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Spiritual Sounds

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I’ve only just come across this rather lovely blog article by MIke Scott re. spiritual singles in the British charts ’67 – ’71. I think he defines the category very well indeed, so, in whatever term ‘spiritual’ would may apply/resonate with you, why not post up any piece of music from any genre that uplifts you, gives you a feeling of transcendence, or just comforts you like a musical friend in the harder times.

Hari Om

Here’s The Dead.

http://www.mikescottwaterboys.com/waterboys-blogs.php

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Comments

  1. I’m not sure how Mike Scott defines “spiritual” (linky linky, Owsley?) but I’m applying a fairly traditional definition here: the form of the sacred applied to profane content. The Staples were possibly unique in spreading across rather crossing over from gospel to soul – they never stopped being a gospel group. I rediscovered this snippet of wondrousness only the other day, having previously written it off as a mere self-plagiarising cash-in after “I’ll Take You There”. I was wrong. It’s a brilliantly crafted reboot, not a cheap copy. An improvement, even. Remember the rightly famous groove of Steve Gadd’s tickety thump on “Fifty Ways”? Well I’d argue that the groove on this is even none-more groovier (hi, Roger Hawkins at Muscle Shoals!). The breakdown and drop at 2:05 – several decades before breakdowns and drops became A Thing – is currently my favourite bit of all music.

    Tip: Give the volume some welly if you can – soul isn’t only about dishcloth-draped-over-the-anglepoise bedroom music (hi, Theophilus P. Wildebeest!). This one in particular benefits from a drop of oomph.

    Anyway, to get back to the OP, this is what’s currently taking me there – wherever “there” is:

    • I have to confess I’d never heard of the songwriting team, Banks, Jackson & Hampton who feature large on that platter’s label. Some quick Wiki research reveals that Homer Banks wrote a load of hits including “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” which I had always imagined was written by Elvis Costello and “Ain’t That A Lot Of Love” which I know from The Last of the Red Hot Burritos, and features an intro very similar to Gimme Some Lovin’

      Raymond Jackson died in a house fire aged 31. Carl Hampton has no Wiki page

      There’s a connection between this and the OP. Assuming that David Hood played bass on this album, along with his Swampers colleague Roger Hawkins on drums, he was recently in the UK touring with Mike Scott as part of the Waterboys

  3. The Lilac Time have many songs with a spiritual sensibility, usually extending concepts of love and family into something more universal and beyond the corporeal. I need look no further than a song from this year, She Writes A Symphony

  7. This is perhaps a rather obvious choice, but I adore it. Memories of listening to it whilst watching the full moon above London railway tracks from my bedsit window come rushing back so vividly. Candles, incense, cushions, hash and the most beautiful girl, and I too young and stupid to realise just how beautiful she really was:

    • Yes, I love “Box of Rain”.
      Phil Lesh’s melody written for his dying father, and Robert Hunter’s beautiful lyrics that fit in so well with the sad theme.
      For every other Grateful Dead song, I can find a live version – often 30 or 40 live versions – that I prefer to the studio original. But the original Box of Rain on “American Beauty” is perfect. They never topped it – partly, I suppose, because Phil’s vocals in the later years were a little … raggedy (although his bass-playing never was).

      • The whole album (his only one) is a must have. Luckily most of it’s on youtube.
        Brother Ahbez is a freaking legend. A vegetarian, cosmic guru who spent most of the 1940’s (!!!) and 50’s(!!!) looking like Jesus and living in some bushes under the “HOLLYWOOD” sign. His one “job” was that he managed to sell the song Nature Boy to Nat King Cole, who made it a huge hit. The royalties allowed Ahbez to live his simple life munching on fruits and nuts and “dreaming the dream that the dreamers dream.”

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