Al Green - I'm Still in Love with You

i'm certain i know what is going to win this, and while it's absolutely the right answer, there are so many jewels here. 'i'm glad you're mine' is soooo joyful, it's just as funky as 'love and happiness' but kind of like the other side of the coin. i float through 'what a wonderful thing love is' every time. i used to kind of pooh-pooh 'oh pretty woman' but his rendition is just sublime isn't it? god what a song. but i think what i'm going to have to vote for is 'one of these good old days' - how it goes from uncertainty to eternal love in 3 minutes, that crescendo and that 'baaaabyyyy' at the end!

the only track here that i want to skip sometimes is 'for the good times' because it's so incredibly sad but of course i always let it play and i never regret it.

I am voting for the good times. Best version of a great song

"What a Wonderful Thing Love Is", stellar singing, stellar song, climactic in every sense

“Simply beautiful” is one of the most intimate songs ever made. The soft, spare acoustic guitar and the way Al Green voice is mixed… it sounds like he’s sitting singing next to you. So many artists given the same assignment sound schmaltzy but not Al Green.

Can’t think of many songs that sound as cool and comfortable as this one. It sounds like a massage.

“Simply beautiful” is one of the most intimate songs ever made. The soft, spare acoustic guitar and the way Al Green voice is mixed… it sounds like he’s sitting singing next to you. So many artists given the same assignment sound schmaltzy but not Al Green.

Can’t think of many songs that sound as cool and comfortable as this one. It sounds like a massage.

Oops double post

Going to have to play it to make my mind up.

What a Wonderful Thing Love Is really is something special. Still got the second side to go though!

"One of These Good Old Days" over "Simply Beautiful."

Green sure knew how to sequence albums -- and write good final songs.

i've been reappreciating the epic god-strong funky driving miracle that is "love and happiness" - all-time guitar riff, all-time vocal performance. i have to move to it even though i've heard it so many times, it's impossible to burn out on? i have a 24-bit 96 khz copy of this album downloaded that i've been listening to and that extra resolution really brings everything to life, every moment is breathtaking.

love is
walking together
talking together
singing together
praying together

'Simply Beautiful' seems so ahead of the game...almost envisions modern r&b...absolutely adore it

i'm certain i know what is going to win this

I'm not!

yeah now i don't know - i always thought 'love and happiness' was the favorite. delighted by the love for 'simply beautiful'. and let's not forget 'look what you done for me,' a very fine praise song if i've ever heard one with that gorgeous modulation in the chorus and haunting chord progressions throughout!

My first acquaintance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rITFOx8HW4I

(xp) Having said that, I'm voting for "Love and Happiness" lol

not sure what i expected from arto lindsay covering al green but that is quite good! xp

“for the good times”. perfect album

“for the good times”. perfect album

“for the good times”. perfect album

Lol I became acquainted with both “erotic city” and “simply beautiful” by the Arto Lindsay cover first.

Title track definitely, the best cozy smokey sound ever.

This might be 'For the Good Times' but I'm finding it hard not to vote for 'Simply Beautiful'.

I absolutely loved Call Me when I heard it for the first time recently. Let's give this one a spin then

Let's give this one a spin then

yep

this whole time you were all trying to get me to hear 'destroyer' and 'future island' and you just assumed i had heard al green already I HADNT SOMEHOW

you can only trust yourself and the twelve Al Green albums on the Hi label ;)

for real

I have the album, don't know it that well, but I'd be surprised if there's anything better than the title track.

THIS HOLIDAY SEASON ilm will be polling EVERY SINGLE ONE of Al Green's Hi albums.

we will go back to the first two and then continue after this one. so many i still haven't heard.

I'd long thought Let's Stay Together was hit-plus-filler. Wow -- I was wrong-o. That back half...

the thing about most of these albums is they are an embarrassment of stellar material. green has his famous greatest hits compilation that you see in jukeboxes etc but there's just no replacement for having at least a couple of his albums on hand.

i've been listening to this album on repeat during workouts (it's fantastic workout music!) and as much as i love every song here i just keep being blown away by 'love and happiness'.

He's such a great singer, such a great interpreter of songs, that he elevates songs that might be entirely mid if somebody lesser sang them. Makes it hard to point to "filler" when he was in his pomp

Actually, what's often not mentioned enough is what a fabulous songwriter Green is.

He wrote or co-wrote most of his material.

Absolutely, so many great albums.

It's gonna have to be For The Good Times. Wow

I've only heard the greatest hits which is a crime, so I'm going to take this opportunity to listen to this whole album.

had the pleasure of seeing Al in 2012 and it was pure joy

Jumping on the wagon too.

Been interested in Al Green because Xgau loves him so (and if there were no Xgau influence in my life I'd probably never have found Peter Stampfel, and that would be awful) but haven't followed up. Listening to him (knowingly) for the first time ever right now. Even on the opener, I get why you guys emphasize the songwriting -- squint, and put a different arrangement on it, and it could be a Beatles song, couldn't it?

Whoa to the horn lines on Love and Happiness!

the drums

well I'm stressed due to an idiot at work now so I'm putting this on NOW

I envy anyone who is about to start listening to Al Green's albums for the first time!

always loved how he was the opposite of Lenny Williams and Philip Bailey, both of whom I love, of course. they did the really loud powerful falsetto, but Al kind of perfected the very wispy, restrained falsetto because it suited his music so well.

This feels very much in the Moondance / Cahoots spectrum of things, but -- I gather -- emerging from a totally different scene?

1972 release date, that checks out.

in the Moondance / Cahoots spectrum

Just had a sudden weird flash of Al singing "Last of the Blacksmiths".

I don't think the album tracks here are as exceptional as they are on the previous and subsequent records, with the exception of "What a Wonderful Thing Love Is". The three hits are excellent and my favourite is "Look What You Done for Me":

a very fine praise song if i've ever heard one with that gorgeous modulation in the chorus and haunting chord progressions throughout!

The whole verse is based on a very simple, almost pastel two-chord progression that gains emotional weight and tension as it's repeated in three different pitches. By the time he gets to the chorus, we've already travelled through a whole landscape of feeling.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Ah-men.

for me, this record is all about Side A. i voted title track