Solomon Burke: The '60s soul music legend and a spiritual enigma

Friday 5th November 2010

Tony Cummings reports on the recently deceased King Of Rock 'n' Soul, SOLOMON BURKE



Continued from page 1

In 1964 Solomon made his first visit to Europe on the strength of his "pop hits" "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and "Got To Get You Off My Mind". This was the era when black American artists were first beginning to enjoy a minor boom in the pop charts. As writer Peter Guralnick admitted, "The Stones always proved the best advertisement for American black music outside of the music itself. I don't think I'd ever heard of Solomon Burke before the Stones recorded 'Cry To Me'." He might well have added that the Stones also cut "If You Need Me" and "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love".

After a dozen straight hits, Solomon was crowned King Of Rock 'n' Soul by Rockin' Robin of radio station WEBB in Baltimore. Needless to say, he took the title seriously. From this point on, it seems, at least for the next decade, the singer never performed without a robe and a crown and all the trappings of royalty (which occasionally included midgets strewing flowers). To rival New York's concoctions soul music from other areas like Memphis and Muscle Shoals was beginning to chart. But Solomon was up there with the biggest names in the genre. 1965's "Got To Get You Off My Mind" was a number one R&B hit, "Tonight's The Night" made number two, while his songs "Someone Is Watching", "Only Love (Can Save Me Now)", "Baby Come On Home" and the rather unfortunately titled "I Feel A Sin Coming On" all made the pop Hot 100. An album 'The Best Of Solomon Burke' was released in 1965. Yet despite the string of successful releases there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in Solomon's relationship with Atlantic.

Solomon Burke: The '60s soul music legend and a spiritual enigma

In 1966 a batch of Atlantic's best selling soul artists - Solomon Burke, Arthur Conley, Don Covay, Ben E King, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Joe Tex - went to the label to propose a special deal to record an album under the name The Soul Clan. Remembered Solomon, "You gotta remember that artists weren't being paid in those days. When I was with Atlantic, a three cent royalty was big time. You understand what I'm saying? We walked in and asked for a million dollars. We all went in together. We were all on the charts. We all asked for a million dollars for a real estate project, as an organisation, as a soul clan. We intended to buy up a lot of property in the south, in the ghetto areas and re-model them and build homes. And, we needed a million dollars to put this project together. We walked into Atlantic asking for that and wound up being put on the back shelf. We lost a whole lot from that. Nowadays the artists walk in and ask for a million dollars and that's just for the studio time. (laughs) All of us together were asking for a million. You and I know of course that all of us together at that time made millions and millions for Atlantic."

The Soul Clan album did get made but, under promoted, it didn't sell too well. In his last two years with Atlantic Solomon continued to turn out workmanlike performances, often as enjoyable as his early hits, at worst occasionally dull. As critic Cliff White wrote, "In his nine years with Atlantic Records he never made a truly bad record, but towards the end, perhaps tired after so many years on the road and more than a little dispirited by the predictability of the arrangements, which had become increasingly stereotyped, he didn't always project the personality that had once dominated his best work. On the dullest of tracks he was just another competent soul singer."

Most of the later recordings gained him R&B chart entries, and given the right song he could still clock up a Hot 100 hit. An uncomfortable version of Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" sold well - many whites bought it out of curiosity I should think - and then in 1967 his fortunes with Atlantic were revived with "Take Me Just As I Am". After always recording him in New York, Atlantic belatedly sent Solomon to Memphis to cut this Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham composition. Despite its success he returned north to see out his contract, scoring a last hit for them with "I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)", a song originally penned by jazzman Billy Taylor and kept popular in the UK down the years by its use as the theme music for Barry Norman's Film TV series.

Largely ignoring the influence of the new younger leaders of black music, Solomon continued to release a steady flow of fine soul ballads, selling consistently well to hardcore devotees. All but four of the tracks recorded during an 18 month stay with Bell Records were packaged on the 'Proud Mary' LP after his minor success with the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit. Recording again in the south, Memphis and Muscle Shoals, he did a superb job on several well known perennials, including "That Lucky Old Sun", "What Am I Living For" and "Please Send Me Someone To Love", but then the two following singles flopped. His own "Generation Of Revelations" failed to impress and the Mac Davies song "In The Ghetto" had already cleaned up for Elvis, so he moved on to the west coast, signing for MGM.

