Pity For The Lonely: the Ko Ko Singles Vol.1

Luther Ingram these days is a largely forgotten name from the world of Soul, even though most people would recognize his smash "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)", arguably the quintessential adultery song. Ingram enjoyed most of his output on Johnny Baylor's KoKo records that was in turn distributed through Stax in their post Atlantic days. Baylor was one of Stax most colorful figures. Baylor, before he got employed at Stax, was allegedly part of the Black Mafia, hustlin', dealing and pimping in Harlem. Baylor was also rumored to be Sugar Ray Robinson's sparring partner at one point. Even though these remain shady accusations and heresy, Baylor and his partner in crime did become the strong men of Stax offering security services. When Isaac Hayes needed some enforcers on the road to ensure he'd get his money from the promoters, Baylor tagged along in change of a simply trade off. Stax was to distribute his label of one, Luther Ingram was the only signed artist Baylor had, and Luther got to be the opening act for Hayes. Later Isaac Hayes would claim in Rob Bowman's excellent book "Soulsville", "We had to do some gangster stuff sometimes but I got my money and these guys protected me". Baylor's way of doing business is described as something straight out of a gangster film in Bowman's book, Johnny got what he want gun toting and pistol whipping. Nasty as Baylor might have been though, without his enforcing ways Luther's career might never have gotten to that Soul supreme peak of "If Loving You Is Wrong".

Before Ingram hit the road with Isaac Hayes he had scored a few minor hits with a sound that was heavy indebted to Syl Johnson and Willie Mitchel from Hi records fame. Fine southern Soul 45s, especially "Missing You", but not distinctive enough to make it in that highly competitive market. When Ingram hit the road with Hayes the latter had just put out his ground breaking album "Hot Buttered Soul". The album featured just four songs with only one clocking in under five minutes. "Hot Buttered Soul" would prove to be a revolution in many ways. Before that genre redefining album Soul was a singles market, artists only issued albums after having sufficient hit singles to fill them. "Hot Buttered Soul" didn't feature any track cut for radio. It was aimed at the adult album market and heralded the album era in soul that eventually enable Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield to produce their groundbreaking album in turn. The nearly twenty minute climax of the album brought rapping on wax for the first time in its full glory. "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" featured an intro that was longer than the actual song. Hayes' deep and brooding voice relates the lament of a man who finds his lady cheating on him time and time again, before he finally packs it in. Set over a pulsing wah wah guitar and a humming organ it took Soul a whole new level.

As is documented in "Pity For The Lonely (the KoKo singles)" this rubbed off on Luther. Although his material stayed at comfortable radio length the tone got to be more brooding. Luther infused his work with a deep blue sexuality that was trade mark Isaac Hayes. This approach gave him his first R&B smash when he peaked at #6 with "Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)". The song broke the Pop 50 as well and after years of struggling to get his career afloat Ingram was suddenly hot product. Ironically "Ain't That Loving You" is one of the few singles in his career Ingram didn't write himself. Written by Homer Banks and Allen Jones it had been recorded before for Johnny Taylor and failed to hit. Lou Rawls would later take the record to even bigger heights with Luther's arrangement. Funnily enough when Isaac Hayes recorded the song he didn't use the Ingram version that seemed cut and tailored for him but turned it into a forgettable Soul stomp, the public soon did. The flip side to the break through single was another superb Isaac Hayes like masterpiece "Home Don't Seem Like Home". This one was written by Ingram so that must have gotten him quite a few royalties in the end. But one must wonder where his career might have gone if the flip would have been the follow up. With the hypnotic hi-hat and the seductive bass it must have been bound to enchant the radio audiences across the nation. In comparison the fine follow up "To The Other Man" seems a little pale. Even though its flip is an infectious stomper, "I'll Just Call You Honey", the 45 simply can't touch the two sides of Ingram's breakthrough hit.

"Ghetto Train" closes this first fine collection by Kent. A joyous southern Soul rouser with a painful and confronting subtext in the lyrics. The second will chronicle his rise to super stardom with "If Loving You Is Wrong". Sadly this super star status wouldn't last all that long. Unable to adapt to the album format Ingram was one of those artists that would be crushed by the rise of Disco in the late seventies, unable to find a home on FM radio anymore. Stax tragic demise soon after he reached super start status didn't help much either. After the seventies Ingram would record sporadically till his death march 19th last year. Compiler Tony Rounce started this fine project well before Luther's tragic passing and claims its out of respect of Luther that the CDs didn't hit the market until well after his passing. Rounce writes in the liner notes that he didn't want the project to appear as a cash-in. I couldn't think of a finer tribute to Luther though. The passion and respect with which this project is put together is almost as inspiring as the music that it features. I can't wait till the next installment.

In my review of the Kent release on Luther Ingram's stablemate at KoKo (indeed, the ONLY other artist there at the time), Tommy Tate, I touch upon the notorious Johnny Baylor. Reviewer Soulboogiealex does a good job on filling you in on some of the details. So, you can see from that review that when Baylor decided Ingram's work would get the bulk of the publicity funds, Tate's career suffered accordingly, resulting in just 3 R&B hit singles without one cross-over to the more lucrative Billboard Pop Hot 100 charts.

Ingram, on the other hand, would come up with 20 hit R&B singles, 9 of which crossed over to the Hot 100, and all but the last three (those were released by Profile) on the same KoKo label. That's what promotion can do for you, although I take nothing away from Ingram's work. He just happened to be the beneficiary of the tactics of a very shady character.

In this first of two volumes, Kent mixes seven of his first eight hit singles with some uncharted B-sides, including a few with different cuts, starting with his initial hit, Pity For The Lonely, which topped out at # 39 R&B in June 1969 on KoKo 2102 b/w Looking For A New Love. That December he then had his first cross-over when My Honey And Me peaked at # 19 R&B and # 55 Hot 100 b/w I Can't Stop on KoKo 2104. In June 1970 Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One) rose to # 6 R&B and just about made the Hot 100 Top 40, settling for # 45 b/w Home Don't Seem Like Home on KoKo 2105.

Later that fall his answer tune to Doris Duke's To The Other Woman, appropriately titled To The Other Man, leveled off at # 22 R&B and # 110 on the Hot 100 "bubble under" charts b/w I'll Just Call You Honey on KoKo 2106. His next hit didn't come until May/June 1971 when Be Good To Me Baby peaked at # 21 R&B and # 97 Hot 100 b/w Since You Don't Want Me on KoKo 2107, and in October I'll Love You Until The End reached # 39 R&B b/w Ghetto Train on KoKo 2108.

In the spring of 1972 he had his first two-sided hit when You Were Made For Me reached # 18 R&B/# 93 Hot 100, while the B-side, Missing You, settled in at # 26 R&B/# 108 Hot 100 "bubble under." Only the latter is here, so I assume the A-side will be on Volume 2, along with the remaining 9 KoKo hits, including his only # 1 R&B smash, (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right, which also became his best Hot 100 cross-over at # 3. Hopefully, they will also throw in those three Profile R&B hits which came in 1986/87.

In the meantime, this excellent release has great sound reproduction and, as is usually the case with U.K. material, extensive liner notes which fill you in on what versions of those presented here in more than one version were the actual single releases.

Luther Thomas Ingram, who was born in Jackson, Tennessee on November 30 in either 1937 or 1944, according to different sources, passed away on March 19, 2007.