‘Sweet Soul Music’: Every song referenced in this Arthur Conley classic
Do you like good music? One way to find out if you really do is to listen to the 1967 Arthur Conley classic ‘Sweet Soul Music’. If you like that track, or any of the other songs and singers that he references in the lyrics, then the answer is probably “oh yeah, oh-a-woah yeah”.
Though the song is a timeless and iconic homage to the golden age of soul, the first musical motif that it mentions, albeit indirectly, is actually drawn directly from somewhere altogether quite different. Extending a phrase that was lifted almost directly from Elmer Bernstein’s score for the 1960 picture The Magnificent Seven, a piece of music which was also the soundtrack for every Marlboro cigarette advert in America for years to come, the horn section kicks off this jubilant celebration of soul before a frenetic Arthur Conley comes in with that all-important question of taste.
But just what exactly does Conley define as good music? Well, the sweet soul music of Lou Rawls, of course, and the aching tenderness and sophistication that moves you and grooves you in songs of his, like the 1966 number one hit ‘Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing’. Good music is the sound of the Motor City, too, and that Motown sound that was so perfectly encapsulated by The Funk Brothers on The Miracles’ 1965 hit ‘Going to a Go-Go’, which gets a shout-out here.
Lou Rawls and the Motown sound were coming in from Capitol in the West, and from Detroit in the Midwest and if you want to talk about the real heartland of soul, then you need some singers from the South. You need to hear the sounds and the spirit and the, well, soul of Memphis and the sounds of Stax, or for something a little funkier yet, you need to head to the heart of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and to Rick Hall’s Fame studio, which is exactly what Arthur Conley did when he recorded this song in January of 1967.
It’s no wonder that the rest of the songs he sings about were written and recorded in the South. Sam and Dave were one of Stax’s biggest acts, and ‘Hold On, I’m Comin’ one of their very best songs. Wilson Pickett not only recorded the song that gets namechecked here, ‘Mustang Sally’, in the same exact studio that Conley recorded ‘Sweet Soul Music’, but was also backed by the same exact musicians, The Swampers.
With one of the greatest rhythm sections ever assembled in the form of Tommy Cogbill on bass, human metronome Roger Hawkins on drums and Jimmy Johnson playing rhythm guitar, the song also boasts the talents of Chips Moman on lead guitar, Spooner Oldham on organ and a sparkling horn section of Gilbert Caples, Charlie Chalmers, Ed Logan, Gene ‘Bowlegs’ Miller and Floyd Newman.
Even if you don’t know their names, you know the sweet soul music that they made over the years, as they were the players on songs like Aretha Franklin’s ‘I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)’ and ‘Chain of Fools’, ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ by Etta James and countless other tracks that all deserve to be on every list of “Goated songs of all time”.
In fact, there are too many great soul songs to name here, and there were too many great soul songs to name in the song, as well, but Conley and The Swampers did have time for at least one more, as he namechecked Otis Redding’s ‘Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)’. Hilariously, Redding was actually a co-writer on this song, and perhaps included it here to finish what he started with ‘Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa’ and prove to the world that he has a sense of humour to match his sentimental side.
If you look at the names under the title on your record, you’ll also see that Sam Cooke has a songwriter’s credit on ‘Sweet Soul Music’, too, despite the fact that the song was written and released three years after his death. You only need to listen to his own song ‘Yeah Man’ to hear just why Cooke’s business partner JW Alexander sued Conley and Redding and pushed for a retrospective songwriting credit to be added to the copyright, as they directly lifted not only the melody but also most of the words from the earlier Cooke song.
There was just time to mention one more singer before the song cut loose and faded out, and that was the ‘Godfather of Soul’ himself, James Brown. Evidently, Conley and Redding couldn’t narrow down their favourites from his catalogue to just pick one track, and declare it the ‘king of them all’. Every king needs a Queen, too, but they didn’t find any room in their song to sing about the ‘Queen of Soul‘.
Of course, George Jackson wrote a whole sweet soul song about her a few years later, the sumptuous ‘Aretha, Sing One for Me’ to make up for their glaring omission.
‘Sweet Soul Music’: The lyrics
Do you like good music
That sweet soul music
Just as long as it’s swingin’
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Out here on the floor now
We’re going to a go-go
Ah dancin’ to the music
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Spotlight on Lou Rawls y’all
Ah, don’t he look tall y’all
Singin’ loves a hurtin’ thing now
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Spotlight on Sam and Dave now
Ahm, don’t they look boss y’all
Singin’ hold on I’m comin’
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Spotlight on Wilson Pickett
That wicked picket Pickett
Singin’ Mustang Sally
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Spotlight on Otis Redding now
Singing fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Spotlight on James Brown y’all
He’s the king of them all, y’all
He’s the king of them all, y’all
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Do you like good music
That sweet soul music
Just as long as it’s swingin’
Oh yeah, oh yeah
