Charles Bradley ~ Changes
In this Re(Play), I’ll tell you why this album is just plain cool and worth keeping in regular rotation.
If you’ve known me long enough, you know I love music that is jazzy and brassy and soulful. It just feels bigger, but it can be hard to find an authentic sound from new artists. I hate listening to Michael Buble because it sounds too smooth. I need a little grit; I want to be able to picture the sweat on the musicians as they pour everything they’ve got, all their life experience, into the music. No phoning it in. The best I’ve seen live was in New Orleans, where the bands were earnestly playing their hearts out on a random, early summer Tuesday night. One of the best I’ve heard recorded is Charles Bradley.
This man spent the bulk of his musical career doing a James Brown tribute show, “Black Velvet,” and that love of soul music shines through in this album. Every song is at once proud, defiant, and mourning. They also sound just plain cool; this album could have been made 50 years ago and it would sound the same. That’s at least one reason why so many television shows use these songs as themes. Maybe it’s because I'm still a band kid at heart (where our teacher would evoke Miles Davis and other legendary players) or maybe I put too much stock in my own tastes, but I’d be surprised if you told me Charles Bradley wasn’t on to something special.
I came across this album from the Netflix show, Big Mouth (which I incidentally did not enjoy beyond the theme song). As on-the-nose as it may be, I was going through some major changes in my life at the time, moving 12 hours away from everything I knew, broke and depressed. Now, nearly five years later, this album evokes a spiritual release of all of my accumulated baggage. I’ve always wanted stability in life, having grown tired of constant changes in my surroundings. Even in adulthood, I find myself living between two houses. Someday I hope to have all my belongings in one place, untethered to the in-between. Yet during the short periods where I have felt grounded, I itch for something new to shake things up. Sometimes I wonder whether these feelings are a result of my past or an innate desire to chase after greener pastures. Changes as a whole helps me explore this duality, and each replay feels poignant and timely to my current position in life.
"The way you're changing my mind, you're playing with my time, I ain't gonna give it up."
When I listen to this album, it feels like I’m listening to good preaching. Charles Bradley sings “God Bless America” to start, and he manages to capture all the conflicting ideas that reflecting on our country can bring. Both patriotic and disappointed, yet praying, pleading, yearning for its continued safety and peace, thankful to be able to call America home sweet home. A lot of people make it seem like you can’t feel all these ways at once, but anything you love takes work to maintain. You have to acknowledge the good and the bad. That’s why this version of this anthem stands above other renditions.
Other songs on the album feel evangelical, most prominently “Change for the World,” which starts by talking about Revelation and reminds the listener that “hate is poison in the blood.” None of these songs are likely to end up as Sunday’s choir special, but they are chock full of gospel truths.
“CHANGE FOR THE BETTER OF YOUR SOUL”
I don’t believe we are literally living through the end days, since people have thought this was true since John’s actual revelation. This album reminds us that change is necessary and change is often hard. Even so, we can be resilient by taking moments to enjoy the world and the people around us. Sometimes they may make you want to scream and holler. That’s ok. No good art comes without struggle.
Bradley cried when discussing his place in the world. “Sometimes I say, ‘God, just call me home.’ Because every day I get out and I fight and fight to keep the honesty [and] the decency of a human being walking the planet and loving everybody as God asked you to love everybody,” Bradley said. “How much more can one give before they find love on the planet? I say, ‘Father, when the time of the hour you want me, I’m ready to go.’ And before I leave this world, I say, ‘Let the world know they can’t change me … I love everybody. I never do nobody no harm.’” Charles Bradley, Acclaimed Soul Singer, Dead at 68 – Rolling Stone
Charles Bradley released his debut album in 2011, and Changes was his final record, released in 2016. He endured homelessness, poverty, illiteracy, grief, and, finally, cancer. His voice carries all of these weights, culminating in one of the most timeless albums I have ever heard.
Top 3:
Ain’t Gonna Give It Up
Change for the World
Ain’t It a Sin
The Goods
My copy of Changes is a standard pressing, nothing too special beyond the actual artwork on the back cover, a painting by Charles Bradley himself. When I first came across it in the record store, I was stunned by how beautiful it was. This is an album that deserves to be held in your hands, heard straight from the wax.
