Hello,
Young gospel phenom, gritty Stax/Volt soulster, lady-killing balladeer, chart-topping disco king, Southern soul-blues stalwart -- Johnnie Taylor somehow always managed to adapt to the times, and he parlayed that versatility into a recording career that lasted nearly four decades. Nicknamed the "Philosopher of Soul" during his Stax days, that version of Taylor is best remembered for his 1968 R&B chart-topping smash "Who's Making Love," but far and away his biggest success was 1976's across-the-board number one "Disco Lady," the first single ever certified platinum (which at the time meant sales of over two million copies). ...N'joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Young gospel phenom, gritty Stax/Volt soulster, lady-killing balladeer, chart-topping disco king, Southern soul-blues stalwart -- Johnnie Taylor somehow always managed to adapt to the times, and he parlayed that versatility into a recording career that lasted nearly four decades. Nicknamed the "Philosopher of Soul" during his Stax days, that version of Taylor is best remembered for his 1968 R&B chart-topping smash "Who's Making Love," but far and away his biggest success was 1976's across-the-board number one "Disco Lady," the first single ever certified platinum (which at the time meant sales of over two million copies). When the national hits dried up, Taylor wound up as one of the most prolific artists on the Malaco label, a refuge for many Southern soul and blues veterans whose styles had fallen out of popular favor by the '80s. Taylor called Malaco home for over 15 years and kept on recording and performing right up to his passing in 2000.
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, AR, on May 5, 1934 (though he usually gave his birth year as 1938); he grew up mostly in nearby West Memphis. He began singing in church as a young child and later moved to Kansas City, where he performed with a gospel group called the Melody Kings; it was through this outfit that he initially met and befriended Soul Stirrers frontman Sam Cooke. In 1953, Taylor left home and moved to Chicago, where he joined the doo wop group the Five Echoes; shortly thereafter, he began performing concurrently with the gospel group the Highway Q.C.'s, which had once been home to Sam Cooke. In 1957, Taylor would replace Cooke in the hugely influential Soul Stirrers, after Cooke departed for a career in secular music.
After four years with the Soul Stirrers, Taylor escaped gospel music's waning popularity and followed Cooke into the world of secular soul, becoming the first artist to sign with Cooke's label, Sar, in 1961. Taylor released a few singles on Sar and another Cooke label, Derby, over the next few years, including the minor R&B hit "Rome (Wasn't Built in a Day)." Unfortunately, Cooke was murdered in late 1964, and his labels folded, leaving Taylor without a record deal. He returned to the Memphis area and signed with the enormously popular Stax label in 1965, debuting early the following year with "I Had a Dream." Taylor scored a few minor R&B hits over the next few years, including "I Got to Love Somebody's Baby," "Somebody's Sleeping in My Bed," and "Next Time." He hit it big in late 1968 with the gritty, funky "Who's Making Love," his first number one R&B hit, which also made the pop Top Five. Taylor was able to land some decent-sized follow-up hits in the years to come, among them "Take Care of Your Homework," "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone," "Steal Away," and "I Am Somebody." By the early '70s, Taylor's bread and butter had become smooth, elegant crooning, as typified by his 1973 album Taylored in Silk and his two attendant ballad smashes, "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" and "Cheaper to Keep Her."
When Stax went bankrupt in 1975, Taylor moved over to CBS/Columbia, debuting in 1976 with the album Eargasm. Its first single, "Disco Lady," was an instant smash, capturing the spirit of the era and selling over two million copies (although some soul fans still debate whether it was a true disco song). "Disco Lady" was Taylor's first number one pop hit, despite losing airplay over its supposedly suggestive lyrics, and it proved such a phenomenon that CBS eagerly pushed him to record more disco-oriented material, something Taylor wasn't extraordinarily comfortable with. He recorded several more albums for the label through 1980, but never came close to duplicating the success of "Disco Lady" and left to sign with the smaller Beverly Glen imprint in 1982.
In the 1980s Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on KKDA-FM, a Dallas/Fort Worth radio station. The station's format is mostly R&B and Soul oldies and their on-the-air personalities are often local R&B, Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Mr. Taylor was billed as "The Wailer, Johnnie Taylor".
