Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "E" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.
In 1967 at the age of 16, Al formed an R&B group, Al Green & the Creations, with several of his high-school friends. Two Creation members, Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, founded their own independent record company, Hot Line Music Journal, and had the group record for the label. By that time, the Creations had been re-named the Soul Mates. The group's first single, "Back Up Train," became a surprise hit, climbing to number five on the R&B charts early in 1968. The Soul Mates attempted to record another hit, but all of their subsequent singles failed to find an audience. In 1969, Al Green met bandleader and Hi Records vice president Willie Mitchell while on tour in Midland, Texas. Impressed with Green's voice, he signed the singer to Hi Records, and began collaborating with Al on his debut album
He was perhaps the ideal complement to the orchestral, syrupy, strong soul production work of Hi Records wizard Willie Mitchell, who also helmed 70s classics for Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, and himself.
On October 18, 1974, Mary Woodson, a woman who was his longtime girlfriend, threw a large pot of sticky boiling grits on him as he was preparing to shower, because he didn't want to get married. She committed suicide in minutes, which deeply affected Green to turn to God and religion. This assault from behind caused third-degree burns on his back, stomach and arm. Deeply shaken, Green continued to reaffirm and grow closer to his deeply held love for God, and became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976.
Continuing to record R&B, Green saw his sales start to slip and drew mixed reviews from critics. 1977's The Belle Album was critically acclaimed but did not regain his former mass audience. In 1979 Green injured himself falling off the stage while performing in Cincinnati and interpreted this as a message from God. He then concentrated his energies towards pastoring his church and gospel singing, also appearing in 1982 with Patti Labelle in the Broadway musical Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. According to Glide Magazine, "by the late 70s, he had begun concentrating almost exclusively on gospel music." His first gospel album was The Lord Will Make a Way. From 1981 to 1989 Green recorded a series of gospel recordings, garnering eight "soul gospel performance" Grammys in that period. In 1985, he reunited with Willie Mitchell along with Angelo Earl for He Is the Light, his first album for A&M Records. In 1984, director Robert Mugge released a documentary film, Gospel According to Al Green, including interviews about his life and footage from his church. In 1989, Green released "I Get Joy", again with producer/guitarist Angelo Earl. In 2001, he appeared in the movie and soundtrack of On the Line featuring Lance Bass.
After spending several years exclusively performing gospel, Green began to return to Rhythm & Blues. First, he released a duet with Annie Lennox, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" for Scrooged, a 1988 Bill Murray film. In 1989 Green worked with producer Arthur Baker writing and producing the international hit "The Message Is Love". In 1991 he created the introductory theme song for the short-lived television series Good Sports featuring Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett. In 1992, Green recorded again with Baker, the Fine Young Cannibals, and reunited with his former Memphis mix engineer (this time functioning as producer) Terry Manning, to release the album Don't Look Back. His 1994 duet with country music singer Lyle Lovett blended country with R&B, garnering him his ninth Grammy, this time in a pop music category. Green's first secular album in some time was Your Heart's In Good Hands (1995), released to positive reviews but disappointing sales, the same year Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Green published Take Me to the River, a book discussing his career. Green received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
In 2001, Green's live cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" was released on the soundtrack to Will Smith's film Ali (the song plays when Muhammad Ali learns of the death of close friend Malcolm X).
By 2003 Green released a non-religious (secular) album entitled I Can't Stop, his first collaboration with Willie Mitchell since 1985's He is the Light. In March 2005 he issued Everything's OK as the follow-up to I Can't Stop. Green also collaborated with Mitchell on this secular CD.
The title of Al Green's latest album Lay It Down released May, 2008, truly tells it like it is. Conceived as a collaboration between the soul legend and a handful of gifted young admirers from the worlds of contemporary R&B and hip hop, the album is drawn from a series of inspired sessions that yielded the most high-spirited, funky and often lushly romantic songs of Green's latter-day career.
The project features the sophisticated R&B voices of singer-songwriters John Legend, Anthony Hamilton and Corinne Bailey Rae, and it was co-produced with Green by two of hip-hop's most innovative players, drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson from the Roots and keyboardist James Poyser , the go-to guy for high-profile artists ranging from Erykah Badu to Common. Add in Brooklyn's celebrated Dap-King Horns (Sharon Jones, Amy Winehouse), guitarist Chalmers "Spanky" Alford (Mighty Clouds of Joy, Joss Stone) and bassist Adam Blackstone (Jill Scott, DJ Jazzy Jeff), among others, and you've got a modern soul-music dream team, fronted by the most expressive voice in the business.
True Love
Al Green Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Miscellaneous
How Should I Your True Love Know
HOW SHOULD I YOUR TRUE LOVE KNOW
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf
At his heels a stone.
White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers.
Which bewept to the grave did not go
With true-love showers.
Note: The forst of Shakespeare's Ophelia's "Mad Songs", Hamlet,
Act IV Scene 5.
@love @death
filename[ TRULOVNO
play.exe TRULOVNO
RG
The lyrics to Al Green's "True Love" are about the feeling of finding a love that is real and genuine. The song is about recognizing that the love you have found is true and not just a fleeting infatuation. The lyrics suggest that true love can be identified by specific characteristics, such as a cockle hat and staff, and sandal shoon. The repetition of these lines indicates the importance of recognizing the authenticity of the love that has been found.
The second verse takes a darker turn as it suggests that the person who represented true love is now deceased. The imagery of the grass-green turf at the head and the stone at the heels signify a grave. The shroud is white like mountain snow and larded with sweet flowers which bewept to the grave, did not go with true-love showers. This indicates that the grief of the person left behind is genuine, but it is not enough to bring the love back.
Overall, the song provides insight into the importance of recognizing and cherishing true love, even if it is lost. It offers some bittersweet hope in the idea that true love never truly dies and can still be remembered even when the person who represented that love has passed away.
Line by Line Meaning
How should I your true love know
In what way can I distinguish your true love from another?
From another one?
From another person who might claim to be your true love?
By his cockle hat and staff
Would I know him by his hat and walking stick?
And his sandal shoon.
And by the sandals he wears on his feet?
He is dead and gone, lady,
The man you speak of is no longer alive, my dear.
He is dead and gone;
He has passed away, never to return.
At his head a grass-green turf
A green patch of grass now covers his head where he is buried.
At his heels a stone.
A stone marker now lies where his feet were once placed.
White his shroud as the mountain snow,
His burial shroud was as white as the snow on a mountain.
Larded with sweet flowers.
It was adorned with beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers.
Which bewept to the grave did not go
Despite being mourned and wept over, those who loved him didn't travel to his grave.
With true-love showers.
They didn't even shower his grave with the tears of true love and devotion.
Writer(s): al L. Green, Willie Mitchell, Mabon Hodges Copyright: Al Green Music Inc., Poppa Willie Music, Jec Publishing Corp.
Contributed by Gianna P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Zoe B
This is a little known track from Al, beautiful simple song
olmandigo
Use to jam this tape with my momma on Saturday’s on our way to garage sales
schellebell757
I don’t know a lot about why many things are, but one thing I do Know, is that true Love comes from the one who made me and thank God He saved me. Oh wretched man that I am!! Lost but now I’m found.
Renee P
Nice💜
DJSoul832
Jesus is love remember people love, peace, and soul, from DJSoul832.