Attending the Stax 50th Anniversary show at The Hollywood Bowl on July 18 – a somewhat leaner version of the June 22 spectacular in Memphis, bereft of the outstanding sets by The Soul Children and Rance Allen – I was struck by what were the three artists whose performances deservedly seem to draw the most response from the audience and noted the common theme: all three – the distinguished Dr. Mable John, the amiable William Bell and neo-soul star Angie Stone – offered songs that featured what can best be described as the ‘classic soul rap.’

With Mable, it was “Your Good Thing (Is About To End),” the Hayes-Porter song that gave the Detroit native her biggest Stax hit record; with William, his perennial “I Forgot To Be Your Lover,” covered by such artists as Billy Idol and Johnnie Taylor; and Angie Stone reinterpreting Shirley Brown’s enduring “Woman To Woman.” The common thread? The trio of soulful songs had a relationship theme, Mable and Angie dealing with infidelity, William on the cost of neglect inside a partnership; and all three included truth-tellin’ spoken raps that emphasized the lyrics of each respective tune. The effect – as has always been the case whenever this particular device is used – is to elicit immediate reaction from the crowd. Cries of “I hear you,” “You better speak on it” and “Tell it!” are commonplace whenever Mable and William perform these classic ‘60s songs; while “Woman To Woman” – whether performed by Angie or its originator, Shirley – is likely to induce cries (as it did last Wednesday) of “you don’t need no man if you gotta pay his car note!” (a reference to one of the song’s spoken word opening in which the singer mentions being the one who buys her man’s clothes, provides the food he eats and pays the car note – which Angie revised to say “split”!).

The soul rap has its origins in the church: many a great gospel singer has used personal testimony in the midst of praising The Lord. It’s hard to say which R&B performer first perfected the art but certainly folks like Joe Tex and Solomon Burke immediately spring to mind. Certainly, Stax had its fair share of soul singers who liked to spice up their live shows with righteous raps – think the late Johnnie Taylor, who was particularly masterful at the art and on record The Soul Children. In the ‘70s, Millie Jackson’s appeal to a mostly black audience was based on her uncensored straight-up raps about sex and that continues to this day; go to see Ms. Jackson and you will get no-nonsense real-life sagas told with expletive-laced humor. Jazz-soul stylist Marlena Shaw had her biggest hit with “Yu Ma/Go Away Little Boy,” in which she rapped about a man she was about to throw out until he used his ‘charms’ to break down her resistance. Laura Lee, formerly a Chess artist made her mark with extensive raps on her Hotwax recordings of the ‘70s and even the sophisticated Ms. Natalie Cole still gets an immediate response from her audiences when she laces “Catching Hell” with a little soul rap!

Suffice it to say, it’s the folks like Mable John and William Bell who are past masters at the art and thankfully keep it alive when they perform. Ain’t nothin,’ as Ashford & Simpson wrote, like the real thing!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.