Review: Spinning Around – A History of the Soul LP Vol 2 by John Lias

Just spotted this is by John Lias, the Paul Kelly man. I remember years ago, he did a top 50 or was it 100 soul albums in Voices from the Shadows, and had PK albums at 1 and 2. I'm a Luther Ingram man but I wouldn't quite put them so high, though I'd have 3 in my top 20, and I think he had the same 3 in his list if my memory serves me, but PK wouldn't do as well as that in my list.

I just hope it doesn't follow the usual BBC crap that everybody used to play vinyls albums right through every time but nobody ever plays CDs in their entirety.

Really looking forward to this. 

Is John Lias a member on here? What is the best way of contacting him?

Thanks in advance

Mats

9 minutes ago, djmelismo said:

Is John Lias a member on here? What is the best way of contacting him?

Thanks in advance

Mats

6 hours ago, source team said:

 

Thanks!

Perhaps the first thing to say is that John Lias is probably the most impressive and important soul fan in the world to date and, on current trajectory, that could turn out to be ever. I've been an admirer since his top 100 turned up in Voices from the Shadows about three decades ago and these tomes constitute the best chance yet of soul music becoming an accepted artform, comparable - in its own way - with classical music and jazz (alongside my mixclouds, though I'm well aware that myths are constructed in words not music - just read a few hundred of the few hundred million words that have been written about the Beatles).

He's four or five years older than me and has been a soul fan for four or five years longer than me, so he was very young. This is reflected in some of the broad slippage between his preferences and mine which could deflect from my claim that it's potentially timeless music, though I imagine the passage of time will 'iron out' such discrepancies. 

Ironically, Lias doesn't make the claim that soul music is an artform though he thinks there's a case for deep soul and has said he expects people to still be listening to James Brown a century from now. I would agree about deep soul  and was thrilled to see two OV Wright albums so high in his top 100, but would place the bar significantly lower, though I don't see a case for Michael Jackson, Barry White and much else.  Incidentally, both of us seem to prefer the first era of James Brown we came across, and my preference is for a number of the classic seventies funk bands ahead of Sly and the Family Stone who were such a massive influence on them all. 

It remains to be seen whether it will be remembered at all and, if so, in a way similar to amateur dramatics favourites Gilbert and Sullivan or the scholarly study of Stravinsky, Shostakovich et al. My brilliant Cultural Studies lecturer claimed a definition of art is if it's 'worthy of study' and - since the Death of the Author (composer) - I would argue that something is art if the reader (listener) treats it as such, and I would further argue that Lias has certainly done that with his subject. Furthermore, I find it wholly inadequate to line up the great soul artists with people like the Rolling Stones, Bowie and Madonna. 

I don't agree with the premise that the age of soul music came to an end in 1982 when CD sales apparently overtook those of vinyls. I was still involved in the soul scene at the start of the nineties and the only person who could afford CDs was Steve Davis and there was still virtually nothing available from soul's golden age. Even within his rules, I don't understand the inclusion of Lanier and Co, Ernie Isley and Chris Jasper and the exclusion of Anita Baker, one of the greatest voices in recorded music who made two of the best soul albums of the eighties.

I recognise the difficulty presented by jazz-funk and, while I'm no particular fan of George Benson (until I dipped back further than Breezin to find almost supernatural skill on the guitar), his voice is not dissimilar to Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder - whose voices I'm similarly agnostic about - and I believe Breezin through Give me the Night probably should have been included. Incidentally I don't feel the need to apologise for preferring Latimore to Stevie Wonder.

He gets his blues boundary fairly spot on but perhaps goes further into disco than I would have

I was relieved to find no Tina Turner - not even with Ike - and Dusty Springfield, though I fear he may have wished to include the latter. My view is that her inclusion as soul should now be put to bed, alongside Janice Joplin.

I'm uncomfortable about excluding the Average White Band but concede it begs the question of how far to go. Hi Tension and maybe Light of the World would do for me.

One thing serious soul fans always seem to underestimate is P Funk, like rock people who don't get Zappa. Underneath the star wars, cartoon, comedy there's some serious music going down, generally courtesy of Bernie Worrell though - like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters, James Brown and Zappa - Clinton is in the middle pulling it all together.    

And I really don't get why the Rotary Connection are not there.

I think there may have been albums by Carl Hall and Hot Sauce but I'm not certain and really don't care. I think we can sleep safely in our beds that there isn't a What's Going On or a Show Must Go On gone astray. 

