Syl Johnson: Diamond In The Rough [FAT POSSUM]

Why you'll love it

Fat Possum brings back Syl Johnson's second album for Hi Records, a deep Memphis soul set produced by Willie Mitchell. Standouts include "Please Don't Give Up On Me," "I Hear the Love Chimes" and "Could I Be Falling in Love."

About the album

Syl Johnson had already been a Chicago soul star, with "Come On Sock It to Me" and the much-sampled "Different Strokes," by the time he headed south to Memphis. At Hi Records he joined Al Green's label, and Willie Mitchell, the label's producer through its golden years, gave him the full treatment.

That means the Hi Rhythm Section's warm, unhurried grooves, the Memphis Horns, the Memphis Strings and backing vocals from Rhodes, Chalmers and Rhodes, the same trio heard on so many Hi classics. Johnson's voice is grittier than Green's, with a bluesman's edge, and it gives these ten songs real bite. "Let Yourself Go" opens with a strut, "I Want to Take You Home (To See Mama)" and "Stuck in Chicago" keep the mood easy, and the title track swings with confidence. "Please Don't Give Up On Me" and "I Hear the Love Chimes" are slow-burning ballads that show just how good the Hi sound could be.

It followed Back for a Taste of Your Love from 1973, and the next year Johnson took his own cover of Green's "Take Me to the River" into the charts. The title, we'd suggest, was always a touch modest.

Also at Kops: more Syl Johnson on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Hi Records / Fat Possum (cat# FPH1179-1), a reissue of the 1974 album.