The most soulful soul songs ever: vote for the best

January 3, 2016 • 9:00 am

A bit over a year ago I posted on some of the most soulful soul songs, but today is the definitive list—my personal choice, of course. At the bottom of the post you can vote for your favorite.

In the earlier post, I gave Wikipedia’s definition of soul music, which included this:

Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s. It combined elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, and often jazz. Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States – where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax labels were influential during the period of the civil rights movement.

. . . Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the soloist and the chorus, and an especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds.

That kind of music runs the gamut from romantic ballads barely distinguishable from non-soul music, like Lenny Welch’s great song “Since I Fell For You,” to the 14 songs listed below, all of which exemplify that “especially tense vocal sound”.  I prefer to think of it as “raw musical emotionality”, and that’s what you’re about to hear.

There are many great soul songs not on this list, for what I’ve chosen below are the most soulful soul songs that I know. I love songs by the Supremes, for instance, but they don’t seem particularly soulful, though they are indeed soul music.

There are no songs on my list sung by non-black people, though of course whites have produced songs that could easily be classified as soul. These include the Righteous Brothers, of course, and Macy Gray has included Hall and Oates’s “Sara Smile” as one of her ten favorite soul songs. Carole King, who’s white, wrote two of the songs below, but it’s the performance that makes a song soulful.

I invite readers, as always, to add their own favorites. Herewith, my own. I’ve chosen live performances when possible (some are lip-synched), but also link to the original version. Note that nine of the 14 songs were released between 1965 and 1967: my peak formative years for music, when I was a junior and senior in high school. Every song is about love save “A Change is Gonna Come”, which is about civil rights.

Try a Little Tenderness (Otis Redding, 1966; original recording here).

Ask the Lonely (The Four Tops, vocals by Levi Stubbs, 1965; original version here). I still think this is the most soulful live performance of a soul song ever, save perhaps that of “Night Train” by James Brown at the TAMI concert.)

I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder, 1967. This is lip-synched.)

(For a more recent and truly live version, showing that Stevie’s still got it, go here).

Heat Wave (Martha [Reeves] and the Vandellas, 1963, lip-synched. This was written by the great Motown songwriting team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland).

A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke, who also wrote it, 1964).

(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin, 1967, written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. This is the version I put up yesterday; the original recording is here)

Ooo Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, co-written by Robinson, 1964. Original recording here.)

When a Man Loves a Woman (Percy Sledge, 1966, original recording here.)

This Old Heart of Mine (is Weak for You) (The Isley Brothers, 1966.)

More Love (Smokey Robinson, 1967. Robinson wrote it, and read the backstory).

Will You Love Me Tomorrow (The Shirelles, 1960, lip synched. Written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, this is the earliest song on the list).

It’s a Shame (the Spinners, 1970, co-written by Stevie Wonder, Syreeta Wright and Lee Garrett)

Since I Lost My Baby (The Temptations, lead vocal by David Ruffin, 1965. Cowritten by Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore of The Miracles.)

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (Jimmy Ruffin [David’s brother], lip-synched, 1966).

And here’s the POLL. You can vote only once, so choose carefully. After you vote, you’ll be able to see the latest results. Or, if you want to see the results before voting (which is cheating), just click “view results” in the poll.

I’d prefer if you’d vote for the “most soulful” song, but I expect that your choice will be confluent with your favorite song. In the comments below, please add your own favorites that aren’t given here.

Readers’ wildlife photographs

January 3, 2016 • 7:30 am

We have three nice arthropods today from reader Mark Sturtevant, and I’m adding a late addition from Stephen Barnard.

A young male whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia). The abdomen of this male will turn white with a waxy bloom as it ages. Females of this species will not do this, and they also have a different pattern of spots on the wings.

1Dragonfly

A stonefly (tentatively Soyedina vallicularia).

2StoneFly

The final picture is a very pregnant orbweaver, possibly the Shamrock spider (Araneus trifolium) or a related species. On the same day that I had collected this lady, the wife had visited the farmers’ market and brought home some Romanesco broccoli which is famous for its approximation to a fractal pattern. Well, clearly I should not be left unsupervised with these things. I can report that the taste of this broccoli with hollandaise sauce was rather ordinary, and not repeated on different scales as I had hoped.

3SpideronRomano

And we have this ethereal photo from Stephen, which I’ve made big because it’s arty:

Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) on a dry, still, frigid day; mist drawing up from the creek.

swans, Jan 2

Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Leon lagniappe)

January 3, 2016 • 6:00 am

It’s Sunday, which means that all our students will be arriving back in Chicago, ready to begin the new quarter tomorrow (we’re on a system of three ten-week quarters). It’s still cold in town today, with temperatures predicted to be just below the freezing point; but outside Hili’s house in Poland it’s a chilly -14°C (7°F). On this day in 1962, Pope John XIII excommunicated Castro (I’m sure Fidel cared), and, in 2000, the last original Peanuts comic strip was published, a strip I followed obsessively as a pre-teen (I cut out every day’s strip and put it in a scrapbook). Finally, on January 3, 1892, J. R. R. Tolkien was born, living until 1973.

And some news from the BBC. In San Diego, USA, a pair of twins were born at the end of the year, one at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31 and the second four minutes later. They not only have different birthdays, but were born in different years!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili engages in an abstruse dialogue with Malgorzata (she usually talks to Andrzej) that has been given a title:

Schrödinger’s Philosopher

Hili: You have translated a lot of articles.
M: Quite a lot.
Hili: Could you translate an article about a philosopher in an ivory tower who exists or doesn’t exist?
P1030753
In Polish:
Hili: Dużo tych artykułów przetłumaczyłaś.
Małgorzata: Sporo.
Hili: A czy możesz przetłumaczyć jakiś artykuł o filozofie w wieży z kości słoniowej, który jest albo go nie ma?

