Richard Crouse

The great Sam Moore of Sam & Dave passed away yesterday at age 89. The world is a better place because of the songs, like Hold On! I’m Comin’, When Something Is Wrong with My Baby, Soul Man and I Thank You, he and Dave Prater left behind.

I met him in 2001 or 2002 at the Cannes Film Festival when he was promoting a documentary (by the legendary D.A. Pennebaker) called Only the Strong Survive. It is a look at the soul singers of the 1960s – Sam Moore, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, The Chi-Lites, Ann Peebles and Mary Wilson — and what they are doing now.

I met Moore and his wife Joyce on a patio overlooking the ocean at the American Pavilion. Moore looked fit and trim, with the grin of a man who has been there and back, happy to have made it through.

I asked him to explain soul music. Why is it different than pop music? He sang part of his answer. “It’s all in the phrasing and the attack,” he said, before singing a line from a pop song, then bending and caressing the notes the way he would sing it.

Listening to him, up-close-and-personal, was breathtaking. I’ve heard his music all my life, and here he was opening the vault to reveal his secrets.

His voice gave me goosebumps the size of oranges.

Listening to him sing, sitting next to me on a beach in France, was otherworldly, but his vocals were earthbound, anchored by experience, gospel and soul. It was a masterclass in singing from the heart.

Celebrity interviews often don’t add to much, but listening to Moore’s voice singing just for me was magical, a masterclass in performing straight from the heart, and I have never forgotten it.

Rest In Power Sam Moore.