Immortal Soul of Al Green [Box set] [Original recording remastered]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The careers of most soul greats are marked by a struggle to reconcile opposite impulses--sanctified piety and earthly lust, down-home grit and urbane polish, bluesy pain and carefree jubilation. Throughout the '70s Al Green floated above such contradictions by blithely imagining that they didn't exist. The ecstatic good will with which Green's voice overflowed couldn't be neatly categorized; it contained the sacred, the erotic, and the just plain old friendly. Similarly smooth and rough vocal tones were, for him, equally valuable devices with which to seduce the listener, and his fluid technique was matched by Hi Records producer Willie Mitchell. Sheathing raw soul within velveteen strings, the Hi sound didn't so much combine elements of Stax gutbucket and Philly International suavity as meld the styles whole.

Green's '70s output is near-flawless, which makes compiling him a challenge--why not just go out and buy a handful of his classic albums? Rather than rise to that challenge, the 1997 four-disc set Anthology acknowledged defeat with a hodgepodge of hits, misses, live tracks, and outtakes. All business, The Immortal Soul of Al Green takes a different tack, presenting a genuine overview: seventy-five tracks, including practically every charting hit, in rough chronology. You can hear the early Green, a rough-and-ready southern soul man, grow comfortable within the smoother Hi formula. And you can hear the later Green, tiring of that formula, coast into the late '70s (brilliantly, but coasting regardless) until he steps away from Mitchell to record The Belle Album, a stripped-down masterpiece based around his own acoustic guitar. The set is unified by Green's unwavering sensibility, which, through it all, radiates both comforting warmth and tingling excitement--yet another pair of varied traits Green refused to acknowledge as opposites. --Keith Harris

Tracks:

Back Up Train
Guilty
I Want To Hold Your Hand
One Woman
Get Back, Baby
Summertime
What Am I Gonna Do With Myself
I Can't Get Next To You
God Is Standing By
You Say It
Right Now, Right Now
Are You Lonely For Me Baby
Driving Wheel
Light My Fire
Ride Sally Ride
Tired Of Being Alone
I'm A Ram
So You're Leaving
I've Never Found A Girl
It Ain't No Fun To Me
Let's Stay Together
Old Time Lovin'
La-La For You
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

Tracks:

I'm Still In Love With You
Love And Happiness
Simply Beautiful
Oh, Pretty Woman
Look What You Done For Me
Call Me (Come Back Home)
Funny How Time Slips Away
Here I Am (Come And Take Me)
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
You Ought To Be With Me
Jesus Is Waiting
Livin' For You
Let's Get Married
Beware

Tracks:

Take Me To The River
So Good To Be Here
My God Is Real
Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)
The City
God Blessed Our Love
One Nite Stand
I'm Hooked On You
Mimi
Love Ritual
Rhymes
Could I Be The One?
L-O-V-E (Love)
Strong As Death (Sweet As Love)
Oh Me, Oh My (Dreams In My Arms)
I Gotta Be More (Take Me Higher)
Eli's Game
Love Ritual (remix)

Tracks:

Full Of Fire
I'd Fly Away
That's The Way It Is
Together Again
Let It Shine
Have A Good Time
Keep Me Cryin'
Nothing Takes The Place Of You
I Tried To Tell Myself
The Truth Marches On
Belle
Georgia Boy
Chariots Of Fire
Loving You
All In All
To Sir With Love
Wait Here
King Of All
Starting All Over Again

Amazon.com

The careers of most soul greats are marked by a struggle to reconcile opposite impulses--sanctified piety and earthly lust, down-home grit and urbane polish, bluesy pain and carefree jubilation. Throughout the '70s Al Green floated above such contradictions by blithely imagining that they didn't exist. The ecstatic good will with which Green's voice overflowed couldn't be neatly categorized; it contained the sacred, the erotic, and the just plain old friendly. Similarly smooth and rough vocal tones were, for him, equally valuable devices with which to seduce the listener, and his fluid technique was matched by Hi Records producer Willie Mitchell. Sheathing raw soul within velveteen strings, the Hi sound didn't so much combine elements of Stax gutbucket and Philly International suavity as meld the styles whole.

Green's '70s output is near-flawless, which makes compiling him a challenge--why not just go out and buy a handful of his classic albums? Rather than rise to that challenge, the 1997 four-disc set Anthology acknowledged defeat with a hodgepodge of hits, misses, live tracks, and outtakes. All business, The Immortal Soul of Al Green takes a different tack, presenting a genuine overview: seventy-five tracks, including practically every charting hit, in rough chronology. You can hear the early Green, a rough-and-ready southern soul man, grow comfortable within the smoother Hi formula. And you can hear the later Green, tiring of that formula, coast into the late '70s (brilliantly, but coasting regardless) until he steps away from Mitchell to record The Belle Album, a stripped-down masterpiece based around his own acoustic guitar. The set is unified by Green's unwavering sensibility, which, through it all, radiates both comforting warmth and tingling excitement--yet another pair of varied traits Green refused to acknowledge as opposites. --Keith Harris

Customer Reviews:

Worth listening as frequently as your favorite book.......2006-05-11

I cannot well afford to get all of Al Green's Hi albums, however, this compilation helps me to grasp Hi sound's essence "Groove and be simple", as well as Al's seductive voice. It has a good design like your favorite book which you read so again and again that its jacket has worn out, and you can enjoy it like such. When you buy a new one, you should not misunderstand it as a used one. But one thing I dare to complain about the binding is its rubber holders which keep 4 CDs fastening tightly. For fear I should not break them down, I put CDs on the holders not so deeply.

WHERE`S "FOR THE GOOD TIMES"??.......2006-05-09

The omission of "For The Good Times" fosters my belief that most people who ultimately decide the song titles on an R&B compilation or major Soul artist box set are unqualified to do so. A weaker cover version of a "Rock" hit is more important in their eyes which tells me those individuals are Rock music fans as opposed to Soul. How about one of these so-called big white bread companies FOR ONCE hiring the right person to pick which tracks should be on an R&B or major Soul artist compilation. As a LONG TIME veteran of R&B Radio for many years, I know what I`m talking about."For The Good Times" was my MOST requested Al Green song in all the years on the air in several R&B radio outlets throughout the Southeast.

Scratched disks.......2006-03-24

I bought and had to return this box twice. In both, all the CDs were scratched. A factory defect? Quality control slippage? Or, as I'm beginning to suspect, some genius at the record company had pushed to the extreme the idea of giving the box a feel of something old and well-worn? This is the case of the box package, with its false-old presentation of a shelf-worn book. Ok, why not. But to actually factory-scratch the disks to make them "used" - that's beyond me!
A pity then, seeing that it's a great and very comprehensive collection, not that far from a "Complete Al Green on Hi".

Missing Tracks.......2005-08-19

Although this set is wonderful, it's still missing some essential tracks..."Feels Like Summer" comes to mind. Buy the original LPs.

Box sets or Al Green collections just don't get any better.......2004-12-10

Al Green really deserved a box set like this for a long time. He's had an unprecedented amount of hits and quality songs, even before he ventured into his Gammy winning gospel days. I could never find a greatest hits collection that had everything I wanted, so I ended up having to buy several and still fell short. I cannot think of another Box set that I've seen that is as complete as this one.

My only complaint is that they try to fit his songs into "Sex", "Love", "Salvation" & "Soul". You couldn't really break all of his songs down like this, so they end up making odd pairings like "God Is Standing By" on the Sex disc. They should have done a better job at matching the themed discs or just not worried about naming them at all. But, the booklet is pretty extensive and the packaging is done really nicely. Even better is the quality of the recordings, which sound better than ever! This alone should be enough for the die-hard fan to get this.

Nothing is missing from this collection; the songs are in their complete original form (no short single versions of "Let's Stay Together" or "Beware"). The only track I can remotely think of that I'd like to be on here is "Free At Last" and I'm sure huge Al Green fans might have one obscure favorite that don't show up here. But, it doesn't get better than this. If you enjoy Al Green & love soul music, making the big step now to get the box set is defiantly worth it. Even with all of his albums and greatest hits that I already have, this is STILL worth owning. For a fan of Al Green, soul music or any music this is an excellent gift.

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