Classic Pop Icons

Harley Payette looks back on some of the greatest performances of Solomon Burke, who died on October 10.

Fogerty wrote those words, for the liner notes of Solomon Burke’s “Proud Mary” LP in 1969, more than three decades before I heard Burke’s masterful version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s signature tune. Yet, hearing Burke sing “Proud Mary” had much the same impact on me that it had on Fogerty.

I can’t speak to what it felt like to be the songwriter of such an iconic hit and hearing someone reinvent it, but by the time I encountered Burke singing “Proud Mary” it seemed like it belonged to me and everyone who had lived in the decades since it was written. It was as familiar as my own backyard. While it was still able to bring me pleasure and comfort, I had seemingly heard everything the song had to tell me. There seemed to be nothing new to find. Then I heard Solomon Burke sing it, and the song opened up. Using the song’s churning rhythm, Burke preached as much as he sang. He improvised and changed some of the lyrics. The song suddenly came alive with the American experience, from its darkest chapters like slavery to the triumphs of a shared culture. It was truly like hearing “Proud Mary” for the first time. The song was playing in my CD player or my head almost nonstop for a month.

The miracle Solomon Burke performed on a warhorse like “Proud Mary” is emblematic of how much we lost when Burke passed away at the age of either 70 or 74 on October 10. For nearly 50 years, Burke reminded us that great singing could be more than pretty aural wallpaper – that it was something artful and profound.

Such a revelation is easy to miss in the career of Solomon Burke. Although he was never a superstar, Burke lived a life as large as his hefty frame. If he had had lived a century ago, he might be the stuff of folklore. A preacher at age seven, a teller of tall tales who claimed not one but two years as his year of birth, an ahead of his time black businessman, an actor, a licensed mortician, social activist, even a comedian; Solomon Burke was all those things. If he had never uttered a musical note, he would still be one of the 20th century’s great characters.

He did utter musical notes though, and such notes. If the details of Burke’s colorful life grab our interest, his singing grabs our hearts and our minds and is his ultimate claim to immortality.

Burke never attained the chart status or sales of other great soul singers of his generation like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye. He never made the Billboard Pop Top 20. Even in Joel Whitburn’s rankings of the most popular artists on the R&B charts, Burke only made #90 – better than not being listed at all, but not exactly dominant. He even got scooped on the biggest versions of signature hits like “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “Cry to Me” (Wilson Pickett and Betty Harris brought those records into the Pop Top 40. Burke only managed #58 and #44.) Despite never quite receiving his just commercial acclaim, King Solomon was probably one of the 15-25 best singers in any genre of his generation.

After some false starts, the world first discovered just how great Solomon Burke was with his 1961-1968 Atlantic records. On his second try with the label, singing a decade old country song, Burke would create one of the most influential hits of the 1960s. Orchestrated and backed with a high-pitched female chorus, Solomon’s “Just Out of Reach (of My Two Empty Arms)” could have been a Jim Reeves record, save for the urbanity and elasticity in Burke’s voice. Although it was a beautifully realized performance, it hardly seemed like the start of a musical revolution, but in a small sense it certainly was that. The record reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Solomon’s second biggest hit) in November 1961 buts it impact far outstripped that rather modest chart performance.

Solomon Burke – “Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)”

Audiences were often fooled as to Solomon’s race, continuing the obliteration between black and white cultures that had been taking place over the previous decade. The sound and content of “Just Out of Reach” set the stage for the next huge blow in that battle – Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music records, which were the pop phenomenon of 1962. “Just Out of Reach,” is very much what became the Modern Sounds style only with Solomon Burke singing lead. Ray Charles went from star to icon using that formula and “Just Out of Reach” greased the way.

Stylistically, the record was important because it so much defined what Burke was all about. He was an artist that refused to be pigeon holed by genre. He was just as much pop as gospel, country as blues, rock as r&b. In phrasing, arrangement, material and production he incorporated all those styles, often in the same song. His best often obliterated the phony line that separated the genres amongst performers and listeners. Somewhat immodestly perhaps, he later billed himself as the “King of Rock N’ Soul” – a phrase that underlined that commonality. Personally, I’ve always preferred Burke’s tag to the more restrictive rock or rock n’ roll, whenever I think of post-Presley rhythm based popular music.

Of course, the biggest impact that “Just Out of Reach” had was that it kicked off Burke’s career as a performer of national importance. Along with Sam Cooke and Charles, Solomon was among the first performers to mainstream gospel mannerisms into the music that became soul. As if that weren’t enough, he became a primary influence on a group of white performers as well, not the least of which was Mick Jagger who based much of his vocal style on Burke and remade several of his tunes with the Rolling Stones.

The next five years on Atlantic Records were Burke’s golden era as he scored hit after hit, often produced by the underrated Bert Berns. Many of these were in a more heavily accentuated gospel type style and nearly all are soul standards today. The list includes “Cry to Me,” “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” “The Price,” “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” “If You Need Me,” and “Tonight’s The Night.”

Solomon Burke – “Got to Get You Off My Mind”

The Atlantic hits displayed an artist who had the elusive “it” as a singer. His best records of the era are examples of how popular singing should be done.

