{"id":4561,"date":"2014-01-26T11:08:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T16:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4561"},"modified":"2014-01-26T11:08:56","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T16:08:56","slug":"al-greene-and-the-soul-mates-dont-leave-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4561","title":{"rendered":"Al Greene and the Soul Mates – Don’t Leave Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Al Green(e) at the wheel!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Al Greene and the Soul Mates – Don’t Leave Me <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

I\u2019d like to get the new week started with another one of those great \u2013 had it for years but never really listened to it \u2013 bangers.<\/p>\n

I picked up the \u2018Back Up Train\u2019 45 \u2013 Al Green\u2019s<\/strong> debut (when he was still \u2018Al Greene<\/strong>\u2019) from 1967, years ago, and apparently \u2013 as was often the case \u2013 never flipped it over.<\/p>\n

So, a few weeks back, I was pulling 45s for my DJ set at the David Porter<\/strong> tribute, looking for Memphis stuff, and I pulled the disc you see before you out of the crates.<\/p>\n

I dropped the needle on \u2018Back Up Train\u2019, which is a very tasty ballad, but a little on the slow side, so I flipped it over to check out the b-side, which I was admittedly unfamiliar with.<\/p>\n

Whoa, dad\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There, on the flip was a very nice, very upbeat, very Norther Soul-ish bit of gravy called \u2018Don\u2019t Leave Me\u2019.<\/p>\n

Where had this killer been all my life? Why, right there in the crates, waiting for me to do the right thing and listen to both sides of the record.<\/p>\n

Written by Palmer James<\/strong>, who had sung with Green in the Creations<\/strong> with Curtis Rogers<\/strong>, \u2018Don\u2019t Leave Me\u2019 (produced by Rogers and James) opens with a tasteful duet of strings and vibes.<\/p>\n

The band lays down a pulsing beat, and the backing singers come in before Al starts the verse.<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s voice is recognizable, but instead of the slow, love man styling of his big hits, you get a more straight ahead delivery in a record that should have been a hit, instead of a neglected b-side.<\/p>\n

The topside of the disc, \u2018Back Up Train\u2019 was an R&B Top 5 hit (skirting the outer limits of the Pop Top 40) in December of 1967.<\/p>\n

Green would not return to the charts for a little over two years, returning with \u2018You Say It\u2019 on Hi in February of 1970.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t Leave Me\u2019 has a bit of a following with the Northern Soul crowd (for obvious reasons<\/em>), with the Hot Line and Stateside issues of the 45 going for around 40 or 50 dollars.<\/p>\n

As always, I hope you dig it, and I\u2019ll see you on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> <\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong> ___________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0 <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al Green(e) at the wheel!   Listen\/Download Al Greene and the Soul Mates – Don’t Leave Me Greetings all I\u2019d like to get the new week started with another one of those great \u2013 had it for years but never really listened to it \u2013 bangers. I picked up the \u2018Back Up Train\u2019 45 \u2013 […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,100,24,12,18],"tags":[166,184,169,164],"class_list":["post-4561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-memphis","category-northern-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-memphis","tag-northern-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1bz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561","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=4561"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4581,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561\/revisions\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}