His voice was so powerful — like a foghorn on the Queen Mary… It jumped out of the speakers and ravished my soul..
~Rod Stewart
One of the greatest lead singers the Motown stable ever had
~John Lowe (allmusic.com)
One of the greatest “Motown voices”.. and thus one of the greatest voices in recorded american music history.
The Temptations – My Girl:
From Wikipedia:
Birth name
David Eli Ruffin
Born
January 18, 1941
Whynot, Mississippi, U.S.
Died
June 1, 1991 (aged 50)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres
R&B, pop, soul, disco, gospel
Occupations
Singer
Instruments
Vocals, drums
Years active
1956–1991
Labels
Anna, Chess, Motown, Warner Bros., RCA
Associated acts
The Temptations, Eddie Kendrick, Jimmy Ruffin
Davis Eli “David” Ruffin (January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer and musician most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations from 1964 to 1968 (or the group’s “Classic Five” period as it was later known). He was the lead voice on such famous songs as “My Girl” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Known for his unique raspy and anguished tenor vocals, Ruffin was ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2008. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 for his work with the Temptations. Fellow Motown recording artist Marvin Gaye once said admiringly of Ruffin that, “I heard in [his voice] a strength my own voice lacked.”
Ain’t Too Proud To Beg – Live 1966:
His voice had a certain glorious anguish that spoke to people on many emotional levels
~Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates)
I don’t know what kind of voice I have, I really don’t… it’s just about the feeling I get for the song.
~David Ruffin
2012 is a year filled with many great album releases. Almost all “endyear lists” I’ve seen fails to include “Born To Sing, No Plan B”.. and that’s a shame. It might no be among the man’s best albums, but it’s still a fantastic album.
Solid band (as always), great vocal, good songs, interesting lyrics, jazzy, soulful, moody & and a brilliant trombone (Alistair White).
When you’re in need of some VM (as we all are sometimes), please check out this new album.. you will not be disappointed, I promise.
Reminds me of: a Van Morrison in excellent form
-Egil
Highlights:
Egil: Born To Sing, Open The Door, If in money we trust
Hallgeir: If in money we trust, Pagan Heart, Mystic of the east
Born to sing (Official video):
17. Dwight Yoakam – 3 Pears
It’s been seven years since Dwight Yoakam’s last gave us a proper release, 2005′s Blame the Vain. He’s done some acting, he’s done some producing, did some concerts and a tribute album to Buck Owens but he has been sorely missed.
Back on a major label one should think that Yoakam would sound mainstream country, not so at all. He has clearly listened to the new wave of the indie folk/country wave that is happening these last years. Beck is producing on a couple of tracks and Dwight Yoakam produces some tracks himself, they sound very new, almost like a new artist. He has not lost his pop sensibility and his ear for catchy tunes. That doesn’t mean that he has abandonded his honkey tonk roots, and he really let it comes out in a song like, Dim Lights, Thick smoke.
Dwight Yoakam sounds like a cross between The Monkees and Jerry Lee Lewis on A heart like mine!
Catchy, great tunes and still so goddam cool!
– Hallgeir
Highlights:
Egil: Take Hold Of My Heart, Trying, Dim Lights, Thick Smoke
Hallgeir: Rock it all away, Missing Heart, A heart like mine and Trying
18. Shovels and Rope – O’ Be Joyful
Shovels and Rope sounds like children of both punk and country, and their intimate debut has a brooding darkness throughout. The southern gothic is prominent, even the name hints at darkness. It excites me that country music can be so bold and so fresh. I say country music but it is just as much rock’n roll.
The couple (Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent) released a CD called Shovels And Rope, but this is the first release where they call their band Shovels and Rope. This mix of dark country and old time rock reminds me of Jack White and Loretta Lynn, the rhythm track is simple but the melodies are wonderful.
Dark and haunting contemporary country/rock music.
– Hallgeir
Highlights:
Egil: Birmingham, Lay Low, Shank Hill St.
Hallgeir: Birmingham, Hail Hail, Tickin’ Bomb and Shank Hill St.
