Paul Kelly (June 19, 1940 – October 4, 2012) – Poor But Proud (1970)

This powerful anthem from singer/songwriter Kelly's first full-length album featured James Gadson on drums, Wilton Felder on bass, and Gene Page on keyboards.

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Singer/songwriter Paul Kelly (not to be confused with the Australian singer/songwriter of the same name) wrote many songs but is best remembered for his 1970 R&B hit “Stealing in the Name of the Lord.”

Born in the Overtown section of Miami, Kelly was raised by his grandmother. He formed his first vocal group with his brother Henry in 1956, and after that, another called the Spades with several high school classmates. He went solo in 1960.

Legendary singer/songwriter/producer Clarence Reid invited Kelly to join his group Clarence Reid & The Delmiros, filling in for their lead singer who had laryngitis. After they recorded the single “Down with It, Can't Quit It” b/w “Sooner Or Later” (1963) with Kelly on lead vocals, he was asked to officially join the group.

Kelly released his first solo single in 1965, “It's My Baby” with “The Upset” on the flip, co-written by Reid and Willie Clarke, which was inspired by Cassius Clay’s heavyweight boxing victory over Sonny Liston. Another Reid and Clarke-penned single “Chills and Fever” was distributed by Atlantic.

Eventually, Kelly and Reid had a falling out and stopped working together. According to the promotional materials for one of his later albums, it was because with The Delmiros he found himself in a situation similar to Teddy Pendergrass during his time with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, singing lead for a group in which someone else received top billing.

Nashville producer Buddy Killen also had a disagreement with Reid, and asked Kelly to collaborate with him. He produced Kelly’s next few singles, recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. None broke through until Kelly wrote the message song “Stealing in the Name of the Lord” (1970) about the hypocrisy of church leaders who pretended to care about the poor but were more interested in fleecing their followers. It was initially slow to catch on, but when Kelly made an in-station visit to Rockin' Robin, a DJ on Baltimore’s WWIN, Robin played the track several times in a row and the phones lit up. It became a #14 R&B hit and peaked at #49 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Unfortunately for Kelly’s long-term financial health, he had sold the song’s rights to Killen, who cut a deal with independent Hollywood, CA label Happy Tiger to release it. In the wake of the single’s success, Happy Tiger released the full-length solo album Stealing in the Name of the Lord (1970) that also featured the powerful anthem “Poor But Proud.” Besides Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, the album was also recorded at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, and Woodland Studios in Nashville. It featured a stellar cast of musicians, including James Gadson and Jack Ashford on drums, Chips Moman, David T. Walker, and Ray Parker Jr. on guitar, Wilton Felder on bass, and Gene Page on keyboards.

Happy Tiger ran into financial trouble and folded in 1971, at which point Kelly was signed by Warner Bros. His debut solo album was re-released on that label as Dirt in 1972.

Kelly released three more full-length albums on Warner Bros. Don’t Burn Me (1973), Hooked, Hogtied & Collared (1974), and Stand On The Positive Side (1977) were all almost entirely written by Kelly.

In 1978, he switched labels to Epic Records and put out the funky single “Everybody’s Got A Jones,” which he wrote, produced by Killen. Like his biggest hit had done, the insightful lyrics on this track dealt with hypocrisy. This time Kelly took a broader look at society, calling out church leaders, racists, homophobes who might be secretly gay themselves, and those advocating racial separatism while pursuing integration between the sheets.

“I see a preacher...preachin' love and God, but doin' the Devil's work real hard...I heard a man call another man a sissy...but he don't know that I know...he was locked up all night long with Joe, and what went down I don't know. There's a white man that hates a Black man...and a yellow man that hate the white man...and a red man that don't give a damn, the white man took his land. There's a Black man that's preachin' hate for whites, but guess who's in his bed when he turn out the lights? Everybody’s got a jones.”

Its B-side was the epic disco message song, “Shake Your Mind (Like You Shake Your Butt),” which was spot-on in its critique of how the dancefloor-friendly disco beat had largely crowded out message music during the second half of the seventies.

“If you shake your mind like you shake your butt...I betcha your life will soon look up. Would you believe that there's more to life than let's do it, I love you, and why you left me yesterday? Rest your body awhile, activate your mind...I betcha your life will rise and shine. Exercise your mind like you do your behind!”

#soul #PaulKelly