Atlantic executive Jerry Wexler once said there’s nothing like hearing an original song interpreted by the writer and that couldn’t be truer for George Jackson whose captivating yet subtle style added depth to his everyday songs of joy and pain, love gained and love lost.
Jackson became a contracted writer for Quentin Claunch’s Goldwax label where he began a long association with fellow singer/songwriter Dan Greer. They released a solitary single as a duo but their writing was stamped all over Goldwax releases between ’66 and ’68 on acts such as The Ovations and Spencer Wiggins. The fledgling songwriter took a shine to The Ovations, who in Louis Williams had a singer who was a dead- ringer for his hero, Sam Cooke.
Jackson came into his prime when he was signed up as a songwriter by Rick Hall to FAME where he wrote and recorded fantastic demos such as the powerful deep soul classic ‘Search Your Heart’ which was eventually released by Wilson Pickett on the B-side to his version of ‘Hey Jude’. George remembers with pride getting complimented by Wilson Pickett on one of Pickett’s trips to FAME. “Wilson said to me, ‘It’s from your heart’, [then] he told Rick Hall and Jerry Wexler, ‘Y’all should cut a record on this guy – he’s great.’ ”
Jackson worked at Fame studios from ’68 to ’72, taking over principal songwriting duties from Dan Penn who’d left for Memphis. Despite releasing just two solo singles producer Rick Hall held on to a truckload of other recordings George cut at Fame. All of these wonderful masters remained in the vaults until the Kent/Ace label aired them in 2011. “It was a phenomenal period where George must have spent every day, when not sleeping, writing songs,” says Dean Rudland of Ace Records. “We found enough for four volumes from FAME and it was hard to pick out the best as there are all so damn good.”
Thankfully, Jackson laid down his own vocals to the many songs he wrote, with full band backing, creating something much more substantial than what you would normally expect from a “demo”.
“The way they worked at Fame, songwriters would sit there and play with the musicians, who worked in the studio 9 to 5pm every day, it was their job,” continues Rudland. “FAME had two studios so songwriters could use one of them if an artist was in another to work on new songs and record demos to send out to whoever wanted to record them.”
By George! Wilson Pickett, Otis Clay, Candi Staton and The Staple Singers benefit from the Jackson touch
The songs featured on Don’t Count Me Out – The FAME Recordings Volume 1 leave you pondering why such an abundance of talent could remain untapped for so long. “For many years FAME were active in country music, I mean Rick Hall is scoring Top 10 country hits even now, so he never had the inclination to look back at his past. As Rick Hall owned all his own masters there was no way in until he asked Ace to look back at his vaults.”
Thankfully there was a timeless quality to Jackson’s music that makes the undiscovered music sound fresh today. Much of this can be credited to the basic elements of carefully crafted melodies, expressive lyrics and “proper” instruments played by some of the hottest session players in the South.
“Jerry Wexler had me come down and sing the song for The Staple Singers! ‘You want me to sing for The Staple Singers?’ I sung it for Mavis to learn the lyrics. The thrill of my life”
“This is what you call real R&B – the real deal not the stuff they got now,” states George quite rightly. “They had guitars, the bass, the drums, the patterns, the background singers, lyrics. You got a groove, a certain guitar groove or a certain bass line that stood out.”
Mickey Buckins, nominal leader of the Fame Gang and Rick Hall’s second engineer at Fame co-wrote with George during this period: “I loved writing with ol’ George. He’d come into town and set himself up at some funky little motel down the road with a beat up piano, then call the studio and say, ‘Hey Buckins, bring over some liquor and let’s write some hits.’ ”
A large proportion of the recordings Candi Staton made at Fame were penned by Jackson including ‘Evidence’ and ‘I’m Just A Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin’)’. “That was his thing – he would write day and night,” Candi told Dean Rudland. “He did the hurting type songs.”
In ’72, Jackson returned to Memphis to resume his recording career with Willie Mitchell at Hi, cutting ‘Aretha, Sing One For Me’, but a follow up single was under-promoted and George quit. Moving across town to join the fledgling Sounds Of Memphis label Jackson teamed up once more with Greer as a songwriter and producer. During this period he released a few solo singles which were compiled on the excellent In
Memphis 1972-1977 along with another treasure trove of unreleased gems. Those tracks are some of the best Jackson produced: heartfelt, poignant and moving down-home narratives wrapped in a typically sumptuous Memphis groove.
Following the demise of Sounds Of Memphis in ’77, George headed back to Muscle Shoals to join old Fame musicians Jimmy Johnson, Barry Beckett, David Hood and Roger Hawkins at their Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama where his prolific output showed no signs of diminishing. To date, Garry Cape has released three collections of previously unreleased masters and demos recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound during the late ’70s on his Grapevine/Soulscape label.
Many of the demos George recorded were used for pitching to other artists and as “guide” tapes in the studio once chosen. George claimed he often wrote songs with a specific artist in mind. Getting The Staple Singers to cover his ‘Unlock Your Mind’ was a particular thrill for George, “I grew up listening to The Staple Singers and I wanted to write a song for them. Jerry Wexler had me come down and sing the song for The Staple Singers! I was so embarrassed, like, ‘You want me to sing for The Staple Singers?’ I sung it for Mavis to learn the lyrics. The thrill of my life, it really was!”
Jackson remains philosophical about his lack of success as a solo artist, “I was never that worried as long as [royalties were] coming in. Clarence [Carter] and [Wilson] Pickett and whoever were sure to get their records played, where there was no guarantee mine would. Even getting a flip on a Pickett 45 was better for me than putting out a record [of my own] and not getting a hit. Of course, I would have liked the records I did release to do better, but it wasn’t really that big of a deal.”
His hard-to-find early 45s have not yet been fully compiled and deserve to be, meanwhile thanks to reissue labels Ace and Soulscape, there’s plenty out there to whet the appetite. With the promise of more to follow the unsung story of George Jackson will continue to baffle and enthral in equal measure.
Don’t Count Me Out is out now on Kent/Ace. With thanks to Dean Rudland, Neil Scapelhorn and Garry Cape
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