A couple of artists I have major disagreements with in volume two. While I know many people whose preference in Womack is for the Poets, they're almost exclusively people for whom this was  the first of his stuff they heard. It brings up a debate about what constitutes a good album but I'd rather have Safety Zone for Daylight than all the Poets. For me, he's always been the Preacher.

Curtis Mayfield is an artist I can become very emotional about and I think if older people could accept the brilliance of his early solo stuff and younger folk could find his Impressions, he could be recognised was one of the giants of music history. I remember a Blues and Soul at the end of the seventies which sought to round up the decade and claimed that Back to the World and America Today were his finest albums. Time and the mass pop media laying claim to soul music has turned the general preference towards Curtis and particularly Superfly. The latter is almost inarguably the greatest soundtrack album of all, and it's strongest tracks are magnificence, but it inevitably has it's love and chase themes. America Today is a fine set and his last great album, but it lacks the scale and killer cuts of Curtis, Roots, Superfly and Back to the World, all of which I'd have had to include in a top 100. 

Headers would have been a useful addition to the book; while I can generally identify artists who are spread over many pages from album titles, others may be less fortunate.

Furthermore, there's a lot of emphasis on chart positions, which really don't interest me in soul any more than they do in jazz, blues, reggae or anything else.

However, I'm now knit picking and these volumes must be part of the essential kit of every serious soul fan worldwide. I leant my brother them individually but found myself contacting him regularly to look up something or other. I'm now confident for the first time that I'm within earshot of hearing nearly everything that would interest me, bearing in mind there are many artists I don't feel the need to listen to everything they ever made. We all owe him an enormous debt for what it is no exaggeration to say is a staggering achievement of human endeavour, not least because he's trawled through hundreds of terrible albums so we don't have to.

The one thing which will force him back to the publishers for a revised edition is his claim that Frankie Beverly, Philip Bailey and Lenny Williams are the greatest vocalists from the self-contained(ish) bands. Bailey is an undeniable virtuoso but is very specialist which found him co-lead vocalist most of the time. Lenny Williams I would describe as next best. The greatest lead vocalists of the funk bands, who stand with the great solos vocalists and the great leads in the great vocal harmony groups are Frankie Beverly and Ronald Isley. I imagine he hears Ronald as the lead vocalist in the group who recorded at Motown - his preferred material from them - but there's no doubt they became a huge force in soul music with the younger Isleys through the seventies.     

An interesting review of what is a major piece of work on soul music. I know John wrote it because of his love of the soul LP and out of a frustration that so often a great soul album was missing from mainstream historical comment. We can hypothesise as to why this is but it was - is - an undeniable fact.

There are 6,000 albums reviewed and mentioned over two volumes so the coverage is frankly astonishing and I believe took John five years to compile, write, edit and then publish. It's very much one person's vision and because John writes so well the reviews are sharp and interesting. I actually think that of all the books on soul music I own these two volumes are essential and unique. A real tour-de-force.

There are , of course, artists that I thought should (or perhaps might) have made the cut - Little Junior Parker, Nancy Wilson and Anita Baker for example but I can see why they didn't  based on John's clear criteria for inclusions in the preface of each volume. As far a George Benson is concerned, if all his material had been of the ilk of 'Breezin' or  'Give Me The Night' then surely he would have been a shoe-in but those albums are exceptions. I have owned for many years his 'Tell It Like It Is' album.  The influence is primarily instrumental jazz but the second track in 'My Woman Is Good To Me' is one of the greatest Big City soul ballads of the sixties. Benson is primarily a jazz guitarist who occasionally crosses over to the mainstream and even less often to the soul market.  

Musical taste is of course, subjective. We all have our favourites whilst other fan's favourites leave us cold.  I, for example, love some of Teena Marie's music  and had to persuade John (and others) of her worthiness (they remain unconvinced). On the other hand if I never heard another Diana Ross record in my life I wouldn't care. I think John is right in his judgement of Frankie B and Lenny Williams but am less convinced, as the writer above, that  Philip Bailey is in the same league. These are books of strong opinions and that is one of the reasons that they are so compelling to read. They are triumphs and John L should be very proud. I assume most people on this site have got copies. 

Incidentally Dusty was never going to be included as with one or two logical exceptions John didn't write about British based artists so no Heatwave and Average White Band. I think 6,000 inclusions more than makes up for it.