Have A Soulful Christmas 2024

Christmas will soon be upon us, and so here is a nice collection of Christmas songs with a soulful feel to them to pass the time until it arrives.

Track listing

01 Someday At Christmas (Stevie Wonder 1967)

02 At Christmas Time (Luther 1976)
03 Merry Christmas Baby (Otis Redding 1968)
04 What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas (The Emotions 1973)

05 Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto (James Brown 1968)
06 Give Love On Christmas Day (The Jackson 5 1970)

07 Christmas Every Day (The Miracles 1963)
08 What Christmas Means To Me (Al Green 1983)
09 Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings 2009)
10 Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday (William Bell 1967)
11 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Darlene Love 1963)

12 Presents for Christmas (Solomon Burke 1968)
13 The Mistletoe And Me (Isaac Hayes 1969)
14 What Christmas Means To Me (Stevie Wonder 1967)

15 I Want To Come Home For Christmas (Marvin Gaye 1972)
16 Back Door Santa (Clarence Carter 1968)
17 This Christmas (Donnie Hathaway 1970)
18 Christmas Here With You (Four Tops 1995)

Soulseek tip - search 'christmas aiwe' for all my Christmas albums.

UPDATES

I've been listening to some of my old albums through headphones over the summer, and I've spotted a few things that weren't as noticeable as when listening through speakers, so I've fixed them and updated the files. 

Penetration - Movement (1979) - The track V.I.P. was only audible through the left channel, with the right just having an intermittent thumping noise, so I've replaced the whole track.

Red Noise - Wonder Toys (1979) - The beginning of 'Substitute Flesh' was slightyl louder than the rest of the track, so I've reduced the volume to match the rest of the recording.

Truly Yours - Truly Smith (1968) - 'I Love Him' was ripped from a very scratchy vinyl single, so I've run it through that de-clicking programme that I found - twice!

...and on guitar - Albert Lee (1974) - 'Make It With You' by B J Arnau was also ripped from a scratchy record, so I've run that through the de-clicking programme as well. 

Redemption Songs - Stevie Wonder (2010) - The ending to the track '(You're My) Dream Come True' was quite sudden, and odd that it changed tempo for just a few seconds before the end, so I've faded it to make it sound better.  

Medicine Jack - The Waterboys (1984) - When I put this album together, for some reason I sequenced all three instrumentals one after the other, whereas it would have been better to have them spread out through the album, which is what I've now done.    

All files are updated, so Soulseekers can download the individual tracks as usual, and the whole Waterboys album if you can't re-tag the tracks yourself, and for people who use Yandex there is a new folder with all of these updates in it, so just take what you want and dump the rest. 

pj

Stevie Wonder - Redemption Songs (2010)

I'm not the only person to comment on the dearth of Stevie Wonder rarities that are available on the internet, and so for me to manage to post a third collection is something of an achievement. In 2003 a Japanese CD appeared called 'Lost Treasures', which purported to contain rarities, demos, unreleased tracks, live recordings and TV appearances from the 1960's to the 1990's, although on closer inspection it turned out that 60's tracks were just alternate takes of some of his singles, and the rest were either late 70's or early 90's recordings, but despite that there were some extremely hard to find tracks on there, so it was definitely worth getting. I always felt that it was a bit long at 21 tracks, and so decided to prune it down by removing the few songs that had been taken from 'The Secret Life Of Plants' (for some reason), as well as excising a couple of demos which weren't really up to the audio quality of the rest of the music. I decided to leave the four new songs from 'Original Musiquarium' as I don't listen to those nearly enough, and while doing all that I found a few extra rarities that I could add, which means that rather than cutting it down it actually ends up at nearly one and half hours of music, but I'm happier that everything on here is now of a universally high standard. A number of the songs were recorded to raise funds for various charities, and there are also his contributions to tribute albums to Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Berry Gordy, and Maya Angelou, all of which just emphasises the generous nature of the man. It's rounded off with some exclusive recordings for film soundtracks, a band demo for a song gifted to Michael Jackson for his 'Off The Wall' album, and an extended alternate take of the classic 'Superstition', and so you end up with a superb collection of some of his hardest to find material, providing even more evidence of the genius that is Stevie Wonder.    

Track listing

01 Front Line (from 'Original Musiquarium' 1979)
02 Kiss Lonely Goodbye (from the soundtrack of 'The Adventures Of Pinocchio' 1996)
03 All About The Love Again (from 'Change Is Now - Renewing America's Promise' 2009) 
04 I Can't Help It (live in studio demo for Michael Jackson's 'Off The Wall' 1979)
05 Do I Do (from 'Original Musiquarium' 1979)
06 I'm The One Who Loves You (from 'A Tribute To Curtis Mayfield' 1994)
07 Superstition (long version 1972) 
08 If I Ever Had A Chance To Love You (from 'A Tribute To Maya Angelou')
09 Keep Our Love Alive (anti-apartheid song recorded 1990)
10 That Girl (from 'Original Musiquarium' 1979) 
11 Redemption Song (from the soundtrack of 'Get On The Bus' 1996)
12 (You're My) Dream Come True (from 'A Tribute To Berry Gordy' 1995)
13 Feeding Off The Love Of The Land (from 'Nobody's Child' charity album 1990)
14 Stubborn Kind Of Fellow (from 'Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye' 1995)
15 Stay Gold (from the soundtrack of 'The Outsiders' 1983)
16 Ribbon In The Sky (from 'Original Musiquarium' 1979)
17 Time To Love/Bridge Over Troubled Water (from 'Hope For Haiti Now' charity album 2010)

Prince - ...and on guitar (2015)

Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 7, 1958, the son of jazz singer Mattie Della and pianist and songwriter John Lewis Nelson, and both he and his sister Tyka developed a keen interest in music, which was encouraged by their father, writing his first song 'Funk Machine' on his father's piano when he was seven. When he was 10 his parents divorced, with his mother remarrying to Hayward Baker, with whom she had a son named Omarr. Prince had a fraught relationship with Omarr, to the extent that it caused him to repeatedly switch homes, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother and stepfather. After a brief period of living with his father, who bought him his first guitar, Prince moved into the basement of his neighbours, the Anderson family, after his father kicked him out, and it was there that he befriended the Anderson's son, Andre, who later collaborated with Prince and became known as André Cymone. In 1973 Prince met songwriter and producer Jimmy Jam, and impressed him with his musical talent, early mastery of a wide range of instruments, and work ethic. In 1975, Pepe Willie, the husband of Prince's cousin Shauntel, formed the band 94 East with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry, hiring André Cymone and Prince to record tracks. Willie wrote the songs, and Prince contributed guitar tracks, with Prince and Willie co-writing one song, 'Just Another Sucker'. The band recorded some songs which have since been re-issued as an album many times under different titles, including 'Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings'. 

In 1976, Prince created a demo tape with producer Chris Moon, but he was unable to secure a recording contract, so Moon brought the tape to Owen Husney, a Minneapolis businessman, who signed the 19 year-old Prince to a management contract, and helped him create a demo at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis, which generated interest from Warner Bros. Records, A&M Records, and Columbia Records. With the help of Husney, Prince signed a recording contract with Warner Bros, who gave him creative control for three albums, and let him retain his publishing rights. Husney and Prince then left Minneapolis and moved to Sausalito, California, where Prince's first album 'For You' was recorded and released in 1978, with Prince writing, producing, arranging, composing, and playing all 27 instruments on the recording, except for the song 'Soft and Wet', whose lyrics were co-written with Moon. In 1979, Prince created a band with André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z. on drums, and released the 'Prince' album that year, and despite the record company thinking he needed more time to develop, the album hit the top five spot on the Billboard R&B/Black Albums chart, and the single 'I Wanna Be Your Lover' sold over a million copies. 

