If you found this, please read on
gordon@ruraltel.net | 01/18/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I don't know how anyone will find this, but if you do and like soul music, don't miss this disc. There are songs here that are impossible to find anywhere else, and the mastering is the best I've ever heard, and that's the truth. I have a few of these cuts other places, and the sound there doesn't hold a candle to the sound here. I give 5 stars rarely and grudgingly, but I would give this collection 6 stars if I could. Worth it for the original version of Some Kind of Wonderful (boy, is it! ) alone. Snap this up before it's gone!"
It doesn't get much better...
David Wayne | Santee, CA United States | 10/29/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you have read Peter Guralnick's book, I don't have to tell you
to get this CD in your hands. You probably already have it. For those who love Soul Music (or think they know Soul Music), if you
don't know the songs on this release, do yourself a big favor: order this CD and Guralnick's book. It's one thing to be informed
and entertained by the book. It's quite another to actually hear some of the performances the author is talking about. These are the songs that didn't quite make the cut on Soul radio stations, but, and in their own way, added up to have the impact of a "Cold
Sweat" or an "In The Midnight Hour"! For just a few highlights, "True Love Travels On A Gravel Road" shows Percy Sledge's way with interpretation. He colors the song so well with
his voice that you believe he really has a girl with cotton dress whirls. Percy's performance flat-beats that by Elvis. "A Nickel and A Nail" would rate as O.V. Wright's best-ever performance (and that's saying something). Guralnick raved over it so much that I took it with a grain of salt. Then I heard the song: the utter desperation in O.V.'s voice; the alarming, threatening horn blasts that warn of danger; the mournful background vocals that sound like they were recorded at someone's wake. It's the sound of a tragedy in the course of happening. It's a masterpiece. "Rainbow Road," sounds like it could have been Arthur Alexander's autobiography. Then there is the majestic, almost regal air of James Carr's voice on "Hold On To What We've Got." So many songs could have been chosen from Solomon Burke's catalog (I'm partial to "I Feel A Sin Coming On"), but the inclusion of "I Stayed Away Too Long" was a masterstroke. Let's just say that Solomon's performance is every bit the equal of a very real song by Clarence Carter. Don Covay achieved more reknown as a songwriter, but he was a good singer, as well. His humor on record is somewhat like that ofJoe Tex, but "It's In The Wind" shows that he could cry with the best of them. Those are some of my favorites, but all of these cuts are classics. If you start listening to this album, you'll want to finish it and probably repeat it a time or two."
One of those great discs...
David Wayne | 12/12/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"... that is 10 times better than you thought it would be when you bought it. There are no filler cuts, and it's one of those albums where you pick it up every few months, play it non-stop for a few days, and come up with a new favorite track (Separation Line is the latest choice)"
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1