk-n-soul-of-al-green-the-al-green-interview/

The FUNK n’ Soul of Al Green – The Al Green Interview



I actually had the fortune to have met Al Green, the first time I interviewed him. As it was in the latter 90s when I conducted it, the living legend was already extremely accomplished by that time. He reflected on his beginnings in music and spoke of his early days in the studio with Willie Mitchell.





 
He talked to me about the inspirations for many of his hits and his spiritual journey of being born again and becoming a minister. A modest man, he bears no responsibility for anyone who claims to be conceived from his music, but recounts once meeting a stewardess who made such a claim.


 
The photo below was taken when I first met Al Green, I speak of that meeting at the top of the interview. When he saw me, he thought I may have interviewed him before, I looked familiar to him.


 
Al Green continues to record music today and has been the recipient for Grammy Awards as recently as 2009. He took home honors for BEST R & B PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP WITH VOCALS
 for “Stay With Me (By The Sea),”
 which featured John Legend; AND BEST TRADITIONAL R&B VOCAL PERFORMANCE for “You’ve Got The Love I Need,” that features Anthony Hamilton. Both songs were taken from his CD “Lay It Down.”



Peace and Love
c-dub



Al Green


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Al Green
Al Green.jpg
Green in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort, Santa Ynez, California, July 2006.
Background information
Birth name Albert Greene
Also known as The Reverend Al Green
Born April 13, 1946 (age 69) Forrest City, Arkansas, U.S.
Genres R&B, soul, smooth soul, blues, gospel
Occupation(s) Pastor, vocalist, producer, songwriter
Instruments Vocals, guitar
Years active 1967–present
Labels Hi, Myrrh, The Right Stuff, Fat Possum Records
Associated acts The Creations, Willie Mitchell, Quiet Elegance

Albert "Al" Greene (born April 13, 1946), often known as The Reverend Al Green, is an American singer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including "Tired of Being Alone", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness" and his signature song, "Let's Stay Together".[1] Inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Green was referred to on the museum's site as being "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music".[1] He has also been referred to as "The Last of the Great Soul Singers".[2][3] Green was included in the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, ranking at No. 66.[4]

Contents

Life and career

Early life

Al Green was born Albert Greene on April 13, 1946 in Forrest City, Arkansas.[5] The sixth of ten children born to Cora Lee and Robert G. Greene, Jr., a sharecropper, Al began performing with his brothers in a group called the Greene Brothers around the age of ten. The Greene family relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan in the late 1950s.[6] Raised in a religiously devout family, Al was kicked out of the family home in his teens after his father caught him listening to Jackie Wilson.[7]

"I also listened to Mahalia Jackson, all the great gospel singers. But the most important music to me was those hip-shakin’ boys: Wilson Pickett and Elvis Presley. I just loved Elvis Presley. Whatever he got, I went out and bought."

In high school, Al formed a vocal group called Al Greene & The Creations. Two of the group's members, Curtis Rodgers and Palmer James, formed an independent label called Hot Line Music Journal. In 1968, having changed their name to Al Greene & The Soul Mates, they recorded the song "Back Up Train", releasing it on Hot Line Music. The song became a chart hit on the R&B charts. However, the group's subsequent follow-ups failed to chart, as did their debut album, Back Up Train. While performing with the Soul Mates, Al came into contact with Memphis record producer Willie Mitchell in 1969 when Mitchell hired him to be a vocalist for a Texas show with Mitchell's band. Following the performance, Mitchell asked Al to sign for his Hi Records label.

Early success

Having noted that Al had been trying to sing like Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and James Brown, Mitchell became his vocal mentor, coaching him into finding his own voice. Before releasing his first album with Hi, Green removed the final "e" from his name. Subsequently, Green released Green Is Blues, which became a moderate success. Green's follow-up album, Al Green Gets Next to You, featured Green's hit R&B cover of The Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You", recorded in a slow blues-oriented version. The album also featured his first significant hit, "Tired of Being Alone", which sold half a million copies and was certified gold, becoming the first of seven consecutive gold singles Green would record in the next couple of years.
Green's next album, Let's Stay Together, solidified Green's place in soul music with the title track becoming his biggest hit to date, reaching number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts. The album became his first to be certified gold. His follow-up, I'm Still in Love with You went platinum with the help of the singles, "Look What You Done for Me" and the title track, both of which went top ten on the Hot 100. His next album, 1973's Call Me spawned three top ten singles including "You Ought to Be with Me", "Call Me (Come Back Home)" and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)". Green's album, Livin' for You, released at the tail-end of 1973, became his last album to be certified gold.
In addition to these hit singles, Green also had radio hits with songs such as "Love and Happiness", his cover of the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", "Simply Beautiful", "What a Wonderful Thing Love Is" and "Take Me to the River", later covered successfully by new wave band Talking Heads and blues artist Syl Johnson. Green continued to record successful R&B hits in the next several years including "Livin' for You", "Let's Get Married", "Sha-La-La (Makes Me Happy)", "L-O-V-E (Love)" and "Full of Fire". By the time Green released the album, The Belle Album in 1977, however, Green's record sales had plummeted, partially due to Green's own personal issues during this time and his desire to become a minister.[8] His last Hi Records album, Truth n' Time, was released in 1978 and failed to become a success. Two years later, he left Hi for Myrrh Records and recorded only gospel music for the next decade and a half.

Gospel recordings and return to secular music

Green's first gospel album, The Lord Will Make a Way, was released in 1980. The title song from the album would later win Green his first of eight Grammy Awards in the Best Soul Gospel Performance category. In 1982, Green co-starred with Patti LaBelle on the Broadway play, "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God".[9] His 1985 gospel album, He Is the Light reunited Green with Willie Mitchell while his 1987 follow-up, Soul Survivor, featured the minor hit, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", which reached number 22 on the R&B chart, his first top 40 R&B hit since "I Feel Good" in 1978.

Green returned to secular music in 1988 recording "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" with Annie Lennox. Featured on the soundtrack to the movie, Scrooged, the song became Green's first top 10 pop hit since 1974. Green had a hit in 1989 with "The Message is Love" with producer Arthur Baker. Two years later, he recorded the theme song to the short-lived show Good Sports.[10] In 1993, he signed with RCA and with Baker again as producer, released the album, Don't Look Back. Green received his ninth Grammy award for his collaboration with Lyle Lovett for their duet of "Funny How Time Slips Away". Green's 1995 album, Your Heart's In Good Hands, was released around the same period when Green was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[11] The one single released from the album, "Keep On Pushing Love" was described as "invoking the original, sparse sound of his [Green's] early classics."[12]

In 2000, Green released his autobiography, Take Me to the River. Two years later, he earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and recorded a hit R&B duet with Ann Nesby on the song, "Put It On Paper". In 2003, Green again reunited with Willie Mitchell on the album, I Can't Stop. A year later, Green re-recorded his previous song, "Simply Beautiful", with Queen Latifah on the latter's album, The Dana Owens Album. In 2005, Green and Mitchell collaborated on Everything's OK. His 2008 album, Lay It Down was produced by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and James Poyser.[13] It became his first album to reach the top ten since the early 1970s. The album featured a minor R&B hit with the ballad, "Stay with Me (By the Sea)" featuring John Legend and also featured duets with Anthony Hamilton and Corinne Bailey Rae.[14] During an interview for promotion of the album, Green admitted that he would have liked to duet with Marvin Gaye: "In those days, people didn't sing together like they do now," he said.[15] In 2009, Green recorded "People Get Ready" with Heather Headley on the album, Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.[16] In 2010, Green performed "Let's Stay Together" on Later... with Jools Holland.

Personal life

Death of Mary Woodson White

On October 18, 1974, sometime after Al Green Explores Your Mind was released, Mary Woodson White, a girlfriend of Green's, assaulted him before committing suicide at his Memphis home.[10] Although she was already married, White reportedly became upset when Green refused to marry her.[17] At some point during the evening, White doused Green with a pan of boiling grits while he was bathing, causing severe burns on Green's back, stomach and arms.[18] She then found his .38 and killed herself. The police found in her purse a note declaring her intentions and her reasons.

