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JOHNNIE TAYLOR
Lifetime - A Retrospective Of
Soul, Blues and Gospel (Stax)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
The late Johnnie Taylor is best remembered, at least by the masses, for one incredibly hot song: "Who's Makin' Love." You remember: "who's makin' love to your old lady while you were out makin' love?" Yeah, that scorched, but it was just a taste and not even a representative one. The legendary Stax label, now under the care of Fantasy Records, has just released a three disc box set that covers it all. You want to know about Johnnie Taylor? Want to really know? Here it is.
Disc one melts you where you stand. Taylor came up singing gospel, a protege of Sam Cooke's who took real good notes. When Cooke went mainstream, Taylor stepped into his role with The Soul Stirrers, and there are five tracks from that group and one from Taylor's previous gospel group, The Highway Q.C.'s, for a little foreshadowing. Taylor's journey into the secular world is documented quite well here, with early, raw but oh-so-fine tracks as well as liner note information about how it happened. Not your usual "needed the money" kind of thing. Apparently he was driving around one day, smoking weed, and he ran over a little girl. The group bailed him out of jail but dropped him like a hot potato. (The girl survived.) Cast out of heaven, as it were, Taylor worked his way through SAR Records (which had also been home to Sam Cooke once he'd gone secular) and into Stax and the history books. By the end of disc one, his wonderfully gritty voice was being cradled by Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Booker T. and company. Collectors should appreciate the abundance of unissued alternate takes.
Although disc two contains his incendiary hit, "Who's Making Love," and the follow-ups that approached its fire, the majority of the music is blues, and that's the thing that most people don't realize. Johnnie Taylor could sing anything you put in front of him, but when you put the blue lights up and brought the tempo down, the man was pure magic. Try to stay indifferent when "Mr. Nobody Is Somebody Now" is playing. Sung by most artists it'd be nice. Sung by Mr. Taylor it's an eyes-closed, body-swayin', moving experience. The disc ends as the 70s have just come in, and with it a hint of funk, which, for the uninitiated, seems like a setup for disc three.
However, Johnnie Taylor still wasn't ready to go the fad route. Disc three has blues, blues, soul, blues, and so on most of the way, with sweet gems like "We're Getting Careless With Our Love" and "Doing My Own Thing," but eventually the times had to dictate the agenda. After his association with Stax, he recorded the embarrassing "Disco Lady," sold a shitload of records and was suddenly making product. It sold so many records, in fact, that it had to be included on this box set, even though it's like painting a pimple on the Mona Lisa, but you know... spilt milk, right? Two tracks later is "God Is Standing By," a startling return to gospel, possibly prompted by the conscience of a man who'd just made a mint off a song that went "move it in move it out" over and over, but I'm just speculating here. When the cash register wasn't making loud chinging noises anymore, he was invited to leave Columbia and showed up at Malaco, a rather cool little label that had put out some surprising records by artists everyone thought were history. Malaco knew the answer to Johnnie's problem. Back to the blues, man, back to what you do. The records he made there were no world beaters, but they're highly listenable. You want to hear it again.
So we have a three CD box set with a fair sized scoop of hot soul and a triple scoop of crushed velvet blues, with only a few embarrassing moments that 1) had to be included because they're historically important and 2) might just be your favorite Johnnie Taylor songs, anyway. Most of all what we have here is a box set that is a very fair representation of the career of artist. It's quite wonderful, and it's highly recommended.
Track Lists:
Disc One:
I Dreamed That Heaven Was Like This * Heaven Is My Home (Take 1) * The Love Of God (Take 7-Previously Unissued Alternate) * Out On A Hill (Take 1-Alt.) * Until Then (Take 3-Alt.) * When The Gates Swing Open * Never Never * Rome (Wasn't Built In A Day) * Dance What You Wanna * Baby We've Got Love * I Had A Dream * Easy Lovin' (Previously Unissued) * I've Got To Love Somebody's Baby * Just The One (I've Been Looking For)(Take 7-Previously Unissued Alt.) * Part Time Love (Take 2-Previously Unissued Alt.) * Sixteen Tons (Take 6-Previously Unissued Alt.) * Somebody's Sleeping In My Bed * Blues In The Night (Take 1-Previously Unissued Alt.) * Save You Love For Me (Take 2-Previously Unissued Alt.) * I Need Lots Of Love (Previously Unissued) * You Can't Win With A Losing Hand (Take 3-Prevously Unissued) * Rumors * You Don't Know Like I Know (Take 3-Previously Unissued) * Twenty Years From Today (Take 4-Previously Unissued Alt.) * Twenty Years From Today (Take 7-Previously Unissued Alt.)
Disc Two:
Little Bluebird * Toe Hold * That's Where It's At * I Ain't Particular * Woman Across The River * Who's Making Love * I'm Not The Same Person * I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water * Mr. Nobody Is Somebody Now * Take Care Of Your Homework * Testify (I Wanna) * Separation Line * I Could Never Be President * Love Bones * Steal Away Steal Away (Live-Previously Unissued) * I Am Somebody (Parts 1 & 2) * Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone * I Don't Wanna Lose You (Parts 1 & 2) * Don't Take My Sunshine * Hijackin' Love
Disc Two:
Standing In For Jody * Doing My Own Thing (Part 1) * Stop Doggin' Me * I Believe In You (You Believe In Me) * Cheaper To Keep Her We're Getting Careless With Our Love * Starting All Over Again * I've Been Born Again * It's September * Try Me Tonight * Free * Disco Lady * Running Out Of Lies * God Is Standing By * Play Something Pretty * Lady My Whole World Is You * Lover Boy * Last Two Dollars * Soul Heaven
© 2001 - DJ Johnson