Cover Story

By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

With a voice that launched a thousand tender moments, Al Green has solidified his place in the American musical firmament with four decades of soulful excellence. Green brings his hallmark sound to Mobile’s BayFest Sat., Oct. 7 when he headlines the Miller Lite stage.

Born the son of an Arkansas sharecropper, young Albert Greene first sang in a quartet at the tender age of nine. Al and his group, the Greene Brothers, toured the South until his family moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., whereby they became a Midwestern-based band. He was later ejected from the group when his religious father caught him listening to soul singer Jackie Wilson.

Through high school, he performed in other ensembles and eventually dropped the final “e” from his last name. Two early band mates formed an independent music label, Hot Line Music Journal and Al’s group, the Soul Mates, had an R&B chart hit for the label with the song “Back Up Train.” Later singles by the band failed to match that success.

In 1969, fate intervened. Bandleader Willie Mitchell of Memphis’ Hi Records hired Green for a Texas show and asked Green to join his outfit. American music would never be the same.

Mitchell saw something special in the young singer. To date, Green had been heavily influenced by his idols, soul singers like Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and James Brown. Mitchell pressed Green to find his own voice. Green’s first album with Hi Records, “Green is Blues,” featured a horn-driven sound smoldering with Al’s expressive and wide-ranging tones and perfected by Mitchell’s arranging and production talents. Though it was only a moderate success, it attracted notice in R&B circles.

Their next album, 1970’s “Al Green Gets Next To You,” burst open the doors to stardom with four gold singles including a cover of The Temptations’”I Can’t Get Next to You” and “Tired of Being Alone.”

Green’s next LP, 1972’s “Let’s Stay Together,” surpassed his previous accomplishment with the phenomenal success of not only its title track but a sweltering rendition of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.” Incredibly, that same year saw the release of “I’m Still In Love with You,” an album that featured the chart-topping title song, “Love and Happiness,” “Look What You Done For Me” and a cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times.”

The next year saw the release of Green’s magnum opus, “Call Me,” an album that featured the hit title track plus “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” and “You Ought To Be With Me.” Soulful interpretations of country standards like Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away” revealed Green’s range as an artist and won him critical acclaim.

Green continued his incredible string of success with 1974’s “Al Green Explores Your Mind,” an album featuring the hit “Take Me To The River,” a song covered by underground pioneers The Talking Heads four years later.

Green and Mitchell had not only conquered the soul and R&B charts, but ruled the pop world as well. The duo had almost single-handedly forged the genre of Southern soul and melded it into a force that wrestled dominance from the hit-makers in Detroit and Philadelphia. But Green’s course was about to change markedly.

In 1974, in retaliation for his rejection of her marriage proposal, Green’s girlfriend poured boiling grits on him as he showered. She then committed suicide in an adjacent room. Green suffered second-degree burns on his body and a deeper wound to his soul. He reverted to the Christianity of his youth and became an ordained pastor of a Memphis church in 1976.

Green’s album sales began to drop and when he was injured in a 1979 stage accident, he interpreted it all as a sign from God. He shifted his energies into his church and gospel music, collecting eight Grammy awards for gospel music throughout the 1980s.

In the ‘90s, he tentatively eased back into the popular music realm. He collaborated with vocalist Annie Lennox in a version of “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” for the 1988 Bill Murray comedy film “Scrooged.” The inclusion of Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” in the hit soundtrack to the 1994 movie “Pulp Fiction” sparked a resurgence of Green’s career. He was indoctrinated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 the same year as the release of his first secular album in over a decade.

In 2000, Green released “Take Me to the River,” a book discussing his career, and received a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2002.

The 2003 album “I Can’t Stop” was his first collaboration with Willie Mitchell since 1985 and followed it up with another secular collaboration two years later.

Green continues to tour, combining both his gospel work with his R&B classics and bringing the same magic to audiences that have marked him as a unique American treasure likely never to be surpassed.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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