Pop didn’t peak with the Beatles. It didn’t peak with Aretha Franklin or George Michael or Janelle Monáe. In fact, it never peaked. Instead it has sustained epic heights from Sam Cooke ’50s to Lake Street Dive today — something made clear in the last few weeks with reissues of Cooke’s “SAR Records Story 1959-1965” and Lake Street Dive’s minor masterpiece, 2014’s “Bad Self Portraits.”
Cooke is an icon and underrated. Beyond his voice (gold!) and his songwriting chops (think of how tight but different “Cupid,” “Bring It On Home to Me,” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” are), he had an amazing ear. Available on vinyl for the first time, “SAR Records Story” gathers the best songs from Sam Cooke’s record label.
Based on what’s collected here, SAR Records was on track to be another Motown before Cooke’s death in 1964. For the most part, Cooke recruited the acts on his label and wrote and produced for them.
Cooke’s vision led him to discover a series of future greats.
Here we get Bobby Womack’s group The Valentines stomping to “It’s All Over Now” before the Rolling Stones made it a hit. And rising star Johnnie Taylor doing his best to be the next Cooke on “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day” And teenage prodigy Billy Preston doing soul-jazz instrumental “Greazee Part I & II” six years before the Beatles drafted him for session work.
After absorbing the old school pop craft on “SAR Records Story,” take “Bad Self Portraits” out for a spin (just reissued for its tenth anniversary in limited-edition and two bonus tracks, “Wedding Band” and “What I’m Doing Here”). Back in 2014, the then-quartet was stacked with songwriting aces — each of whom could have built a career as a staff writer at Tin Pan Alley, the Brill Building, or Motown. So while singer Rachel Price has a singular voice that unites the album, she gets to sing radically different tunes (well, radically different but all still fitting the “perfect pop” label).
Guitarist/trumpet player Mike Olson’s “You Go Down Smooth” could have come out of a Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, and Freddie Mercury writing session — it’s those tight-but-dynamic arrangements, those bold soul moments juxtaposed by catchy cooing, those big breakdowns, and towering vocal harmonies (note, Olson has since left and is missed). Drummer Mike Calabrese’s “Stop Your Crying” could have come out of a, well, Robinson, Franklin, and Mercury writing session. But bassist Bridget Kearney’s exceptional compositions come up nearly every other track.
Kearney can pen slow-burn soul that doubles as dark introspection (“Better Than”). She can pair wounded and witty lyrics with something that is both a blustery ballad and swinging pop romp (title track “Bad Self Portraits”). She can write like Robinson, Franklin, Mercury, Adele and Bruce Springsteen all at once (“Seventeen”).
Since Cooke and his contemporaries laid down the modern pop template, the idea of a catchy, complete world captured in three and half minutes, the formula has never gone out of style. Sometimes you just need to know where to look for fresh stuff. Let me suggest this SAR Records package and “Bad Self Portraits” (and every other Lake Street Dive album!).