{"id":2560,"date":"2012-03-01T14:29:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T19:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2012-03-13T10:42:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T15:42:00","slug":"ben-e-king-what-is-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2560","title":{"rendered":"Ben E King – What Is Soul?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Ben E King
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Ben E King – What Is Soul <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope all is well in your corner of the world.<\/p>\n

I should remind you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> once again takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This week we have a very groovy \u2013 and in the words of Slim Gaillard<\/strong> \u201cMellow like a cello<\/em>\u201d \u2013 all soul ballads show for you. If you can\u2019t make it at the time of broadcast, you can always stop by the blog and pick up the MP3 version of the show over the weekend, or listen to it in the Flash player in the sidebar.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today fell into my ears fairly late in the game.<\/p>\n

I have to be honest and say that I have slept on the sounds of Ben E King<\/strong> in a big way.<\/p>\n

Aside from \u2018Spanish Harlem\u2019, the Soul Clan<\/strong>, various and sundry Drifters<\/strong> cuts, and of course \u2018Stand By Me\u2019 (one of those tunes I never need to hear again), I hadn\u2019t heard much of anything else from his catalog.<\/p>\n

Then someone, somewhere (I forget who) posted a clip of \u2018What is Soul?\u2019 and I was all \u201cWhat the hey<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Where had this gem been all my life?<\/p>\n

I started to look for a copy forthwith and was initially unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

It seemed that most of the available copies were over in the UK (where it was included on a popular late 60s comp) or over here for prices a little higher than I was willing to spend.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, as one of the old dogs that has been able to learn a new trick along the way, I was patient, did a saved search and a nice copy popped up before long at an even nicer price.<\/p>\n

The appeal, upon first listen is obvious.<\/p>\n

The tune, recorded with Eric Gale\u2019s<\/strong> band in October of 1966, and beginning with a very tasty drum break by Bernard Purdie<\/strong>, \u2018What Is Soul?\u2019 is an odd but compelling hybrid soul shout\/ballad.<\/p>\n

Ben E\u2019s vocal is pure heat and the production\/arrrangement by Bob Gallo (who also did Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles stunning version of ‘Take Me For a Little While’) is hot in every sense of the word. It sounds like one of those sessions where the meters were pushed into the red all the way through the song.<\/p>\n

\u2018What Is Soul\u2019 slipped just inside the R&B Top 40 in January of 1967, remained on the charts for two weeks and then disappeared. King wouldn\u2019t have another big hit until 1975\u2019s \u2018Supernatural Thing\u2019.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, not long after I grabbed this 45, I found a cover of the tune by one of my favorite acts, Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers<\/strong> (which I\u2019m saving for another time<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Ben E. King would sneak the song through the back door of the Top 40 again in 1977, when his cover of the song with the Average White Band<\/strong> appeared on the b-side of the song \u2018A Star In the Ghetto\u2019.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tune, and I\u2019ll be back on Monday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr Ben E King Listen\/Download – Ben E King – What Is Soul Greetings all. I hope all is well in your corner of the world. I should remind you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show once again takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. This week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,69,12],"tags":[166,164],"class_list":["post-2560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-original-versions","category-soul","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-Fi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2560"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2563,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions\/2563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}