Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, July 29th, '09

In 1970, Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell pulled together something that sounded like nothing else that came before, but they did so by streamlining and simplifying the approach to recording soul music at a time when recording was getting more involved, layered, and flashy. While the sound they forged was smoother than the mostly raw-edged soul music that gave Memphis its reputation, it was also flat and relatively unadorned, with an immediate and intimate presence, lending it an urgency and sensuality that influenced most soul and R&B music that followed from the early to mid-'70s onward, from Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass and beyond. "Tired of Being Alone" is a perfect example of that distinctive style. While the first album of material Green recorded with Mitchell, Green Is Blues, laid the foundation of his style, it was not until their second together, Al Green Gets Next to You (1970), that they struck gold with Green's own composition, "Tired of Being Alone," which reached number 11 on the pop chart, setting off a commercial streak that continued for the next few years. While the former record was made up mostly of cover songs, "Tired of Being Alone"'s success legitimized Green as a composer in his own right. And coupled with Mitchell and his soon-to-be famous Hi Records Rhythm Section, the two made a potent and successful combination. With a clean electric guitar, the big, fat trademark Hi bass sound, horn stabs, subdued organ, and a gospel backing-vocal section, Green passionately convinces with his lyric about a man at the depth of his loneliness who proclaims, "Meeting you has proven to be/To be my greatest dream." Like fellow soul singers Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, Al Green had his roots in the gospel music of the church, and his vocal style never strayed too far from those beginnings. Green returned to that gospel source full-time, eventually leaving secular music behind only to again reconcile the two years later. While the pop records dealt with secular subject matter, the singing was still influenced by the improvisational and stirring nature of church singing. Green's up-close vocal intimations and the contained, mellow vibe of the music -- that remains cool even when climaxing at the end -- play like a late-night lament for anyone who finds him or herself alone at midnight, drink in hand, at the hi-fi. Recorded years ago, the song does not sound dated as do most later soul and R&B productions from the '80s. The sound is literally classic; not charmingly nostalgic or vintage, but immediate and relevant.