Al Green (musician)

For the Democratic candidate for District 25 in Texas and the former head of the Houston NAACP, please see Al Green (politician). Ill health plagued his later years and Son House stopped performing in the early 1970s and died in Detroit, Michigan.
. It was House who, speaking to awe-struck young blues fans in the 1960s, spread the legend that Johnson had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical powers. The next year, Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The music of Son House, in contrast to that of, say, Blind Lemon Jefferson, was emphatically a dance music, meant to be heard in the noisy atmosphere of a barrelhouse or other dance hall. House was an important influence on not only Muddy Waters but also Robert Johnson, who would later take his music to new levels. Green released in 2003 a non-religious (secular) album entitled I Can't Stop, his first collaboration with Willie Mitchell since 1985's He is the Light. He more than made up for this lack of technique, however, with his powerful and innovative style, featuring very strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of a bottleneck, coupled with singing that owed more than a nod to the hollers of the chain gangs.

The Grammys presented Green with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. Unlike some blues guitarists of the 1920s and 30s, House was not a virtuoso, and there is little that is technically impressive about his playing. In 2000, Green published Take Me to the River, a book discussing his career. Like Mississippi John Hurt he was welcomed into the music scene of the 1960s and played at Newport Folk Festival in 1964. Green's first secular album in some time was Your Heart's In Good Hands (1995), released to positive reviews but disappointing sales, the same year Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He subsequently toured extensively in the US and Europe and recorded for CBS records. His 1994 duet with country music singer Lyle Lovett blended country with R&B, garnering him ninth Grammy, this time in a pop music category. He then faded from public view until the country blues revival in the 1960s when he was "re-discovered".

First, he released a duet with Annie Lennox, "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" for Scrooged, a Bill Murray film. Son House made recordings for Paramount Records in 1930 and for Alan Lomax from the Library of Congress in the early 1940s. After spending several years exclusively performing gospel, Green began to return to R&B. After killing a man in self-defense, he spent time on Parchman Farm. In 1984 director Robert Mugge released a documentary film, The Gospel According to Al Green, including interviews about his life and footage from his church. He played alongside Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Robert Johnson, "Fiddlin'" Joe Martin, and Leroy Williams. From 1981 to 1989 Green recorded a series of gospel recordings, garnering eight "soul gospel performance" Grammys in that period. He was born in Riverton, Mississippi.

His first gospel album was The Lord Will Make a Way. Certainly, the voice in his recordings for the Library of Congress in 1941 and 1942 was not one of a young man. He then concentrated his energies towards pastoring his church and gospel singing, also appearing in 1982 with Patti Labelle in the musical Your Arms Too Short to Box With God. While all legal records place his birth on March 21, 1902, Son House himself gave contradictory information: that he was middle aged during World War I, that he was 79 in 1965, that he was born in 1886. In 1979, Green was injured while performing and interpreted this accident as a message from God. His birth is a matter of debate. 1977's The Belle Album was critically acclaimed but did not regain his former mass audience. Eddie James House, Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988), better known as Son House, was an influential blues singer and guitarist.

Continuing to record R&B, Green saw his sales start to slip and the critics grew steadily harsher. Green converted to Christianity after recovering from the assault and in 1976 became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis. She then killed herself in an adjacent bedroom. On October 18, 1974, Green's girlfriend, Mary Woodson, poured boiling grits on him as he was showering, causing second-degree burns on his back, stomach and arm.

Call Me was a critical sensation, and was also just as popular at the time; it is one of his most fondly remembered albums today. Let's Stay Together (1972) was an even bigger success, as was I'm Still In Love With You (1972). The next LP, though, Al Green Gets Next To You (1970), was a massive success that included four gold singles as Green developed his vocal and songwriting talents. The album was a moderate success.

Green's debut album with Hi Records was Green is Blue, a slow, horn-driven album that allowed Green to show off his powerful and expressive voice, with Mitchell arranging, engineering, and producing. Mitchell predicted stardom for Green, coaching him to find his own, unique voice at a time when Green had previously been trying to sing like his heroes Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Sam Cooke. Al Green met bandleader Willie Mitchell of Memphis' Hi Records in 1969, when Mitchell had hired him as a vocalist for a Texas show with Mitchell's band and then asked him to sign with the label. The Soul Mates' subsequent singles did not sell as well.

The band, now known as the Soul Mates, recorded "Back Up Train" and released it on Hot Line Music; the song was an R&B chart hit. Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, two members of the Creations, formed an independent label called Hot Line Music Journal. Green formed a group called Al Greene & the Creations in high school. He was kicked out of the group by his father because he was caught listening to Jackie Wilson.

They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. The son of a sharecropper, he started out at age nine in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "e" from his last name years later as a solo artist. April 13, 1946) is an American gospel and soul music singer, born in Forrest City, Arkansas. Al Green (b.

Grammy Awards website (http://www.grammy.com). NPR interview (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1082212). Allmusic.com artist discussion (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MIDMR0411300853&sql=11:y698s34ba3mg~T1). Biography at official artist website (http://www.algreenmusic.com/BIOGRAPHY.htm).

Al Green) #38 UK. 1989 "The Message is Love" (Arthur Baker and The Backbeat Disciples feat. 1988 "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" (with Annie Lennox) #9 US, #28 UK. 1977 "Keep Me Cryin'" #37 US.

1975 "Full of Fire" #28 US. 1975 "L-O-V-E (Love)" #13 US, #24 UK. 1974 "Livin' for You" #19 US. 1974 "Let's Get Married" #32 US.

1974 "Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)" #7 US, #20 UK. 1973 "Here I am (Come and Take Me)" #10 US. 1973 "Call Me (Come Back Home)" #10 US. 1972 "You Ought to be with Me" #3 US.

1972 "Look What You Done for Me" #4 US. 1972 "I'm Still in Love with You" #3 US, #35 UK. 1972 "Let's Stay Together" #1 US, #7 UK. 1971 "Tired of Being Alone" #11 US, #4 UK.

2005 "Everything's OK". 2003 "The Love Songs Collection" (compilation) #91 US. 2003 "I Can't Stop" #53 US. 2002 "Love - The Essential Al Green" #18 UK.

2001 "Feels Like Christmas". 2000 "Take Me to the River" (compilation) #186 US. 1995 "Your Heart's in Good Hands". 1993 "Gospel Soul".

1992 "Love is Reality". 1989 "I Get Joy". 1988 "Hi Life - The Best of Al Green" #34 UK. 1987 "Soul Survivor" #131 US.

1986 "White Christmas". 1985 "He is the Light". 1984 "Trust in God". 1983 "The Christmas Album".

1983 "I'll Rise Again". 1982 "Precious Lord". 1981 "Tokyo Live". 1981 "Higher Plane".

1980 "The Lord Will Make a Way". 1978 "Truth N' Time". 2" #134 US. 1977 "Al Green's Greatest Hits, Vol.

1977 "The Belle Album" #103 US. 1976 "Have a Good Time" #93 US. 1976 "Full of Fire" #59 US. 1975 "Al Green's Greatest Hits" #17 US, #18 UK.

1975 "Al Green is Love" #28 US. 1974 "Al Green Explores Your Mind" #15 US. 1973 "Livin' for You" #24 US. 1973 "Call Me" #10 US.

1972 "Al Green" (compilation) #162 US. 1972 "I'm Still in Love with You" #4 US. 1972 "Let's Stay Together" #8 US. 1971 "Al Green Gets Next to You" #58 US.

1970 "Green is Blues" #19 US. 1967 "Back Up Train".