Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Deep Cuts: Al Green - Ain't No Fun To Me (1972)


[Buy the Album]

When the President crooned a little "Let's Stay Together" earlier this month, sales of Al Green's best known song increased 490%, selling 16,000 downloads in the week ending January 22nd. Not a bad way to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Green's Let's Stay Together album, released January 31, 1972.




There are better Al Green albums ( Call Me, I'm Still In Love With You and Explores Your Mind are all better in my opinion) but Let's Stay Together has all the essential elements: there's the funky Willie Mitchell production featuring some of the best studio musicians in Memphis and there's Al Green himself. You get the sense he knows what he wants to say but hasn't written down a single lyric. He's got this incredible sense of timing and he'll stretch every line just right so it hits the pocket. Every performance is absolutely organic.

Our "deep track" is the last cut on Let's Stay Together, a churning blues number featuring Teeny Hodges on guitar.

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