The BG News

What’s Goin’ On? 70s Soul Essentials

By Chelci Howard on January 24th, 2007

I am currently writing an article for the Pulse that will appear in this Friday’s paper that discusses how many people in our cohort do not know of James Brown or the impact he had in the musical world. Out of 50 people I randomly surveyed, only 2 people could name at least one song the man sang and why he was influential to music. One person even asked me if I meant Chris Brown and then proceeded to sing “Run It,” exclaiming that the song was amazing. 

This is more than concerning, it’s disheartening. Have we as a cohort accepted the over commercialized form of “music” that plagues the top 40 radio stations? Music is more than catchy or fun. It can be argued that music is more important than history books. Books give you the events; music gives you how the people of the time felt about the situation and practically tells you the popular culture of the time. The late James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul,” “The hardest working man in show business,” did just that.  

Recently, I got into a discussion with the Assistant Pulse Editor, Johnny Payne, about the top five albums that everyone in the world should own. This became a painstaking process, so I narrowed it down to one album from 5 of the biggest genres; I hate using that word, but it is a must sometimes. It came down to country, pop, rock, rap and alternative. 

After two hours of more discussion that became a spinning wheel of blood, sweat and tears, we couldn’t really come to a conclusion of one album for each category. It would have to be a mixed CD of 15 of the best songs from each genre and perhaps each decade which was way too tedious.    In my opinion, no one should be roaming the free earth without a soul album from the 1970s. This was a time during which songs were incredibly socially conscious, but also the artists of the 1970s could do a bang up job on a love song, sometimes referred to as “panty droppers.”  My ideal 70s soul album, in no particular order, goes as follows:   

1. “In the Rain” by The Dramatics 
2. “Me and Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul 
3. “Song For You” by Donny Hathaway 
4. “Kiss and Say Goodbye” by The Manhattans 
5. “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green 
6. “Turn Off The Lights” by Teddy Pendergrass 
7. “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes 
8. “Just My Imagination” by The Temptations 
9. “If I Were Your Woman” By Gladys Knight and the Pips 
10. “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love Baby” by Barry White 
11. “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder 
12. “Have You Seen Her” by The Chi-Lites 
13. “Could it Be I’m Falling in Love” by The Spinners 
14. “Always and Forever” by Heatwave 
15. “Bernadette” by the Four Tops 

Honorable mention goes out to the Delfonics, Rufus& Chaka Kahn, The Main Ingredient, Johnnie Taylor and Bill Withers.  During the 1970s, James Brown was leaning more towards the funk side of music, for example “Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine.” He laid the foundation of soul in the 1960s, but went on to create platforms for hip hop and funk in the later years, hence why he is not listed. 

Disagree? Go ahead and fire back. But remember, there is a distinct line between soul and funk.          

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 6:05 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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