2025’s “Top” Ten Music Losses: Sam Moore (#7)

Tweet

As usual, I didn’t plan it this way. There’s a connection between today’s music great and yesterday’s. When I was making the list I was just focusing on the music itself, not if there was a connection between anyone. Just my luck. Here’s today’s music great. #7: Sam Moore Yesterday I mentioned that Steve “The Colonel” Cropper got called out in the middle of the Sam & Dave song “Soul Man” (“play it, Steve!”). Well, here’s Sam! Sam & Dave. Wow, what a duo. My late, lamented friend Tim Wilson used to joke about the “coffee” of a meal being soul music: “Stax was black, Motown had cream.” Sam & Dave were Stax artists. They didn’t “pop” up their music for the masses. It found an audience as is. Sam Moore had a wild life with sex (reportedly having fathered so many children he didn’t have an accurate count ) and drugs, but he managed to beat it and settle down. Even with arguments with partner Dave Prater (Prater hired someone else named Sam to sing Moore’s parts so they could tour as “Sam and Dave,” prompting Moore to sue) they managed to have frequent reunions. Then came 1978, and a “joke” on Saturday Night Live. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd put together a “warm-up” act for the SNL audiences, and one night their act, “the Blues Brothers,” appeared on the show, doing a cover of Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man.” It gave the Blues Brothers a hit AND provided renewed interest in Sam & Dave’s music. (They were also promoted in the movie: when Elwood picks Jake up from prison, the 8-track they’re listening to is The Best of Sam & Dave.) To no one’s surprise, Sam & Dave were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame their first year of eligibility. Sadly, due to the “25-year” rule, they weren’t eligible until 1992, meaning that Dave Prater didn’t live to see the induction. He died in a car wreck in 1988. Moore continued to sing his own music as well as appearing with others (he recorded with acts as diverse as Don Henley, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, and Conway Twitty). Even at 89, he had no intention of slowing down musically. Sadly, complications from spinal compression surgery ended his life last January. That powerhouse soul sound of Sam & Dave songs like “I Thank You,” “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby,” “Hold On, I’m Comin’” and “Soul Man” will ring forever! Sam Moore Born Samuel David Hicks, October 12, 1935, Miami, Florida Died January 10, 2025, Coral Gables, Florida (complications from surgery) (age 89) HALLS OF FAME: Rock and Roll, 1992 ; Rhythm & Blues, 2018 (as part of Sam & Dave) Here’s “Soul Man” by Sam & Dave (with Steve Cropper playing guitar in the background):