Johnnie Taylor – Taylored in Silk 6.17.11

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Johnnie Taylor

Taylored in Silk

Concord Music Group Stax

BluesWax Rating: 7

Disco, Delta or Blues?

Dubbed the “Philosopher of Soul” during his Stax days, Johnnie Taylor is best remembered for his 1968 R&B chart-topping smash “Who’s Making Love,” but his biggest single was 1976′s “Disco Lady,” the first single ever certified platinum, which at the time meant sales of more than two million copies. Eventually Taylor found a new home at Malaco Records where he recorded for fifteen years right up till his passing in 2000. There’s some confusion about Taylor’s birth year being 1934, because he usually gave his birth year as 1938. 

The buttery “We’re Getting Careless with Our Love” opens this disc. It’s a bit dated with superfluous background singers and mildly overproduced strings by arranger Wade Marcus, but Taylor’s performance is smooth and solid throughout. With similar silkiness “Starting All Over Again” follows, giving this disc a definite commercial odor. But Mark Rice’s “Cheaper To Keep Her” is uncluttered with no sappy strings. A fine horn section is added with an ultra-hip walking bass line and piano vamp. It’s this album’s standout track and has one of my all time favorite lyrics.

The strings return on Joe Seneca’s “Talk To Me” where it’s apparent that producer Don Davis is looking to cover all bases with very wide audience acceptance. Davis also authors “I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)” which a bit more gritty than the other tracks with strings. The remaining three original tracks are also pretty lightweight and probably could have found their way to (the pretty much defunct) smooth-jazz radio formats.

There are six bonus tracks.  “Hijackin’ Love” is down and dirty with Johnnie clearly in control of his fine vocals and a strong unidentified backing band and a dynamite horn section. “Love in the Streets (Ain’t Good as the Love at Home)” has a gospel vibe with male background vocals, another smart horn section, and Taylor’s soulful vocals. The funky “Standing In for Jody” segues nicely from the previous tune. It’s slow building, and eventually smolders. The disco-riddled “Shackin’ Up” percolates pretty well mainly from Taylor’s vocal prowess and another fine backing band and a tight horn section. 

Taylor brings on the blues on what is easily the best bonus track: Arthur Snyder’s “Doing My Own Thing (Part 1),” where an unidentified guitarist really gets down to the Delta, Taylor wails, and the horns kick in. This dazzling tune is unlike anything else on this record.  Unfortunately, the disc closes with a quite odd, sort of remix of “Doing My Own Thing.” This part two fortunately is about half the length of Part 1.

With this Taylored in Silk release, Concord/Stax continues on with their Stax Remasters series, including six so-called bonus tracks, all of which have been previously released. The new informative liner notes by music historian Bill Dahl are always a plus. Also included are somewhat detailed track listings and notes about the original recording sessions. 

Bob Putignano www.SoundsofBlue.com is a contributing editor to BluesWax and would love to see your comments below.