Lifetime

Disc 1
1	I Dreamed Heaven Was Like This 2:43
2	Heaven Is My Home Take 1 2:29
3	The Love Of God Take 7 2:13
4	Out On A Hill Take 1 2:43
5	Until Then Take 3 2:21
6	When The Gates Swing Open 2:58
7	Never, Never 2:40
8	Rome (Wasn't Built In A Day) 2:36
9	Dance What You Wanna 2:32
10	Baby, We've Got Love 2:09
11	I Had A Dream 3:02
12	Easy Lovin' 3:01
13	I've Got To Love Somebody's Baby 2:58
14	Just the One (I've Been Looking For) 2:50
15	Part Time Love Take 2 3:39
16	Sixteen Tons Take 6 7:04
17	Somebody's Sleeping In My Bed 2:48
18	Blues in the Night Take 1 3:03
19	Save Your Love for Me Take 2 2:22
20	I Need Lots Of Love 4:47
21	You Can't Win With A Losing Hand Take 3 2:33
22	Rumors 2:51
23	You Don't Know Like I Know Take 3 2:42
24	Twenty Years From Today Take 4 2:43
25	Twenty Years From Today Take 7 2:38
Disc 2
1	Little Bluebird 3:14
2	Toe Hold 3:12
3	That's Where It's At 3:34
4	I Ain't Particular 2:49
5	Woman Across The River 3:15
6	Who's Making Love? 2:48
7	I'm Not The Same Person 3:06
8	I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water 2:59
9	Mr. Nobody Is Somebody Now 3:23
10	Take Care Of Your Homework 2:40
11	Testify (I Wanna) 4:06
12	Separation Line 3:43
13	I Could Never Be President 2:19
14	Love Bones 4:07
15	Steal Away 3:30
16	Steal Away Live 6:17
17	I Am Somebody, Pts. 1-2 5:50
18	Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone 3:03
19	I Don't Wanna Lose You, Pt. 1-2 5:26
20	Don't Take My Sunshine 3:21
21	Hijackin' Love 3:18
Disc 3
1	Standing In For Jody 4:02
2	Doing My Own Thing, Pt. 1 3:46
3	Stop Doggin' Me 4:15
4	I Believe In You (You Believe In Me) 5:09
5	Cheaper To Keep Her 3:31
6	We're Getting Careless With Our Love 4:03
7	Starting All Over Again 4:16
8	I've Been Born Again 3:22
9	It's September 3:37
10	Try Me Tonight 3:22
11	Free 3:55
12	Disco Lady 4:30
13	Running Out Of Lies 4:55
14	God Is Standing By 4:28
15	Play Something Pretty 4:06
16	Lady, My Whole World Is You 3:23
17	Lover Boy 3:57
18	Last Two Dollars 5:18
19	Soul Heaven 4:52

Barnes & Noble

A life in the blues often means grinding out the same old shuffles and 12-bar ballads year after year, and many artists thrive in this milieu. But when the soulful singer Johnnie Taylor left the gospel of the Soul Stirrers for the secular music world he never stopped refining his sound to fit the times. In the '60s his singing had the virtuous sweetness of his mentor Sam Cooke, who produced Taylor's first lay releases. Taylor's 60's Stax Records are deep R&B; signed to Columbia in the 70's, he took to the dance music craze with the blues-ified "Disco Lady," which was a No.#1 hit on both the R&B and pop charts. The '80s and '90s found Taylor back at home with folks like Z. Z. Hill and Bobby Blue Bland, reviving the blues in the South with a smoother sound geared toward the aging blues audiences of the '60s. All of these phases are captured in the three-CD box set Johnnie Taylor Lifetime, a wonderful retrospective that illustrates how many hues can be shaded into the blues. From the testifying on "The Love of God" through the humorous R&B hit "Who's Making Love" all the way to a very contemporary take on how gambling has affected poor people, "Last Two Dollars," Taylor sings in the moment. His perspective is that of a black man married to his southern roots, for better or worse. This is perhaps why Taylor never made it as big as Al Green, Sam Cooke, or Otis Redding. He had the voice and charisma of these stars, but his commitment never wandered far from home. As Lifetime documents, this remarkably consistent singer spent four decades (mainly) on the fringes of the big time, but he was always deep in the hearts of his fans. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

Taylor gets honored with a three-CD box set for this career retrospective. And it truly is a career retrospective: it spans 1956-1999 and includes a good deal of material that he did for other labels before and after his lengthy Stax stint. It's true that you have to be a pretty deep Taylor fan to commit to nearly four hours of his music. It's also true that even if you are a big Taylor fan, you're likely to need some patience to last through some of the average cuts, or his stylistic transition from gospel to soul to disco and retro-soul. Overall, however, it's a fine commemoration of an important if not quite great soul star. The most valuable components of the set are found on disc one, which kicks off with a half-dozen gospel tunes from his stints with the Highway Q.C.'s and the Soul Stirrers in the late '50s, moving into some of his soul sides for Sam Cooke's SAR label in the early '60s. For the remainder of disc one and some of disc two, there are plenty of fine soul-blues cuts from his early days at Stax in the mid-to-late '60s that will be familiar to relatively few listeners, his fine soul-blues-gospel vocal blend resulting in some of his finest work. As time wore on -- even starting in the early '70s -- Taylor's material got duller and more homogenized, though there were always some highlights to perk up your ears. Unsurprisingly, then, like most box sets, this gets less interesting the closer it draws to the finish line, although wisely his late-'70s Columbia era (yes, "Disco Lady" is here) and post-'70s Malaco output is represented by a mere four cuts each. Ultimately, it's a well-done summation of Taylor's legacy, with an accompanying 50-page booklet including essay, discography, and photos. Richie Unterberger