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OT: Jerry Butler Dies - Bruce Covered Him

ashokan

ashokan

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I wasn't around for Doo Wop but I always thought Butler's "Your Precious Love" was great from the era.
Like a lot of black singers from the era, Butler sang in a church choir (with Curtin Mayfield no less) and they knew how to carry a soulful tune (he is in RRHOF).

Obits mention his song "Only the Strong Survive" as his best selling song and that's the one Bruce covered .
But it does nothing for me compared to "Your Precious Love."

“He’s one of the great voices of our time,” fellow R&B and soul legend Smokey Robinson, who has collaborated with Butler, told The Chicago Sun Times, citing his love for the Impressions' hit song “For Your Precious Love." He said, "It [swept] through the hood. I have known Jerry Butler way back, since the Miracles and I first got started, around 1958. He’s a great person, and I love him.”

ew.com

Jerry Butler, soul singer known as the Iceman, dies at 85

Jerry Butler, the soul singer known as the Iceman and former Chicago politician, has died at the age of 85.
ew.com ew.com


The song doesn't remind me of anyone or any period since it was way before me - its just a sparkler






Butler Version
 
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newwavedave1 said:
Another one I've never heard of.
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He's a curious one.

I never heard of him either until I heard "For Your Precious Love" last year and then I was like "where was this guy hiding?"
All his obits mention "Only the Strong Survive" as his main hit but its only got 3 million listens on Spot compared to 11 million for "Precious."

He was at the tail end of the Doo Wop thing so maybe he was like the guy got lost in the cusp. Having Bruce cover him and getting into RRHOF must mean he has some upper level recognition. I was curious if any doo wop peeps remembered him but I guess not. Men who can sing have been a dying breed a long time
 
I remember "Only the Strong Survive" being an AM hit in the late 60s. It was a monster. And, IMO, a great song. One of the songs of that era that caused little kid me to start paying attention to music.
 
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Great voice. RIP. One of his top songs was “Never Gonna Give You Up” from 1968. The rock band The Black Keys did a cover of this tune on the “Brothers” album. Early rock and roll and much of the rock music from the 50’s , 60’s and early 70’s was heavily influenced by classic R&B and Soul music. When Rock started to leave those roots it was to it’s detriment in my opinion:

 
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RUGuitarMan said:
Great voice. RIP. One of his top songs was “Never Gonna Give You Up” from 1968. The rock band The Black Keys did a cover of this tune on the “Brothers” album. Early rock and roll and much of the rock music from the 50’s , 60’s and early 70’s was heavily influenced by classic R&B and Soul music. When Rock started to leave those roots it was to it’s detriment in my opinion:

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That's a good song - at first I wondered if I was going to get Rick Rolled lol.

Performers of classic R&B/Soul/Blues almost always began honing their skills in church choirs, bands, gospel groups etc. I kinda always new that having grown-up in that environment but with wiki I realized just how many performers traced their singing/playing to church groups. Jerry Butler was one of them - just like Marvin, Aretha, Diana Ross, Whitney, Dionne Warwick, Flack, BB King, Chuck Berry - even Rick James and Prince (went back to Jehovah's in 2002 - made religious songs). Pick an R&B/Blues artist and you can almost always find a musical path that started in religious music/instruction.

Its not that the religion made the music but training was available and encouraged at a young age. I do think some of the background kept more of them alive. They had their issues but they never died off the way rockers did. When I Google a rocker from 60s-70s I expect they might be dead. With the R&B/Soul/Blues performers a lot of them are still kickin. In between the Prince Super Bowl and the K. Lamar act something was lost and it goes back to the roots - gang culture swapped for religious culture

Rhiannon Giddens talks about how people don't even know how to sing "Happy Birthday" anymore because the skills died off. The black churches were the last stand of sorts. Almost all the guys I grew-up with could sing -and could harmonize on the spot
 
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ashokan said:
That's a good song - at first I wondered if I was going to get Rick Rolled lol.

Performers of classic R&B/Soul/Blues almost always began honing their skills in church choirs, bands, gospel groups etc. I kinda always new that having grown-up in that environment but with wiki I realized just how many performers traced their singing/playing to church groups. Jerry Butler was one of them - just like Marvin, Aretha, Diana Ross, Whitney, Dionne Warwick, Flack, BB King, Chuck Berry - even Rick James and Prince (went back to Jehovah's in 2002 - made religious songs). Pick an R&B/Blues artist and you can almost always find a musical path that started in religious music/instruction.

Its not that the religion made the music but training was available and encouraged at a young age. I do think some of the background kept more of them alive. They had their issues but they never died off the way rockers did. When I Google a rocker from 60s-70s I expect they might be dead. With the R&B/Soul/Blues performers a lot of them are still kickin. In between the Prince Super Bowl and the K. Lamar act something was lost and it goes back to the roots - gang culture swapped for religious culture

Rhiannon Giddens talks about how people don't even know how to sing "Happy Birthday" anymore because the skills died off. The black churches were the last stand of sorts. Almost all the guys I grew-up with could sing -and could harmonize on the spot
Click to expand...
I don’t think all the stunning technological innovation of the last 50 years has helped much . You can’t go back in time, but people being less distracted and having extra time enabled people to become immersed in music as a hobby which in some cases led to professional careers . It takes time and effort to learn how to sing or become proficient on an instrument. There are some people who are naturally talented which helps , but getting good requires a lot of time. There are talented young singers and musicians out there today, just not as many in my opinion. I do think the changing culture has led to a more “entertainment” based aspect to many things and declining attention span have contributed to the current decline in popular music.
 
