How Much Longer Must I Wait? (Singles & Rarities 1965-1972)

Album review

Lee Moses became a much bigger star years after his death in 1997 than he ever was in life when his 1971 album Time and Place was belatedly discovered by record collectors and soul mavens, prompting a reissue in 2007. Listening to his work, it's at once hard to imagine how a talent as strong as Moses could slip so thoroughly through the cracks, and easy to see why he never became a major star. The passion and ferocity in Moses' music is strong enough to make Wilson Pickett or James Brown seem cautious, and though his performances are exciting and powerful, Moses never sanded off his rough edges. The same gale force impact that appeals to contemporary soul fans would have made Moses a very tough sell to pop radio in the '60s and '70s (and at more than few R&B stations, for that matter). Time and Place was a potent exercise in soul and funk, but to hear Lee Moses at his most raw and fearless, you need to turn to his singles, and How Much Longer Must I Wait?: Singles & Rarities 1965-1972 collects all of his non-LP sides along with three previously unreleased tracks. The earliest selections, like "My Adorable One" and a frantic instrumental cover of the Beatles' "Day Tripper," sound like they were recorded fast and on a limited budget, but the interplay between Moses and the studio band is terrific, and as a singer and guitarist, Moses is emphatic and always makes his mark. The production gets a bit cleaner on tracks like "If Loving You Is a Crime (I'll Always Be Guilty)" and "I Can't Take No Chances," and he shows a bit more nuance as a singer, but that doesn't stop him from opening the throttle emotionally, revealing no fear of overplaying. Moses' version of "The Dark End of the Street" veers into a detour in which he declares "Horses like to make love! Cows like to make love! Mosquitos like to make love!" that rivals Swamp Dogg for sheer expressive eccentricity. Moses also takes on "Pouring Water on a Drowning Man," which like "Dark End of the Street" was a hit for the troubled soul legend James Carr, and like Carr, Moses was a performer who was willing to aim for the fences in the name of making himself felt. Also like Carr, Moses deserved a bigger audience than he attracted when he was active, but anyone who was impressed with Time and Place should give a listen to How Much Longer Must I Wait? and discover the rest of the Lee Moses story. It's a tale well worth hearing.
© Mark Deming /TiVo