that is most definitely where it’s at
I’m a huge Sam Cooke fan - have been ever since Mr. Ethan “Ethane” Stead brought the compilation The Man and His Music
But it’s gone mostly unmentioned that Sam Cooke was shot and killed before his song was ever released. So - I’m heading out to Jo’s Coffee to watch the inauguration shortly, but before I do, I wanted to add my own note to the eight zillion other press angles being explored on this historic occasion.
Cooke was a ground-breaker in his own right; one of the first true crossover artists, huge on both the pop and R&B charts. He also was among the very first black Americans to start his own label (SAR) and publishing company. Most of his songs (after he left gospel) were romantic pop; Cooke arrived well before Marvin Gaye, Sly, and others took soul music in a political direction.
“A Change Is Gonna Come” was a huge leap for a pop star in 1964 - it’s worth noting, for example, that Otis Redding never wrote anything on this level; his own famous posthumous hit was about…sitting. And - settle down, Otis fans - that’s a classic, but it shows that not everyone in this business felt moved to, or capable of contributing something on the topic of civil rights.
In fact Cooke recorded “A Change Is Gonna Come” after hearing Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” - we don’t usually think of Dylan inspiring soul singers, but there it is: Cooke heard that song and felt he had to make a statement of his own. We’re still relying on Cooke’s statement to express the mood of the moment more than forty years later. And I would say only Aretha Franklin – who will of course be there at the inauguration – possibly bested his own version of the song.
As for Cooke, the circumstances of his death were murky and embarrassing. Shot in a motel on Figueroa in L.A. by the night manager, who claimed he assaulted her, after also assaulting his date. Not the best scenario for creating a legend - plane crash works better. Strangely, ‘choked on vomit’ also works better.
The problem for his legacy isn’t so much that his exit scene was sordid; it’s that it was incongruous with his public image. No real shock when Jimi, Janis, or Jim intoxicate themselves to death, or when Biggie or Tupac is shot - sad as they all were, in each case, the death fits the myth. But Cooke was dapper, romantic, even angelic; no one expected him to get shot in a dirty motel, and people ever since haven’t been able to square his demise with the sound of his voice. So he’s been somewhat sidelined, which is a shame, because he is arguably - watch this! I’m arguing it right now - the greatest soul singer of all time. Jerry Wexler, who heard many of them come and go, would go a step further, and say Cooke was “the best singer who ever lived, no contest.”
But Cooke’s albums are uneven, to put it gently - to put it less gently, he suffered through some of the most godawful producing & arranging decisions in the history of soul, probably because he was one of the first, and no one had any idea what to do with him. In retrospect, the thing to do obviously would have been to leave him and his voice mostly alone, and where that happened - on Night Beat
Hard to pick one track for you. I assume you’ve heard enough of “A Change is Gonna Come” lately, so I’m going for “That’s Where It’s At”. Cooke could growl and shout with the best of them, but what makes him stand apart (in my mind, anyway) is how hard he could press a note and still stay so, so smooth. Enjoy and…I have to say it…God Bless America.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
For fifty years, I have been Sam Cooke fan. I agree that the “Man and His Music” is best studio CD but his talent even shines through on earlier RCA CDs intended for white teenage audiences (”Bring It on Home to Me” is a fantastic track–Lou Rawls is singing harmony). I also suggest listening to his best live recordings –”One Night Stand! Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club”(1963)–not the best mixed recording but captures Sam in a traditional R&B setting. Two other suggestions: there is well written biography (Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke) by the talented rock writer Peter Guralnick; also take a look at the DVD (Sam Cooke: Legend) available from Netflixs.