The same year he made the first of what was to become many guest appearances, although the following decade was to be particularly busy for him, and it was to be 1989 before he really started regularly guesting on other artist's albums. In 1980 he released the album 'Dirty Mind', which contained sexually explicit material, following this the next year with 'Controversy'. In 1981, Prince formed a side project band called The Time, who released four albums between 1981 and 1990, with Prince writing and performing most of the instrumentation and backing vocals, and at the same time releasing his own four-million selling album '1999', along with a string of hit singles, being the start of his world-domination over the next two decades. When he was asked to contribute to records by other musicians, it wasn't always by famous artists, and even into the 90's he was adding his guitar to tracks by Eric Leeds and Diamond And Pearl, as well as Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Mavis Staples. Similarly, in the 2000's he was guesting with Common and Rhonda Smith, as well as Stevie Wonder. In 2004 he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame, playing in the all-star band's version of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', alongside Tom Petty, Stevie Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others, and performing a stunning, un-rehearsed guitar solo at the end of the song. Other guest appearance were fairly sparse after that, with his final one before his death in 2016 being on Judith Hill's 'Back In Time' album. Although it might seem that more music has been released since his death than there was while he was alive, these guest appearance are generally over-looked as they tended not to be with the superstars that he hung out with, but lesser-known artists who would appreciate his contribution to their music. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Fast Freddie The Roller Disco King (single by The Imperials 1979)
02 Got To Be Something Here (from 'The Lewis Connection' by Lewis Connection 1979)
03 Love Song (from 'Like A Prayer' by Madonna 1989) 
04 The Sex Of It (from 'Private Waters In The Great Divide' by Kid Creole 1990)
05 The Dopamine Rush (from 'Times Squared' by Eric Leeds 1991) 
06 51 Hours (single by Diamond And Pearl 1992)
07 Melody Cool (from 'The Voice' by Mavis Staples 1993)
08 Why Should I Love You (from 'The Red Shoes' by Kate Bush 1993) 

Disc Two
01 Star *69 (PS With Love) (from 'Electric Circus' by Common 2002)
02 Purple House (from 'Power Of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' 2004)
03 So What The Fuss (from 'A Time 2 Love' by Stevie Wonder 2005) 
04 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (from Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame induction concert 2004) 
05 Time (from 'RS2' by Rhonda Smith 2006)
06 Raise Up (from 'Raise Up' by Larry Graham & Graham Central Station 2012) 
07 Givin' Em What They Love (from 'The Electric Lady' by Janelle Monáe 2013)
08 All Day, All Night  (from 'Back In Time' by Judith Hill 2015)

Jeff Beck - ...and on guitar (1977)

