Cover me
There are lots of reasons why I love the Isleys, one of which is the talent they have for re-making other people's songs in their own image. In the 70s they specialized in taking songs by white bread artists like James Taylor, Steven Stills, Carole King, Seals & Croft and injecting them with big steaming dollops of soul. Comparing their soaring, majestic cover of "Summer Breeze" to Seals & Croft's weedy original is like the difference between a full English breakfast and a bowl of dry muesli. On their 1972 album "Brother, Brother, Brother" they covered no less than THREE Carole King songs (which might be overdoing it a tad), the crown jewel of which is their startling re-interpretation of "It's Too Late" which tranforms her "Tapestry" sing-a-long ditty about relationship breakdown into a mournfully slow and dark ten and a half minute (yes! ten and a half minutes!) epic of bitter regret. With Ronald Isley's yearning voice (I think only Al Green can make me feel more blissful), Ernie Isley's fiery guitar work, and some spine-tingling organ playing, this is pretty much my idea of soul heaven.
[Download]
It's Too Late - The Isley Brothers
7 Comments:
That's a powerful track.
That's a knockout track!
Your little corner of Heaven is starting to become one of the first places I visit each day, after I started slowly dipping my toe in.
The Isley's Brother Brother Brother is an incredible album, and probably my favorite of theirs. Layaway and the title track alone are worth the purchase price. So worth owning.
And yeah-- they did some wonderful things with covers. Great choice.
robot mark.
music.for-robots.com
"3+3" is my favourite.
I'd only heard the Carol King version before. "It's Too Late" summed up my relationship with my ex-husband so perfectly that it makes me cry every time I hear it. The Isley Bros version didn't do that (even tho I love the Isley Brothers), but then I was at work!! My fave Isley Brothers track has to be "This Old Heart of Mine" - it might be a bit predictable, but it's a cracker (and it's another one that makes me cry - I'm quite tough really, no really, honest)
their most recent album, on which I believe R. Kelly wrote all the songs but one, is pretty impressive too, most notably with "Busted" and "Lucky Charm."
Your blog is quite well written and this was a great cover. Bravo!
Post a Comment
<< Home