Funk my Soul

Southern soul rarely if ever sounded so, so good. Simultaneously smooth and raw, “Lonely” has an immediacy that hits you where you live and then sticks around for a little while, taking up space on your sofa.

Frederick Knight’s catchy “I’ve Been Lonely for So Long” was a sizable RB hit on Stax in 1972, and he wrote and produced Anita Ward’s across-the-board smash “Ring My Bell” in 1979. Knight cut his own “I’ve Been Lonely for So Long” in Birmingham, Alabama with a seasoned southern soul crew behind him, and hit again in 1975 with “I Betcha Didn’t Know That.”

This is a @320 vinyl rip of my original record with covers.

Tracks
A1. I’ve Been Lonely for So Long 3:20
A2 This Is My Song of Love to You 3:14
A3 Take Me on Home Witcha 3:20
A4 Friend 3:28
A5 I Let My Chance Go By 3:54
A6 Your Love’s All over Me 2:46
B1 Pick’um up Put’um Down 3:31
B2 Now That I’ve Found You 3:02
B3 Lean on Me 3:05
B4 Trouble 3:09
B5 Someday We’ll Be Together 4:40

Mr. Knight uses his fine falsetto to best effect on the title song, which made it to #8 in the R&B charts in 1972. He also plays piano, organ, drums and percussion all over this self-produced 1973 Stax reissue. The album has plenty of fine songs. “ I Let A Chance Go By” is a wonderful mid-tempo look at regret and misery. Could it be a woman making Frederick so unhappy? Possibly. The vaguely doo-wopish ‘Now That I’ve Found You” is also worth a play or ten. Knight can manage funky, too, as he does on “Your Love’s All Over Me/ Take Me On Home Witcha/ Pick ‘Um Up, Put ‘Um Down”. His cover of ‘Someday We’ll Be Together” is great.

Frederick Knight was one of the many crooning Soul singers that signed to Stax. The title cut is a perfect example of his style with its light and catchy air led by Knight’s singing and the guitar. Trouble is in a similar vein. On the other hand, Friend and Lean On Me show a down home southern Soul feel to them, while ‘Take Me On Home Witcha” and “I Let My Change Go By” are more upbeat numbers. There’s also “Your Love’s All Over Me” and “Pick Um Up, Put Um Down” that get a little funky, especially the former track that has a little James Brown in it. Knight is even able to add his how style to the Motown song “Someday We’ll Be Together” that ends the album. The funky numbers are an added bonus, but it’s really the Soul of the record that holds its value.

Download link

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