During an early Atlantic recording session, he begged out early to return to Philadelphia where he worked a snow-removal job for $3.50 an hour. When his first independent singles didn’t perform to expectation, he briefly left the music business to become a mortician, a skill he never completely abandoned. Before signing to Atlantic, the Philadelphia-based singer struggled to bridge the gap between gospel and something bigger. Music was Burke’s love, but he always had a little something extra going on the side. Burke had, Guralnick wrote, “a combination of Sam Cooke at his mellifluous best and Ray Charles at his deep-down and funkiest, an improbable mix of sincerity, dramatic artifice, bubbling good humor, multitextured vocal artistry.” Burke during his glory days.īurke was signed to Atlantic Records in 1961, in part to fill the hole that had been left when Ray Charles departed for ABC. Writer Peter Guralnick devotes an entire chapter to Burke in his classic 1986 book “Sweet Soul Music.” Plenty has been written about Burke’s musical legacy the following recollections from the book spotlight Burke’s colorful personality. Sadly, it was not to be.īut while I missed out, thousands of fans around the world were able to enjoy the king of rock and soul up close. I always hoped Bill Shapiro would be able to book him for one of his excellent Cyprus Avenue Live at the Folly series.
In fact, unless I missed him at the old Blues and Jazz Fest, I can’t recall him even stopping in Kansas City in the last 15 years.
2005’s “Make Do With What You Got” is another crucial piece of Burke’s renaissance. In 2006, Buddy Miller helmed “Nashville,” an Americana-themed album featuring support from Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch. His 2002 comeback “Don’t Give Up On Me” featured songs written specifically for him by Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson and Nick Lowe. The 70-year old singer was best known for 1960s soul classics such as “Got To Get You Off My Mind” and “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” which was covered by Wilson Pickett and the Blues Brothers.Īlthough he made his name in the ‘60s, Burke released several stunning albums in the last decade of his life. Soul legend Solomon Burke died Sunday at an airport in Amsterdam. (Above: Solomon Burke takes a mid-day festival crowd to church with “If You Need Me.”)
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