with JOHN CURTIS


Hello again & a warm welcome to the column which this month tributes Al Green as he turns 68 on the 13th April.


When he refused to make the Al Green


commitment a dreadful row followed after which Al took himself off to have a shower. Suddenly the shower door burst open & there stood Mary with a pan of boiling water which she threw over Al severely burning him. Before he could move she rushed over to where he kept a pistol & turned it on herself fatally.


Born in rural Arkansa, the sixth of ten children born to a devoutly Christian family, young Albert cut his singing teeth in church singing gospel with his siblings & was once thrown out of home by his father for having the gall to listen to records by an early idol Jackie Wilson!


Wilson was just one of several soul singers the young boy admired & enjoyed. He did himself more harm than good in the early days by copying their styles rather than develop his own. Luckily a mentor, who happened to own a record label called “Hi” said come & sing for me Al!.


Once there & groomed (including shortening his name from Albert Greene to Al Green) the young star became a seasoned soul singer in his own right not just wowing audiences from stage but also from his fi rst recordings in the late 60s.


Sometimes covering material by established acts like The Temptations as well as performing new songs that he helped to write Al Green was, by 1971, scoring big hits in the U.S charts. Also that year & the following one he appeared 4 times in the U.K. charts as part of a considerable invasion of soul music in that era. A series of albums showcasing his distinctive voice & phrasing also did well so if anyone is scratching their head at this juncture trying to remember his sound let me throw “Tired Of Being Alone” & “Let’s Stay Together” into the ring & say THAT was Al Green 40 years ago!


His religious upbringing was never totally out of Al’s mind & in 1974 came the fi rst of two occurrences that were to shape his future. He was in a relationship with a girl called Mary Woodson White who despite being ALREADY married wanted Al to marry her.


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Mary apparently left a note to him complaining “The more I trust you, the more you let me down”! This event settled any doubts Al had & within a year he was ordained as a pastor at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis from where he has regularly preached up to the present day. Shortly after these events Al Green began to release his fi rst gospel songs alongside his secular soul output the latter suffering as a result. Then came the second incident which was a fall from a stage whilst performing in 1979.


Al was not badly hurt but he DID see this as a sign from above & there followed a ten year hiatus from soul music during which his output was totally gospel based songs. I have to add that a few Grammy awards came along in these years. Al’s soul fans had to wait until the late 1980s before he returned to this genre & ever since a mixture of religious & secular material has followed. With regard to the latter I have only recently realised that “Take Me To The River” a staple in my own act was originally recorded in the 70s by none other than Al Green! Further I am pleased to report that Al’s Tabernacle in Memphis is but a stone’s throw from Graceland so I am pretty sure that a smiling Elvis is looking down with approval on these works!


So Al Green continues to sing into the present day & turns 68 on the 13th of this month He recently lamented that he never had a chance to sing along side another idol Marvin Gaye…..in my case it would be Elvis! As the 13th happens to be a Sunday I too will read this as a sign & will be featuring Al Green’s 6 UK chart entries from the 70s on that day’s edition of Ready Steady Sunday. I hope you will join me for this & on any & every Sunday afternoon on Bay Radio for a wallow in our recent musical heritage. I will be looking out for you too at a singing gig or my Wednesday evening music quiz in Jalon’s Village Inn. Finally I hope to “see” you again in the May edition of Different Magazine. I would love to receive constructive observations from you but at the very least…….


All you MUST DO on a daily basis is KEEP ROCKING!!! �O�N �UR��S


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