RIP Mr Butler you will always be known as a true music great
found something interesting
thestrangebrew.co.uk

Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield: Their Forgotten Story - The Strange Brew

The intertwined histories of Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield. Starting as collaborators in The Impressions, the two men forged distinct paths that left an indelible mark on soul music. Their rise through hits like “For Your Precious Love,” and their mutual influence on each other's solo...
thestrangebrew.co.uk thestrangebrew.co.uk
 
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RUGuitarMan said:
I don’t think all the stunning technological innovation of the last 50 years has helped much . You can’t go back in time, but people being less distracted and having extra time enabled people to become immersed in music as a hobby which in some cases led to professional careers . It takes time and effort to learn how to sing or become proficient on an instrument. There are some people who are naturally talented which helps , but getting good requires a lot of time. There are talented young singers and musicians out there today, just not as many in my opinion. I do think the changing culture has led to a more “entertainment” based aspect to many things and declining attention span have contributed to the current decline in popular music.
Click to expand...

Back in the day if a guy wanted to be more popular with the hens he tried to be a good athlete or in a band. When drinking age was 18 and there were bars and pubs all over filled with a large youth population, getting into a band was a big thing. There were a lot of bad bands but even just their friends showing-up made a crowd.

Rise in drinking age, DWIs etc put a damper on that. Getting PCs and phone with production apps made laying tracks more popular than learning chords. Even hit songs can be canned tracks as I'm sure you know. I read a songwriter who said a writing a hit song could get you a house with a pool in LA and that 's gone. Average pay per stream on Spotify is .004 so a million streams 4k. Money is in live shows and celeb merch.

I don't think the hunt "to discover" talent and develop it is what it used to be. Now people get famous on their own on YouTube (The Weeknd). Its easier and cheaper to just get a kid rhyming to a bass track. I still come across new talent on Spotify but once one person or band gets hot the copy cats kick in

Its amazing how all the pneumatic, billowing anthems thinned out for the softer sounds from Billie Eilish. She recorded songs at home with her brother in her small bedroom so she developed a soft, airy style that almost whispers. I hear that a lot now and (even from Taylor swift). No rocky bands will come from that. I do like the change from the anthems though
 
MADHAT1 said:
RIP Mr Butler you will always be known as a true music great
found something interesting
thestrangebrew.co.uk

Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield: Their Forgotten Story - The Strange Brew

The intertwined histories of Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield. Starting as collaborators in The Impressions, the two men forged distinct paths that left an indelible mark on soul music. Their rise through hits like “For Your Precious Love,” and their mutual influence on each other's solo...
thestrangebrew.co.uk thestrangebrew.co.uk
Click to expand...

Thanks that was a good article.
These parts touched on what I was saying about R&B/Blues/Gospel musicians learning young and helping each other in their musical incubators.


"Jerry and Curtis first met about five years earlier when Jerry joined Rev. Mayfield’s church choir. He was looking to expand his singing and found his way there through a friend. Even at age 13, Jerry’s voice had developed into a rich, smooth baritone and the young singer cut his teeth singing spirituals like “I’ll Fly Away” and “I Am a Pilgrim” at Sunday services."


Spontaneous rendition of Butler's “For Your Precious Love” for a producer who had never heard it:

"Curtis pulled out his guitar, which he kept tuned in an open F#, and what followed made the hair on the back of Calvin’s neck stand up. Inspired by the Gospel Clefs “Open Our Eyes,” one of the hottest gospel hymns in the nation, and set to a sophisticated 6/8-time signature, “For Your Precious Love” breathed into the ether like incense, overwhelming the producer with its sweet half-doo wop, half-gospel accords. Curtis Mayfield’s falsetto floated over the Brooks brothers and Sam’s heavenly harmonies like a dove and its poetic elements made the song different from anything Calvin had heard in a subgenre he’d helped to pioneer. There was no chorus, no repeated lines and no doo wop, shh-bops; only Jerry’s aching baritone in the middle of all this sonic beauty, pining away for a lost love. There was nothing very doo wop about it and yet it somehow seemed to encapsulate all its beauty."

That's how I heard the song the first time - it was just lush - and the bluesy, gospel vibe was all over it. I used to hear things like "Black Dog" and had no idea what song was about but it felt dirty to listen to lol. I felt better watching Soul Train.
 
While we are discussing Butler, Curtis Mayfield, etc. Mayfield was such a great artist and a very influential guitarist. Here’s one of his old songs (among many) that I like:



Here is a song that I love from my HS years that mistakenly gets attributed to Curtis Mayfield but is actually William DeVaughn:

 
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