It's a Soul Thang

Nice to see all this "soul searchin" going on!!

I am ashamed of myself for forgetting some of the ones mentioned - I can still remember exactly where I was when I first heard "La La La Means I Love You" by the Delfonics and "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells. If you like soul, ya gotta love "Ooh Ooh Child" by the Five Stairsteps and the early Spinners and Stylistics stuff. "Wake Up Everybody" by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes did get overplayed but it's a great song.

I do admit though that I like to crossover into the funky soul stuff a lot. If you do like Tower of Power, their "Back To Oakland" LP is as good as it gets! "Bump City" the self titled LP and "Urban Renewal" are also top notch!!

Gee, there is so much I am forgetting I think I'll go change my Depends now and take my Metamucil!!!

Donny Hathaway and Minnie Ripperton are two that haven't come up yet. To push the envelope a little, check out Gil Scott-Heron.

In my opinion, female vocalists have been given a raw deal by record companies.

The quality and quantity of their work in the soul arena is sparse as far as albums are concerned. Singles are a different matter.

The short required list of albums follows:

Aretha Franklin- I Never Loved A Man the Way I love You.

Gladys Knight and the Pips- If I Were Your Woman.

Diana Ross- Touch Me in The Morning.

While not recorded in the day, Sade's "Promise" touches me.

I grew up listening soul and funk and for many years I looked for more obscure artists. In doing so I found I actually ignored or dismissed stuff because I thought it was too obvious or mainstream. I recently started re-listening to Stevie Wonder during his early 70s peak - starting with Music of My Mind and ending with Songs in the Key of Life (although some say that Where I'm Coming From should also be included.) To call this genius is an understatement - almost every song on every one of these albums (Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale are the others) are amazing and the best of of what soul has to offer imho. Same goes for Curtis Mayfield, Aretha and Marvin Gaye.

However if you're looking for inspiration, Solar Radio published a top 1000 of the century which I think is reprinted here: http://www.geocities.com/jahsonic/Top1000.html

in alphabetical rather than rank order.

this thread made me think about all those great old albums you forget about, for me it seems I'm always chasing another 'new' find. 'Superfly', Curtis Mayfield is going on next.