"Sadly, many soul fans, DJs and collectors are obsessed with exclusivity and rarity. And the result is that we now have "experts" on the soul scene who are unable to have a conversation about Al Green, The Soul Children, Bobby Womack, Annette Snell, Don Covay, Aretha Franklin, James Carr, The O'Jays, Howard Tate, Carla Thomas etc etc."
I would have to agree with this. Its strange that I know the little that I do about completely obscure soul recordings/artists due to gleaning info from the more knowledgable on the scene, but not even that much about the more popular, prolific artists. At least it means there is so much out there yet to hear and enjoy. Hopefully a positive thing, as for me the action is the actual music itself, all the ohter stuff is a fascinating (but I have to say very enjoyable) trimming.