60's soul

You should do the Otis Redding version of "Respect." Listen to Live In Europe -- the energy is so over-the-top it's practially a punk album.

I second what Mark said about Otis Redding Live in Europe A.K.A. Otis Redding Murderlizes The Hits!

It’s slooow, but you said you wanted something "epic" – and when it comes to soul epics, Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me" is the Illiad and the Odyssey put together. Lots of opportunity for screaming, too. It's on Rhino’s Beg, Scream & Shout!: The Big Ol' Box Of 60's Soul, which is so extremely worth its asking price it's not even funny. One-hit wonders, mild obscurities, and lesser-known (but primo) cuts from superduperstars – a good start.

Ray Charles. Investigate him. Know him. Love him. "I Don’t Need No Doctor." "Hit The Road Jack." "I Gotta Woman." The Rhino Anthology is usually on sale for a ridiculously low price.

Also look into uptempo early sixties hits that white garage bands used to cover, like Marvin Gaye’s "Can I Get A Witness" and The Capitol’s "Cool Jerk."

COKED-OUT VIOLIN IS GOOD VIOLIN!

Let it be known -- this track is overrated. It's good, but no thunderclaps opened up in the heavens when I heard it.

Search: if you can still find it, a terrifc comp called 'Sweet Soul Music' compiled by Peter Guralnick (to accompany his bk of the same title) that collects together some of the less obvious 60s soul classics(esp. the sublime 'Losing Boy' by Eddie Giles, 'Rainbow Road' by Arthur Alexander (written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, who also wrote 'Dark End Of The Street' by James Carr, one of the all-time great deep soul recs, plus loads of great songs for Aretha, Irma Thomas, The Sweet Inspirations (w/ Whitney's mum!), James and Bobby Purify etc), 'Your Song' by Aretha Franklin, an obscurity that ranks with her v. best work (as does the damm near flawless 'Aretha Arrives' alb), 'Crying In The Streets' by George Perkins and the Silver Stars, plus good'uns by O.V. Wright, Percy Sledge, Otis Clay, Laura Lee, Judy Clay etc. etc. Or you could just cover 'Sweet Soul Music' itself, written by Otis, performed by Arthur Conley.

There's also Dave Godin's 'Deep Soul Treasures' CDS (two to date?) which features even more obscure but wonderful soul recs.

You can never go too far wrong w/ Bobby Bland (smoke abt a million ciggies before attempting one of his songs!), Smokey Robinson, Solomon Burke or Carla Thomas ('B.A.B.Y.' is esp. catchy).

Otis Redding is the 'Love Supreme' and 'Kind of Blue' of sixties soul.

- what's your line up? - what's your technical ability levels? - how close do you want to get to the original record?

There's a basic sixties soul sound that is reasonably easy to replicate. Otis, the Stax stuff generally, some of the James Brown stuff, Sam and Dave, Wilson Picket, some of the Atlantic stuff (early Aretha) etc. If you're happy to do a garage rock version line-up won't matter, but if you want to get close to the sound on the record you'll need at least a couple of horns - preferably three. Piano would also help but it's not essential. For this material the chords tend to be basic, the arrangements sparse (but wonderfully effective) and instrumental parts easy. If you've got a half-decent singer the rest of your band can be ordinary and you will still sound great.

There is a downside, though, which is that this kind of material is so suitable to being covered that it's been done to death.

If you stray in a Motown direction you have a different range of problems. The harmonies are more sophisticated and you will need people with good enough ears to hear the chords. The arrangements are also more sophisticated and so you will need better vocal harmonies etc and maybe some keys if you want to try to replicate string arrangements and stuff. Also some of the instrumental parts get challenging - the James Jameson and Carol Kaye bass parts on some of the Motown songs are seriously challenging (listen to "Bernadette" by the 4 Tops of "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder to see what I mean.)

it'll probably take a couple of weeks for me to sift through this stuff... but soon Minneapolis will taste our soulful wrath!!!

in the mean time, our only cover song is Asskickatron! by Fagotron. it rocks: "In high school i was a punching bag/ something something something now im a punching fag!/ you fuck with me I'll fuck with you back eh ESS ESS KAY EYE SEE KAY EH TEE AR O EN!!! EH ESS ESS KAY AY SEE ...(repeat many many times)

(uhh..im just the drummer)

Or something by Don Covay. "Sookie Sookie" is always nice, and it's easy to play. Joe Tex: "The Love You Save" or "Skinny Legs and All" are good tunes to cover. Stax: "Big Bird" or "Knock on Wood" by Eddie Floyd. "Walking the Dog" by Rufus Thomas. "Redneck" by Joe South as done by Swamp Dogg. And yeah, "Gimme Little Sign" or "The Oogum Boogum Song" by Brenton Wood.