There was another excellent Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll piece from Laura Barton in the Guardian on Friday, this time on the Gospel roots of Soul music.
She notes the fact that soul stars such as Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Percy Sledge, Al Green, James Brown, Little Richard, among others, were "raised in the black church [and] weaned on gospel music." As a result, "it was inevitable that something of that upbringing would find its way into these artists' secular work."
In this article, the something on which Barton focusses is, "the delivery, the oratory, the rhythm and drama of the Sunday sermon." The sermon style of the African-American church, "brings a rhythm that is not so much a meter as a pulse, a sermon that seems not just words on a page but a living, breathing creation."
Otis Redding's version of 'Try A Little Tenderness' is the song which prompted her reflections featuring, as it does, the "funky, secular testifying" of Redding's work in general plus the pulse and presence of a song which "is not so much sung as preached."
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Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness.
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