Sam Moore, the tenor half of the scorching soul duo Sam & Dave — identified for such indelible hits as “Soul Man,” “Maintain On, I am Comin’” and “I Thank You” — died Friday in Coral Gables. , Florida. He was 89 years outdated.
His dying, in a hospital following surgical procedure, was confirmed by his spouse and longtime supervisor, Joyce Moore. She mentioned the precise trigger was unclear.
On the top of the Sixties, Sam and Dave produced rhythm and blues hits with a regularity rivaled by few different artists. When “Soul Man” topped the R&B charts and reached No. 2 on the pop charts in 1967 (it additionally gained a Grammy), its success helped open doorways for different black artists to attach with white audiences.
Sam and Dave’s stay reveals have been so kinetic – they have been often called Sultans of Sweat and Double Dynamite – that even an artist as charismatic as Otis Redding was hesitant to be on stage with them, for concern of being upstaged. Moore as soon as spoke of his have to “liquefy” the viewers earlier than contemplating a present a hit.
“Sam and Dave’s energy,” he mentioned, “was that we’d do something to please the general public.”
Moore and Dave Prater, a baritone, met at an novice night time at King of Hearts, a nightclub in Miami, within the early Sixties. The 2 unpolished younger singers ended up on stage collectively accidentally – Mr. Prater was having issues to recollect the lyrics to a track, and Mr. Moore gave it to him – however they immediately related with the viewers.
The 2 males started singing in church and developed a soulful, gospel-tinged call-and-response type that turned their trademark. They signed with an area document label, Marlin, and later switched to Roulette Data in New York. However their first data failed they usually retreated to King of Hearts.
One night time in 1964, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd of Atlantic Data got here to see them carry out. Impressed, they provided the duo a contract. The corporate tasked the Memphis soul label Stax Data with producing its data, which might then be launched and distributed by Atlantic.
In his autobiography, “Rhythm and the Blues,” Wexler wrote, “I positioned Sam within the candy custom of Sam Cooke or Solomon Burke, whereas Dave had the sinister voice of Levi Stubbs of the 4 Tops, the preacher promising the fires of hell. ”
Lending them to Stax proved to be an impressed transfer. In Memphis, Sam and Dave turned a part of a outstanding musical household that was a grittier counterpoint to Berry Gordy’s Motown hit manufacturing unit.
Working with producers and songwriters Isaac Hayes and David Porter, home band Booker T. & the MG’s and the crisp horns of the Mar-Keys, Sam & Dave have been quickly having fun with the advantages of stardom, together with their very own tour bus and airplane, plus a entourage of ladies and parasites. The 2 additionally turned heroin addicts.
The lifetime of Samuel David Moore may be divided into three virtually implausibly organized acts. The primary act started together with his beginning in Miami on October 12, 1935. His mom, Louise Robinson, was a trainer, and he described his father, John Richard Hicks, as “a avenue hustler,” a tireless womanizer whose son quickly would observe him. in your steps. (When his mom married a person named Charlie Moore, the boy took his stepfather’s surname.)
Whereas nonetheless in highschool, Sam was shot within the leg by the jealous husband of a married lady he was seeing. He later served 18 months in jail for hiring prostitutes. However music elevated him. He sang at a Miami Baptist church, then with an a cappella group referred to as the Majestics and a gospel group referred to as the Mellonaires, earlier than becoming a member of Prater.
Act II started with Sam and Dave’s first breakup in 1970, as their reputation waned. When their solo careers did not take off, they reunited and cut up up a number of occasions. The 2 have been by no means personally shut.
“It was a duo,” Moore mentioned within the 1998 ebook “Sam and Dave: An Oral Historical past,” edited by Dave Marsh. “But it surely wasn’t a partnership.”
Sam and Dave traveled throughout america, Europe and Türkiye, however drug abuse started to take its toll. Its downward spiral was briefly slowed when John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, because the Blues Brothers, recorded a success model of “Soul Man” in 1978, bringing new consideration to the unique.
Sam Moore and Dave Prater final carried out collectively on New Yr’s Eve 1981 in San Francisco. After leaving the stage, they by no means spoke to one another once more.
Prater recruited a brand new accomplice, Sam Daniels, they usually labored collectively, billed as Sam & Dave or New Sam & Dave Revue – regardless of Moore’s objections – till Prater died in a automotive accident in 1988.
Act III started the yr after the ultimate present, when Moore married Joyce McRae, a self-described “upper-middle-class Jewish woman from Chicago” who first noticed him carry out in 1967. She helped him get sober, assumed management managing his profession and guided him right into a productive skilled twilight.
Sam and Dave have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 1992 and acquired the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
Details about survivors aside from his spouse was not instantly accessible.
Moore’s solo album, “Loads Good Lovin’,” which he recorded in 1970 however Atlantic, for numerous causes, declined to launch, lastly acquired rave critiques in 2002. He has carried out for presidents and recorded with Bruce Springsteen, Conway Twitty, Lou Reed and different singers. He additionally labored to assist safe long-awaited royalties and royalties from different artists and songwriters.
“It has been a rollercoaster experience, however largely a superb one,” Joyce Moore mentioned in a 2014 interview. “Probably the most painful half was realizing how a lot Sam and his colleagues have been abused and mistreated — and nonetheless are. Most of them by no means acquired their due. However we have been blessed.”
Hank Sanders contributed experiences.
