Percy Sledge: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

My first exposure to "When A Man Loves A Woman" was Michael Bolton performing his No. 1 version of the song on Top Of The Pops in '91. Bolton, with his cascading, trapped-in-a-wind-tunnel hair and white shirt undone past the nipples, wailing every last note as if singlehandedly trying to will The X Factor into being. The TOTP crowd swaying their arms in time. My mum humming and swooning along. My balding dad watching on, simultaneously envious and bored. 

Based on this Bolton abomination and its presence on commercials and all manner of dubious love-related compilations, I wrote off “When A Man...” as phony, irredeemable schmaltz à la "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?", and dismissed Percy Sledge, the man who came up with the melody for the song and recorded the 1966 original, as some forefather of sap.

It was only years later when I read Peter Guralnick's book Sweet Soul Music where he refers to Sledge in the same terms as Elvis, Otis and Aretha and I bought the It Tears Me Up Rhino Records compilation that the penny dropped: of course he's that good, of course he is. Daaamn yooou, Bolton! 
Listen afresh to Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman" and one is blown away by the subtlety in the performance of both band and singer; the rises and falls in the song incredibly passionate and affecting, yet controlled, classy (and a clear "influence" on Procol Harum's monster "White Shade of Pale" released 13 months later). Of course this "holy love hymn" was the first US number one recorded at Muscle Shoals. Of course it was a UK Top 5 single on two separate occasions, twenty years apart. As Paul Gambacini said: "It never had a time. It was in a world of its own, so it was timeless".

When news of Sledge's death to liver cancer at the age of 74 was announced yesterday, he was perhaps inevitably referred to as 'Percy Sledge of "When A Man Loves A Woman" fame'. While a legacy worthy of any singer, the song was only the spring-board in terms of Sledge's career, the first in a run of wonderful soul ballads described by rock critic Dave Marsh as "emotional classics for romantics of all ages": "I'm Hanging Up My Heart For You", "Warm and Tender Love", “It Tears Me Up”, his heartbreaking, brilliantly melodramatic tale of seeing an ex-lover walk down the street with a new man ("I can't stop cryin'...I feel like I'm dyin'!").

Sledge's voice perhaps lacks the true grit of Otis Redding or the honeyed sweetness of Sam Cooke, but he knows how to bring a song home. There is a sincere, heartfelt, grown-up quality to his instrument which really resonates, especially on his interpretations of meaty soul standards like "Love Me Tender", "Drown In My Own Tears" and "Dark End of the Street". His 1969 take on "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road", a "kind of jaunty" slice of country-funk popularised by Elvis, is my personal favourite.

Track of the Day: Veronica Falls - Teenage (2013)

“Teenage” by Veronica Falls is a perfect indie-pop tune. Actually, it’s just a perfect song, full-stop. It’s a gem, a peach, a 10/10. It came on my iPod on shuffle today and I couldn’t help but listen to it five times in a row. Like Big Star’s “Thirteen” or The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe In Magic”, it so eloquently captures and recreates the butterflies-in-the-tummy, “possibilities are endless!”-ness of love’s young dream.

There are many highlights on the second Veronica Falls album, Waiting For Something To Happen ("Buried Alive", "My Heart Beats", the title track), but "Teenage" is The One for me. The fuzzy rush of the guitars and lines like “driving late of night, I let you listen to the music you like…then I drop you home” are so evocative as to leave you feeling nostalgic for adolescent experiences you maybe never even had.

Static Future: I've Seen the Future, the Future is Static

“Is this real love?” enquires Static Future frontman Gavin Marshall on the track of the same name.

The question is as much to himself as it is to the listener or his in-song lover. A thoughtful questioning and questing runs through much of this exciting Glasgow five-piece’s work: memory (buildings which played a significant role in the childhoods of the individual band members were depicted in their first EP’s artwork), lost loves and future dreams are all favourite preoccupations.

Multi-coloured shapes assembled to form buildings assembled to form an imagined city skyline form the cover of Assembly, the band’s latest EP. Musically, here, Static Future display a similar widening of perspective – the four tracks being their most ambitious assemblages of instruments and sounds to date; both a refinement and a stretching out of the nimble, hooky alt-rock which has earned them a loyal following and well-received support spots with The Band Of Holy Joy and St Deluxe.

 
If the lyrics are often tentative and reflective, the music is sure-footed, urgent, propulsive. Layered guitar parts tickle the ear, stab the gut and quicken the heart. Marshall’s scuffed croon is front and centre, and his growing confidence as a vocalist is such that he’s now backing up himself – his BVs bringing depth and a nagging insistence to the choruses of “Is This Real Love?” and “Sunday Suns”. Extended outros – propelled by bass and drums and inspired by 12” Disco edits absorbed on greasy Glasgow dancefloors – hint at the live set’s thrilling bongo and cowbell workouts. 

This is a band who play with their heads and hearts, while never forgetting the Franz Ferdinand maxim of “make music to make girls dance”.

This is a band who crash out in front of Stop Making Sense at 4am, and dream of late-night stalks down New York streets with Pepper LaBeija. 

This is better than (Casual) Sex.

This is real love.


Static Future shall be getting their cowbell on at The Record Factory on April 10th and Bar Bloc on April 23rd. Check their bandcamp for further details.