Established as a consistent, if unspectacular, salesman of middle-of-the-road soul, Solomon was content to give up the grind of nationwide tours. Settling in Los Angeles he sought wider opportunities. As he told a US reporter: "A lot of my time has been spent producing television shows, including an as yet untransmitted variety show tentatively called Soul Search, which is centred around the 1976 bicentennial in America." He also scored Love Thy Neighbour and several films including Cool Breeze, BJ Hammer and the American versions of some Japanese and Chinese movies. At the same time he was deeply involved in community work, assisting The Cripple Children's Foundation for blind and underprivileged children, while personally being responsible for more than 120 adopted children.

Solomon Burke: The '60s soul music legend and a spiritual enigma

His record debut for MGM, "Lookin' Out My Back Door", another Creedence Clearwater song, was disappointing and not redeemed by his 1971 'Electronic Magnetism' album, an ambitious project with songs by Elton John, Sly Stone, a couple of gospel numbers and some new material by his family. The title track, with its Barry White overtones, made 26 in the R&B chart. The following year Solomon had another R&B hit for MGM, with a typical piece of homespun wisdom "Love Street And Fool's Road". By the time Burke joined ABC Records in 1974 his star was beginning to wane. A single "Midnight And You" made number 14 R&B and, the following year, the Chess single "You And Your Baby Blues" also picked up R&B play. But the hits were no longer as big as they used to be.

Solomon maintained his involvement with Church ministry - he was now a Bishop of his own denomination - so it was no surprise that in 1979 he signed a deal with gospel music giant Savoy Records. The company, founded in 1942 by Herman Lubinsky in Newark, New Jersey, enjoyed big sellers in the '60s and '70s with traditional acts like James Cleveland. Over the next five years Solomon recorded a string of straight gospel albums, 'Lord, I Need A Miracle Right Now' (1979), 'Into My Life You Came' (1982), 'Take Me, Shake Me' (1983) and 'This Is His Song' (1984), one of which picked up a Gospel Grammy though, after his years of flamboyant soul stardom the more conservative elements within the African American church were reluctant to entirely embrace the singer back to the fold.

In 1980 Solomon got a surprise step up to his dwindling showbiz presence when he took some of his children to see The Blues Brothers movie starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Viewing old friends from the '60s soul circuit up there on the screen, Solomon felt demoralised. Then he heard "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" burst from the cinema speakers. Solomon said he was stunned to see his hit attributed to Wilson Pickett. Burke called Atlantic the next day and threatened to get an injunction to shut down the movie. "They sent me an advance for $20,000 within 24 hours," remembered Burke. "Jerry Wexler got on the phone and said, 'I thought you were dead! This is wonderful!'"

Solomon's return to the mainstream pop/R&B release schedules came about almost by accident. Solomon recounted, "My son was just 14 years old when he got the 'Soul Alive!' album released. That was on Rounder Records. It was something that we had in the garage, a tape. When he became 12, I said, 'Listen, it's your publishing company now. You gotta deal with this business. It's your thing. All these tapes are yours.' He sat there. I was playing some of the stuff. He said, 'Dad, what do you want to do with this tape?' I said, 'It's just an old tape of my show.' He went into the studio, played around with it, put it on a 16 track, pumped it up and we made a deal with Rounder with the tape. It became one of the biggest live tapes I ever had. So that started him in the producing and recording business."

