Head Nodding Prose for the Summer, Vol. 1

Head Nodding Prose for the Summer, Volume One
by Mark Anthony Neal

Soul Covers: Rhythm and Blues Remakes and the Struggle for Artistic Identity
Michael Awkward

Michael Awkward, the Gayl Jones Collegiate Professor of Afro-American Literature and Culture at the University of Michigan, has built a career on the notion of “close” readings. In other words, he takes quite seriously that every word and gesture matters, when one examines the culture of African-Americans. Though he has been primarily concerned with black women’s literature throughout his career—in many ways initiating the field of black male feminist criticism—in his new book he turns his attention to the music of Al Green, Aretha Franklin, and Phoebe Snow, highlighting songs that the artists chose to cover during the period of 1964-1976. In the case of Franklin it was an album length tribute to the music of Dinah Washington, while Green, during the height of his popularity, chose to cover Country music standards like Hank Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away” and Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times.” —songs which Green used a template to write songs that expressed his own “country boy” sensibilities. In the case of Snow, easily the lesser known of the trio, Awkward examines the “something in between”—Snow is a Jewish singer-songwriter with “kinky” hair who rarely tried to disturb perceptions that she was an “authentic” Soul singer, particularly on her album Second Childhood. Soul Covers is not for casual fans of Soul music, but for those who interests might best be described as devout.

Read Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com