Soulville

Seeing it was my birthday recently I decided to review my collection of  Soul cds which go back a good number of years I started from the end of  tape and record era in my music buying and filling in a few gaps.

You have to remember I was around in the clunky fade up and down era of 8 tracks tapes in the car and home plus FM stereo stations in the metro districts that influenced my tastes to the point the first records and the later cds reflected my likes so for instance take the first artist, Mr Wilson Pickett was better to known to me for his 70's songs like Soft Soul Boogie Man which I have on the "Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It" compilation cd and compilation 8 tracks of that Soul Train era than his 60's material I had as a child!

So I was lacking a cd of his bigger 60's hits like Mustang Sally so I bought the "A man and a half" 2 cd set of those 60's hits most on this disc also are the mono hit versions rather than wonky stereo remakes on the current individual albums.

On the other hand I did get in the early 90's a 20 track mainly stereo compilation of Otis Redding including I Can't Turn You Loose, Tramp, Try A Little Tenderness and (Sittin' on) The Dock Of The Bay but wanted the original albums in their mono versions so bought this box set of the five that came out before his death after his appearance at the  Monterey festival in December 1967.

It brings together the albums remastered as the separate mid 90's Rhino remasters series in a box with card lp covers.

The music of Sam Cooke was something I heard quite a bit of on the radio being championed by Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones and this set covering his solo work taking in Twisting The Night Away, Shake, A Change Is Gonna Come and Cupid originally issued in 2003 by Abkco is the best sounding bettering 1987's The Man His Music issued on RCA which for a long time the default cd compilation of choice.

This one's where the Soulville entry title came from as that track recorded for Columbia in the 60's is one that closed out the 8 track of "Black Explosion" with soul hits from the late 60's and early 70's I played rather a lot and got a cd with her Columbia recordings like Soulville early on in the cd era.

I had picked up the UK Global 2 cd "Greatest Hits" set in the late 90's for her Atlantic material and later Arista recordings but the tracks switch era rather glaring across the discs for me so I got this newly re-issued and recompiled Queen of Soul 4 cd box  set which just focus's on the 1967-1976 Atlantic era running in chronological order thru such songs as Respect, Call Me, I say a Little Prayer and so on with the earlier recordings in their mono original form.

To take in that later era covering songs like Jump To It, Who's Zoomin' Who and I Knew You Were Waiting I got cheaply the 1980-1994 Greatest Hits single cd.

Much more straightforward.

Ray Charles: I managed to track down the two specialty DCC His Greatest Hits cds cheaply for songs like Hit The Road Jack from the period he recorded for ABC-Paramount which took in the ground breaking Modern Sounds in Country and Western album. 

The mastering legend that is Steve Hoffman redid this a few years later with a slightly different selection using a tubed tape machine  and issued on Gold but this one done with solid state machine onto aluminum in 1987 is still really good sounding and cheap to buy used!