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March 29, 2024, 12:02:47 PM

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Sam Cooke - Live at Harlem Square Club 1963

Started by The Mollusk, November 23, 2021, 09:57:46 AM

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The Mollusk

Surely one of the best live recordings I've heard, and not just because I've been listening to Cooke since before I can even remember (my grandpa used to play his stuff all the time). This show is over 60 years old and the sound quality is astonishingly clear, and the energy in the room captured perfectly by the recording equipment (as there's just the right amount of audible crowd noise poking throughout but not compromising the heft of the music whatsoever) is enough to make you break out in a sweat just sat at home listening to it. A mere 36 minutes in length but not a single second wasted, pure excellence from one of the greatest ever voices in soul.

Cooke's presence throughout is electrifying, after the introduction bursting like a bull from the pen with a motherfucking shit-kicking rendition of "Feel It" (Don't Fight It)", and throughout the set he intersperses tracks with charismatic patter that barely lets the audience catch a breath. You're hanging on the dude's every word. During the songs, it's also great to hear him swept up in the energy of the music, frequently singing bits with a half-beat swing delay, preemptively shouting out lines inviting the crowd to sing back at him, commanding the band and the crowd effortlessly.

I'm not entirely sure if the set is this short because that's just how long gigs were back then (from the intro it sounds like the band was playing a while before Cooke hit the stage) or if there's some editing in post, stitching the songs together seamlessly and cropping out any tuning up or whatever between songs? Either way, the record as a whole feels totally natural and it's captivating.

"It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons" and "Nothing Can Change This Love" are my favourites here. Absolutely stunning tracks.

Full playlist on YouTube

SpiderChrist

Oh fuck yes. Had this on cassette when it first came out, lost the cassette somehow, managed to find it on vinyl in a charity shop a few years back. What an album. I was always enamoured of Cooke's studio stuff (that voice!) but this set was a complete revelation. What a performer. Thanks The Mollusk for reminding me of its existence.

DrGreggles

Voice on that cunt!

If you don't like Sam Cooke, then your opinion on anything is essentially worthless.

God yeah, that 1963 recording is immense. The version of Chain Gang he does pure filth!

His live singing voice has so much more of an edge to it than on record, it's sexy as fuck. You can see how he preceded Otis Redding and other singers in the latter part of the decade. Amazing to think he probably hadn't even reached his peak by the time he died

JarrowMonkey

Absolutely brilliant all the way through and some great advice from Sam on this track regarding not kicking your partners teeth out if you suspect infidelity

https://youtu.be/PjU61jAwajA

thugler

Fuck, yeah I've been obsessed with this ever since I heard it. I can't describe how it makes me feel, really puts you right there in the audience, goosebumps stuff. Compared to his recorded output it feels so raucous and alive, he's playing to his real audience and not toning anything down at all, and the audience is going wild. Feels absolutely crazy that it didn't come out till 1985. It somehow feels powerful and direct like a punk record. While his recorded output is nice and all it does make me wish he lived a bit longer and got to make stuff with a bit more oomph to it that captured what he was capable of in a small club.

Mr Farenheit

There's a part in Somebody Have Mercy where he says "I ain't got Luekemia- that ain't it!" Is he supposed to be bragging?

I think there's a derth of recorded live music we've missed out on from this era. You have this and James Brown's Live at The Apollo, (I think from the same year?) and you have TV performances, but I don't know of many other recordings of live shows in this kind of setting. The sound is so much more raw than the studio recordings but still really tight (probably because they're playing so many shows a night, so many shows a year), I wish there was more of this out there from other artists. I've never quite 'got' the adulation of Jackie Wilson for example, I mean he's good but never one of my faves, the recordings are too slick. But.......

if there was a recording of THAT show, then I reckon I'd be hearing something totally different.

Lordofthefiles

I bought this on vinyl on the strength of recommendation of Alan Nagsworth, having never heard it before.


A double bottle of red wines and a couple of listens later...



...I reckon he's right, this IS the best live album (I Love Jerry Lee @ The Star Club, but this is better).



Chain Gang is truly wonderful.


Highly recommended 5*

The Mollusk

Quote from: Lordofthefiles on December 03, 2021, 11:08:59 PMI bought this on vinyl on the strength of recommendation of Alan Nagsworth

May he rest in peace.

Glad you loved it though and lovely to see it getting great recognition here.

Quote from: Ron Maels Moustache on November 23, 2021, 04:03:52 PMGod yeah, that 1963 recording is immense. The version of Chain Gang he does pure filth!

His live singing voice has so much more of an edge to it than on record, it's sexy as fuck. You can see how he preceded Otis Redding and other singers in the latter part of the decade. Amazing to think he probably hadn't even reached his peak by the time he died

Wasn't that sexiness reserved for black audiences, though? He couldn't do it for the white supper club crowd that he was also aiming for (he was due to play the Deauville Hotel in Miami on 24.12.64). He had to be Nat 'King' Cole for whites and Otis Redding for blacks; a very difficult range to pull off.