...I'll continue my Black History Month foray into our collective sonic past and point a finger at the original Blues Brothers who older heads and audiophiles know as Sam & Dave...In the early days Sam Moore sang in various gospel and vocal groups in the Miami area. The most significant of the lot were the Melionaires, with whom he hit the road. As the group began to make a name for themselves, they got the opportunity to open for the popular gospel group the Soul Stirrers, which included singer Sam Cooke in its lineup. Cooke soon departed to pursue what would become a successful solo career in R&B and pop. Moore was offered Cooke's position in the Stirrers but opted not to take the job. Instead he, too, set his sights on performing in the secular vein, leading to a job singing and hosting the floor show at a Florida nightclub called the King of Hearts. There he joined Prater for an impromptu performance, and the duo Sam & Dave was born...When Sam & Dave were signed to Stax in 1965, they were the proverbial new kids on the block and were treated as such. Eventually the staff composers—among them were the songwriting team of Dave Porter and Isaac Hayes who began to warm to the singers (Porter penned their first Stax recording). As the new act began to cut singles with Booker T. & The MGs (the house band), they refined the brass-heavy call-and-response formula that became their calling card--the latter is clearly exemplified on S&D cuts like "Soul Man" (in the original recording when Moore yells "play it Steve!" he's talking to Steve Cropper, the white guitarist and member of MGs who backed the duo in the recording booth...check the video...As with many black artists of their day, the talents of Sam & Dave were unknown to white audiences due to segregation laws that constrained the R&B sound to venues on the now-defunct "chitlin' circuit" (a string of nightclubs and concert halls that permitted blacks entry). These clubs spanned from the Deep South and into the north past the Mason-Dixon line. In addition to Sam & Dave, many preeminent R&B artists, such as James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding (to name a few), started on the same scene. Labels including Motown, Stax, Chess, and Atlantic helped introduce this music to pop (white, mainstream) audiences of the day, broadening the musical palette of the record-buying public as a whole...Years before they joined forces on that fateful night at the King of Hearts nightclub, Sam Moore and Dave Prater had met at a church function...Moore and Prater's blend of church and soul was cutting edge musicianship (at the time) that shot their act onto the R&B A list. Their infectious, sweat-drenched live workouts and tight backing bands became a key element to the soul brother personae created on acetate and was later revisited on the big screen when John Belushi and Dan Akyroyd created the Blues Brothers...the number of soul artists who have helped refine the great American songbook are legion and it makes me shudder to think what our tunes would sound like had they acquiesced to spirit-crushing racial pressures of their time and never tried to get their sounds out there to the public......You might've heard of 'em but don't have any of their tunes just yet and if such is the case, your best bet would be Rhino's "*Best Of*":http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=71871 which holds all of the tunes discussed here as well as "Wrap It Up" (the Fabulous Thunderbirds covered this in the 80s), "Hold On, I'm Comin'", "When Something is Wrong with My Baby" and the Sam Cooke cover "Soothe Me"...it's all good and for that, Sam Moore and Dave Prater, I thank you...
Hattie says
Great post. Isn’t it ironic how they were introduced as the "rock and rolling Sam & Dave," but nowadays, few people associate black artists with Rock & Roll? Music from the '50s, '60s, and '70s has been categorized as any and everything other _than_ Rock & Roll, including soul, R&B, and Motown. Meanwhile the genre of Rock & Roll has become the epitome of music.
CrashPryor says
Micki, you're in store for some great stuff...Nixne, yeah, it's cool to blow up with a hit or two but the long view of time lets you know what really stands up...whatever happened to Pat Boone?...Hatshepsut, I don't think irony's the word I'd use but I think I get what you're driving at, in my mind's eye only the lazy (of any race) rest on that old failsafe that blues, R&B, gospel, funk, Rock and even rap don't come from the same creative womb..."*I've said as much elsewhere*":http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2005/03/run-dmc-or-beatles.html and though I love it, I don't think any one genre could epitomize music as a whole for me...
mickimicki says
... I just remember that a friend of a friend's dad saw them play in London some time in the 60's (no chitlin circuit there)... he's a musician (the dad) and he says it was the hottest thing he'd ever seen and that in his opinion, they could take on James Brown any day of the week. When I looked at the video - it's just a studio thing, but I thought, positive not pompous. Amazing.
