#456: Al Green, 'Greatest Hits'
Hi/EMI, 1975
The year before this album came out, Al Green’s girlfriend assaulted him, died by suicide and then he was held at gunpoint by a cousin over money while he was still recovering from the burns during the earlier assault.
In 1979, he fell off a stage during a performance and injured himself. He took this as a sign from God to only perform Gospel music. This only lasted a few years before he returned to R&B but there was consistently a guilt within his responses that God was somehow punishing him.
As a child, his dad kicked him out of the house for listening to Jackie Wilson. His father was a deeply religious man, to the point of extreme. Al was rejected by his father, was living on the streets and developed drug habits, relationships with prostitutes and money issues. He became his father’s worst nightmare.
Music was good to him. He had a million dollar career recording some of the most desperate love songs ever written. The 1970s were lucrative for him, making money and lots of love.
It would come out 20 years later, that Green had physically and emotionally abused his partners while also undergoing a spiritual transformation.
When he made the transition to being the Reverend Al Green, he spoke of a rebirth, a reincarnation that only God could inspire. He woke up one morning changed and rejoicing in the name of Christ.
(This album was released as sort of a farewell to secular music which is why it is so good).
I don’t know if the abuse stopped once he converted his life to Christianity, but we all do know that after about ten years of Gospel, he went back to R&B and balanced both his love of God with his love of love.
His story is deeply American. Nowhere else in the world are we all converting, reverting and diverting every other day.
I have nothing else to say about this other than….wow. Al Green.
Here’s some American Christianity chit chat:
I don’t know if his baptism by fire allowed for closure by those wronged by him prior to his big change. I think he thinks it did. Redemption is not whole when the abuser is the only one who feels it. The abused must feel it as well, this is why justice and mercy are integrally gnawing on the heels of each other. In a spiritual sense, Al Green must have received mercy for his crimes and those abused must receive justice. If only one happens, then what is the point of religion?
Top songs: All of them. It is a perfect album.