(April 2022) Episode 401 is BARRY WHITE. “If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White” – the baritone-bass voice that catalyzed countless romances. Smooth, soulful, iconic.
Favorite album: Stone Gon’
Favorite song: Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up
Favorite instrumental (could it get any more 70s in here?): Love’s Theme (credited to Love Unlimited Orchestra)
Compared to expectations: same
Recommendation: essential in any spin of 70s soul
(March 2022) Episode 391 of the “opus project” is ISAAC HAYES. You can’t top his early 70s albums for sensuous soul and hot funk. Man I love that stuff. Not to mention his contributions to southern soul at Stax, development of disco, soundtracks (Shaft!) and as an actor, and a Chef.
Favorite album: Black Moses
Favorite song: Good Love
Best enjoyed: Making sweet love by the fire, with Chocolate Salty Balls
Compared to expectations: same
Recommendation: essential funk and sexy soul
(February 2022) Episode 388 is JACKIE WILSON. This was a disappointment. He had a strong voice with a big range, and he was a hitmaker and showman. But his version of R&B and soul comes off as milquetoast, laden with sappy strings and chrome and lacking in emotional depth.
Favorite album: Jackie Sings the Blues
Favorite song: (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
Compared to expectations: ↓
Recommendation: look elsewhere for your soul
(December 2021) Episode 372 is AL GREEN. Simply one of the best soul voices ever. His early 1970s albums are canon for soul music. He later moved on into religious music which is not my cup of tea.
Favorite album: I’m Still in Love with You
Favorite song: Take Me To The River
Compared to expectations: same
Recommendation: early 70s are a must for any soul review
(April 2021) Episode 328 is SAM COOKE. There’s a reason they call him the King of Soul. It starts with that glorious voice, and continues with catchy tunes that bridged appeal across Black and White audiences (not to mention his civil rights activism). It’s a tragedy that we never got to see what he could do as soul music got more gritty, socially-conscious and funky in the later 1960s.
Favorite album: Night Beat
Favorite song: Lost and Lookin’
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 315 is NINA SIMONE. There is so much that is remarkable about Nina Simone. Her deep and expressive voice, best suited to the jazz tunes of her early career IMO. Her skills on piano, arranging and songwriting. The diversity and eclecticism of her musical tastes (from gospel and blues to The Beatles and Hall & Oates). Her independence and activism for civil rights. She owned the 1960s.
Favorite album: Pastel Blues
Favorite song: Four Women
Compared to expectations: same
(January 2021) Episode 311 of the “opus project” is MARVIN GAYE. His silky voice and songwriting tracked and defined the arc of R&B through its evolution in the 1960s and 70s. That voice could be sweet, sexy or serious, and matched well with female vocalists on several duet albums. The peak are the early 70s albums that melded sophisticated soul with social commentary and an assertion of artist independence from the Motown label.
Favorite album: What’s Going On
Favorite song: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Sexiest song: Let’s Get It On
Favorite duet album: United (with Tammi Terrell)
Compared to expectations: same
(November 2020) Episode 300 is ARETHA FRANKLIN. If there were a Mount Rushmore of American Voices, the Queen of Soul would surely be on it. And yet, at risk of sacrilege, I find her voice to be too overpowering at times, dominating songs and even entire albums that would benefit from a little modulation. Her 60s classics are essential (also providing a soundtrack to the civil rights era) and her talents defined soul through the 70s, but avoid anything from the late 70s and 80s.
Favorite album: Lady Soul
Favorite song: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Favorite song written by Aretha: Think
Worst album: La Diva
Compared to expectations: ↓
(October 2020) Episode 287 is THE SUPREMES. At their mid-60s peak with the Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting team, they churned out so many hits that are seared into our collective brain, rightly earning them the reputation as the top Motown act. I thought it was unfair to Mary and Florence (then Cindy) to rename them ‘Diana Ross and the Supremes,’ but the value of Diana’s contribution was revealed by the declining quality of recordings after she left. Their discs provide a history of the Motown evolution from doo-wop to the pop-soul merger, psychedelic soul, gritty 70s soul and disco.
Favorite album: The Supremes A’ Go-Go
Favorite song: Love Child
Compared to expectations: same
Episode 282 is RAY CHARLES. If you had to describe American music in the form of one person, it would be Ray Charles. He melded blues, R&B, jazz, and gospel into what we now call soul, helped integrate country, and reached out into pop standards and modern pop. A legend. That said, the albums themselves, especially after the mid-60s, are generally weak sauce. I recommend a greatest hits collection or, better yet, video of concert performances as his smile and sway light up the venue.
Favorite album: Doing His Thing
Favorite song: What’d I Say
Compared to expectations: ↓
Opus Project 