With very few exceptions, I don’t often post about specific projects I do at work here, but we just wrapped a big one, and it involved a great deal of effort, so I figured I might as well evangelize it here, too.
Prior to this project, if I’m being honest, I cannot say I was all that versed in the oeuvre of Al Green. I mean, I wasn’t a detractor by any means, but I wouldn’t say I was a fan beyond simply knowing about his big singles like “Let’s Stay Together” (which I really only know from its placement in “Pulp Fiction”), “Take Me to the River” (which I only know from the Talking Heads’ cover of it, … which is markedly different from the original) and “Love & Happiness.” Again, being generally more inclined towards a guitar-as-weapon aesthetic, as with my jazz dilettantism, classic soul isn’t something I’m all that invested in.
But an opportunity was presented to my department to interview the legendary singer/songwriter who, in more recent years, has become significantly more reclusive than he might have once been. It seemed frankly tenuous, at points, as to whether the man himself was going to agree to participate. While possibly not quite as eccentric as similarly fabled artists as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys or Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, Al Green had decided to recuse himself from proceedings by very pointed design. An audience with the man, these days, is a rare feat.
But somehow ... We got it.
While I helped orchestrate logistics from here in New York, my colleague Lyndsey flew down to Memphis to oversee the interview with Green (recruiting a Creative executive from our Nashville office to serve as interviewer) and ancillary interviews with members of the Hi-Rhythm Band who helped record Green’s seminal albums Let’s Stay Together and I’m Still in Love with You. The daughter of late producer/bandleader Willie Mitchell (the mastermind of the Memphis sound) also participated. This all transpired at Royal Studios, the legendary-but-humble spot where those two 1972 records were committed to tape.
While we captured a lot of great stuff, it became immediately apparent that what we got from Green himself was by no means a routine Q&A. To give the man a bit of a break, being queried about relatively granular details from fifty years ago would be quite a task for any interview subject. But as noted, Green does not always communicate in a linear manner, and frequently speaks in the third person. As such, the editing process became more of a challenging aspect than what may have been originally anticipated.
Wrestling both the interview video into shape and assembling assets for the special page in time for a release date landing on the anniversary of one of the aforementioned LPs was a complicated and sometimes fraught sprint, but somehow we got it done.
Personally speaking, I’m quite pleased and proud with how it turned out. Please take a look
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