19. I Was A King – You Love It Here
I Was A King has a fine mix of powerpop, guitar walls and great song writing. The guitars are “byrdsy” jangly and this time they flirt even more with the American side of indie-americana-pop. So you see, they’re kinda hard to describe. But they sound terrific!
IWAK has gotten together with two fantastic popmusic masters this time, Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub vocalist, yes him!) and Robyn Hitchcock (Power-pop godfather, The Soft Boys member and solo artist extraordinaire), what a dream-team!
When i first read about it I really couldn’t believe it, it’s a match made in heaven.
The result of this collaboration is IWAK’s best album, a fully realised record with great songs. It sounds so big and it is full of air, but it’s not pretentious at all. They sound more mature and more pop. The Playing is better than ever and the songwriting is spectacular, I realy love this album (You guessed that, eh?) and it is a quintessential pop album. A love letter to music, no less.
Jangly, infectious and very, very good.
– Hallgeir
Highlights:
Egil: Frozen Disease, A Million Signs, Indiana
Hallgeir: A Million Signs, Food Wheels, Superhero and Leave
20. Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur
I really like break-up albums, I love Blood on the tracks, I love Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love and I love when Jackson Browne sing about his break-ups. Kathleen Edwards is now part of this rich tradition of soul wreching songwriters. Maybe not quite on their level, yet, but she is becoming a very good songwriter, and she is at the top of her game on this album.
But it is not all gloom, she sounds as she’s coping. Actually it sounds that she’s on her way up from the bleakness, the album is full of hope. The songs are really strong an Justin Vernon’s involvement has brought out unknown elements in Kathleen Edwards songs.
Spacious, hopeful and sad, in a good way.
– Hallgeir
Highlights:
Egil: Chameleon/Comedian, Change The Sheets, House Full of Emty Rooms,
Hallgeir: Chameleon/Comedian, House Full of Emty Rooms, Going To Hell
Here is a live video of the title cut “Born To Sing”:
Lyrics:
They can be keen
To be everything
But it comes with the state
When you were born to sing
Reasons as I walked in
It’s not done on a whim
Passions everything when
You were born to sing
Feeling good singin the blues
It aint easy – keep on payin them dues
When it gets to the part
Well let’s not stop and start
Deep down in your heart you know
You were born to sing
Instrumental Bit
When you came in
No original sin
You were a king because
You were born to sing
Reasons as I walked in
[. From: http://www.elyrics.net .]
It’s not done on a whim
Passions everything when
You were born to sing
Yeah – feeling good singin the blues
Keep on keepin on – keep on
Payin them dues
When it comes to the part
Well let’s not stop and start
Deep down in your heart – baby
You were born to sing
When it gets to the part
When the band start to swing
Then you know everything
Cause you were born to sing
When it gets to the part
When the band start to swing
Then you know everything
Cause you were born to sing Instrumental to end
Some of the musicians I was working with very early on were very good, but they didn’t want to leave home, so they didn’t go any further…. but I did [want to leave home] or I felt like I had to
~Van Morrison
Exile
Wikipedia: Exile means to be away from one’s home (i.e. city, state or country), while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return. It can be a form of punishment and solitude.
Exile i a key theme in Morrison’s work & he also named his recording company ‘Exile’.
His foremost song about exile has to be “Too Long in Exile” – the title cut from his 1993 double album.
