New Song: Soul Legend Al Green Delivers Stunning Cover Of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts”

I am, admittedly, a rock n roll guy. When you look at my playlists (like our latest one), you see rock n roll music from the 50’s all the way up to recent days. But I am quietly a huge fan of vintage, 60s and 70s soul music. And when I think of the soul music of those days, I think of the Reverend Al Green. The man is a legend. And if you think about it, there aren’t that many legends from that era still roaming the earth treating us to their soulful wonderfulness. Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, and Marvin Gaye are all gone. We still have Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Mavis Staples and Stevie Wonder but you don’t hear as much from those folks these days. I mention this merely to say, I am very thankful – as we all should be – that Al Green is still around and singing songs. He ranks up there with Stax legend Otis Redding for me. 

I was always a Greatest Hits fan when it came to Al. My buddy, Arkansas Joel, always said that Al’s fabulous greatest hits album was all anybody needed to own from him. He also insisted, like I do, that Al never really sounded sad. He brought a strange joy and resilience to his music. It may be dark, the relationship may be over, she may have hit the road, but Al always kept the light close at hand. To this day I still own that single LP Al Green’s Greatest Hits (it’s one of those classic single album greatest hits packages that helped build my early music collection). Here’s the album cover:

As I’ve been doing B&V over the years and dug into the music of 50 years ago on my Playlists dedicated to specific years (1972 or 1973 or this year 1974), I’ve discovered so many of Al’s classic, fabulous albums: Al Green Gets Next To You (1971), Let’s Stay Together (1972), I’m Still In Love With You (1972), Call Me (1973), and Al Green Explores Your Mind (1974) to name but a few. That’s quite a hot streak…like I said, the guy’s a legend. Nobody talks about Al much these days but I do remember in 1982 Adam Ant in his song “Goody Two Shoes” mentioning, “When they saw you kneeling. Crying words that you mean, Opening their eyeballs, eyeballs, Pretending that you’re, Al Green, Al Green.” Oh yes, baby.

Al Green has just released a new song, a cover of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” originally released on their landmark 1992 album Automatic For the People. I’ve read that the band themselves are “humbled” at having Al sing their song. Who wouldn’t be? I know Lou Reed was a big Al Green fan and Al just covered his song “Perfect Day,” which may or may not be about heroin, just over a year ago and it was wonderful. Talk about world’s colliding…

As I expected, Green’s version of this song is stunning. It’s awash in strings and sounds like it could have come off of Al Green Gets Next To You in the 70s. It’s essentially a sad song with an uplifting message but Al really brings the light to a song that could have turned dark. He does change the lyric, “Don’t throw your hand” which I read was a slang term for folding your hand in a poker game, to “don’t throw your hands up” which seems to fit. In Al’s hands “Everybody Hurts” turns into an anthem of resilience. It’s as if Al is saying, “Hey baby, everybody hurts sometime, but you’ll get through it.” Here’s the link:

If you’re a fan of R.E.M., a fan of soul music, or super smart and you’re a fan of Al Green, you need this song on the stereo turned up to 11. Especially in these troubled times we find ourselves in, just remember there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Let Al Green guide you through it, baby.

Cheers!