Back Up Train

by Al Green

Description by OLDIES.com:

Long before he became the classiest crooner since Sam Cooke; before he blessed us with love and happiness; before his success at Hi Records in Memphis with producer Willie Mitchell set the standard for soothing, silken soul; before he preached the gospel with "Tired of Being Alone" and "I'm Still in Love With You"; and before he topped the charts with "Livin' For You," "You Ought To Be With Me" and "Let's Stay Together," the Reverend Al Green cut these stirring sides in 1967 with the Soul Mates, in New York. And he never sounded better. Strong in voice and spirit, the Al Green story starts here.

Product Description:

Liner Note Author: Anthony Heilbut.

Recording information: New York, New York (1967 - 1968).

Sometimes genius doesn't reveal itself right off the bat; the first

recordings of artists as monumental as Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and David Bowie offered little hint of the greatness to come. Al Green's first

album, 1967's BACK UP TRAIN, doesn't hit any of the heights his

subsequent records would achieve either, but for an artist still in the

formative stages, it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless (much more so than the debuts of the aforementioned musical giants).

Green wouldn't find his signature style until moving to Hi Records and working with producer Willie Mitchell and the Hi rhythm section, so the supple, undulating sound that became Green's signature is absent here. Instead, we hear a much more straightforward soul sound influenced by Stax, Motown, and Green's ubiquitous gospel roots. Many of the arrangements hew closer to the punchy Otis Redding style that was all the rage in R&B at the time, and Green's vocal calisthenics sound completely at home in that setting. If Green never made another record, BACK UP TRAIN would probably still be regarded as a minor gem of '60s soul.