Burke was blessed with a multi-octave voice which naturally sat somewhere between a low tenor and high baritone, probably closer to the tenor in those days. (As Guralnick pointed out, Burke, like Elvis Presley, favored sudden dramatic sweeps between the ends of his range.) But it wasn’t just his voice. Other singers had a greater range or a more naturally beautiful instrument. Few, though, could equal Solomon’s musical instincts and the thought that went into his interpretations.

Burke’s second hit, 1962’s “Cry To Me,” which defined his image in the wake of “Just Out of Reach,” is a good example of his creative approach. When Bert Berns brought “Cry to Me” to Burke it was a slower, more meditative song. It was Solomon’s idea to speed it up, to make it sway to a Latin dance rhythm. What could have been a song of consolation becomes, in Burke’s hands, one of pop’s great seductions. Solomon’s phrasing and Berns’ production builds from verse to verse, shifting intensity. You can almost feel the singer’s seduction advance from phase to phase.

Solomon Burke – “Cry To Me”

Solomon’s absolute masterpiece on Atlantic was his 1964 rendition of Jim Reeves’ signature hit “He’ll Have to Go.” “Just Out of Reach” already established Burke as the finest countrypolitan singer north of the Mason/Dixon line, but “He’ll Have to Go” took him to another level. Anchored by the strum of an acoustic guitar and a delicious female soul chorus, Burke’s version is slower and more contemplative than Reeves’. (It’s almost a minute longer.) Although Solomon was associated with the vocally flamboyant gospel style, tracks like this one show he knew when to pull back. He gently caresses each phrase until he gets to the bridge where he makes his greatest statement – “You can’t say the words I want to hear while you’re with another man. If you love me, answer yes or no, darling I will understand.” When Burke gets to the word “with” he spits it out, almost hissing the final syllable. Then there’s a dramatic pause before he slides into the word “another,” emphasizing each individual syllable of the word. He attaches “man” to “another” without a break, linking them as an idea. Then he gets down to cases, stammering “if you want me, answer yes or no,” breaking for each individual word. With these choices, he helps us define the underlying anxiety of the lyric, an anxiety that Reeves and almost every other interpreter of the song ignored.

Gordon Stoker, of the Jordanaires, said Elvis Presley could get more out of a single word than any singer he knew. After listening to this fantastic passage, you know Elvis had company in his ability to draw out the maximum meaning of every single word in a song.

Right when we feel we’re getting at the heart of the protagonist’s sense of anger at potential betrayal, Burke shifts gears with a sweet melisma on the word “understand.” You sense the singer’s compassion for his woman in light of their separation. Even if it is he, not the unnamed male companion who gets his walking papers, you know he will always love her.

That amazing bridge, though, was only the highlight of this tour de force. When you listen on, Burke continues to astound as he switches from that sense of anxiety to the absolute assurance of the song’s happy ending. He almost whispers the word “go”, foregoing any anger he might have held over his women seeking comfort in the arms of another. On the fade out, he gently coos the phrase “let him go” several times, and you can feel his pride and comfort in the reconciliation after his moment of uncertainty. When he lets out a gentle hum in the song’s final seconds you become elated with a gentle sense of victory and validation.

Listening to a track like this, you’re not only overwhelmed at the beauty of its sound, but your mind is stimulated to imagine the lives of the characters in the song. A few accents and phrases from Burke create entire lifetimes in our minds. And those imagined worlds help us find a place in our own.

When I hear a track like that, I’m glad I’m alive because it’s thrilling to experience anything done so well. That is the gift of the finest singers.

That gift did not vanish when Burke left Atlantic Records. We saw it again with that gorgeous reading of “Proud Mary,” and the album that accompanied it. We saw it in some of his 1970s recordings on MGM, and his great 1984 (recorded in 1981) live album “Soul Alive”. And we saw it in the marvelous streak of records that King Solomon undertook in the last decade.

Few men past the age of 60 have the ability to reinvent themselves but that’s what Burke did on these records. His voice was so low it now approached a bass. The arrangements were as spare as anything he ever did. The lyrics dealt with mortality more than traditional romantic and spiritual concerns. The backbone of his musical form now seemed the blues more than gospel.

This new ground, though, did not alter his considered approach to lyrics or his emotional commitment. And it did nothing to sway the complete assurance he displayed throughout his career on any type of material. The recordings, especially the title-track from the 2002 album “Don’t Give Up On Me,” rivaled anything he ever did. The album won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Solomon Burke – “Don’t Give Up On Me” (live)

The title of “Don’t Give Up On Me” was very appropriate as, once I found him, I never did give up on Solomon Burke and in the end he usually rewarded my faith. Even though he’s gone, I still won’t give up on Solomon Burke because the legacy of his recorded work will continue to inspire me with thoughts and emotions I might not have otherwise thought or felt. Work like his is a building block of life.

All of the songs referenced above, except “Don’t Give Up On Me”, can be found on the excellent 2-CD compilation “Solomon Burke – Definitive Soul Collection.”

Title
Solomon Burke – The Definitive Soul Collection (2 CDs)	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now
Solomon Burke – Don’t Give Up On Me (CD)	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now