Syl Johnson - Take Me To The River (Hi 2285)
Take Me To The River
Here's Syl Johnson's biggest hit, which hit #7 R&B in April of 1975. I love the combination of his blistering Chicago harp wailing over the rolling Memphis beat laid down by Hi Rhythm at the absolute peak of their powers. Look out!
Like we were saying on the other side, Mabon 'Teenie' Hodges co-wrote this one with Reverend Al for the groundbreaking Al Green Explores Your Mind album in 1974. After Hi refused to release any singles from that record (making it one of the highest selling R&B LPs ever up to that point), they cut this version on Johnson and it just took off...
The real deal, yo!
posted by Red Kelly at 9:28 AM
4 Comments:
I recently had the pleasure of running across some of Syl's Hi 45's. "We Did It" and "I Only Have Love For You." Great stuff and soon after I picked up the two cd compilation. A truly great voice and artist. Thanks so much!!
Peace and SOUL,
Dave...
Glad to see this one. In my opinion this has it all over Al Green's version.
Syl has such a distinguished career...
from Blues to his Shama involvement, Hi R&B tracks, right up to 2009. He never stops. I worked on the Ponderosa-Memphis show a few years back and am happy to report Syl is in top form. This man has seen it all in our music form in the last 50 years.
The Talking Heads did Take Me to the River! I saw them in 1982 and went backstage to see David Byrne! Thanks for stirring the memories!
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