Al Green – Sayin’ it.

The Amazing and Immortal Al Green to end the week – from the Soul! program via NET on October 22, 1972.

Ask and ye shall find – I complained about the comparative paucity of live Soul performances going back a few decades and some gems suddenly show up. This one, some of the earliest examples of Al Green give a clear indication of how wildly popular he was with all audiences from the early 70s on. Cut from the same cloth as Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Picket and James Brown, Al Green grabbed audiences and smothered them with love and Soul and the deepest emotion on the planet.

From 1981 to 1989, Al Green recorded a series of gospel albums. While still under contract with Hi Records, Green released the 1980 album The Lord Will Make a Way, his first of six albums on the Christian label Myrrh Records. The title song from the album would later win Green his first of eight Grammy Awards in the Best Soul Gospel Performance category. In 1982, Green co-starred with Patti LaBelle in the Broadway play “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God“. In 1984, director Robert Mugge released a documentary film, Gospel According to Al Green, including interviews about his life and footage from his church. In 1985, he reunited with Willie Mitchell along with Angelo Earl for He Is the Light, his first album for A&M Records. His 1987 follow-up, Soul Survivor, featured the minor hit, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”, which reached No. 22 on the Billboard R&B chart, his first top-40 R&B hit since “I Feel Good” in 1978.

At the time of this concert, he released I’m Still in Love with You (October 1972),which went platinum with the help of the singles “Look What You Done for Me” and the title track, both of which went to the top 10 on the Hot 100. His next album, Call Me (April 1973), produced three top-10 singles: “You Ought to Be with Me“, “Call Me (Come Back Home)“, and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)“. In addition to these hit singles, Green also had radio hits with songs such as “Love and Happiness“, his cover of the Bee Gees‘ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart“, “Simply Beautiful“, “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is”, and “Take Me to the River” (later covered successfully by new wave band Talking Heads and blues artist Syl Johnson).

Here’s a chance to dive back and sample what got everybody so excited in the early 70s.

Dive in and breathe a sigh of relief – so far, so good.

And while you’re at it: