It might be strange to some that a greatest hits album is one of my favorites of all time but in short, I like that there is absolutely no fucking about. It’s just tune after tune from the big man.
Al Green‘s voice is something that’s remained constant in my life for as long as I can remember, and has enveloped every aspect of it, wether it be family, love, or even grief. I can see my mum when I hear I’m Still In Love With You, holding a vodka and coke in a smokey room singing on Christmas Day, or my mates and I singing Let’s Stay Together two days into a bender, proceeded by my upstairs neighbor calling the police, who eventually show up and tell us to shut the fuck up. I was a baby when my cousin asked my mother to dance at my dad’s funeral while Al’s voice rang through the chapel like warm sunlight.
Al is a true singer. His voice comes from a different place, some celestial, other-worldly realm with in an unnatural source of pure talent. He has that unusual ability to make you believe every word he sings. Even as a child when my top priorities were sleeping and shitting my own pants, I remember always feeling moved by this album my mum used to play in the kitchen. The production feels simple, but the musicianship involved is unreal. The chords, the riffs, the backing vocals, the strings, with Al’s voice in the middle holding it all together, so iconic.
I could literally sit and talk about him forever, I’m sure I’ve bored the tits off enough people talking about how much those tunes mean to me, but I’ll call it a day there. His music will last forever. When the world has combusted into fire and brimstone, and it’s just the cockroaches and the exoskeleton of Elon Musk that remains, the Greatest Hit’s of Al Green will still be ringing true.
Joesef is currently working on his long-awaited debut record.