Still on Fire

Soul survivor SOLOMON BURKE has endured bigger setbacks than most, but continues to make records as lauded as his perceived 60s heyday. He spoke to TERRY STAUNTON

Those Klan boys really love their country music. Honest, God-fearin’, wholesome songs about divorce, dogs and dirt farms, they can’t get enough of ’em. Back in 1964, they especially liked Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms), and invited the singer of that current hit to perform for them in person.

Bit of snag, though. Nobody told the KKK that Solomon Burke was black, so his appearance on stage wasn’t greeted with the warmest of receptions. It came as a bit of a surprise to Solomon too, as nowhere on his touring schedule did it mention that this particular stop-off was a Klan rally in all but name. There have been many instances down the years of life imitating art, but rarely does life imitate a deleted scene from Blazing Saddles.

“I was actually in the middle of a song when it occurred to me that there was something different about the audience,” Burke recalls with a slight chuckle. “You gotta understand that at that time I was pretty much the only black guy singing country music, but I wasn’t singing it on television so not too many people knew what I looked like. Apart from maybe Nat King Cole or The Ink Spots, you just didn’t get on TV if you were black. Even someone like Sam Cooke didn’t get on TV until he’d been …

by TERRY STAUNTON
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