Does anybody HATE Al Green?

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Quoth Xgau: "It's fine not to like almost anything, except maybe Al Green." Which made me realize that I've yet to meet someone who doesn't like, even hates Al Green. Are you out there? Are you bad people?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 22 March 2007 02:42 (nineteen years ago)

Woah. Dude. I was listening to "Call Me" when you posted this. Weird serendipity!

― Mordechai Shinefield, Thursday, 22 March 2007 02:48 (nineteen years ago)

So then I take it you're not an Al Green hater?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 22 March 2007 02:55 (nineteen years ago)

Xgau may have a point.

― The Reverend, Thursday, 22 March 2007 02:56 (nineteen years ago)

i confess. i don't like al green. am i going to hell?

― stirmonster, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:00 (nineteen years ago)

i confess. i don't like al green. am i going to hell?

That depends. Did you admit this as the first step to repent your, your, your sins?

― Mordechai Shinefield, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:03 (nineteen years ago)

I don't like Al Green all that much. He's good, but listening to him is a little like bathing in velvet or something.

― Hurting 2, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:04 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think that she hated Al Green, but Mary Woodson certainly had a funny sort of way of showing her love for him.

― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:18 (nineteen years ago)

Stirmonster, you probably will go to hell. But your sentence might be lessened if you could tell us why you don't like Al Green.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:25 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think that she hated Al Green, but Mary Woodson certainly had a funny sort of way of showing her love for him.

Pleasant Plains on Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:18 (22 minutes ago)

You beat me to the joke DAMN YOU

― Joseph McCombs, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:41 (nineteen years ago)

i was gonna start a thread like this about sam cooke. i thought sam might be the one person everyone on ilx couldn't hate/might like. we never did find anyone on that one thread about that.

― scott seward, Thursday, 22 March 2007 04:05 (nineteen years ago)

He's good, but listening to him is a little like bathing in velvet or something.

I disagree with the characterization, but I don't see the problem here!

― C0L1N B..., Thursday, 22 March 2007 04:07 (nineteen years ago)

The answer is quite simple. Yes.

Anyone who doesn't like Al Green is going to hell. It's really very simple.

And confusing! Especially if you like disco or anything soulful. I mean ... really?! Hell. For sure.

― Cameron Octigan, Thursday, 22 March 2007 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

"Anyone who doesn't like Al Green is going to hell. It's really very simple."

I'm not at all convinced about this.

If someone's only sin is an irrational dislike of Al Green, then clearly they must have some sort of illness or affliction, such as being posessed by devils, for which they should really be pitied; and the Reverend Green himself will see this and forgive them their sins and they shall be spared.

Otoh anyone who dislikes Al Green for any reason other than mental illness or demonic posession must surely be so steeped in sins of every other type imaginable that they are already beyond any redemption - and eternal agony is frankly too good for people like that.

― Stewart Osborne, Thursday, 22 March 2007 09:17 (nineteen years ago)

maybe the woman who threw hot grits in his face?

― m coleman, Thursday, 22 March 2007 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

er, see above...

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 22 March 2007 10:11 (nineteen years ago)

Today's "contemporary R&B" I hate. Towards Al Green I feel nothing worse than indifference.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

You're "on form" today, Geir

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

tut.

― Mark G, Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

Just need the Lex now to make this thread complete.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 22 March 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

.. to not have heard of him.

― Mark G, Thursday, 22 March 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

Lex: Was he the guy who was Vice-President?

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 12:29 (nineteen years ago)

Geir's answer is a spectacular Toryism.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 March 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

I believe Gene Hackman portrayed Lex in the Superman films.

"Saving the world is BORING and TEDIOUS listen to the Margot Kidder album instead! She plays both temptress and tempted!"

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

(and the rest!)

― Mark G, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

my dad is not the biggest fan, though i've played him some al green songs without him knowing. and let's just say that he really likes 'that soul cover of light my fire.'

― the table is the table, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

I like Al just fine (kickass show a few years back), but none of the records I've heard have really knocked me out. Any recommendations?

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2007 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

I love Al Green but I know many people who don't. And when I've told said people I don't "feel" Otis Redding/Elvis/Bob Dylan . . . they look at me like I need to be shot. But this is another thread topic entirely, ain't it?

― Capitaine Jay Vee, Thursday, 22 March 2007 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

"Anyone who doesn't like Al Green is going to hell. It's really very simple."

This is a reasonably accurate but incomplete statement. See Curtis Mayfield for greater detail.

― Oilyrags, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:01 (nineteen years ago)

I'd be more on board with Scott's Sam Cooke suggestion here, if only because he has more pop numbers that resist any good reason for not loving them. I don't dislike Al Green, but I've never felt particularly compelled to be super-interested in him.

