I first discovered Solomon Burke from Nick Honrby's novel "High Fidelity." In the novel, a Burke song "Why Can't We Stay Together" features prominently and since main character Rob has such a breadth of knowledge about music, I sought it out hoping to discover something new. This track can be found on Burke's "Definition Of Soul" album which has a 70's/Al Green kind of vibe to it. It's a swell song, and that album is quite good, worth owning, but it in no way prepared me for the power, and genius, and purity of purpose in "The Bell Sessions," which I've been listening to over and over and over for a few weeks now.

The back of the CD has liner notes by John Foggarty who writes that he feels Burke's recording of "Proud Mary" is definitive - that no one before had ever captured the true essence of the song as Burke did... and he's right. For the first time, I actually listened to, and heard the lyrics of this American classic. It's also the first version I've ever heard to completely erase my memory of Tina Turner's bravura rendition.

Burke has a preacher's background, so his sound is steeped in the Gospel tradition which seems the likely source for his greatest gifts - drama, pacing, and rhythm. The man knows how to build a song from the ground up. He starts slowly, gradually sucks you in, and then gives you the release you're begging for, while beautifully serving the lyric the whole way through. No song demonstrates this better than Track #6, "That Lucky Ol' Sun." In the liner notes Foggarty singles out this tune, and boy is he right. Discover this brilliant recording for yourself before some insurance company or The Gap puts it in an ad sure to give goose-bumps. After listening to Burke's version over and over, I was surprised to stumble on it in other parts of my record collection. Ray Charles does it. So does Johnny Cash on his newest "American Legend III." Obviously I'd heard the song before but I'd never heard the song. Classic doesn't even come close to describing it.

"The Bell Sessions" is made up of two distinct albums, and there's a decided shift in sound mid-way through from a stripped down, more acoustic sound to more fully produced tracks complete with enormous gospel chorus. However both styles work wonderfully - it's impossible to choose a preference. Among the fine tracks in the later half, "Generation of Revelations" will have you dancing around your living room.

Why Burke's work in this era isn't better known is a mystery to me. While you could never actually equal the thrill of discovering Aretha Franklin for the first time, listening to the "The Bell Sessions" will be its own kind of revelation. A classic.

I couldn't agree more with the previous reviewer, and have little to add, besides my agreement that this is an extraordinary album. Everyone who's heard it knows it as a masterpiece immediately. When I was purchasing it, the guy in the shop (sorry, Amazon) stopped and raved about it for five minutes or so before he'd let me take my new acquisition home. I've played it in my apartment and have had friends literally stop in their tracks, begging to know who's singing. There's also little more I can say about particular tracks themselves--John Fogarty's notes themselves shed considerable light. But while it's easy to tell which songs are genuine miracles, it's harder to tell just how Burke manages to get inside the lyrics and the melody to bring out meaning. On "That Lucky Ol' Sun," for example, I was prepared for the Louis Armstrong classic, full of joy and vim. Of course, when you actually listen to the lyrics, they're full of pathos and Burke brings this out without laying it all on too thick. Same with "In the Ghetto," a syrupy tune in Elvis's memorable but sappy rendition. But Burke sings it with restraint, and still has managed actually to make me cry several times listening to it. "Quinn the Eskimo" sounds far, far, FAR more revolutionary than Dylan--DYLAN!!--ever did. There is a fair sprinkling of Burke's trademark sad love ballads, but each is affecting in its own way. I love the uptempo tunes; not just "Generation of Revelations" but also "I'm Gonna Stay Right Here" will make you want to dance. The only song that to my ears falls seriously short of what it should be is, strange to say, Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." For reasons unknown to me, Burke seeks to improve on Cooke's lyrics (instead of "I was born by a river, in a little tent," Burke substitutes the unwieldy "I was born by the river, in a little shack like a tent." What??) I suppose it's just that Cooke is unsurpassable in his own right, but the rest of the album is pure gold. Buy it, buy it, you won't regret it!!