Best Live Album I
5
By Love the Cooke-ing
I won't say "of all time," because, who am I kidding, I don't have extensive experience with albums, not to mention live albums. Even when I'm talking about movies, where I have vastly more experience than almost anyone I've ever met or spoken with before, I will not yet go so far as "best ever," if only because there is no end to the lists of masterful art being made in the world.
ANYWAY... Have you ever found yourself saying, "Soul music? What would I want with soul music? That's just many different albums which all sound the same, music which hasn't changed since the 70s, which all sound like a stereotypical black man's voice trying to croon women into seduction." Well, I found myself saying that, until I realized what soul is, until I realized that it was actually invented by Ray Charles in the 50s, and perfected by Sam Cooke ten years later. And I do mean perfected.
There is no voice like Sam Cooke, there is no stage personality like Sam Cooke, and it goes beyond voice and personality-- it goes into philosophy. Several of the hits, which are awesome but sound so typical and poppy in their original release, sound astounding here. "Chain Gang," "Cupid" and "Twistin' the Night Away" sounded like I was hearing them for the first time, like I finally got what Sam was really going for, and it's intense.
With Chain Gang, Sam Cooke was taking a very old tradition, the work song, and adding an unprecedented pop-soul flavor to it. You really feel the sadness of the men on the chain gang, but you also feel intense happiness, as if, just maybe, they are hearing this song and feeling this song too.
Bring it on home to me is actually, though it's not labeled this way, a rendition of "You Send Me" which then blends into Bring It On Home To Me, and it's probably the best I've heard of both songs, which is saying a lot, because I am obsessed with Bring It On Home, and actually I originally didn't find Sam's to be my favorite version.
Imagine, the best Sam Cooke album, and one of the best albums of all time, and it doesn't even have "A Change is Gonna Come"? Yes, you have to buy this album.