Here I Am (Come And Take Me)

Album

Call Me

Label

Hi Records

Genre

Soul

Composer(s)

Al Green;Mabon Hodges

Entered Chart

Jul 7, 1973

Peak Date

Sep 8, 1973

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Hi 2247

B-Side

I'm Glad You're Mine

"Here I Am" was written by Al Green and Teenie Hodges, who also worked with Green on his hits "Take Me to the River" and "Love and Happiness" Here, Green is practically begging his girl to come back, letting her know that he's hers for the taking despite all the times she broke his heart. The Call Me album is Al Green's magnum opus, and is widely regarded as one of the best Soul albums of all time. VH1 named Call Me the 70th in its list of all-time greatest albums, and it made #289 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. If you sense a bit of the rebel in Al Green, consider that as a kid Al was singing with a quartet called the Greene Brothers, but his father yanked him out. The reason: he caught his son listening to Jackie Wilson's music. With Wilson being one of the pioneers of Soul, we can see that Al Green followed his call anyway. Far from resting on his laurels as a '70s Soul sensation, Al Green has gone on to comparable success even into this century; his 2008 album Lay It Down reached #9 on the Billboard album charts. Other artists to record this song include Jimmy Barnes, Marcia Griffiths, Al Jarreau, Michael Jackson, Seal and UB40. Green was one of the few performers to play live on Soul Train. He had a broken arm when he appeared on the show in 1974, but with one arm in a sling and another holding a rose, he sang an electrifying rendition of this song that became a musical highlight of the series.

I can't believe that it's real,
The way that you make me feel.
A burning deep down inside,
A love that I cannot hide.
Our love is you and me baby,
That make the world go round.
And if you've been doin' lovin' with me,
Layin' all my troubles down,

Here I am, baby,
Come and take me.
Here I am, baby,
Come and take me,
Take me by the hand, oh
Show me,
Here I am, baby.

It always ends up this way,
Me begging you every day.
A love that I cannot have,
You broke my heart into half.
Our love is you and me baby, yeah, yeah
That make's the world go round.

And if you've been doin' lovin' with me,
Layin' all my troubles down

Here I am, baby,
Come and take me,
Here I am, baby,
Come and take me,
Take me by the hand, yeah
Squeeze it
Here I am, baby.

When I'm down I can always call you,
For a helpin' hand.
I know you'll do the best you can.
But it don't take much from me,
Just for my cup of Joe.

Oh there's love inside me,
I believe there's going to be an explosion,
It's tough for me, oh baby,
I can do worry,
Tell me all your troubles, yeah
You won't ever have to worry no,


One more thing, you just can't trust everybody,
Everybody you see, oh no, no
You'll find yourselves lost and alone on a dark end of the street,

Here I am, baby,
Come and take me.
Here I am, baby,
Come and take me,
Take me by the hand.
Show me, take me, won't ya
Show me
Here I am, baby
Take me
Teach me, baby
Won't you take me by the hand
Teach me
Here I am baby