Sunday Covers: A Sweet "Kiss" from Howard Tate
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While I've never been any kind of dedicated Prince fan (somehow I can never forgive him for "Raspberry Beret"), I have huge respect for his musicianship, his innovative arranging and production (no bass on "When Doves Cry?" Huh? But it works!), and his songwriting skills. All that by way of simply stipulating that it's not as though his "Kiss" was crying out for people to cover it and somehow validate its worth. Still, my Sunday treat for you here is a pretty compelling cover.
Howard Tate has to be one of the greatest soul singers ever. Elvis Costello has called him "the missing link between Jackie Wilson and Al Green," and songs that he originally recorded have been covered by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin and many others. So how come you've never heard of him? Well, the short version goes something like this: he recorded his first album, Get It While You Can, in 1966 (yes, Janis later covered the title track). After two more albums were praised by critics but poorly promoted and therefore unnoticed by the public, Tate became discouraged and also indignant at never having received any royalties, and walked away from the music business.
For 30 years, no one who'd worked with Tate had any idea what had happened to him. He had various jobs in and around Philadelphia, but in the '80s he developed a crack addiction. He lost his job and his family, and at his lowest point he was living on the streets. Eventually he kicked his addiction and began counseling drug users and the mentally ill; by the mid-'90s he was the minister of his own church in New Jersey, singing only during services. On New Year's Day 2001, a musician Tate had toured with in the '60s ran into him in a supermarket - the chance meeting ultimately led to Tate being reunited with Jerry Ragovoy, the producer of his first record, and the two men went to work on a stunningly triumphant comeback album, the Grammy-nominated Rediscovered (2001).
Which brings us to "Kiss." Prince's original was plenty funky, but Tate and Ragovoy manage to bump it up a notch or two with a tight arrangement featuring the Uptown Horns and a bridge that recalls vintage Sam & Dave. What's perhaps most striking about Tate's singing here and throughout the rest of the album is his effortless transition to a piercing, dead-on falsetto - the same one he employed to dazzling effect more than 30 years previous. Given everything that transpired during that hiatus, to hear his voice emerging unscathed at the other end seems miraculous. Enjoy this, and check out the rest of Tate's discography. The guy's a national treasure.
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Comments (7)
Your fine essay and the primo track make this a top post. I just listened to the iTunes-allowed half-minute of Prince's version, which IMHO can't compete with Tate's. One tips one's hat to him for re-emerging late in life so musically in command.
I read today that there are new releases coming out not only from Tate, but also another Philadelphia-area-soul-icon-turned-preacher, none other than Garnett Mimms (in the studio for the first time in 31 years). What an amazingly wonderful world we live in that these two guiys are getting their due again....
@Spike – Thanks! Glad you like the tune...somehow I felt it might be up your alley. Tate appeared at our Waterfront Blues Festival here in town a few years back with a KILLER band, and it was clear there's no studio digital trickery going on – his voice really does sound that good.
@ivylander – Glad to get the heads-up on new stuff coming from Tate and Garnett Mimms! Did you already know that Tate was in a gospel group with Mimms when they were teenagers? Crazy, man...
I didn't know that, but it figures, doesn't it? Also, Solomon Burke's new one is coming out, just to complete the trifecta....
Thanks for the education. Pretty amazing story and sure does sound good.
We've been playing this gem of an album on the air and the radio audience seems to appreciate it. This style of music is still desired by people who want real instruments performed by real musicians on their records. 'Nuff said...
:=)
Howard's got a new CD coming out from Evidence Music, produced by Jon Tiven, with Steve Cropper and Felix Cavaliere on one track, on August 12.
Review by Nick Cristiano of the Philadelphia Inquirer at: