Syl Johnson, the Enigmatic Soul Singer

From Public Radio International's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, co-hosted this week by Julie Klausner:

Jesse talks to the soul singer Syl Johnson about how he synthesized a particular brand of gritty blues and funky rhythms. Over the course of a career on Chicago's Twinight and Memphis' Hi Records, Syl Johnson released several singles that climbed their way up the pop and R&B charts ("Different Strokes", "Come On Sock It To Me", "Is It Because I'm Black?") and but never attained the smash success of contemporaries like Al Green or James Brown. Johnson regained the spotlight last year, when the archival label The Numero Group released a Grammy-nominated boxset of his early work called Complete Mythology.

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