LEE MOSES: an American R&B and soul singer and guitarist, whose recordings in the late 1960s, and his 1971 LP Time and Place, are highly regarded by fans of the deep soul genre.
(13 March 1941 – 1997)
These days, I view a great percentage of ‘new music’ as a largely disappointing travesty. Naturally, this is a very generalized statement and I don’t include ALL new music in this sentiment- namely, the most over-marketed and least original are what I’m referring to.. (i.e.: Miley Cyrus, Nicky Minaj, Keisha- that kind of “music.”) If Miley Cyrus pulled half the shit she does on stage- as a normal person in public, or say a homeless person on the street- she’d have at LEAST spent a night in jail long ago instead of being praised & glorified by the media. As you may or may not know, I’m an avid lover of all music genres long since past… as of late, most notably soul music, the blues, classic rock and classical, to name a few. Without digressing from my topic too much, this image should sum it up for you.
That said, I somehow stumbled across the all too amazing (and GREATLY underrated) Lee Moses.
A deep soul singer from the South, he began singing in the 1950’s in various bands. This guy has soul in his voice that I can’t even put into words. Despite the power of his music, he is for the most part unheard of from what I gather, to the point that there is only a few known photos of him- one of which is from the LP “Time and Place”, released in the early 1970s. Oh! And for the kids: according to this article by Gordon Campbell, Black Keys front man Dan Auerbach even named Lee Moses as an influence recently. Also, it should be mentioned that Moses was known to play with Jimi Hendrix in the mid-sixties, eventually doing his own cover of Hey Joe. How about them apples?
Mama they call her bad girl
all because she wanted to be free
Personally, my two favorites include Bad Girl & If Lovin’ You Is A Crime (I’ll Always Be Guilty.) Actually, I first heard Bad Girl a few months ago during an episode of Lena Dunham‘s HBO series Girls, in which Jessa is dancing around in her living room to the mind-blowing tune. At the time I’d tried to Shazam it, but go figure, to no avail. Lee Moses is just too obscure, and was far too under appreciated in his time. Although it’s not known exactly why he stopped recording music in the mid 70’s, it’s been mentioned before that it may have to do with the lack of commercial success when his LPs were released. See Eric Hehr’s article for more information. If you’re a soul fan like me, you MUST give Lee Moses a listen. YouTube playlist below with a series of Lee Moses songs.