― nabisco, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

i was gonna start a thread like this about sam cooke. i thought sam might be the one person everyone on ilx couldn't hate/might like. we never did find anyone on that one thread about that.

I'll let Joseph McCombs take this one!

― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

I don't like Al Green very much either, although I hardly hate him (or his music).

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

(I could swear there's an old "does anyone NOT like Al Green?" type thread, but maybe not.)

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

i firmly believe that people who dislike (or are indifferent to, really) al green are pure evil, yes

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

I don't like falsetto very much. I don't like the feeling pressured to nod my head and go along with what he's feeling (but plenty of other emotionally "manipulative" vocals don't bother me, so that doesn't strike me as a very good explanation).

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

if i was really forced to pick a desert island disc for real, it might very well be the belle album

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

Hail Satan, Lord of this World!

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sure Geir hates Sam Cooke, Nabisco... all those simple chord progressions...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

[link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOeI45aZtOw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOeI45aZtOw[/url]

― Jouster, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOeI45aZtOw

― Jouster, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:38 (nineteen years ago)

No, I don't hate Sam Cooke. Particularly his late 50s and very early 60s material was ace. Good melodic pop songs performed by an excellent voice. His late career stuff was a bit too "pure" R&B for my taste though.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

Scharpling isn't the funny one in the duo, at least on purpose

― Matos W.K., Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

'd be more on board with Scott's Sam Cooke suggestion here, if only because he has more pop numbers that resist any good reason for not loving them.

Cooke's pop numbers were usually his worst!

― Matos W.K., Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

Dusty Springfield's version of Son of a Preacher man is the song form of this "impossible to hate" thing. Some are indifferent, but no one hates it, amirite.

― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:38 (nineteen years ago)

That's how I feel about "Yesterday" and "Something."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

Whose versions?

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, 23 March 2007 00:49 (nineteen years ago)

[ducks]

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, 23 March 2007 00:50 (nineteen years ago)

Indifference towards Al Green may be just as hellworthy. But that's really all we've gotten on this thread so far, with Stirmonster's polite "I don't like Al Green" the furthest out in negativity to date. Any HATERS out there?

And I'd love so more reasons why he sux. So far we have:

1. listening to him is a little like bathing in velvet

2. falsetto

3. I don't like the feeling pressured to nod my head and go along with what he's feeling (although here, we'd have to learn about other emotionally "manipulative" vocals that aren't so bothersome)

4. moldy (or "moldy")

More?

P.S. Al Green >>>>>> Otis Redding (except when the latter sings the word "wearing" in "Try a Little Tenderness")/Elvis/maybe not Dylan

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 24 March 2007 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

I don't rate Al Green as much as many other soul artists based (lamely) on a greatest hits comp which is all I've heard, I didn't love that many songs on it, but I certainly loved a few, so count me out.

― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 24 March 2007 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

I never said he sucks, geez.

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 March 2007 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

Al Green >>>>>> Otis Redding (except when the latter sings the word "wearing" in "Try a Little Tenderness")/Elvis/maybe not Dylan

Kevin John Bozelka on Friday, March 23, 2007 7:48 PM

RONG (imo)

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 24 March 2007 01:05 (nineteen years ago)

Right, I know you didn't, Rocket Scientist. But your perfectly legit comments might get us closer to why someone might think he sux.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 24 March 2007 01:21 (nineteen years ago)

2. falsetto

He doesn't do much falsetto though!

― Tom D., Saturday, 24 March 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

I don't like his whisper either. (Isn't it sometimes a falsetto-whisper?)

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 March 2007 12:22 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, I know the voice you mean.

― Tom D., Saturday, 24 March 2007 12:26 (nineteen years ago)

"Tired Of Being Alone" is one of my favorite songs of all time, so I'm not gonna be contrarian and try and pretend I hate him. But the whole premise of this thread is bullshit, and I'm surprised that almost everyone is going along with it. It is fine to not like anything, including Al Green. Just because canonical soul singers of a certain era are are a pretty uncontroversial musical topic that most music nerds can find common ground on doesn't mean they're infallible or impossible to dislike.

― Alex in Baltimore, Saturday, 24 March 2007 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

Al I can poke holes in your argument like one two threeeeee

One) The premise is not bullshit; people are perfectly free to say "I hate Al Green" if they want. The point is to find out if anyone actually does.

Two) This thread idea, I think, is probably based on past threads where we were trying to find an act that someone hates. So there's history, is the thing.

Three) You are the only one here who has actually SEEN me buy an Al Green album -- it was in Baltimore a few years ago, and I also bought a 5th Dimension album at the same time. So, uh...okay that wasn't a point really. Just a shoutout. You are awesome.