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born on 24 June 1944, and as a teenager he learned to play on a borrowed guitar, while making several attempts to build his own instrument. While still attending Wimbledon College of Art, he was playing in a succession of groups, including Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages during 1962, when they recorded 'Dracula's Daughter'/'Come Back Baby' for Oriole Records. In 1963, after Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones introduced him to R&B, he formed the Nightshift, with whom he recorded a single, 'Stormy Monday'/'That's My Story', for the Piccadilly label. Other groups followed, including The Rumbles and The Tridents, and he acted as a session guitarist on a 1964 Parlophone single by the Fitz and Startz entitled 'I'm Not Running Away'. In March 1965, Beck was recruited by The Yardbirds to succeed Eric Clapton on the recommendation of fellow session musician (and original choice for the job) Jimmy Page. The Yardbirds recorded most of their Top 40 hits during Beck's short but significant 20-month tenure with the band, but he only appears on one of their albums, the legendary 'Roger The Engineer' in 1966. In June Page joined the Yardbirds, at first on bass and later on second lead guitar, but this dual lead-guitar line-up only lasted a short while, as Beck was fired during a US tour for being a consistent no-show. 
Now at a loose end, he recorded a couple of singles for Mickie Most, and then formed the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. The group produced two superb albums for Columbia Records, 'Truth' in 1968, and 'Beck-Ola' the following year, and it was about this time that Beck started to collaborate with oher astists. In May 1969 The Jeff Beck Group recorded some songs with Donovan for his seventh studio album 'Barabajagal', and a slightly retitled 'Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)' / 'Trudi (Bed With Me)' made the UK Top Twenty. Some of the songs recorded at that session were held back, with 'Homesickness' eventually appearing on 1971's 'HMS Donovan', and most of the other tracks being added to the CD re-issue of 'Barabajagal'. Also in 1969, Beck and Stewart were visiting a US recording studio where Frank Zappa's protégés The GTOs were recording an album, and they were persuaded to join in. Beck added some guitar to a couple of tracks, and Stewart also sings on 'Shock Treatment'. 
In 1970 Vanilla Fudge recorded a couple of adverts for Coca Cola, which included Beck on guitar, probably because of his connection with Carmine Appice, who he would later form a group with. A couple of years later Stevie Wonder was recording his 'Talking Book' album, and invited a select group of musicians to help him out, including Ray Parker Jnr., David Sanborn, Buzz Feiten, and Beck. The agreement was that Beck would get involved in the sessions in return for Wonder writing him a song, which turned out to be the classic 'Superstition', which they wrote together. Originally, the plan was for Beck to release his version of the song first, with his newly formed power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. However, due to the combination of the trio's debut album getting delayed and Motown CEO Berry Gordy's prediction that 'Superstition' would be a huge hit, Wonder released the song as the album's lead single months ahead of Beck's version. Oddly enough, despite Beck co-writing the song, he didn't play on Wonder's version, only appearing on 'Lookin' For Another Pure Love', where you can hear Wonder say 'Do it, Jeff' during the solo. 
Over the next couple of years Beck contributed his guitar to recordings by Pete Brown, prog-rockers Badger (formed by Tony Kaye after he left Yes), US singer/songwriter Michael Fennelly (ex The Millenium and Crabby Appleton), and British/African jazz-fusion band Zzebra. In 1975 he produced the debut album for British jazz-rockers Upp, playing uncredited guitar on it as well, and doing the same production/guitarist job on the follow-up 'This Way Upp' in 1976. That same year he was invited to play on Stanley Clarke's third solo album 'Journey To Love', and Clarke wrote 'Hello Jeff' for him as a showcase. In 1976 Beck played on Billy Preston's self-titled album, although his solo is somewhat diluted as Preston carries on singing over it, but his work on Narada Michael Walden's 'Saint And The Rascal' is just sublime. The album closes with the most obscure track here, where he played guitar on the 1977 album 'Dorian', by Kenneth Dorian Passante, a veteran of the glam-rock scene and pals with Jobriath, and who financed the album himself, roping in Beck along the way. If there's one thing Jeff Beck is known for its spanning the genres, and this album is no exception, so enjoy his pop, rock, prog, soul, jazz-rock, fusion, and glam-rock guest appearances from the early to mid 70's.    

Track listing

01 Homesickness (from 'HMS Donovan' by Donovan recorded 1969, released 1971)
02 Shock Treatment (from 'Permanent Damage' by The GTO's 1969)
03 Coca Cola Commercial (with Vanilla Fudge 1970)
04 Lookin' For Another Pure Love (from 'Talking Book' by Stevie Wonder 1972)
05 Spend My Nights In Armour (from 'Before Singing Lessons' by Pete Brown 1973)
06 Watch Yerself (from 'Lane Changer' by Michael Fennelly 1974)
07 White Lady (from 'White Lady' by Badger 1974)
08 Put A Light On Me (from 'Panic' by Zzebra 1975)
09 Get Down In The Dirt (from 'Upp' by Upp 1975)
10 Hello Jeff (from 'Journey To Love' by Stanley Clarke 1975)
11 Bad Case Of Ego (from 'Billy Preston' by Billy Preston 1976)
12 Saint And The Rascal (from 'Garden Of Love Light' by Narada Michael Walden 1976)
13 Destination Nowhere (from 'Dorian' by Dorian Passante 1977)

Stevie Wonder - Just My Speed (1968)

