When he was actually singing his songs, Al Green was an exceptional showman at his Botanic Gardens show on Sunday. Photos by John Leyba.
Itap impossible to not like . He’s a consummate performer with one of popular music’s most legendary, memorable, inimitable, near-flawless voices. He has a tremendous sense of humor, and — especially since he’s back singing secular music — his songs of love and life and loss are something that everybody in the world can relate to.
That being said, Green isn’t the showman he once was. At his Sunday-night concert at the , the singer threw down an impressive, if short, set of music. The hits were plentiful. The audience was often brought to their feet via Green’s magnetic charm. His voice rang over the Garden walls, serenading an entire neighborhood.
If only Green sang more on Sunday.
Thatap right. Green only sang half of each song he took on, cutting in and out of songs as it suited him. Sure, he’s one of those singers who loves to share the spotlight with his crowds, holding the mic out to his fans and nonverbally asking them to sing the songs he made famous.
And while a little bit of that is O.K., fun even, a lot of it gets obnoxious. Especially when you paid a healthy amount of money to hear Green’s vocals — and not the tone-deaf guy standing next to you on the damp Garden grass.
Green consistently passed the buck throughout his hyper-interactive show on Sunday. After getting the crowd started on “Amazing Grace,” he was little more than the conductor — using a long-stem rose as a baton and waving it in front of his solid, full-sounding band. His lips were sealed for the most part. But the crowd sang on.
He did the same thing with “Letap Stay Together,” a bombtrack that brought nearly all the prepster Gardens fans to their feet, holding their someone-special close and warm. “What Makes the World Go ’Round” lacked the full-body charm of the recorded version because Green himself was rarely leading the singalong.
The only songs he seemed to sing all the way through were super-short takes on the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” and the Temptations’ “My Girl” — a medley the crowd loved and wanted more of.
Around that time, Green told nobody in particular, “You guys keep talking about a curfew, but I ain’t even sung ‘Love and Happiness’ yet.” He was funny, and he knew it. Of course that song came later, closing out the show after an almost-devastating take on “Tired of Being Alone,” a song that — even half-sung by the man in the suit — would be a highlight of any night.
The Gardengoers who were wasted on wine and cheese didn’t likely notice Green’s expert practice of non-singing, but those of us who wanted to stand and soak in the glory — the absolute majesty — of Green’s glittery vox were inevitably disappointed.
He’s on top of the stage banter tip, sure. Green paid tribute early in the show to Harold Ford Jr., the former House of Representatives member from Memphis, who was in the audience on Sunday. He also freestyled about his day, “We’re so glad to be in Denver, even though the limo driver forgot to pick me up.”
But ultimately he should charge audiences half-price for concerts full of half-sung songs.
Ricardo Baca is the pop music critic at The Denver Post and co-editor of .
John Leyba is a staff photographer at The Denver Post.
More of Leyba’s pictures, including shots of the show’s opener Otis Taylor:
