Customer Reviews

Searching for the Dolphins - The Complete Soul City Recordings and more 1967-1971

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In the UK, Al Wilson is best known for the popularity on the Northern Soul circuit of his recording of Oscar Brown's song "The Snake" and none of his later US recordings have meant much. Beyond that very few would have heard of the man as Soul City was a label never released in the UK. However Kent Records (part of the Ace label family) following on a series of articles in "Soul Express" magazine have put this all to right and in addition to the original LP of "Searching for the dolphins" have included the entirety of his Soul City and subsequent Bell records.

And what a masterpiece it is - the involvement of Johnny Rivers (who earlier has a hit in the US with "The snake" plus was part owner of the Soul City label) is usually a sign of quality in my eyes. In addition, Al's following of River's approach in choosing both a wide cross selection of songs to interpret brilliantly and then being backed by the cream of West Coast studio session men, produces a CD full of gems with not a bum track amongst them. In addition to being a very soulful interpreter (Fred Neil's title track, River's "Poor side of town" and Webb's "Phoenix" & "Do what you gotta do") there is a very wide range of styles to enjoy including some beautifully understated rockers (Fogerty's "Lodi" and Bartholomew's "I hear you knocking").

I just hope this is where the Al Wilson revival starts given it seems the man has continued to perform regularly across the years to date.

i actually have the vinyl from the late 60's, soul city was the domain of johnny rivers, and searching for the dolphins is a rare and under appreciated record. The record is worth the purchase just to get the song "do what you gotta do" a fantastic song that was unavailable for years. Al Wilson is more known for The song Show and Tell, which came later, I do recommend this record if you like good old heartfelt singing with a minimum of production you will love this record.

Al Wilson fans will enjoy the real country vibe of this CD. I bought this CD for the tune "Do What You Gotta Do". I have a copy of the written music and had not heard the song since it played originally back in 1968. This album is interesting because I had not heard most of the tunes on it. Unless you like country or, are an Al Wilson fan, I don't recommend you buy it. Wilson's 1973 "Show and Tell" is still my all time favorite by him.

I bought this mainly because it had LODI on it...Al does an fantastic version of that song. I had been in touch with Al Wilson prior to his death. He said he was working on getting a "singles" compilation out.

He did tell me at that time he had a stereo version master of Lodi...but I think he had a fire in his home and lost many tapes. This CD does have some great moments. The original "Dolphins" album tracks were beautifully re-mastered, but tracks like Lodi and a couple more that were mastered from a 45rpm record. I spoke to the label, and they claim no master tape exists for Lodi. I had already mastered this track from a mono 45 here at home, and quite frankly, mine sounds punchier and better than the one on this CD.