E Rodney Jones – Soul Heaven (Instrumental)
If you’re familiar with Syl Johnson’s ‘Is It Because I’m Black?‘ (you really should be) then you should be familiar with this too. ‘Soul Heaven’ by E Rodney Jones & Friends was a spoken word tribute to deceased greats Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, Roy Hamilton, Billy Stewart, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, which reused the Syl Johnson backing track. Whilst the a-side is interspersed with snippets of all the aforementioned artists music the b-side is an untouched ‘Is It Because I’m Black?’ instrumental.
Fairly tough to find on vinyl but available to all on Superfunk Volume 4 where you can find a considerably less battered version than mine.
June 24th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Thanks for the info. So is the spoken word on the a side only on the intro? I have a 7″ copy I found in JA with the spoken word intro/inst on one side and a faded in Is it because I’m black on the other side. No name on the label, just some cool art work. It’s always been a big mystery to me.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Hi Steve, the instrumental is used throughout the a-side. It’s a tribute to soul singers and it’s spoken word with the ‘Is It Because I’m Black’ instrumental underneath and then clips of different soul tracks joining the whole thing together. It’s an interesting track but not something that requires repeat listens.