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Features Disc of the day
Jerry Butler
The Ice Man Cometh
(Mercury, 1968)
Ice can burn you as easily as fire, as the one-time Impression proved on an early Gamble & Huff album production.
For the Holiday fortnight, every Disc Of The Day will be a “winter warmer”, revelling in sonic/existential chill or offering fireside comfort.
Let’s be upfront about this. In the present context Ice Man denotes ‘cool’, not cold and frosty. Quitting The Impressions in 1958, Jerry Butler became a polished balladeer on Vee-Jay and signed to Mercury in 1967. He met emerging producer-songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and the three of them crystallised like snowflakes. A formative soul album that doesn’t have a weak track, Ice Man is their best together, a brilliant showcase for Butler’s often bittersweet voice – veering sharply between croaked anguish and smooth seduction – and a prototype of the Philadelphia International sound Gamble & Huff would develop in the ’70s. Nine of the 11 songs were Gamble-Huff-Butler compositions and the best sound about five years ahead of their time, thanks to the cultured arrangements of Thom Bell and Bobby Martin. A key track is Only The Strong Survive, which has become a totemic soul message. Opening with a piece of mother’s advice about a broken romance, the title is spun out into a lifetime philosophy; “you gotta be a man, you gotta take a stand… don’t you know that things are gonna change… don’t ever feel that you can’t make it” have a resonance far beyond affairs of the heart. Ice Man included hits such as Hey, Western Union Man, Never Give You Up (often covered as Never Gonna Give You Up) and the lovely Are You Happy. They’re full of deft touches, such as the first notes of How Can I Get In Touch With You, which quote directly from the original Make It Easy On Yourself, Butler’s US hit three years before The Walker Brothers’ UK cover. The album closes on two poignant ballads: Go Away – Find Yourself and I Stop By Heaven. In the former, a wearied Butler – “Little by little you make me feel less than a man. Tired! Heaven knows that I am” – sends his love away to work out the demons she is taking out on him; in the latter he is thoroughly, warmly content as the notion of Walk Around Heaven All Day is secularised into a quite sublime love song.
Geoff Brown
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 24/12/2008
Further Listening
The O’Jays – Ship Ahoy (Philadelphia International, 1974)
Jerry Butler – Ice On Ice (Mercury, 1969)
Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes – Wake Up Everybody (Philadelphia International, 1975)
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
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Yeah, this album is excellent from start to finish. A highly underrated soul gem - bout time it got some love!
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