Al Green

Fresh Air

NPR

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Green's string of hits in the '70s include "Let's Stay Together" and "Love and Happiness." He later became an ordained minister, and bought a church in Memphis. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1991 and 2000.

Also, Justin Chang reviews the Greek film Apples.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross.
0:02.6	We wanted to feature something special on this July 4th,
0:05.6	so we went deep into our archive
0:07.6	and pulled out a couple of interviews with perhaps the greatest of all soul singers, Al Green.
0:13.0	His string of hits in the 70s include Tired of Being Alone, Let's Stay Together,
0:17.6	Call Me, Take Me to the River, and This One.
0:23.6	Love and Happiness
0:26.0	Yeah, something that can make you do wrong, make you do right.
0:35.0	Love and Happiness
1:01.0	Yeah, something that can make you do wrong, make you do wrong.
1:10.0	Love and Happiness
1:20.0	Yeah, something that can make you do wrong, make you do wrong.
1:27.0	You really feel good about something wrong, be in love with someone.
1:36.0	Yeah, something that can make you do wrong.
1:54.0	Al Green's soul hits were made with producer Willie Mitchell, the force behind the Memphis-based label, High Records.
2:01.0	Success and Al Green's image as a sex symbol brought its own problems and temptations.
2:07.0	In 1974, an angry former girlfriend threw a pot of steaming grits on him.
2:12.0	He landed in the hospital with second-degree burns. She died by suicide.
2:17.0	This incident got green to question what he wanted musically and spiritually.
2:21.0	By the end of the decade, he decided to give up secular music and for several years performed only gospel.
2:27.0	This is from his 1980 Grammy-winning gospel album The Lord Will Make Away.
2:33.0	I am too close to heaven.
	...

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