Taylor recorded one album for Beverly Glen, 1982's Just Ain't Good Enough, which produced a minor R&B hit in "What About My Love." Still searching for a home more in line with the environment at Stax, Taylor soon jumped to Malaco Records, a Southern label dedicated to preserving the region's classic soul and blues sounds (albeit sometimes with a bit less grit than in days of old). Debuting with 1984's This Is Your Night, Taylor and Malaco clicked right away, and he wound up recording a total of 12 albums for the label over the next 15 years, ranking as one of their best-selling artists. Taylor's style during this era had evolved into a hybrid of soul and blues, with more emphasis on the latter than at any other point in his career; he continued to tour steadily through the '80s and '90s, and landed a few more singles on the lower reaches of the R&B chart up until 1990. In 1996, his album Good Love! topped the Billboard blues chart. Taylor's final album was 1999's Gotta Get the Groove Back; Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased African American music icons from Louis Armstrong to Otis Redding to Z.Z. Hill to Notorious B.I.G., among others. Taylor died of a heart attack at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on May 31, 2000, aged 66. Stax billed Johnnie Taylor as "The Philosopher of Soul". He was also known as "the Blues Wailer". He was buried beside his mother, Ida Mae Taylor, at Forrest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The song "Who's Making Love?" was among Johnnie Taylor's biggest chart hits, with Taylor's tough but impassioned vocal supported by a potently energetic performance by the usual Stax Records crew (including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the Memphis Horns. But Who's Making Love, the album assembled to accompany the single, is for the most part dominated by more measured and blues-based material. While "Take Care of Your Homework" generates a potent groove (and reads like a sequel to "Who's Making Love"), and "Hold on This Time" is a remarkably successful emulation of the Motown production style, for the most part, Who's Making Love suggests Taylor was most comfortable with slow, sorrowful laments such as "Can't Trust Your Neighbor" and "Poor Make Believer," and while these tunes lack the dancefloor drive of Taylor's uptempo hits, no one can deny he knows how to make the most of the dramatic sweep of a tale of love gone wrong, and his tales of lovers gone astray (and paying the price) carry a weight not unlike that of his earlier gospel period. Who's Making Love captures some of the high points of Taylor's career as a Southern soul man, and finds him nodding to his past and well as his future in his search for inspiration.
Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love (flac 233mb)
01 Who's Making Love 2:47
02 I'm Not The Same Person 3:03
03 Hold On This Time 2:36
04 Woman Across The River 3:14
05 Can't Trust Your Neighbor 2:39
06 Take Care Of Your Homework 2:35
07 I'm Trying 2:59
08 Poor Make Believer 2:42
09 Payback Hurts 2:28
10 Mr. Nobody Is Somebody 3:21
11 I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water 2:56
12 Rumours 2:48
Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love (ogg 92mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
A decent followup to his huge hit album Eargasm, although the danger signs were already in the air. It did have some fine ballads, such as "I'm Just A Shoulder To Cry On" and "Love Is Better In The A.M. (Part I)," but it became evident that Columbia wanted another "Disco Lady" and not only didn't have one, but didn't even have the singer they thought they had. Disenchantment would quickly take its toll.
Johnnie Taylor - Rated Extraordinaire (flac 378mb)
01 Your Love Is Rated X 4:15
02 Stormy 5:14
03 Here I Go (Through These Changes Again) 3:59
04 Did He Make Love To You 3:35
05 And I Panicked 4:00
06 Love Is Better In The A.M. Part 1 & 2 5:06
07 It Ain't What You Do (It's How You Do It) 3:26
08 Not Just Another Booty Song 3:43
09 I'm Just A Shoulder To Cry On 4:40
10 Stop Giving People Hard Luck Stories 3:47
Johnnie Taylor - Rated Extraordinaire (ogg 104mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Huey Lewis compiled Johnnie Taylor's Stax Profiles, a 14-track combination of his best-known songs with lesser-heard material, that examines both his pre-Stax output and hit recordings for the Memphis-based label. Although collectors will have little use for this set, it suits the purposes of curious listeners quite well. These 14 cuts chronicle Taylor's progression from gospel singer with the Highway Q.C.'s and the Soul Stirrers to "the Philosopher of Soul," highlighted by "Disco Lady" and "Who's Making Love."
