Friday, November 11, 2011

The Soul Corner - Sam Cooke

The Soul Corner is coming up to the end of its calendar year run, and looking for the essential artists or songs we may have overlooked.
No one sang sweeter or with more feeling than the great Sam Cooke. The 1964 classic "A Change is Gonna Come" represented a significant stylistic change for Cooke. Legend has it that hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowing the Wind" while Cooke himself was being denied entry into Southern motels while on tour, inspired him to move away from his pop style hits like "Twisting the Night Away" to write something topical and from his heart. The vocal here is so weary, so heartfelt, so true:

And here's another of my Sam Cooke all-time favorites:

If you have a request for these final editions of the Soul Corner, please post them in the Comments section here or track me down. I'll be posting a survey soon on what we should do on Fridays in 2012.

3 comments:

Frank Fahey said...

I would love to see some Lavern Baker(Jim Dandy, etc), Irma Thomas, or anybody J Geils covered. I love the soul Fridays, Thanks

Jim Desmond said...

Frank,
Those are fine suggestions and I suspect you will see one or both before the year is over. Funny you mention the J Geils cover angle because the very first Soul Corner way back in January was the Contours "First I Look at the Purse".
I appreciate the post. Thanks for reading.
JD

Anonymous said...

Jim,

A little Cameo, perhaps?

Having fun catching up on the Soul Corners I missed. Especially appreciated the one on Charles Wright.

SZ