Meanwhile, Leon, out for a stroll, discovers 2016:

Leon: So that’s how the New Year looks like!

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“(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”

January 2, 2016 • 3:15 pm

If all goes well tomorrow, we’ll have a special treat: Professor Ceiling Cat’s (Emeritus) list (and videos) of the most soulful soul songs ever recorded. (This is of course my opinion, and does not necessarily reflect that of the University of Chicago.) And, after listening to them all—of course few people will!—you can vote for your favorite in our online poll.

But I’ll put one entry up now as a teaser because it’s a very powerful performance by The Queen—73 years old when she performed this last year—and because, as you’ll see, it made Barack Obama cry. This was at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, and Aretha Franklin has clearly lost very little since she recorded this classic in 1967.

The blond woman moved to tears is, of course, Carole King, who co-wrote this gorgeous song with Gerry Goffin. She’s clearly startled when she realizes Franklin is performing her own composition.

You’ll recognize some of the other folks, too (look for Clive Davis). Be sure to watch it all.

And Russell Blackford reflects on 2015

January 2, 2016 • 1:45 pm

Like Michael Nugent (see two posts below), philosopher/atheist Russell Blackford has summed up the activities and thoughts that occupied him last year; the post, “A last reflection on 2015“, is on his Metamagician website.

Although Russell and Michael wrote their pieces independently, it’s no surprise that there’s some overlap. Both, for instance, decry rageblogging, the careless use of the term “Islamophobia,” and the pervasive censorship on college campuses. But Blackford is more concerned with the rise of the “regressive Left”: those who identify as liberals but oppose criticism of religion (especially Islam) and soft-pedal other traditional Enlightenment values like free speech.

I prefer the term “authoritarian Left,” as I’m not sure in what respect the “regressive Left” is really “regressive”; and one characteristic of that movement is its attempt to use authority and shaming to silence its critics. We should not, for instance, have to defensively reprise our opposition to bigotry and our commitment to women’s rights, gay rights and free speech every time we criticize Islam.

At any rate, Russell’s short piece is quite sensible, and I’ll offer two snippets:

But while I am of the Left in a broad sense, I’m not prepared to accept every bizarre ideological outgrowth of identity politics, every propagandist catchphrase that becomes popular (“check your privilege”, “Islamophobia“, “safe space”), or every attempt to “call out”, shame, and otherwise harm some poor individual of whom the self-righteous make a public example (usually for some minor, dubious, or imaginary transgression, or for some moderate dissent from a local party line).

It’s clear that there are regressive tendencies within the Left, especially within its academic and cultural manifestations. They include the kind of anti-science nonsense famously satirised by Alan Sokal in the 1990s. Though wounded, this form of weirdness has not completely gone away. Among other regressive tendencies, there’s too much solicitude on the Left toward religion: the kind of solicitude that leads to perfectly rational criticism of religious faith being labelled as “strident” (however mild it might actually be in tone), and that has made criticism of Islam and Islamism almost taboo in many left-wing circles. Often, too, there’s a distasteful paternalism and authoritarianism within the contemporary Left.

and

I saw an escalation of problems in about 2011 – particularly a sudden acceleration in what came to be termed call-out culture, as left-wing rage bloggers and Twitter mobs became aggressively unfair, intolerant, and savage in going after their own philosophical and social allies. This trend has only grown worse, but in 2015 it was finally acknowledged as a problem by mainstream progressive journalists.

I expect that I’ll be spending much of 2016 writing about these sorts of issues. The Left’s ongoing regressive tendencies have the effect of silencing many decent, progressive people: men and women who are justifiably afraid to offer commonsense views on a wide range of topics, from the role of religion to bioethical decisions and policies. In recent years, many individuals have confided in me about aspects of this, and why they keep a low profile on various topics. They fear being “called out”, ostracised, damaged in their careers, etc., by others whom they regard as their own people. As a result, sensible liberal views from more-or-less left-leaning thinkers are often not receiving their due weight in public discussion, creating something of a vacuum.

Here’s Russell with Felix, his bluepoint Ragdoll:

Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 12.57.00 PM

New Year’s Cunk: she’s back!

January 2, 2016 • 12:30 pm

After a long hiatus, we have the welcome return of Philomena Cunk (and her less-funny partner, Barry Shitpeas). Both appeared on Charlie Brooker’s year-end “2015 wipe”, in which La Cunk makes four appearances. Three are below; I don’t have her and Barry’s take on “Fifty Shades of Grey,” but you can see it on the hourlong video, starting at 4:44.

The first clip is a new “Moments of Wonder,” this time dealing with feminism—or, as Philomena calls it, “femininism”. Warning: there’s a flash of nudity. Philomena appears to have flummoxed Femininist Lady; I wonder if these people know what’s going on when they agree to an interview with Cunk.

There’s also a nice liberal take on the European immigrant crisis. Note Philomena’s classic pronunciation of “money” at 1:21,

Finally, Philomena and Barry discuss Donald Trump and American politics; it’s great to hear a European take on our looniest Republican. I love Philomena’s comment on Trump’s coiffure:  “It’s not hair: it’s like a sort of furry gas. It’s like he was born with a squirrel’s tail and he’s bushed it over his head to pass among humans.” Brooker weighs in at the end.

h/t: Alex