Turn to the ministry

Green cited the incident with White as a wake-up call to change his life.[10] He became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976.[19] Continuing to record R&B, Green saw his sales start to slip and drew mixed reviews from critics. In 1979 Green injured himself falling off the stage while performing in Cincinnati and interpreted this as a message from God. He then concentrated his energies towards pastoring his church and gospel singing. His first gospel album was The Lord Will Make a Way. From 1981 to 1989 Green recorded a series of gospel albums, garnering eight "soul gospel performance" Grammy Awards in that period. In 1985, he reunited with Willie Mitchell along with Angelo Earl for He Is the Light, his first album for A&M Records. In 1984, director Robert Mugge released a documentary film, Gospel According to Al Green, including interviews about his life and footage from his church.[20]

Green preaches in Memphis, Tennessee[19] near Graceland.[21]

Marriage to Shirley Kyles

In June 1977, Green married Shirley Kyles.[22] They had three daughters together, Alva, Rubi and Kora.[22] The marriage lasted until January 1983. Shirley would later allege that Green had been subjecting her to domestic violence throughout their marriage.[22]

Discography

Main article: Al Green discography

Books

  • Green, A. with Seay, D. (2009), Take Me to the River, Chicago Review Press, ISBN 978-1556528101

Awards and honors

Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2004, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame. That same year, he was inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame.[23] Also in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 65 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[4] He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 BET Awards on June 24, 2009 .[24]

On August 26, 2004, Green was honored as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI Urban Awards. He joined an impressive list of previous Icon honorees including R&B legends James Brown, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley[25]
Green was recognized on December 7, 2014, as a Kennedy Center Honors recipient.[citation needed]

See also

References














  • "Al Green". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

















  • Zak Smith (2014-01-22). "The 10 Greatest Al Green Songs". TheCelebrityCafe.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
















  • All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R&B and Soul - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.

















  • Justin Timberlake. "The Immortals - The Greatest Artists of All Time: 65) Al Green". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.

















  • "Al Green: Biography". Archived from the original on 12 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-27.

















  • Darden, Robert; Darden, Bob (2005). People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 296. ISBN 0-8264-1752-3.

















  • Booth, Stanley (2000). Rhythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South. Da Capo Press. p. 150. ISBN 0-306-80979-6.

















  • Strong, Martin C.; Peel, John (2004). The Great Rock Discography: Complete Discographies Listing Every Track Recorded by More Than 1,200 Artists. Canongate U.S. p. 628. ISBN 1-84195-615-5.

















  • "Your Arms Too Short to Box With God: A Soaring Celebration in Song and Dance". ibdb.com. Retrieved 2008-08-07.

















  • ""Sports" Report". Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker. 1991-01-25.

















  • Van Til, Reinder; Olson, Gordon (2007). Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 225–226. ISBN 0-8028-2478-1.

















  • "Al Green - Your Heart's In Good Hands CD Album". Cduniverse.com. 1995-11-07. Retrieved 2014-04-18.



















  • Cohen, Jonathan (2006-12-14). "The Roots Plot Tour, ?uestlove Reworks Pharrell". Billboard.


















  • Jurek, Thom. "Lay It Down: Album Review". billboard.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-31. Retrieved 2008-08-07.



















  • "News". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2011-11-06.


















  • "Jon Bon Jovi, Queen Latifah go gospel for "Day"". Reuters. March 27, 2009.

















  • Kim, Alice (2002-05-17). "Al Green loves and cherishes the booty". The Stanford Daily. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2008-08-07.


















  • Sullivan, James (2008-02-22). "Twisted Tales: Al Green Finds Salvation, Served Scalding Hot". spinner.com. Retrieved 2008-08-07.


















  • "TripAdvisor: Full Gospel Tabernacle Church - Memphis, TN".



















  • "Al Green (1946–)". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Retrieved 2008-08-07.



















  • "Pure Agony: Al Green Scalded by Hot Grits 40 Years Ago". Retrieved November 9, 2014.























  • "Silent No Longer". Chicago Tribune. March 1, 1995. Retrieved May 25, 2013.


















  • "Al Green Exhibit Home". Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2014-04-18.



















  • "Al Green to scoop lifetime gong". BBC News (BBC). 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2010-01-01.



















    1. "BMI Celebrates Urban Music at 2004 Awards with Top Writers, Producers, Publishers". bmi.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-13.

    Further reading

    External links