Jonh Ingham says
Great post. You reminded me of hearing 'Hold On I'm Coming' for the first time. I was driving to college and it came on the car radio. In about 8 bars I had it so loud the speaker was vibrating and I drove right past school and kept going until it ended.
You write of club segregation, but on radio - at least on the West Coast - it was all mixed up. I would hear James, Ray Charles, Sam & Dave, Otis, Tempts, all mixed in with Steppenwolf, Rascals, Lovin' Spoonful, Beatles, Stones and so on. Although the dj would call it soul music it was all treated as one big pot of great music. Maybe I was too young and naive.
Mike the Knife says
Crash, these guys were my all-high, most-revered R&B singers ever. And you rustled up my favorite of their songs live on Sullivan! Great arrangement. (I miss those Rocksichord keyboard fills from the studio recording, but the organ was smokin'.)
...I'll continue my Black History Month foray into our collective sonic past and point a finger at the original Blues Brothers who older heads and audiophiles know as Sam & Dave...In the early days Sam Moore sang in various gospel and vocal groups in the Miami area. The most significant of the lot were the Melionaires, with whom he hit the road. As the group began to make a name for themselves, they got the opportunity to open for the popular gospel group the Soul Stirrers, which included singer Sam Cooke in its lineup. Cooke soon departed to pursue what would become a successful solo career in R&B and pop. Moore was offered Cooke's position in the Stirrers but opted not to take the job. Instead he, too, set his sights on performing in the secular vein, leading to a job singing and hosting the floor show at a Florida nightclub called the King of Hearts. There he joined Prater for an impromptu performance, and the duo Sam & Dave was born...When Sam & Dave were signed to Stax in 1965, they were the proverbial new kids on the block and were treated as such. Eventually the staff composers—among them were the songwriting team of Dave Porter and Isaac Hayes who began to warm to the singers (Porter penned their first Stax recording). As the new act began to cut singles with Booker T. & The MGs (the house band), they refined the brass-heavy call-and-response formula that became their calling card--the latter is clearly exemplified on S&D cuts like "Soul Man" (in the original recording when Moore yells "play it Steve!" he's talking to Steve Cropper, the white guitarist and member of MGs who backed the duo in the recording booth...check the video...As with many black artists of their day, the talents of Sam & Dave were unknown to white audiences due to segregation laws that constrained the R&B sound to venues on the now-defunct "chitlin' circuit" (a string of nightclubs and concert halls that permitted blacks entry). These clubs spanned from the Deep South and into the north past the Mason-Dixon line. In addition to Sam & Dave, many preeminent R&B artists, such as James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding (to name a few), started on the same scene. Labels including Motown, Stax, Chess, and Atlantic helped introduce this music to pop (white, mainstream) audiences of the day, broadening the musical palette of the record-buying public as a whole...Years before they joined forces on that fateful night at the King of Hearts nightclub, Sam Moore and Dave Prater had met at a church function...Moore and Prater's blend of church and soul was cutting edge musicianship (at the time) that shot their act onto the R&B A list. Their infectious, sweat-drenched live workouts and tight backing bands became a key element to the soul brother personae created on acetate and was later revisited on the big screen when John Belushi and Dan Akyroyd created the Blues Brothers...the number of soul artists who have helped refine the great American songbook are legion and it makes me shudder to think what our tunes would sound like had they acquiesced to spirit-crushing racial pressures of their time and never tried to get their sounds out there to the public...
...You might've heard of 'em but don't have any of their tunes just yet and if such is the case, your best bet would be Rhino's "*Best Of*":http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=71871 which holds all of the tunes discussed here as well as "Wrap It Up" (the Fabulous Thunderbirds covered this in the 80s), "Hold On, I'm Comin'", "When Something is Wrong with My Baby" and the Sam Cooke cover "Soothe Me"...it's all good and for that, Sam Moore and Dave Prater, I thank you...
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