Essential Gospel – Classic Recordings: No. 124

“The World is Full of Sin”
Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi
from Checker LP 10003
1960-61

This is another song brought to my attention, thanks to Brother Jason Rosenberg.

The early years of the 1960s were truly magical for black music. Motown was emerging as one of Detroit’s greatest exports, second only to the automobile. Girl groups were picking up steam on the high heels of the Chantels and Shirelles. Most spectacularly, soft, delicate, sweet soul balladry was coming into popularity, and gospel was incorporating this quieter, doo-woppy sound into its sacred repertory.

A superior example of this is “The World is Full of Sin” by the Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, a track released on the quartet’s debut LP for Chicago’s Checker Records. While “Sin” was only available on the group’s Checker LP, never being released as a single, it is deserving of greater visibility.

By the time of the group’s association with Checker, Roscoe Robinson had replaced Archie Brownlee, who saw little of the decade due to his untimely death in February 1960. Thus, “Sin” is mostly a solo outlet for Robinson, with the quartet relegated to a minor backup role. Robinson, however, eschews Brownlee’s histrionics for the melodic lines of Sam Cooke and James Phelps. Think “For Your Precious Love” by the Impressions, and you get some sense of this song. In fact, what made Robinson a superb soul singer later in the decade is very much in evidence on his work here.

Performed using the classic doo-wop chord structure of I – VI(m) – IV – V, “This World is Full of Sin” beautifully blurs the musical boundaries between pop, soul, and gospel.

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Want to check out other “Essential Gospel” tracks? See more of them on this blog or at “Gospel”: www.island.net/~blues/gospel.htm.