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Gladys Knight

JSngry

By JSngry
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JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Took her for granted in the glory days. mainly due to the slick productions. But time has proven the error of that. This woman was truly one of the great singers of her time and genre. Still may be for all I know. Probably is.

Next time you hear one of those old hits on the radio, block out everything else and just listen to her. Pretty damn amazing shit vocally, and not one drop of phoniness in it. Even on a piece of schlock like "Midnight Train To Georgia", she's singing at a very high level, both technically and emotionally. If it ain't the song, but the singer, then Gladys Knight IS.

So yeah - Gladys Knight. There you go.

Dan Gould Mentor

Dan Gould

Posted
Posted

:tup

(and because I grew up with it, I don't care about the "shlockiness" of "Midnight Train" ... heck, I even like her singing that Hallmark-Card-Set-To-Music, "You're The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". :D )

bertrand Collaborator

bertrand

Posted
Posted

One of the Pips passed away recently.

The brief obit in the Washington Post just had the word 'pip' under his name. That caught my eye, and I had to read it to understand what they were talking about.

'What do you do for a living?'

'I'm a Pip'.

Bertrand.

Kalo Newbie

Kalo

Posted
Posted

I agree that Gladys Knight was a first-class soul singer.

Anyone remember the Pips's appearance on the short-lived Richard Pryor tv series in the 1970s? They performed "Midnight Train to Georgia" WITHOUT Gladys, choreography and all, and it stood up on that basis, quite well.

They were darn good, too.

Jazzmoose Newbie

Jazzmoose

Posted
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  JSngry said:
Took her for granted in the glory days. mainly due to the slick productions.

Yeah, that sums up my reaction to many damn fine artists in the past. Shame on the producers for obscuring the fact, but shame on me for not having the gumption to listen closer and notice...

Rosco Newbie

Rosco

Posted
Posted

Absolutely one of the greats! A way with a lyric as good as anyone you can name. Loved the stuff at Motown and at Buddah... even on the later stuff (was it at Epic?) she could still transcend sometimes pedestrian material and shine.

I might just play 'Neither One of Us' and get misty eyed... :blush:

Harold_Z Newbie

Harold_Z

Posted
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Gladys Knight is one of the best. Note that Motown released her singles on the Soul label subsidiary. I'm trying to think of who else was on that, but at the moment all I'm coming up with is Junior Walker - another atypical Motowner.

Go back a little earlier and check her originals of "Every Beat Of My Heart" and "Letter Full Of Tears" (She later redid these on Soul) on Fury (or one of Bobby Robinson's other early labels). She was great right from the start.

Herb Newbie

Herb

Posted
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  Rosco said:
I might just play 'Neither One of Us' and get misty eyed...  :blush:

Another long time fan, here! I would have loved to have heard her do "Neither One of Us" as a duet with Johnny Adams............... :excited::excited:

gslade Newbie

gslade

Posted
Posted

  Kalo said:
I agree that Gladys Knight was a first-class soul singer.

Anyone remember the Pips's appearance on the short-lived Richard Pryor tv series in the 1970s? They performed "Midnight Train to Georgia" WITHOUT Gladys, choreography and all, and it stood up on that basis, quite well.

They were darn good, too.

I was thinking about that when I started reading this thread

I could not remember what show it was, I was thinking flip wilson

Soulstation1 Newbie

Soulstation1

Posted
Posted (edited)

my mom has that lp

fav songs

if i were your woman

neither one of us

i've got to use my imagination

the best thing that ever happened to me (gladys kills on the ending of this one)

ss1

Edited by Soulstation1
Harold_Z Newbie

Harold_Z

Posted
Posted

  gslade said:
  Kalo said:
I agree that Gladys Knight was a first-class soul singer.

Anyone remember the Pips's appearance on the short-lived Richard Pryor tv series in the 1970s? They performed "Midnight Train to Georgia" WITHOUT Gladys, choreography and all, and it stood up on that basis, quite well.

They were darn good, too.

I was thinking about that when I started reading this thread

I could not remember what show it was, I was thinking flip wilson

There was another appearance on PBS on a show called "Soul".

Gladys and the Pips did at least a 1/2 hour show backed by King Curtis and a band that included Chuck Rainey, Cornell Dupree, and Bernard Purdie. It was around 1970. This was a short lived series on PBS - maybe 3 or 4 shows. It was broadcast on Sunday nights on Channel 13 in NYC at 10:00 or maybe 11:00 pm. If any video survives it would make one hell of a DVD release series. I remember another show featured Junior Walker.

paul secor Newbie

paul secor

Posted
Posted

  brownie said:
Got my education on Gladys Knight from Cecil Taylor who is a big fan of the lady!

I can remember reading an article in down beat about Cecil Taylor teaching a class (At the University of Wisconsin? Article written by John Litweiler? - my memory isn't THAT good) and playing a Gladys Knight record for the class to listen to.

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