{"id":5271,"date":"2014-12-09T11:21:30","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T16:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5271"},"modified":"2014-12-09T11:21:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T16:21:30","slug":"sam-cooke-shake-bw-a-change-is-gonna-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5271","title":{"rendered":"Sam Cooke – Shake b\/w A Change Is Gonna Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

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

Listen\/Download – Sam Cooke – Shake<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/div>\n

Listen\/Download – Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I hope the new day finds you well.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but in case I haven\u2019t, here\u2019s something\u2026<\/p>\n

As a more than casual student of the interconnected nature of the Tao, and someone who has experienced the (extremely) odd coincidence now and again, the way that my life intersects with certain records often causes me to take note.<\/p>\n

Many a time, have I been in search of a particular disc for a long time, then I get a sudden urge to look again, and there it is.<\/p>\n

The same kind of thing often happens when I write up a record (or get ready to do so) and then I discover that some important event tied to that record (birthday, death, anniversary etc) is coming up at the same time.<\/p>\n

I had been trying to get my hands on Sam Cooke\u2019s<\/strong> final LP \u2018Shake\u2019 (specifically to get the LP-only track \u2018Yeah Man\u2019) for some time. Considering the popularity of Cooke, and the fact that the album contained no less than three hits, it surprised me\u00a0how scarce a record it was, and how hard it would be to get a copy at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n

So this fall, when I had all but given up trying, I scored a copy of the \u2018Shake\u2019 45, and then a few weeks later \u00a0a copy of the LP verily fell in my lap (sometimes – to paraphrase my man DJ Prestige<\/strong> – \u00a0it less me finding the record, than the record finding me).<\/p>\n

Last week I sat down to digimatize the discs, and what should pop up on my radar but the fact that the 50th anniversary of Cooke\u2019s death (12\/11\/64) was about a\u00a0week away.<\/p>\n

Cooke has been \u2013 thanks entirely to his untimely passing\u00a0\u2013 at the top of the list\u00a0of transitional (and hugely influential) figures of soul music.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that he never made any \u2018pure\u2019 soul, because the tracks above will testify to that, but rather that the bulk of his post-gospel career was divided pretty evenly between R&B, pop music and crooning.<\/p>\n

Cooke was a brilliant singer and songwriter, and there are all indications that he would (like Jackie Wilson<\/strong>, an artist who\u2019s career paralleled his) have entered the soul \u2018mainstream\u2019 had he lived, but sadly, we\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s 45, which was released about a month before the \u2018Shake\u2019 LP (it was already charting within a few weeks of his killing) was a substantial hit, both sides making it into the R&B Top 10 by the end of January 1965.<\/p>\n

It is a study in contrasts, with \u2018Shake\u2019, a hard driving (and influential) soul number, backed with the epic civil rights ballad \u2018A Change Is Gonna Come\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Shake\u2019, later covered by Otis Redding<\/strong> and the Small Faces<\/strong> among others, features some surprisingly raw rhythm guitar (Bobby Womack<\/strong>) running through its middle, surrounded by booming horns and solid percussion. It was recorded at Cooke\u2019s last session, less than a month before his death.<\/p>\n

\u2018A Change Is Gonna Come\u2019 is one of those records that has an eerie depth to it. It hearkens back to Cooke\u2019s gospel roots, but despite the title, it has never seemed to me like a hopeful song. It has the ring of inevitable resolution about it, but only as viewed through great amounts of struggle and pain.<\/p>\n

Cooke sang the song on the Tonight Show in February of 1964 (the performance has since been lost) and never performed the song live again.<\/p>\n

Listening to \u2018A Change Is Gonna Come\u2019, it now seems inevitable that a song and performance so powerful would be seen as a landmark of sorts.<\/p>\n

That it was released almost simultaneously with his death has cemented that status.<\/p>\n

So toast the memory of the mighty Sam Cooke,\u00a0\u00a0dig the sounds, and I\u2019ll see you on Friday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________________________<\/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

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

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

Sam Cooke Listen\/Download – Sam Cooke – Shake Listen\/Download – Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come   Greetings all. I hope the new day finds you well. I think I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but in case I haven\u2019t, here\u2019s something\u2026 As a more than casual student of the interconnected nature of the Tao, […]<\/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":[145,14,121,69,88,64,12,18],"tags":[171,166,181,173,164],"class_list":["post-5271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-soul","category-funky16corners","category-mod-soul","category-original-versions","category-otis-redding","category-rb","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-chicago-soul","tag-funky16corners","tag-gospel","tag-rb","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1n1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271","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=5271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5312,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions\/5312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}