SOUL MAN
Comin to ya on a dusty road
Good lovin I got a truck load
And when you get it you got something
So dont worry cause Im coming
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Got what I got the hard way
And Ill make it better each and every day
So honey dont you fret
Cause you aint seen nothing yet
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Play it Steve!
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
I was brought up on a side street
I learned how to love before I could eat
I was educated from good stock
When I start lovin I just cant stop
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Well grab the rope and Ill pull you in
Give you hope and be your only boyfriend
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Youre a soul man
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
Im a soul man
SAM AND DAVE
They met in The King of Hearts Club in Miami in 1961, where Moore was the MC and Prater would perform on amateur nights. When Prater forgot the words to the Jackie Wilson song he was singing one night, Moore jumped in and started duetting with him, and the musical chemistry between them quickly clicked. They started working together professionally, developing a raucous live act that soon began packing nightclubs. Their on-stage success earned them a signing to the independent Roulette Records label, before they were lured by Jerry Wexler to Atlantic Records in 1965. However, Atlantic seemed unable to come up with successful material for the duo to record. Almost on a whim, Wexler asked Memphis-based Stax Records, which Atlantic distributed nationally, to work with Sam & Dave, and so the pair were 'loaned out' to Stax, although technically they remained Atlantic artists.
Stax agreed, but wasn't interested in assigning its best producers and songwriters, such as Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper, the task of trying to make Sam & Dave a hit. That duty was sent down the totem poll to the bottom, where two aspiring songwriters and producers, session musician Isaac Hayes and record store clerk and background singer David Porter, were told to come up with something suitable for the "outsiders."
With that mandate, Hayes and Porter helped transform Sam & Dave into one of the biggest recording acts in soul music. They produced and wrote many of the duo's hits over the next few years. Sam & Dave's 1966 Stax debut, "You Don't Know Like I Know", started a series of Top Ten soul hits. These included "Hold On! I'm Comin'" (1966); "You Got Me Hummin'" (1966); "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby" (1967); "Soul Man" (1967); and "I Thank You" (1968), several of which also crossed over into the Pop Top 40. In most recordings they were backed by Hayes on piano with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and the Memphis Horns, while Porter would arrange the vocals.
On stage, Sam & Dave continued to be celebrated as one of the best live acts in R&B, firing up their audiences with an almost Gospel intensity, and they earned the nickname "Double Dynamite" for their energetic performances. A career high point came in 1967, when they were part of a package tour of Stax artists in Europe; although Otis Redding headlined the tour, many fans agreed that Sam & Dave stole the show night after night.
In 1968, Stax ended its distribution association with Atlantic, and Sam & Dave were deprived the use of Hayes, Porter, and the Stax house musicians. Their last R&B Top 20 hit (and one of the last tracks they recorded at Stax) was "Soul Sister, Brown Sugar" in 1969, but their next few singles, all recorded in New York City with Atlantic songwriters and musicians, failed to reach the chart heights of their Stax heyday, adding stress to their increasingly volatile personal relationship. In '68, Prater escaped prosecution for shooting his wife, but the episode distracted Prater from many of his musical commitments for a time. Tensions between the partners grew so bad, they literally ceased to communicate with one another other than to perform together on stage. Their stalled career, their personal disputes, and their increased drug use all contributed to their first break-up in 1970.
Sam & Dave reunited several times during the 1970s, most notably on "Come On, Come Over" which appeared on the debut LP of the late jazz bass extraordinare Jaco Pastorius, for a minor R&B hit, "A Little Bit of Good", on the United Artists label in 1974, and at the last occasion due to The Blues Brothers's 1978 hit recording of "Soul Man", which revived public interest in Sam & Dave. In 1980 the duo appeared in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. The pair last performed together on New Year's Eve, 1981. Afterward, Prater toured for a time under the New Sam & Dave name with Sam Daniels, until Moore legally blocked Prater from using the group's name without his participation. In 1986 Moore re-recorded "Soul Man" with Lou Reed for the film of the same name. As was later revealed, drug problems contributed to the pair's instability; Prater was arrested in 1987 for selling crack to an undercover policeman.
On April 9, 1988, Prater died in a car crash in Sycamore, Georgia while driving to his mother's house.
Sam Moore appeared with Junior Walker in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He had a renewed solo career in 1991, when his duet with Conway Twitty, "Rainy Night In Georgia" appeared on the Top 10 crossover album Rhythm, Country, and Blues.
The pair were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. A CD compilation, "Sam & Dave - Soul Kings" was released in 1992 by Pickwick International.
Sam & Dave's hits have proven to be durable over the years, and others have found success covering them as well. In addition to the hit Blues Brothers version of "Soul Man," ZZ Top has made "I Thank You" one of their own signature songs, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds hit the Top 40 in the 1980s with their take on "Wrap It Up".
As of 2007, Sam Moore continues to tour and record.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia
