Al Green, Take Me to the River | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 5^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Take Me to the River” by Memphis soul icon, Al Green.

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 5^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Take Me to the River”, performed by Al Green.

“I’d like to dedicate this song to little Junior Parker / A cousin of mine who’s gone on, but we’d like to kind carry on his name.” Right on, Al Green, right on.  “Take Me to the River” is one of the legendary soul icon’s most beloved songs, appearing on his 1974 album, Al Green Explores Your Mind.  That said, Al Green Explores Your Mind only featured one pop hit – “Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)”.  A groovy record, chocked-full of soul – Green don’t do nothing but soulfulness – the non-single “Take Me to the River” charted nowhere.  However, a cover by Talking Heads would become a hit four years later.  And to reiterate, everyone considers this to be among Green’s best.

The music is a big reason why “Take Me to the River” is electrifying.  The accompaniment oozes with Memphis soul. Appearing on the record is standard rhythm section, alongside exuberant horns and The Memphis Strings.  This gives Al Green, the main reason why “Take Me to the River” is the soul bop that it is, fuel for the fire.  He wrote this record alongside Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, who plays guitar on the album.  “I don’t why I love you like I do / After all these changes that you put me through,” Green sings in the first verse, continuing, “You stole my money and my cigarettes / And I haven’t seen hide nor hair of you yet.” Woo! In the second verse, it’s more of the same, with Green singing, “I don’t know why she treated me so bad / Look at all the things that we could have had.” In the chorus, the centerpiece, he sings, “Take me to the river and wash me down / Won’t you cleanse my soul? Put my feet on the ground.”  As he has throughout his career, Green balances the worldly and the spiritual.  Spiritually, on the brilliant “Take Me to the River”, he needs a cleanse.

🎙 Al Green • 💿 Al Green Explores Your Mind • 🏷 Hi / Fat Possum • 🗓 1974

Al Green, Take Me to the River: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 5 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Hi / Fat Possum; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom via  Pixabay]