Johnnie Taylor - Stax Profiles (flac 317mb)
01 I Dreamed That Heaven Was Like This 2:43
02 Out On A Hill (Take 1 - Alternative) 2:43
03 Rome (Wasn't Built in a Day) 2:37
04 Just the One (I've Been Looking For) 2:43
05 Stop Doggin' Me 6:14
06 Toe Hold 3:11
07 I've Been Born Again 3:22
08 Part Time Love 3:34
09 Who's Making Love 2:48
10 I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water 2:59
11 Time After Time 7:04
12 I Am Somebody, Pts. 1-2 5:50
13 Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone 3:02
14 Disco Lady song 4:29
Johnnie Taylor - Stax Profiles (ogg 119mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Young gospel phenom, gritty Stax/Volt soulster, lady-killing balladeer, chart-topping disco king, Southern soul-blues stalwart -- Johnnie Taylor somehow always managed to adapt to the times, and he parlayed that versatility into a recording career that lasted nearly four decades. Nicknamed the "Philosopher of Soul" during his Stax days, that version of Taylor is best remembered for his 1968 R&B chart-topping smash "Who's Making Love," but far and away his biggest success was 1976's across-the-board number one "Disco Lady," the first single ever certified platinum (which at the time meant sales of over two million copies). ...N'joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Young gospel phenom, gritty Stax/Volt soulster, lady-killing balladeer, chart-topping disco king, Southern soul-blues stalwart -- Johnnie Taylor somehow always managed to adapt to the times, and he parlayed that versatility into a recording career that lasted nearly four decades. Nicknamed the "Philosopher of Soul" during his Stax days, that version of Taylor is best remembered for his 1968 R&B chart-topping smash "Who's Making Love," but far and away his biggest success was 1976's across-the-board number one "Disco Lady," the first single ever certified platinum (which at the time meant sales of over two million copies). When the national hits dried up, Taylor wound up as one of the most prolific artists on the Malaco label, a refuge for many Southern soul and blues veterans whose styles had fallen out of popular favor by the '80s. Taylor called Malaco home for over 15 years and kept on recording and performing right up to his passing in 2000.
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, AR, on May 5, 1934 (though he usually gave his birth year as 1938); he grew up mostly in nearby West Memphis. He began singing in church as a young child and later moved to Kansas City, where he performed with a gospel group called the Melody Kings; it was through this outfit that he initially met and befriended Soul Stirrers frontman Sam Cooke. In 1953, Taylor left home and moved to Chicago, where he joined the doo wop group the Five Echoes; shortly thereafter, he began performing concurrently with the gospel group the Highway Q.C.'s, which had once been home to Sam Cooke. In 1957, Taylor would replace Cooke in the hugely influential Soul Stirrers, after Cooke departed for a career in secular music.
After four years with the Soul Stirrers, Taylor escaped gospel music's waning popularity and followed Cooke into the world of secular soul, becoming the first artist to sign with Cooke's label, Sar, in 1961. Taylor released a few singles on Sar and another Cooke label, Derby, over the next few years, including the minor R&B hit "Rome (Wasn't Built in a Day)." Unfortunately, Cooke was murdered in late 1964, and his labels folded, leaving Taylor without a record deal. He returned to the Memphis area and signed with the enormously popular Stax label in 1965, debuting early the following year with "I Had a Dream." Taylor scored a few minor R&B hits over the next few years, including "I Got to Love Somebody's Baby," "Somebody's Sleeping in My Bed," and "Next Time." He hit it big in late 1968 with the gritty, funky "Who's Making Love," his first number one R&B hit, which also made the pop Top Five. Taylor was able to land some decent-sized follow-up hits in the years to come, among them "Take Care of Your Homework," "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone," "Steal Away," and "I Am Somebody." By the early '70s, Taylor's bread and butter had become smooth, elegant crooning, as typified by his 1973 album Taylored in Silk and his two attendant ballad smashes, "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" and "Cheaper to Keep Her."
When Stax went bankrupt in 1975, Taylor moved over to CBS/Columbia, debuting in 1976 with the album Eargasm. Its first single, "Disco Lady," was an instant smash, capturing the spirit of the era and selling over two million copies (although some soul fans still debate whether it was a true disco song). "Disco Lady" was Taylor's first number one pop hit, despite losing airplay over its supposedly suggestive lyrics, and it proved such a phenomenon that CBS eagerly pushed him to record more disco-oriented material, something Taylor wasn't extraordinarily comfortable with. He recorded several more albums for the label through 1980, but never came close to duplicating the success of "Disco Lady" and left to sign with the smaller Beverly Glen imprint in 1982.
In the 1980s Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on KKDA-FM, a Dallas/Fort Worth radio station. The station's format is mostly R&B and Soul oldies and their on-the-air personalities are often local R&B, Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Mr. Taylor was billed as "The Wailer, Johnnie Taylor".
Taylor recorded one album for Beverly Glen, 1982's Just Ain't Good Enough, which produced a minor R&B hit in "What About My Love." Still searching for a home more in line with the environment at Stax, Taylor soon jumped to Malaco Records, a Southern label dedicated to preserving the region's classic soul and blues sounds (albeit sometimes with a bit less grit than in days of old). Debuting with 1984's This Is Your Night, Taylor and Malaco clicked right away, and he wound up recording a total of 12 albums for the label over the next 15 years, ranking as one of their best-selling artists. Taylor's style during this era had evolved into a hybrid of soul and blues, with more emphasis on the latter than at any other point in his career; he continued to tour steadily through the '80s and '90s, and landed a few more singles on the lower reaches of the R&B chart up until 1990. In 1996, his album Good Love! topped the Billboard blues chart. Taylor's final album was 1999's Gotta Get the Groove Back; Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased African American music icons from Louis Armstrong to Otis Redding to Z.Z. Hill to Notorious B.I.G., among others. Taylor died of a heart attack at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on May 31, 2000, aged 66. Stax billed Johnnie Taylor as "The Philosopher of Soul". He was also known as "the Blues Wailer". He was buried beside his mother, Ida Mae Taylor, at Forrest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The song "Who's Making Love?" was among Johnnie Taylor's biggest chart hits, with Taylor's tough but impassioned vocal supported by a potently energetic performance by the usual Stax Records crew (including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the Memphis Horns. But Who's Making Love, the album assembled to accompany the single, is for the most part dominated by more measured and blues-based material. While "Take Care of Your Homework" generates a potent groove (and reads like a sequel to "Who's Making Love"), and "Hold on This Time" is a remarkably successful emulation of the Motown production style, for the most part, Who's Making Love suggests Taylor was most comfortable with slow, sorrowful laments such as "Can't Trust Your Neighbor" and "Poor Make Believer," and while these tunes lack the dancefloor drive of Taylor's uptempo hits, no one can deny he knows how to make the most of the dramatic sweep of a tale of love gone wrong, and his tales of lovers gone astray (and paying the price) carry a weight not unlike that of his earlier gospel period. Who's Making Love captures some of the high points of Taylor's career as a Southern soul man, and finds him nodding to his past and well as his future in his search for inspiration.
Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love (flac 233mb)
01 Who's Making Love 2:47
02 I'm Not The Same Person 3:03
03 Hold On This Time 2:36
04 Woman Across The River 3:14
05 Can't Trust Your Neighbor 2:39
07 I'm Trying 2:59
08 Poor Make Believer 2:42
09 Payback Hurts 2:28
10 Mr. Nobody Is Somebody 3:21
11 I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water 2:56
12 Rumours 2:48
Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love (ogg 92mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
A decent followup to his huge hit album Eargasm, although the danger signs were already in the air. It did have some fine ballads, such as "I'm Just A Shoulder To Cry On" and "Love Is Better In The A.M. (Part I)," but it became evident that Columbia wanted another "Disco Lady" and not only didn't have one, but didn't even have the singer they thought they had. Disenchantment would quickly take its toll.
Johnnie Taylor - Rated Extraordinaire (flac 378mb)
01 Your Love Is Rated X 4:15
02 Stormy 5:14
03 Here I Go (Through These Changes Again) 3:59
04 Did He Make Love To You 3:35
05 And I Panicked 4:00
06 Love Is Better In The A.M. Part 1 & 2 5:06
07 It Ain't What You Do (It's How You Do It) 3:26
08 Not Just Another Booty Song 3:43
09 I'm Just A Shoulder To Cry On 4:40
10 Stop Giving People Hard Luck Stories 3:47
Johnnie Taylor - Rated Extraordinaire (ogg 104mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Huey Lewis compiled Johnnie Taylor's Stax Profiles, a 14-track combination of his best-known songs with lesser-heard material, that examines both his pre-Stax output and hit recordings for the Memphis-based label. Although collectors will have little use for this set, it suits the purposes of curious listeners quite well. These 14 cuts chronicle Taylor's progression from gospel singer with the Highway Q.C.'s and the Soul Stirrers to "the Philosopher of Soul," highlighted by "Disco Lady" and "Who's Making Love."
Johnnie Taylor - Stax Profiles (flac 317mb)
01 I Dreamed That Heaven Was Like This 2:43
02 Out On A Hill (Take 1 - Alternative) 2:43
03 Rome (Wasn't Built in a Day) 2:37
04 Just the One (I've Been Looking For) 2:43
05 Stop Doggin' Me 6:14
06 Toe Hold 3:11
07 I've Been Born Again 3:22
08 Part Time Love 3:34
09 Who's Making Love 2:48
10 I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water 2:59
11 Time After Time 7:04
12 I Am Somebody, Pts. 1-2 5:50
13 Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone 3:02
14 Disco Lady song 4:29
Johnnie Taylor - Stax Profiles (ogg 119mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment