Southern Tones: It Must Be Jesus (1954)

 |   |  <1 min read

Southern Tones: It Must Be Jesus (1954)
Anyone wondering why Ray Charles copped such a backlash from black preachers and congregations in the late Fifties/early Sixties need only listen to this song by a Southern gospel group and Charles' I Got a Woman released the same year.

You can hear quite clearly where he got the idea from.

He'd heard to song on the radio and loved its drive and passionate intensity and so he took it from the church to the street, from the spiritual to the secular, with his own lyrics.

For some this was a bastardisation of the gospel spirit and making it into something nasty.

But it had been happening before and certainly when Motown arrived it reached its apotheosis.

By the way, there's another school of thought which says Charles heard I've Got A Saviour by The Bailey Gospel Singers which had been recorded in December 1950 . . . or maybe it was Josh White's even earlier There's a Man Goin' Around Taking Names which the Southern Tones drew on . . .

Mists of time, as they say.

Mists of time.

.

For more one-offs, oddities or songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults


Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Chris Knox: Baby You're a Rich Man (1987)

Chris Knox: Baby You're a Rich Man (1987)

It has been 15 years since Chris Knox had that debilitating stroke, and by coincidence it is almost 60 years since one of his favourite bands toured in New Zealand. This month, this astonishing... > Read more

Jim Reeves: He'll Have To Go (1960)

Jim Reeves: He'll Have To Go (1960)

One of the saddest songs ever penned, He'll Have to Go became a signature ballad for the man they called Gentleman Jim Reeves. Reeves (1923-64) had the vocal ease of Bing Crosby but with less... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

REMASTERS, REISSUES AND CREDIT CARD-KILLING SETS COMING UP (2018): Living in a box (set)

REMASTERS, REISSUES AND CREDIT CARD-KILLING SETS COMING UP (2018): Living in a box (set)

By any measure 1968 was yet another remarkable year in rock history, it built on the astonishing debut albums of '67 and established artists like the Beatles and the Stones unleashed some of their... > Read more

THE NEW SOUNDS OF AOTEAROA: The finalists for the Maioha Awards at the 2013 Apra Silver Scroll

THE NEW SOUNDS OF AOTEAROA: The finalists for the Maioha Awards at the 2013 Apra Silver Scroll

New Zealand's annual APRA Silver Scroll awards, held this year at Vector Arena in Auckland on Tuesday October 15, acknowledge the strength and diversity of New Zealand songwriters, but also include... > Read more