At 08:44 AM 10/26/99 -0400, Davy Love wrote:
>Paul Secular wrote:
>
>> I've never quite understood how you can have a 'soul instrumental'...
>> I'm sure I've heard the term though..... doesn't the 'soul' refer to the
>> singing first and foremost?!
>>
>> Wouldn't an instrumental just be 'jazz' or 'blues' or something?
>
>You snivelling streak of paralysed piss... OF COURSE YOU CAN HAVE INSTRUMENTAL
>SOUL!What do you call Green Onions... or Mo' Onions for that matter
>Paul...???? Reggae?? Prog Rock...??
I...must...agree...with... Oh, hell, I just can't say it. However, it seems
intuitively obvious that a song without vocals can still be soulful. Booker
T.'s catalogue has been mentioned by several people on the list
already--Paul, haven't you gotten that tape with "Green Onions" on it yet?
R. Scott also mentioned Cliff Nobles's "The Horse," which brings me to
another important point. Many soul instrumentals are just soul songs with
the vocals removed (flip over Nobles's easy to find 45 to hear what I'm
talking about). The Northern scene is full of rare instrumental tracks that
are simply the backing track to a soul song. My favorite at the moment is
the well-comp'ed "Double Cookin'," by the Checkerboard Squares--although
I'm afraid I forgot what song it's the backing to. Dee Dee Sharpe's "Let's
Twine," on the other hand, sounds like her singing along to a slower
version of "Twine Time" by Alvin Cash and the Crawlers.
There is a long list of easy to find soul instrumentals, but since you
can't be bothered to buy vinyl, I'll condescendingly suggest a very easy to
find Rhino CD compilation--Rock Instrumental Classics: Volume 4, Soul. I
don't own this one myself, so I can't vouch for the recording quality, but
I have almost all of the songs, and some are definitely must-haves.
>Instrumental Soul is nothing like "JAZZ" man... "JAZZ" is the sound of two or
>three cats in a bag fighting over a lone tender vittle...
Ironically, there's actually a lot of songs that blur the line between
"instrumental soul" and "jazz." Cal Tjader's "Soul Sauce" found it's way
into northern venues (supposedly--I wasn't there, after all), and at least
one northern soul compilation--and Billy Preston seems happy straddling the
line. Plenty of jazz, especially of the "Hammond" and/or "dance floor"
varieties (though I'm no expert), is damn' soulful, and I would be more
than happy to hear jazz and soul played together while on a dance floor.
Davy, I'm sure you've heard "The Cat" by Jimmy Smith--do you really think
it sounds like one was used during the song's recording?
-Eamon C.
