The Iceman Departeth
Flashing back on the ten tracks that made me a lifelong Jerry Butler fan
Awww, man… another legend gone.
On the same day that
and I posted our CROSSED CHANNELS episode on the late, great Curtis Mayfield, Jerry “The Iceman” Butler — Curtis’s childhood friend, Impressions co-founder, sometime partner and fellow Chicago soul giant — just happened to leave these earthly confines.
Dapper, devastatingly handsome, and possessed of a voice and delivery that made Ricardo Montalban’s “rich corinthian leather” sound like 40-grit sandpaper, Jerry Butler was always the coolest cat in the room — whether onstage, in the studio, or on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, where he served from 1985 to 2018.
In fact, living in Chicago in the eighties and early nineties — a time when, as I mentioned on our podcast, the city was shamefully ignoring its incredible soul and R&B legacy — I knew of Butler as a local politician well before I learned of his long and impressive career as a singer, even though I’d certainly heard his early hits “For Your Precious Love” and “He Will Break Your Heart” on oldies-centric station KRLA back in 1979, the year I lived in Los Angeles. And once I finally made the connection to his soulful past, it took a combination of Rhino’s 1987 The Best of Jerry Butler compilation and Mercury Records’ 1992 2-CD set Iceman (The Mercury Years) to help me even begin to grasp the sheer scope of his talent and legacy.
I left Chicago in 1993 to return to L.A.; but whenever I would go back for a visit I would always hit the Windy City’s record shops, where I could often dig up the sort of Midwestern soul gold that was nearly impossible to find out west. I vividly remember uncovering a motherlode of Jerry Butler’s Mercury sides for a buck apiece at some hole in the wall Southside vinyl joint circa 1998; when I brought my stack o’ wax up to the counter, the guy at the register took one look at the pile and asked me, “You from England?” The apparent (and sad) implication being that no one in Chicago actually wanted this stuff…
Maybe Butler’s overall discography was too smooth, too sophisticated, or just not funky enough to appeal the average late-nineties soul collector, or maybe it was just too ubiquitous — between 1958 and 1978, the man landed 41 singles in the US R&B Top 40, including 16 that made it all the way to the Top 10, and he released plenty of others that just missed the mark. But man, that stack of one-dollar Jerry Butler 45s totally ruled my world for a while, and served as my springboard into a much deeper exploration of his catalog. The following songs were (and remain) my favorites from that fateful batch…
I Dig You Baby
A 1966 single that made it to #8 R&B but only #60 on the Billboard Hot 100, “I Dig You Baby” — penned by Lorraine Ellison and Sam Bell, and one of the many stellar tracks this Chicago soul great cut in Philadelphia — beautifully plays off the contrast between the elegance of Joe Renzetti’s arrangement and the disarming directness of the Iceman’s love testimonial.
Lost
A minor hit from 1967’s Mr. Dream Merchant LP, “Lost” was — if I’m not mistaken — the first Butler single to be co-written and produced by the up-and-coming Philadelphia team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, a partnership that would yield much greater commercial success in the coming years. I don’t know who’s the rhythm section here, but they’re absolutely killing it.
Never Gonna Give You Up
The followup to “Lost,” this 1968 single — and its impeccably-produced parent album The Ice Man Cometh — was where Butler really began to hit pay dirt with Gamble & Huff, hitting #20 on the pop charts and going all the way to #7 R&B. His performance here is just astonishing; the man confesses to being completely in thrall to his love no matter how toxic their relationship gets, yet somehow does so in the coolest and most dignified way imaginable.
Hey, Western Union Man
A number one R&B hit that also rose to #16 on the Hot 100, “Hey Western Union Man” was another Gamble & Huff gem recorded at Philly’s Sigma Sound. Lines like “Tell her I’m in misery/And think she’s avoiding me” make the song sound like another installment from the same toxic relationship of “Never Gonna Give You Up,: but Butler’s suavely offhand delivery of the lines “I want the girl to know that I missed her/Something like yesterday” never fails to make me smile.
Only The Strong Survive
Butler’s biggest hit, “Only the Strong Survive” — another genius Gamble-Huff-Butler creation — hit number one on the R&B charts and went all the way to #4 on the Hot 100. Elvis Presley was the first of many artists to cover this song (his excellent version was included on 1969’s From Elvis in Memphis), and in retrospect I’d have to guess that the King was listening to a lot of Jerry Butler in the late sixties, as many of his vocals from the period possess an artfully restrained character that’s pure “Iceman”.
