Al Green: Truth N' Time CD Track Listing

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Al Green Truth N' Time (1978)
Originally Released 1978\nCD Edition Released January 24, 2006\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Returning to the formula of his classic Hi albums, Al Green assembled a fine collection of originals and covers for Truth N' Time. Although Green is in good voice, and his version of "Say a Little Prayer" is impressive, the album feels a bit like a holding pattern, simply repeating ideas that were more fruitful the first time around. Given the generally listless nature of Truth N' Time, and the way Green sounds vaguely uninterested in the material, it's not a surprise that it was his last secular record for a very long time. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAn evolutionary elbum, January 23, 2005\nReviewer: Big Bear\nThis is a very good album by Al Green which is a mixture of gospel and soul The songs are similar to the Belle album with more orchestration. If you are an Al Green fan , it should be added to your collection\n\n\nHalf.com Details \nProducer: Al Green \n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel: Al Green (vocals, guitar); James Bass, Bernard Staton (guitar); Buddy Jarrett (alto saxophone, background vocals); Ron Echols (tenor & baritone saxophones); Fred Jordan (trumpet, keyboards); Darryl Neely (trumpet); Jesse Butler, Johnny Brown, Charles Renard Webb, Leon Thomas, Gary Lax (keyboards); James Turner, Errol Thomas, Brian Batie (bass); John Toney (drums, percussion); Linda Jones, Harvey Jones Jr. (background vocals).\n\nRecorded at American Music Recording Studios, Memphis, Tennessee. Includes original liner notes by Al Green and reissue liner notes by Alan Robinson.\n\nPersonnel include: Al Green (vocals, guitar); Buddy Jarrett (alto saxophone); Fred Jordan (trumpet, keyboards); Johnny Brown (keyboards); James Turner (bass guitar); John Toney (drums, percussion).\n\nThe Reverend Al Green was the last star to emerge from the Southern Soul genre, the style of R&B that saw secular funk and fervent gospel moving together. (The Talking Heads' first hit, "Take Me To The River" was written by Green.) The rise of disco in the late 1970s meant the decline of this style, and with turmoil in Green's personal life followed by a religious conversion, TRUTH 'N' TIME (originally released in 1978) was a something of a swan-song.\nThis album continues in the loping, sophisticated funk vein of its predecessor THE BELLE ALBUM, but with subtle strains of religion ("Lo And Behold," "King Of All"), and disco-leaning funk ("Happy Days," the Isley Brothers-like title tune). There are a couple of unusual covers: Lulu's '60s hit "To Sir With Love" and the Bacharach/David classic "I Say A Little Prayer," both of which find Green sounding less than comfortable. Yet for loyal Green fans, and fans of pre-disco dance-floor funk, there's enough of the Real Thing with which to shake your groove-thing.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nAl Green is so charismatic he could make you wonder about the taste of Guyanese Fla--vor--aid. There's an element of danger about everything he does, a sense that at any moment he could be revealed as a complete charlatan--and that it wouldn't matter. If he hadn't been a great musician, he might have become a master street politician or a preacher (he's dabbled with the latter anyway). What saved him was his vision.\n\nWhile Truth n' Time, Green's second self-produced and mostly self-written LP, lacks the monumental peaks of last year's The Belle Album, it has much more focus. Al Green is now involved in the full-scale exploration of black musical forms, and he takes on a wide variety here: gospel ("King of All"), disco ("Happy. Days," "Truth n' Time") and pop ("To Sir with Love," "Say a Little Prayer") are only the most obvious. These genres shift and overlap, so that Green preaches during the most danceable cuts and dances through the most preachy. In "Wait Here," he even explores the blues. "Going down to Memphis/See what I can see," he sings in the second verse, echoing Ma Rainey's primordial "See See Rider," then later adds: "Gonna wait here till my rider comes." The surface of "Wait Here" is just modern dance music, but underneath it, there are about four hundred years of black cultural history. The message is still inchoate: Is Green aiming to make his listeners restive or disruptive?\n\nMaybe both. Al Green isn't only a visionary, he's something of a mystic, too. Truth n' Time views these two concepts as inseparable, and if Green is enough of a rationalist to contend that all we need is time, he's also sufficiently adept at metaphysics to view time as a very elastic concept. He has to see it that way. Otherwise, how could he control the tempos of his records so beautifully?\n\nThough disco was clearly a dominant commercial factor in Truth n' Time's conception, it'd be a grave error to attempt to pigeonhole this artist. Green's music can no longer be contained by any one genre: like all great American pop, his work has ceased to be a matter of formulas and become an internal dialogue. While this may breed a certain degree of insularity, it also means that when Al Green turns the full power of his gaze upon his audience, the sensible listener covers his face in awe. (RS 287 - Mar 22, 1979) -- DAVE MARSH
This rock cd contains 8 tracks and runs 26min 45sec.
Freedb: 6a064308
Buy: from Amazon.com

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