Dis-Covering Soul Treasure
March 22nd, 2008 byThe Soul Children did some mighty huffin’ and puffin’ with the original material recorded during the sessions covered by Hold On, I’m Coming, and we’ve seen how much of this music copped Top 20 R&B single status. But the best music to come out of these sessions was three tunes made famous by other artists yet enlivened by these new and different Stax treatments.
Its title track was the most important and successful, and also unusual because it featured the writers and producers of the original song rearranging that material and serving as producers for the cover version too. Isaac Hayes was more sure than anyone, including co-composer and production partner David Porter and male Children vocalists Norman West and J. Blackfoot, that they could back off the throttle of Sam & Dave’s original houserocker yet lose no power by cutting the groove down into a more slow-burning and funky stomp. Hayes’ vision proved correct, especially when executed in Blackfoot’s hot, torrential singing voice like the end of the first verse. This funky update made it to #48 R&B single.
Blackfoot’s voice also dominates “Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing,” a hit for Lou Rawls in 1966, especially through powerful opening lines that burn as hard and hot as any Otis Redding vocal. “I want to talk about love right now,” he begins; then as if lost for new words to express his testimony, Blackfoot repeats the phrase “right now” over and over, hammering down riveting soul. Produced by Jim Stewart and Al Jackson, Jr., “Love is a Hurtin’ Thing” might have deserved better than its #59 R&B singles chart placement.
Stewart and Jackson also produced the Children’s version of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours,” a group vocal led by the female Children and the last cut on Hold On, I’m Coming drawn from these foundational 1970 - ‘73 sessions. Its strikingly rearranged tempo, slowed down to the sweet thick taste of country molasses, lets you hear Stevie Wonder’s familiar classic in a whole new way.