Where Are You Going
In one of the odder pairings of song and film imaginable, this warm and affectionate send-off to a young woman trying to find her way in the world (“Is wisdom wasted on the young/Or will the peaceful songs you’ve sung help to change the world?”) was used as the opening theme for Joe, John G. Avildson’s 1970 black comedy about a hippie-killing proto-MAGA hardhat. “Where Are You Going” was co-written by Bobby Scott, who also wrote and produced the film’s soundtrack, so the juxtaposition was surely intentional… but if Butler knew that he was setting the audience up for some Silent Majority-driven carnage with this gentle song, his lovely performance shows no hint of it.
Gene & Jerry — You Just Can’t Win (By Making The Same Mistakes)
One mind-blowing thing I learned from that cheap stack of Mercury wax was the fact that Jerry Butler and fellow Chicago soul legend Gene Chandler actually cut an album of duets together: 1970’s wonderful Gene & Jerry - One & One, from whence this sage and hard-grooving piece of advice hails. Seriously, the whole album (which features the contributions of such heavy Chicago cats as Richard Evans, Tom “Tom Tom” Washington, Floyd Morris, Gerald Sims, Gene Barge and Butler’s brother Billy) is fantastic, and it’s one of the great underrated Chicago soul LPs; it was never released on CD, and I don’t believe it’s available to stream anywhere — but you can easily find it on Discogs for well under ten bucks. What are you waiting for? Go get it!
Jerry Butler & Brenda Lee Eager — If It’s Real What I Feel
The first of several great duets Butler recorded with the Mobile, Alabama-born Brenda Lee Eager, the upbeat “If It’s Real What I Feel” — a #8 R&B hit in 1971 — expertly captures the vocalists’ natural chemistry, as well as the tasty tension between Butler’s urbane gravitas and Eager’s southern soul fire.
Windy City Soul
If I had to pick just one Chicago soul single to carry me through the rest of my days, it would be 1971’s “Ain’t Understanding Mellow” b/w “Windy City Soul”. We’ll get to the A-side in a second, but there’s so much that I love about the flip side. Co-penned by cult soul hero Terry Callier with Larry Wade, the song not only brings the the city to life for me — the John Hancock Building flashes before my eyes every time Butler sings about how he can “See the Windy City Skyline getting closer all the while” — but it also pretty much sums up the sense of conflicted affection I’ve always had for the place. Like Butler in the song, I needed to go elsewhere to achieve what I wanted to achieve; and though unlike Butler I have no real desire to return except as a visitor, Chicago will always be an important part of me, and I’ll always be proud to go “down the highway singing a Windy City song”. (Also: dig that killer fuzz guitar!)
Jerry Butler & Brenda Lee Eager — Ain’t Understanding Mellow
Now let’s get to the A-side of that incredible 1971 single. This was one of those songs that I’d read about for years before actually hearing it, and at the time I assumed its title was confrontational — as in, “Get outta here with that mellow shit!” It was only upon finally getting to listen to it that I realized just how far off base my assumption was…
Like “If It’s Real What I Feel” and “Windy City Soul,” “Ain’t Understanding Mellow” emerged from the Jerry Butler Songwriters Workshop, a Brill Building-esque joint venture with the Chappell Music publishing company that brought talented young Chicago songwriters together to write songs for Butler, The Dells, Betty Everett and others. Workshop participants Homer Talbert and Herscholt Polk came up with the gospel-tinged “Ain’t Understanding Mellow,” and Butler and Eager turned it into one of most beautifully open-hearted (and truly adult) love duets ever waxed, one whose liquid, hymn-like exaltations touch the deepest part of my soul and bring me to tears just about every time I hear the song — and never more so than the first time I plated it after I finding out that the man was gone.
“Thank God for you,” they sing… and, well, thank God for Jerry Butler too. Rest in soulful peace, Iceman. Thank you for all the incredible music, and for always being so damn cool.
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I listened to the "Iceman" set again last night and marveled anew at his talent. He was far more urbane in tone than the other soul men of that era; cool, calm and collected as opposed to passionate. But the message still got across.
And he was a superb songwriter, having a hand in the majority of his own hits, as well as contributing to the oeuvre of others. He and Otis Redding wrote "I've Been Loving You Too Long" when they were both stuck in Buffalo, NY during a snowstorm, and much to Jerry's surprise, Otis recorded it almost immediately, and it became his first Top 40 pop hit. (When Otis died, Jerry cut his own version of "Loving You" that is a mannered and sophisticated contrast to the barely restrained three-alarm fire Otis cut.)
He somehow managed to dodge the alcohol and drug addictions his peers often had, but Parkinson's took him out just as it did Muhammad Ali. But, in contrast to what he sang, he will never break my heart. Instead, I will never give him up.
(P.S. Universal Music Group currently owns the Mercury catalogue, so it would be up to them to reissue "Gene And Jerry". I would love a CD copy of that.)
Love Jerry Butler - thanks for sending off the Iceman in a way befitting his regal stature.