SAM COOKE

It was with unexpected delight that I recently discovered that this excellent career-encompassing collection was sitting high up in the UK album charts. There are a lot of cult, underground bands that had more of an influence on rock music than their popularity would suggest but I would contend that the number of people who had more of an influence on twentieth century music AS A WHOLE than Sam Cooke can be counted on one hand. Even if people know of the odd song by him, far too few are aware of the actual influence he exerted. Only James Brown would come close to rivalling Cooke's influence over soul music and although I am pleased to see late-sixties and seventies soul icons like Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, et al achieve continued contemporary acclaim the bare fact is none of them would have had a career without Cooke's pioneering progression and sublime songwriting skills in the fifties and early sixties. The number of different, sometimes non-musical, innovations in soul music that Cooke introduced are almost unquantifiable. He was the single most prominent figure in ridding black soul music of its gospel and religious shackles (which immediately gave him controversial notoriety) and of establishing the performer as his own songwriter, eventually even gaining control of the legal rights to his music and therefore the business side of it. Although James Brown's influence was perhaps more diverse, being the founding father of funk and latterly hip-hop, Cooke's shadow is the longest one cast over the genre of soul. His immaculate smooth singing voice has rarely been bettered and his power as a performer caused not much short of a ruckus in England, with the Rolling Stones publicly in his debt from the moment they first saw him perform. Cooke was also one of the first black soul performers to achieve crossover appeal. One might like to explain this by pointing to the string-laden soppy arrangements which were all the rage at the time but the more obvious factor can be found eminating from the much-utilised pen in Sam's hand. Quite simply, Sam Cooke was one of the most talented songwriters ever. At a time when most pop music was based around old favourites and in-house professional songwriters Cooke simply blew everyone else away. His sense of melody was as strong, if not stronger, than any white pop star (including the Beatles) and it is simply astounding to sit through the thirty songs on here, with great song following great song. Of course, due to the lack of musical progression the arrangements are quite similar-sounding but each one is accentuated and elevated by Sam's masterly vocal melodies. I would be wasting space to type them out again but every song I listed as a best track is a classic of the genre and the majority are now ubiquitous classics of the twentieth century. The similarity of the arrangements led the compilers to include some of his covers, bluesy renditions of "Summertime" and "Little Red Rooster" particularly, but, amazingly, they sound infinitely inferior to his own compositions. The sugary sound might sound a little dated now, given the musical advances soul music has since made, but the power and brilliance of Sam's vocal cuts through it like a razor through the proverbial candy floss and there is little doubting that the arrangements on two numbers in particular elevates them to their rightful position as all-time soul classics. The reflective piano on "Bring it on Home to Me" provides perfect backing to Sam's tortured narrative about a relationship gone wrong and, like the greatest performances, out of the library of cover versions that has since arisen none can match the anguished power of Cooke's vocal. The climax of the compilation appropriately comes with one of the final tracks Cooke wrote and recorded - the magnificent, transcendent "A Change Is Gonna Come". Starting with an incongruous blast of smaltzy Hollywood strings it dives into the most painful and tortured of arrangements, with Sam documenting the trials of living through America's civil rights crisis in a way that is both universally pertinent and deeply personal. Written as a riposte to Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" it was one of the first attempts by a black man to articulate his view of the problems in society and remains to this day the most powerful. Its tale of personal redemption also took on a deeper meaning when Cooke was pointlessly murdered in a dispute in a motel the year it was released. Like so many great artists cut down in their prime it is disheartening to speculate as to what he would have achieved with the maturing of pop music in the sixties. In any event, it is unlikely he would become much more influential, if such a thing is even possible. We all know popularity does not follow talent and influence but it is good to see Cooke increasing in popularity these days as there is little doubt that not only was he the single most important soul singer of the century he was also one of its greatest songwriters.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk