I’ve had an Al Green song sitting my ‘drafts’ queue for months now, and I’ve never gotten around to posting it as a Song of the Day until today because, well, I just don’t have anything to say about it.
Originally the song was ‘Here I Am (Come and Take Me)’ but it’s since been pulled down for copyright infringement. I then switched to ‘Call Me,’ the title song from the same album. Call Me is an excellent album, featuring those two soul classics as well as ‘Funny How Time Slips Away,’ ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ and a handful of other slow burners.
The spirit of this Song of the Day series has always been to find something interesting (I hope) to say about each song, either the lyrical and musical content or what it means to me as a fan. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just picking a song because I like it. (Take this blog, for example, which features a song per day with no commentary whatsoever)
That approach doesn’t really interest me, but I also don’t want to bypass Al Green just because I’m at a rare loss for words.
So here’s a song that I like. Hope you like it too.
What a beautiful time we had together
Now it’s gettin’ late and we must leave each other
Just remember the time we had
And how right I tried to be
It’s all in a day’s work
Call me
Losing your love, acting foolishly
Go on and take your time ’cause you’re only losing me
Love is a long ways from here
Tell you it’s all in the way you feel
If your love is real
Come to me
Call me call me call me come back home
The best thing I can do is give back your love
Let you go away feelin’ free as a dove
If you find you’re a long ways from home
And somebody’s doing you wrong
Just call on me baby
And come back home
Call me call me call me
Come back home
Meet Me In Montauk 
The youtube clip doesn’t seem to be working.
Son of a bitch… they did it again.
ok, I found another version so it’s working for now (but probably not for long).
I’m curious why you have nothing to say about this song or Al Green’s music generally? Of course, I’m not sure I have much to say either (not that this has ever stopped me before):)
I am less familiar with this song than his bigger hits Let’s Stay Together and Take Me to the River. Still, the Al Green sound is immediately recognizable, and you hear his influence in so many artists, from Michael Jackson to Prince and beyond.
When I hear Al Green, I am transported right to the early 70’s. I was, admittedly, too young to have a great awareness of those years, but Green’s music reflects that progression out of the late 60’s harder-edged revolutionary mindset, toward the more matured part of the peace and civil rights movement. By the mid 70’s music turned far more superficial as it transitioned into pop and disco, but Green’s music was kind of a bridge, infused with the soul and spirit of the 60’s, but adding that contemporary and smooth sound that carried forward with other musicians in the later 70’s and 80’s.
Okay, that’s all I can think of to say about Green or this song:)
I guess my only exposure to Green (apart from the hits you mentioned) came when I picked up this album a couple of years back. So I don’t have any associations with the music, either historically or in my personal life. I do like his sound, though.
Well, sometimes when you post a song just because you like it one of your loyal listeners will have something to add. I don’t 🙂 But I certainly enjoyed Dana’s insights, and as I listen to the song I can get behind the “bridge” notion. Smooth is the word that most comes to mind as the right way to describe his music, which makes it both easy to like and easy to forget. Still, it’s certainly pleasant.
As for the blog you mentioned, that blogger goes from Adam Ant to Laura Nyro to The Brady Bunch, so commentary is almost irrelevant. The song choices ARE the commentary.