Bobby Bland - Disc of the day

Bobby Bland
Two Steps From The Blues

(Duke, 1961)

It was two steps from the blues, but a giant leap for soul.

An old sports cliché, “form is temporary, class is permanent”, might have been coined for the work of majestic soul-blues singer Bobby Bland. His music flits in and out of the wider rock panorama, becoming voguish from time to time, but this magisterial early album, one of the most cohesive of all ’60s soul records, should be a fixture in every collection. Recorded in a decade when so many albums comprised two or three of the act’s latest hits bolstered by too much filler, Two Steps... is nothing less than the great leap in which the ’50s staples of Chicago blues and the raw proto-soul fashioned by Ray Charles in New York collided on their return to the South. No song is wasted and hardly a note sounds false as Bland’s blues-wearied voice, driven to anguished screams, grapples with the vicissitudes of life and love, his torment echoed and bolstered by Joe Scott’s memorable horn arrangements. Centrepieces on this immaculate conception include I Pity The Fool, a scornful blues covered by everyone from David Bowie to Stevie Wonder but never bettered, Cry Cry Cry, hardly less pained or eager for revenge, and, promising a healing love, a gentler, more considered I’ll Take Care Of You. It’s not all downbeat. The drive of Don’t Cry No More presages the pace and thrill of Turn On Your Lovelight, which he recorded later in 1961, and the constancy of I’m Not Ashamed shadows the phrasing of Sam Cooke. A soul-blues album that won’t let you down.

Geoff Brown

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 19/03/2008

Further Listening

Otis Redding – Pain In My Heart (Atco, 1964)

Little Milton – If Walls Could Talk (MCA/Chess, 1970)

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fantastic record, highly recommended

Posted by Pat Carty at 10:02 AM GMT 19/03/2008 Report Abuse

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Wonderful album. Timeless.

Posted by carneham at 11:32 PM GMT 04/04/2008 Report Abuse

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