I often speak of how the best Stax Records blended together different strains of gospel, country blues, urban blues, and rhythm and blues music into a “new sound of southern soul.” But I eventually realized that such terms don’t really exist in the world of sound but exist only in the minds of the folks listening to these sounds. In a very real and profound way, all music flows from and returns to the same source. (The fact that the only way to discuss music is to use such terms is an entirely different, etymological discussion.)

Songwriter and singer William Bell put this knowledge into good practice during the nine years he recorded for Stax and his exemplary debut The Soul of a Bell seems to capture all that was great about the label. Bell recorded this debut during the label’s 1966 – ’67 heyday with the quintessential Stax band – Booker T. & the MGs as Bell’s rhythm machine, supplemented with vocals, arrangements and gospel piano from Isaac Hayes, plus the Memphis Horns.

Like many Stax albums, The Soul of a Bell compiles a litany of individually-recorded singles under one convenient cover. And like many Stax artists, Bell reinterprets several familiar tunes into this “new sound of southern soul.” These include the Casinos’ breakout hit “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” the B-side of Aretha Franklin’s first single and subsequently a hit on its own. But Bell’s most glorious reading is his smoldering interpretation of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now),” which matches the intense spiritual agony of Otis Redding’s classic original.

The leadoff track “Everybody Loves a Winner,” a soulful lament with strings, became a Top 20 single; the album also features stereo re-recordings of two other singles, “Any Other Way” and Bell’s first hit, 1961’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water.”

The glorious blending of soulful vocals, gospel piano, bluesy guitar and heartfelt rhythms on The Soul of a Bell show that William Bell knew that music was music and that labels were just words that folks used to talk about it. “I think I was the original pop artist that Stax had because a lot of the stuff that I did was crossing over,” he once mused. “But Stax was noted as basically a rhythm and blues company. So it was like I was straddling the fence for awhile. I was a good balladeer but not a lot on uptempo products. Because of the gospel influence, the ballads would go rhythm and blues, but when I’d do uptempo stuff it came up pop.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 5:26 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.