When I posted my first Stevie Wonder album back in July last year, I mentioned that in my online searches I'd found that there was very little unreleased Stevie Wonder out there, and so as if just to prove me wrong, I've just discovered that Motown have filled that gap by issuing a number of albums in a series called 'Motown Unreleased'. These include rare unheard songs from a multitude of their artists, starting from 1962 and covering the following six years, arranged into years such as '1964' or '1967', and also into genres, like girl singers, jazz or gospel. Scattered throughout the series, though, were a large number of unreleased Stevie Wonder songs, starting from 1963, when he was still the 12 year old child prodigy, and progressing through to 1968, where he'd matured into a thoughtful 18 year old singer/songwriter. This collection is split pretty much 50/50 between those two years, with a couple of 1965 tracks slotted in the middle, and so the contrast in the styles is quite noticeable, but it's great to hear these previously unreleased new songs alongside alternate takes of a few that did make it out, like the fast version of Dylan's 'Blowing In The Wind', or the studio version of 'Fingertips', which unlike the take on his 'Jazz Soul' album features lashings of harmonica, just like the live version that was his first hit. He laid down a fine rendition of 'Moon River' in 1968, and also recorded a big band version of 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco', but to my ears it didn't work anywhere near as well, so I've omitted it from this album, although you can probably find it on Youtube if you do want to hear it. There are a number of energetic instrumentals in here, alongside some of his own compositions from the 1968 period, and although this is an album of two halves - the youngster versus the teenager - it's interesting to hear the move towards a more assured sound as the album progresses.  

Track listing

01 Take This Hammer
02 Don't Hesitate To Cry  
03 Stevie's Tune  
04 Blowin' In The Wind (Version 1)  
05 I'm Checking Out   
06 Forever 
07 Fingertips (Version 3)  
08 Just My Speed 
09 I Ain't Got Nobody  
10 Dance Yeah Dance 
11 Til 12 O'Clock 
12 Moon River  
13 All I Want Is A Little Bit Of Love
14 I'll Wait For You To Come Home 
15 Little Ol' Boy
16 I'll See You Around 
17 Give Me All Of Your Loving  

Tracks 1 - 9  1963
Tracks 10 & 11  1965
Tracks 12 - 17  1968

Stevie Wonder - What Is Essential Is Invisible To The Eyes (1996)

Having seen a rumour online that Stevie Wonder had planned a follow-up to 'Fullfillingness First Finale', to be called 'Fullfillingness Second Finale', I set about trying to locate the songs mentioned in the proposed track listing. The first thing I found is that there is very little unreleased Stevie Wonder out there - I've only ever come across two or three live bootlegs from the classic 70's period, and unreleased studio recordings are almost non-existent. Having abandoned my quest and pretty much given up on the idea, I stumbled across an album which had apparently been put together by R&UT and posted on Youtube here, and found that it actually contained one of the songs that I was after, as well as a number of live and demo recordings which are definitely worth hearing. 'Livin' Off The Love Of The Land' and 'Reflections Of You' (renamed as 'Sky Blue Afternoon') might have appeared on 'Fullfillingness Second Finale', but the rest are mostly live renditions of songs that were never recorded in a studio, with just Stevie and his piano. There are also a couple of his contributions to film soundtracks and a rare single from 1990, so obviously the sound quality will vary considerably between the live and studio recordings. I've left off a few of the less successful recordings, cleaned up the rest to make for a more evenly flowing album, and added in a rare cut from 1964 to close the album. 

Track listing

01 Can't Imagine Love Without You (Piano Version)
02 Livin' Off The Love Of The Land (Unreleased)
03 My Mother's Eyes (Live)
04 Overjoyed (Live on 'Saturday Night Live')
05 Kiss Lonely Goodbye (Orchestral Version)
06 Breeze Whispering (excerpt)
07 I Can Only Be Me (Live)
08 Deep Inside Your Heart (excerpt)
09 Keep Our Love Alive (1990 single)
10 Ms. And Mr. Little Ones (Live)
11 Stay Gold (Alternate recording)
12 Why (Live)
13 Reflections Of You (a.k.a. 'Blue Sky Afternoon') (Live)
14 Just Enough To Ease The Pain (1964 Recording)