Published on Jun 17, 1997
Here’s a particular line in Bebe Moore Campbell’s
Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine which struck my funny bone; “‘I
don’t care what you say,’ the light skinned man muttered. ‘White
people ain’t got no blues.'”
If that’s true, Joe Cocker puts up an impressively convincing
imitation. Son of a coal miner and a Woodstock veteran, this master
of remakes is the key figure of “blue-eyed soul” and lately been
cast into a lot of soundtracks. I first encountered him on
The Bodyguard soundtrack (gimmie a break, I’ve been
listening to music for only four years) in the duet with Sass
Jordan “Trust In Me”. His voice was more attention-grabbing than
Whitney Houston’s, who was on the same album.
Organic however, does away with “Trust In Me” and “Up Where
We Belong”-esque pop shmaltz and settles for a toned, back-to-roots
sound by playing all the instruments by hand and throat. It’s
definitely this traditional arrangement of orthodox instruments
that makes the album organic.
The artists approach the music in such an intimate way, it’s not
difficult to let the mind wander in jealousy. Billy Preston on the
Hammond organ playes the life of some of the tracks like “Into The
Mystic” and “Bye Bye Blackbird”. Backup divas aren’t exactly having
church with the microphone but the effect they have on a song
whenever the hit a punctual note is simply astonishing.
Percussionists Kenny Aronoff and Jim Keltman are highlighted in
every track; basically, on the same level as Cocker. Cocker himself
lives up to his crew by being everything from, of course, mellow to
downright silly (only an American would have the lyric “as happy as
a monkey in a monkey tree” in a patriotic song).
Master of Remakes, the Male Celine Dion; not only did he cover
songs by Stevie Wonder and most unsurprisingly the Beatles, but
this guy is so loco he covered
himself; “Delta Lady” and “You Are So Beautiful” among
others. Not that it was from insecurity; it simply goes to show the
extent of the team’s efforts into making a coherent atmosphere. And
even though you’ll be unconsciously comparing the songs to the
originals, I can safely vouch that it can be listened for
itself.
The question again: DO white people have any blues? Now I’m all
messed up.