6. Otis ReadingOtis Blue
That album has been through just about every heartbreak in my life, of which there have been many. At the time one of my biggest heartbreaks was hearing on the radio that Otis had died. That was so shocking to me. That this voice, which was just so wonderful… I mean those songs! There was something in those songs that just broke my heart. Yeah, ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’, he co-wrote that. Oh my God that is such a wonderful song. No ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ was Sam Cooke’s song, of course. But these songs were just so beautiful and the way that he held these notes, I mean nowadays soul music and R&B doesn’t feel like it’s my music, it feels manufactured, it feels like it’s a vocal workout sometimes, like callisthenics of the tonsils, but with him he had this way of playing with a note, like all good soul and gospel music singers do.
