timeless
Brother Joe May (1912-1972) and Jackie (AKA Jacqui) Verdell (1937-1991), “You’re Gonna Need Him After a While,” live (TV broadcast), 1963
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
A still – Volcano – Life –
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), from 517 (Franklin)
One of my favorite live gospel recordings.
Brother Joe May (joined by members of the Sallie Martin Singers), “Move On Up A Little Higher,” live, early 1950s
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lagniappe
radio
Today, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., WKCR-FM (Columbia University), continuing its Bach Festival, features cellist Pablo Casals.
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reading table
Poverty kept me from thinking all was well under the sun and in history; the sun taught me that history is not everything.
—Albert Camus (translated from French by Ellen Conroy Kennedy)
three takes
“Move On Up A Little Higher” (W. Herbert Brewster)
Mahalia Jackson, radio broadcast, early 1950s
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Brother Joe May, live, early 1950s
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Rev. Timothy Flemming Sr., live, Atlanta, 1976
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (with my son Alex)
Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee, In the Street (1948), featured in the exhibit Film and Photo in New York (through 11/25/12)
(For better quality go to the “Settings” icon [lower right] and select 480p.)
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random thoughts
Sixty years ago today Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States and, closer to home, my parents’ second son was born. What’s it like turning sixty? Surprising. But no more surprising, I suppose, than finding oneself entwined, in perpetuity, with Ike.
going back home
Davis Sisters, “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home”
TV Gospel Time (introduced by Brother Joe May), early 1960s
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lagniappe
Here’s a secular take.
John Lee Hooker, “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home” (That’s My Story: John Lee Hooker Sings The Blues, 1960)
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reading table
Home is never what you think it is.
Meaning lies in meaning’s absence. The mist
Is always just about to lift.—J. Allyn Rosser, “Sugar Dada” (excerpt)
favorites
(an occasional series)
Few performances, in any genre, pack this much punch.
Brother Joe May & Jackie [AKA Jacqui] Verdell, “You’re Gonna Need Him After A While,” live (TV broadcast)
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lagniappe
[Brother Joe May was] the most powerful male soloist in a day when gospel singers had the greatest voices in America.
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. . . Aretha Franklin’s delivery has Jacqui [Verdell] stamped all over it . . .
—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (1975 ed.)
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I considered . . . Jackie Verdell . . . one of the best and most underrrated soul singers of all time. It was through Jackie that I learned the expression, ‘Girl, you peed tonight,’ meaning you were dynamite. Several nights Jackie sang so hard she literally had a spot or two on her robe from peeing. Singing far too hard, I also peed here and there in the early days; I quickly realized no one should sing that hard.
—Aretha Franklin (in Aretha Franklin & David Ritz, Aretha: From These Roots [1999])
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This clip, I just learned, is included in a recent Sam & Dave DVD, The Original Soul Men, in a part called “The Roots of Sam & Dave.” (As one review notes: “Sam Moore was supposed to be Sam Cooke’s replacement in the Soul Stirrers, after Cooke made his historic decision to pursue pop music. But then Moore saw Jackie Wilson, and everything changed.”)
(Originally posted 11/29/09.)
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taking a break
I’m going to take a little break—back in a bit.
Few performances, in any genre, pack this much punch.
Brother Joe May & Jackie [AKA Jacqui] Verdell, “You’re Gonna Need Him After A While,” live (TV broadcast)
**********
lagniappe
[Brother Joe May was] the most powerful male soloist in a day when gospel singers had the greatest voices in America.
***
. . . Aretha Franklin’s delivery has Jacqui [Verdell] stamped all over it . . .
—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (1975 ed.)
*****
I considered . . . Jackie Verdell . . . one of the best and most underrrated soul singers of all time. It was through Jackie that I learned the expression, ‘Girl, you peed tonight,’ meaning you were dynamite. Several nights Jackie sang so hard she literally had a spot or two on her robe from peeing. Singing far too hard, I also peed here and there in the early days; I quickly realized no one should sing that hard.—Aretha Franklin (in Aretha Franklin & David Ritz, Aretha: From These Roots [1999])
*****
This clip, I just learned, is included in a recent Sam & Dave DVD, The Original Soul Men, in a part called “The Roots of Sam & Dave.” (As one review notes: “Sam Moore was supposed to be Sam Cooke’s replacement in the Soul Stirrers, after Cooke made his historic decision to pursue pop music. But then Moore saw Jackie Wilson, and everything changed.”)
music clip of the day 