Al Green- Al Green Explores Your Mind
In the early to mid ’70s, Al Green was a R&B superstar, pop icon and a sex-symbol. Like many of rock’s and R&B’s elite, Green’s albums new albums were highly anticipated and sold in high numbers. By mid 1974, Green had four consecutive gold and platinum albums and seven gold singles.
Although Green had a religious conversion in 1973, most of the work on Explorers Your Mind was romantic in nature displaying an insouciance, comfortability and renewed confidence. Explores Your Mind was released in late 1974.
The first single, “Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy) (#2 R&B, #7 pop) is a deceptively slight version of the Mitchell/Green trademark sound. Although “Sha-La-La” was the big single from Explores Your Mind, another song has come to define the album. The brilliant sex and religious ode, “Take Me To The River” has become an Al Green standard and one of his finest performances. Green’s spiritual concerns surfaced on the solemn yet not boring, “God Blessed Our Love” which also became another much loved album track. The best of Explores Your Mind shows that Green could work with a variety of lyrical issues, styles and sounds and was supported by his own talent and the strong, confident production. The offhanded and charming “One Nite Stand” and “The City’ offer no lyrical profundities but find Green in blithe spirits and have a certain sense of playfulness and kinetic groove.
By the second side of the album, Explores Your Mind takes on more romantic concerns. Songs like “I’m Hooked On You,” “Stay With Me Forever,” the great “Hangin’ On” have Green thoroughly engaged, showing off his inimitable range and phrasing. Despite the range of emotions displayed, the last song of Explores Your Mind might be one of the most impressive. The album’s last track “School Days” is a dream-like rumination of school life with a sound that hearkened back to the ’50s pop music. In a discography that includes gems like I’m Still In Love With You and Call Me, Explorers Your Mind seems a bit more intimate and persona driven.
Al Green Explores Your Mind (#1 R&B, #15 pop) was certified gold by January 1975. During the same year, Green released Greatest Hits and later, the more serious offering, Al Green Is Love. Despite its immediate popularity and up-to-the-minute sound, the work from Explorers Your Mind has traveled extremely well. Green’s label mate Syl Johnson released a slightly slowed down cover version of “Take Me To The River” in 1975. Another Green’s label mate O.V. Wright had a 1977 hit with his cover of “God Blessed Our Love.”
“Take Me To the River” has become an Al Green standard and although it was never released as a single, it appeared on 1977’s 2 record set The Complete Al Green and it was on Green’s 1977’s LP Al Green’s Greatest Hits Vol 2. The song also was covered by the band Talking Heads on their influential 1978 album More Songs About Songs and Food.
Despite its enduring popularity, Explores Your Mind was out of print from the mid ’70s to the early ’80s. The album was restored to print in 1983 when Motown bought masters from Hi Records and Green’s core 72–77 albums were included in the deal. In the intervening years, this effort has been available on labels such as The Right Stuff and Fat Possum Records. Explores Your Mind is probably the most centered and accessible Green sounded during the rest of his ’70s secular releases and it’s one of his finest albums.
Jason Elias
Jason Elias is a pop culture historian and a music journalist.
