David Berthy Posts


Al Green was the artist who got me into soul music. I pretty much beat his greatest hits record to death when I was younger, and I haven’t given his back catalogue its proper due until recently. Last week, I came across the track “Love Ritual” on 1975’s Is Love. Whereas most Green songs strike me as slow-burning hymns about either the sacred or the profane, “Love Ritual” stands out as something else altogether. I love the up-tempo, percussion and organ-based build that notches up one degree at a time, teasing out a shift from a simmer to a boil. Even more irresistible, Green really goes out there with his vocal performance: yelping, chanting words that may or not be “juana” and “zula,” and at one point venturing into a language all his own.



Thinking about the song brought to mind the 1970 Marvin Gaye performance of the Strong/ Whitfield song “Cloud Nine” from That’s The Way Love Is. As with the Green track, the buildup here is notch by notch, and there’s something trance-inducing about the frenzied percussion. Gaye’s scorching vocal performance, abetted by wah-wah guitars, really takes this over the top. That’s The Way Love Is was the last album Gaye made before going into relative seclusion for a year and emerging with his masterpiece, What’s Going On. You can hear some of the anguish, anger, and longing for transcendence in “Cloud Nine” that will emerge into a fully realized suite of songs a year later.

Love Ritual/Cloud Nine