Recalling ‘Unrestricted’ Millie Jackson

It’s not much of a stretch to think of Millie Jackson as a mix of the social commentary of Curtis Mayfield and the sometimes R-rated humor of Richard Pryor.

Then again, it’s not unreasonable to think of her music as a blend of the soulful character of Otis Redding and the explosive grit of Tina Turner.

With all those attributes, you’d think Jackson would be widely hailed as one of the great artists ever in R&B;, but she is invariably overlooked when lists of the music’s most important figures are drafted.

One reason is that she recorded in the ‘70s for the relatively small Spring Records label, which meant she never enjoyed the aggressive mainstream promotion of rival R&B; acts on Motown and Atlantic. Her work, too, tended to be quite uneven.

In the 1983 edition of the Rolling Stone Album Guide, her albums through 1978’s “Get It Out’cha System” received three or four stars (out of a maximum five). But the five after that earned only two stars--or less. Even the best of the packages were inconsistent.

The strength of Rhino Records’ new “Totally Unrestricted!: The Millie Jackson Anthology,” a two-disc, 36-song retrospective, is that it showcases the best work from the Spring albums.

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*** 1/2 Millie Jackson, “Totally Unrestricted!: The Millie Jackson Anthology,” Rhino.

Jackson’s career started on a dare. The Georgia native was working as a waitress in New York in 1964 when she and some friends dropped by a Harlem club on talent night. The others bullied Jackson to take a turn at the microphone and she turned in such a stirring version of the Ben E. King hit “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)” that she landed a singing job.

For the next few years, Jackson played various New York clubs and even toured with Sam Cooke’s brother, L.C. By 1969 she had created enough of a buzz to eventually sign with Spring Records, where she not only managed herself but also led her own band and headed a production company--all rarities for a woman at the time in the music business.

Jackson got off to a fast start at Spring when her first single reached No. 22 on the R&B; chart in 1971. The single, “A Child of God (It’s Hard to Believe),” was heavily influenced by the social commentary found in Mayfield records of the time.

The next single, “Ask Me What You Want,” climbed to No. 4 on the R&B; chart and into the Top 30 on the pop chart. Underscoring the ambition and range of her records, “Ask” mixed the lilt of Motown hits with the harder-edge vocals found on most Stax recordings.

But it was “Hurts So Good” in 1973 that began to define Jackson’s style. The arrangement of the song, which was another Top 10 R&B; hit, was framed in the Southern soul style favored by Otis Redding and other Stax artists.

Over the next few years, Jackson went in all sorts of directions, turning in quality work that ranged from country (an especially winning version of Tom Jans’ “Loving Arms”) to rock-accented ballads (Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love”).

But her trademark became the records, such as “Leftovers” and “All the Way Lover,” that dealt so bluntly with the sexual side of relationships that Jackson became better known as a sharp-tongued concert provocateur than as a gifted R&B; vocalist. She contributed to the image with such album titles as “Live & Outrageous (Rated XXX).”

While those ribald tales are among the highlights of “Totally Unrestricted!,” the music on the album would have made her worth attention even if she’d never been involved in the sexual wordplay.

Some of the tracks on disc two are little more than conventional, but no one with a taste for R&B; will be disappointed with this package.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).