Robert Christgau – review of the album:
You know, exile — like Joyce and Shaw and Wilde and, oh yeah, Alex Haley. All on account of those “Bigtime Operators” who bugged his phone back when he was green. Now getting on to grizzled, he seeks guidance from the kas of Doc Pomus and King Pleasure and “The Lonesome Road,” an unutterably sad spiritual recast as an upbeat vibraphone feature. And especially, on three cuts, his old soulmate John Lee Hooker, who doesn’t come close to sounding overexposed on Them’s “Gloria” and Sonny Boy’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and something new by Van called “Wasted Years,” about how the dumb stuff is behind them now. I don’t know about Hook, but Van’s just jiving–when he wanders “In the Forest,” it’s never a safe bet that he’ll get out. A-
last part of the lyrics:
Too long in exile
You can never go back home again
Too long in exile
You’re about to drive me just insane
Too long in exile, been too long in exile
Just like James Joyce, baby
Too long in exile
Just like Samuel Beckett baby
Too long in exile
Just like Oscar Wilde
Too long in exile
Just like George Best, baby
Too long in exile
Just like Alex Higgins, baby
Morrison is still a brooder–“Why did you leave America?” he asks over and over on the final cut, and though I’m not exactly sure what he’s talking about, that sounds like a good all-purpose question/accusation to me–but not an obsessive one, and this is another half-step away from the acoustic late-night misery of Astral Weeks. As befits hits, “Domino” and especially “Blue Money” are more celebratory if no more joyous than anything on Moondance, showing off his loose, allusive white r&b at its most immediate. And while half of side two is comparatively humdrum, I play it anyway. A ~Robert Christgau (Consumer guide)
Street Choir – Van Morrison Live at Montreux 1974:
From Wikipedia:
Released
15 November 1970
Recorded
March–July 1970, at the A&R Recording Studios, New York City
Genre
Folk rock, R&B, blues
Length
41:40
Label
Warner Bros.
Producer
Van Morrison
His Band and the Street Choir (also referred to as Street Choir) is the fourth solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 15 November 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. Originally titled Virgo’s Fool, Street Choir was renamed by Warner Bros. without Morrison’s consent. Recording began in early 1970 with a demo session in a small church in Woodstock, New York. Morrison booked the A&R Studios on 46th Street in New York City in the second quarter of 1970 to produce two sessions of songs that were released on His Band and the Street Choir.
Domino (Midnight Special TV-show, 1977):
Reviewers praised the music of both sessions for its free, relaxed sound, but the lyrics were considered to be simple compared with those of his previous work. Morrison had intended to record the album a cappella with only vocal backing by a vocal group he called the Street Choir, but the songs released on the album that included the choir also featured a backing band. Morrison was dissatisfied with additional vocalists to the original quintet that made up the choir, and these changes and others have led him to regard Street Choir poorly in later years.
“His Band and the Street Choir is a free album. It was recorded with minimal over-dubbing and was obviously intended to show the other side of Moondance. And if it has a flaw it is that, like Moondance, it is too much what it set out to be. A few more numbers with a gravity of ‘Street Choir’ would have made this album as close to perfect as anyone could have stood.”
~John Landau
His Band and the Street Choir was as well received as Morrison’s previous album, Moondance. Street Choir peaked at number 32 on the Billboard 200 and number 18 on the UK Album Chart. It owes its success mainly to the US Top Ten single “Domino”, which was released before the album and surpassed Morrison’s 1967 hit, “Brown Eyed Girl”. As of 2010, “Domino” remains the most successful single of Morrison’s solo career. Two other singles were released from the album, “Blue Money” and “Call Me Up in Dreamland”; although less successful, they still managed to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
I’ve been working (From Van Morrison in Ireland, 1979 in Dublin and Belfast):
Tracks:
All songs written by Van Morrison.
Side one
“Domino” – 3:06
“Crazy Face” – 2:56
“Give Me a Kiss (Just One Sweet Kiss)” – 2:30
“I’ve Been Working” – 3:25
“Call Me Up in Dreamland” – 3:52
“I’ll Be Your Lover, Too” – 3:57
Side two
“Blue Money” – 3:40
“Virgo Clowns” – 4:10
“Gypsy Queen” – 3:16
“Sweet Jannie” – 2:11
“If I Ever Needed Someone” – 3:45
“Street Choir” – 4:43
Jason Ankeny (allmusic.com):
After the brilliant one-two punch of Astral Weeks and Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir bringsVan Morrison back down to earth, both literally and figuratively. While neither as innovative nor as edgy as its predecessors, His Band and the Street Choir also lacks their overt mysticism; at heart, the album is simply Morrison’s valentine to the R&B that inspired him, resulting in the muscular and joyous tribute “Domino” as well as the bouncy “Blue Money” and “Call Me Up in Dreamland.”
.
