SOUL – Tell It Like It Is

Originating in Cleveland, OH, SOUL stood for “Sounds of Unity and Love.” The members were Lee Lovett (bass), Gus Hawkins (sax/flute), Paul Stubblefield (drums), and Walter Winston (guitar). Larry Hancock (vocals/organ) was added in 1971 and Bernard (Beloyd) Taylor (guitar) replaced Winston in 1972. All had been involved in music before the formation of SOUL The fellows entered a battle-of-the-bands contest in 1970, sponsored by the May Company department store in Cleveland, WHK radio station, and Musicor Records. The group won the first prize of 1000 dollars and a recording contract with Musicor.

Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella, November 7, 1942, New York) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock ‘n’ roll songs and some original material. Rivers’s greatest success came in the mid and late 1960s with a string of hit songs (including “Seventh Son”, “Poor Side of Town”, “Summer Rain”, and “Secret Agent Man”), but he has continued to record and perform to the present. The Ramistella family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana when John was five years old. Without any formal music lessons, he began playing guitar, which he learned from his father, at the age of eight, and was influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana. Ramistella formed his own band, The Spades, in junior high school and made his first record at age 14, while still a student at Baton Rouge High School.[citation needed] Some of their music was recorded on the Suede label as early as 1956. On a trip back to New York in 1958, he met Alan Freed who advised him to change his name, so Johnny Ramistella had the Baton Rouge attorney Arthur J. Cobb change his name to Johnny Rivers after the Mississippi River that flows near Baton Rouge.[citation needed] Freed also helped Rivers score some recording contracts on the Gone label. From March 1958 to March 1959, Rivers released three records which did not sell well. Rivers continued recording into the 1980s (eg, 1980’s Borrowed Time LP …
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