It's a Soul Thang

In my opinion, female vocalists have been given a raw deal by record companies.

The quality and quantity of their work in the soul arena is sparse as far as albums are concerned. Singles are a different matter.

The short required list of albums follows:

Aretha Franklin- I Never Loved A Man the Way I love You.

Gladys Knight and the Pips- If I Were Your Woman.

Diana Ross- Touch Me in The Morning.

While not recorded in the day, Sade's "Promise" touches me.

I grew up listening soul and funk and for many years I looked for more obscure artists. In doing so I found I actually ignored or dismissed stuff because I thought it was too obvious or mainstream. I recently started re-listening to Stevie Wonder during his early 70s peak - starting with Music of My Mind and ending with Songs in the Key of Life (although some say that Where I'm Coming From should also be included.) To call this genius is an understatement - almost every song on every one of these albums (Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale are the others) are amazing and the best of of what soul has to offer imho. Same goes for Curtis Mayfield, Aretha and Marvin Gaye.

However if you're looking for inspiration, Solar Radio published a top 1000 of the century which I think is reprinted here: http://www.geocities.com/jahsonic/Top1000.html

in alphabetical rather than rank order.

this thread made me think about all those great old albums you forget about, for me it seems I'm always chasing another 'new' find. 'Superfly', Curtis Mayfield is going on next.

Check these out:

Irma Thomas - The New Rules: Sexy New Orleans soul chanteuse par excellence. Ideal combo of pipes and drama. She could sell oil to OPEC.

Sam Cooke - Ain't That Good News: Sam and Brother Ray really were the first to sew the Church and the Blues together into Soul. "A Change Is Gonna Come" will shake your molecules.

Isley Brothers - 3 + 3: Funkmeisters of the first order, but plenty of soulful licks here. Soulful treatments of pop songs are tight and tasty ("Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight", "Sunshine", etc.).

Peace

Superfly is a great example of an album that was dragged down by the movie. Even after you get past the tracks everyone knows there are still 4 or 5 more that are brilliant - Give me your love