Everybody does indeed need somebody to love, but not everybody knows that it was Solomon Burke, and not the Rolling Stones, who was the originator of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love," as well as "Cry To Me" and "If You Need Me," all soul classics covered by the Stones' during their mid-60s coming of age.
The Philadelphia born and raised Burke, now 68, is a soul giant in every sense of the words, is an imposing yet genial presence who sits upon his rightful throne on stage, sometimes with a crown atop his shaven head. He declares himself to be "the fastest moving entertainer in a wheelchair in the world," in
Paul Spencer's documentary, Everybody Needs Somebody, which will screen Sunday at 6 at the Painted Bride as part of the First Persons Arts Festival.
Burke, who grew up the godson of Pentecostal evangelist Sweet Daddy Grace, started out preaching on Philadelphia street corners when he was 9. In Spencer's lively documentary, he's driven around to his old haunts (though we're never told exactly where in the city we are) and he's interviewed on WDAS, where he talking about growing up and "growing accustomed to shouting and praising the Lord and giving Good the glory."
Everybody Needs Somebody is the tale of a man who has spent a career turning the concert stage into his own personal pulpit, and bringing religious fervor to secular soul songs. "If he's singing about Jesus, you believe it, and if he's singing about sex, you believe it, too," says his good buddy Tom Jones.
Jones is among the assembled talking heads, along with Irma Thomas, the Stones' Bill Wyman and music historian Peter Guralnick, who says of the King of Rock and Soul: "I don't think there's ever been a better singer of American vernacular music than Solomon Burke. Not to put him ahead of Ray Charles or Hank Williams or Sam Cooke or Hank Williams, but he's right up there in their league."
Burke named his Joe Henry-produced 2002 comeback album, Don't Give Up On Me, after Dan Penn's title track. And the thing that's unique and inspiring about him as a performer, is that the father of 21, great grandfather of 79 and great great grandfather of 17, still possesses an all powerful yet mellifluous voice, and his powers of concentration as a song interpreter and a theatrical performer intent on selling a song are undiminished. The movie, which is also available on DVD, commits the typical music doc crime of rarely allowing performances to be seen from start to finish. But besides being a charismatic storyteller in his interview segments, Burke's compelling in performance, whether singing Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's "Diamond In Your Mind," at the Kimmel Center in 2005, or giving life, one more time, to "Everybody Needs Somebody," with Jools Holland in the studio in London.
At the Bride, the $25 admission to the screening will include a soul food supper, and a performance by The Barbara Walker Story. Details here. Here's a 2003 Top of the Pops version of "Everybody."
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