― Dimension 5ive, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:04 (nineteen years ago)

I'm pretty indifferent to Al Green, mostly. I like the songs I know, I should probably try to hear more. But yeah I guess he would be hard to hate.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

i definitely don't 'hate' al green. perhaps 'indifferent' is a better word as i really have no emotion towards his music. i would never choose to listen to him as his voice doesn't really do anything for me, but it wouldn't bother me if i had to listen to him. it also depends on how you personally define 'soulful'. his music doesn't move my soul at all but then neither does roy ayers or several other 'soulful' icons. i guess my own soul is probably just hardening itself up for that eternity in hell.

― stirmonster, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, yeah, Dimension, that last part was kind of irrelevent but it's also the only way I'd have any idea who you are with your new screenname. Point taken, though. But I'm saying, Al Green is pretty much the ultimate 'safe' artist that hardly anyone can object to, and that was well known before this thread. And ILM's whole quixotic quest of "omg, we argue so much, but what can we all agree on?" has always struck me as pointless.

But I honestly would be curious to know if there's, say, any 70's R&B fanatics out there who think Green is totally overrated or that there's something really irritating about his vocal style, that he doesn't deserve his stature over lesser known singers of that era. As far as people who are too young to know much of his music, or just aren't into his whole genre much at all, that's neither interesting nor does it prove anything at all.

― Alex in Baltimore, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

i used to work with a writer who covered funk and soul who hated any and all sly stone (egregious).

― stevie, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I'm curious to know those same things, Aleix in Baltimore. So I don't know what the problem with this thread is. And I'm not on ILM's whole quixotic quest for anything - I BARELY post here. I don't even know what "xpost" means. Finally, if I'm on any quest, it's an apparently quixotic one to find a hater I DON'T agree with. The strength of weak ties and all that.

We can enjoy tea next time I'm in Baltimore, Alex in Baltimore. Maybe even a hug.

And Stevie, get your Sly Stone-hatin' writer acquaintance here. Sly hatred is almost as noteworthy as Al Green hatred.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 24 March 2007 21:44 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.singintomymouth.com/blog/images/al_green.jpg

― Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 15 December 2008 18:50 (seventeen years ago)

girlfriend threw boiling grits on him

― Ruudside Picnic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 December 2008 19:08 (seventeen years ago)

the true love comp is his best album - i dont see how anyone could not find something to love about al green on that album.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 15 December 2008 22:10 (seventeen years ago)

anyone who hates al green should be banned from borad 77

― Lingbert, Monday, 15 December 2008 22:14 (seventeen years ago)

Does anybody hate Al Green? How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 00:04 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

Anyone who hates Al Green should be banned from life.

― Moka, Wednesday, 15 February 2012 04:25 (fourteen years ago)

i feel like the lives of anyone who hates al green are probably already such a hell that we should take mercy on them.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 15 February 2012 04:38 (fourteen years ago)

seven years pass...

I have much hate in my heart for this weird-ass slime green toxic mutant drippy booger font choice for the album cover

we all get the Green connection, ha ha very funny, but why does it have to be DRIPPING. everyone knows when things drip, it's gross

like it wasn't enough that they had him standing in front of the world's moldiest wall wearing the world's ugliest jacket

Al deserves better than this and fuiud

https://i.ibb.co/YX0jFQM/81w-FC4-Wz-Gv-L-SL1200.jpg

― del griffith, Sunday, 26 January 2020 00:56 (six years ago)

Couldn’t agree more, the stucco siding used as a background in this photo has bothered me since I first saw it. Still it seems “of a place,” that time in the 70s and 80s.

― calstars, Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:03 (six years ago)

I like the jacket :/

― Schammasch Cannonball (Tom Violence), Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:28 (six years ago)

oh i'd wear the shit outta that jacket. but I was just trying to make an entertaining post

― del griffith, Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:32 (six years ago)

he wears it well but i can't help how it would look on claude vivier

― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:52 (six years ago)

Cool jacket imo

― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 11:01 (six years ago)

lol rush.

― pomenitul, Sunday, 26 January 2020 11:11 (six years ago)

RL Stine saw this cover and a lightbulb went off

― ... that's Traore! (Neanderthal), Sunday, 26 January 2020 14:50 (six years ago)

better

https://images.45cat.com/al-green-lets-stay-together-london-8-s.jpg

― nashwan, Sunday, 26 January 2020 14:57 (six years ago)

that's dope

finally saw the Rev about 7 years ago, was pretty life-changing.

― ... that's Traore! (Neanderthal), Sunday, 26 January 2020 14:58 (six years ago)

Always thought the dripping was meant to seem like it was graffitied on the wall, maybe by Al himself, but the bright toxic neon color ruins the effect

― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Sunday, 26 January 2020 15:22 (six years ago)

Tomorrow’s Dream the Sabbath tune? I can dream...

― calstars, Sunday, 26 January 2020 15:53 (six years ago)

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