After the strong sales of 'Soul Alive!' Solomon tried a Christmas single "The Silent Night Story" backed with "Let's Keep The Christ In Christmas" but that didn't sell and neither did his second Rounder album 'A Change Is Gonna Come' (1986), hinged around Sam Cooke's quasi-gospel ballad oldie. The album 'Love Trap' (MCI/ISIS Voice) was released in 1987. Also in that year Solomon's Atlantic classic "Cry To Me" was used in the Dirty Dancing hit movie. In 1991 Bizarre/Straight released 'Homeland'. Around that time Solomon was asked what was the secret of his longevity? He responded, "The secret is no drugs, no alcohol, no smoking and an awful lot of faith and trust in God. Basically that's the secret. Just keeping yourself organised, mentally, physically and spiritually and everything works out for you. Of course you know, you sing all the time. You try to speak properly. You try to talk properly. I'm more excited these days working with my youngest son now, who's recording and producing. He's my pride and joy right now, as far as this singing thing is concerned. I get a chance to sit in the rehearsals with him. It's a lot of fun. It pays off. It really does."

Solomon continued to release albums throughout the '90s - 'Soul Of The Blues' (Black Top, 1993), 'Live At The House Of The Blues' (Black Top, 1994), 'The Definition Of Soul' (Point Blank, 1997), 'Not By Water But Fire This Time' (GTR, 1999) and 'Christmas All Over The World' (GTR, 1999) but the veteran singer's big hits seemed long gone.

Solomon Burke: The '60s soul music legend and a spiritual enigma

Over the years Solomon's weight had ballooned. Also he began to suffer from arthritis that gradually wrecked his knees and hips. As the years took their toll the impact of the veteran soul man's live performances dwindled with the singer often performing sitting down. However Solomon continued to retain his emotively soulful voice. Trips to Europe continued and in 2002 he delivered his best selling album for years when Fat Possum/ANTI released the magnificent 'Don't Give Up On Me' album. It was included in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2002 list, Mojo magazine put it at 34 in their 100 Modern Classics article and the Grammy Awards named it Best Contemporary Blues Album. With singer/songwriter producer Joe Henry favouring stripped down arrangements and subtly spectral reverb on Solomon's husky baritone and a stellar list of songwriting contributors including Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Dan Penn, Bob Dylan and Joe Henry himself 'Don't Give Up On Me' catapulted Solomon back into the pop/rock mainstream. His appearances on the Jools Holland TV shows (and on Holland's Autumn tour of the UK in 2005 including two sell out shows at London's Royal Albert Hall) featured the veteran singing the new material mixed with some of his all Atlantic classics.

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Reader Comments

Posted by Sonia in Olsztyn @ 13:59 on Nov 28 2018

Thank you so much for this article. It's probably the best of all I've read on the internet. Solomon Burke was a great artist, but almost nobody knows him in my country, although everybody knows his songs.
So thanks again.



Posted by David Hall in Mansfield, UK @ 21:05 on Nov 9 2010

A really informative and great article, Thanks



Posted by Joseph Zamberlin in Los Angeles @ 04:07 on Nov 9 2010

Tremendously well written, Mr. Cummings. Kudos.



Posted by Victoria Burke in Los Angeles, CA @ 00:39 on Nov 9 2010

Thank you so very much for a great article that expresses and makes clear his spiritual backgroud and how it propelled him to be just who he was. In all his doctorerine of religon and faith may not have been right on, but he was annointed and blessed. Blessed enough to be unselfish and give of himself to all mankind. He brought many people close to Christ and helped them to have faith!
Thanks again for a well writen article on my father the Legenday King of Rock and Soul!
Daughter #13 and child# 20,
Victoria Burke



Posted by Rob J in Hertfordshire, England @ 11:26 on Nov 6 2010

Solomon was the first major black artist to cover Bob Dylan.
His version of "Maggie's Farm" is superb and worth checking out. He never really got the acclaim that lesser talents got, but the Stones recognised his brilliance with their covers of his songs. Tom Jones
was certainly heavily influenced by him.

RIP. He was a class act...



Posted by Jane Vickers in Los Angeles @ 17:14 on Nov 5 2010

a brilliant article! thanks.


Reply by Bea Jackson in Durham, NC @ 14:09 on Jan 15 2013

I am trying to use an image of Solomon Burke on a book cover for Duke University Press. Can you tell me who manages his estate?

[report abuse]


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