I first encountered Al Green in 1972 on Soul Train, which appeared every Saturday afternoon at 2 PM on channel 8 out of New Haven. There was something about him beyond his remarkable range and perfect phrasing, a complete honesty regarding his emotions, that moved me to tears then as it does now. Of course he moved me in other ways as well. His clear enjoyment of his sexuality, his proud display of a sizable package and a pair of well formed buttocks, and above all the generous expressions of an infinitely kind, humble and handsome face, made me wish he were inclined in a direction he was not.
Sadly, his jealous lover, her infamous assault on him with the pot of boiling grits, and her subsequent suicide, turned Al away from his true calling to the promotion of his angry father's Biblical God. It was a terrible regression to the fearful subservience of his early childhood. Not that the music he has made since then is worthless. After all, the man is a genius; but it might have been as great as the work he made before he took up the title of Reverend if he hadn't been quite so back-sliding.
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