Music

Carry On, Michael Jackson

By Kevin ⋅ June 25, 2009 ⋅ 8 comments

I heard at work. First, one of our barista’s boyfriend called to break the news. Then, I received a few phone calls from customers, random people, who must have thought that being holed up in a store meant we hadn’t heard the news. One customer asked us to broadcast the news over the load speakers. Think about that for a minute. For all of his troubles, Michael Jackson touched a lot of people’s lives in a profound way.

I grew up with Michael Jackson. My siblings and I used to argue, back in the day, over who was the baddest: Michael Jackson or Prince? Truth be told, we always ended up giving it up to Prince; but we always went back to Michael. Moms would get mad at us, scared we were gonna wear the carpet down from trying to do the Moonwalk in the living room, or blow the stereo speakers from cranking “Thriller” too loudly, or give her a headache from cranking “Beat It” too loudly.

Michael Jackson – New Music – More Music Videos

And even before then, my parents had all of the Jackson 5 45s. I used to sit in my room when I first discovered the pleasure of music, with my little orange box record player and rock the hell out of “ABC,” “Rockin’ Robin,” “I Want You Back.”

Later in life, when I started DJing, I always made sure to have a Jackson 5 cut in the mix. It had become necessary, never cliche.

Let us not forget The Wiz. I grew up loving the Wizard of Oz, and seeing The Wiz in the theaters just blew my little mind. The story took on a whole new level of awesome once I saw it with brown folks playing all the roles.

Ease On Down The Road
by choucoune92

This is how I’m going to remember Michael Jackson: The joy, the pleasure, the family. Yes, Michael had his demons. We all do. That his demons were obviously exacerbated by fame, pressure, race and gender in the face of enormous fame, and many more things that I (and you?) might not ever understand will surely be lost on a lot of folks (MSM, I’m looking at you). I’m not trying to say that he was beyond criticism. I am saying that right now, I want to honor Michael Jackson for all of the joy that he has brought me and mine. And for all that other stuff, well, I just don’t know. I didn’t know before he passed away and I’m not going to pretend like I know now.

I just hope that Michael Jackson is now resting in peace.

Old School Friday, er…Sunday: G.O.A.T.

By Kevin ⋅ May 17, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

So, I put in twelve hours at work the last two days, and getting in my OSF post done in time just wasn’t going to happen. The theme, The Greatest of All Time, however, is the type of theme that gets my music-infatuated (possibly…oh ok, definitely snobish) self in all kinds of tizzies. This is the type of question that I have literally spent months upon months talking about with other music ~~snobs~~ fanatics. I will go to my grave ~~fighting~~ discussing with someone about the greatness of some music or some book.

I still don’t know the answer. It changes, for me at least, almost daily.

Then, we have to start talking genre. The greatest R&B act? The Greatest rapper? The greatest Rock ‘n Roll Guitarist? The greatest Punk band? You can’t compare Biggie to Robert Johnson to John Coltrane to Nick Cave and then declare one of them The Greatest (although at one time or another I have declared all of them The Greatest). I guess that’s what I love about these types of questions. There is no answer.

So, here’s my shot at The Greatest, right now, which may very well change 20 minutes after I publish this post. So, don’t quote me on any of this.

The first one is obvious. Few people will argue with me on this one. Jimmy simply owned the guitar and everyone recognizes this.

I will fight anyone who tries to dispute this one. I’m not hearing anything about Miles, either. Although, I will concede that just about everything Davis did with Coltrane was pretty good (hint, hint).

I’ll let everyone else argue over 2Pac and Biggie (or Nas and Jay Z, or Eminem…). Right now, I’m feeling Rakim.

R&B singer? I’m going with The Queen. How I missed this after searching for last weeks picks is beyond me.

Happy OSF, er…OSS Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – Soul Train

By Kevin ⋅ May 8, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

So, I’ve missed the last few OSFes, but when I found out that this week’s theme is Soul Train, there was no way I was gonna let all that silly life stuff get in way of partaking. I dare you to find a black person in the United States and born in the seventies that wasn’t glued to Soul Train every week. They do not exist.

So here we go.

Al Green, “Sha-La-La.” Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places, but my man Al Green doesn’t seem to get the props he deserves these days.

The Soul Train Line was a milestone in United States culture.

Anyone remember this jam from the Pointer Sisters? I’m beside myself!

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – If My Mamma Only Knew

By Kevin ⋅ April 10, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

Here my late ass is once again with the OSF post. The theme is If My Mamma Only Knew, which is especially funny to me because today is moms birthday (Happy Birthday Moms!).

Who am I kidding? Moms probably knows about that shit. Heh.

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – I Had a Bad Day at Work

By Kevin ⋅ March 28, 2009 ⋅ 7 comments

So technically it’s no longer Friday, at least out here on the East Coast. In my world, however, the day doesn’t end until I’ve gone to bed and awakened. So, here’s my OSF picks for the week. The theme this week is I Had a Bad Day at Work. These days I’m not sure who isn’t having bad days at work or bad days looking for work. So let’s lighten the mood for a moment and revel in having fun at work.

I give you, Rose Royce’s “Car Wash.” Oh yeah…

Bet you can’t guess what’s now next up on my NetFlix queue.

Being one of those people that worships at the alter of Dylan (when I’m not worshiping at the altar of John Coltrane, of course), I just have to throw a little “Maggie’s Farm” at you. This was also one of the first songs Dylan played with an electric guitar.

Now this is where it gets tough. I’ve still got almost the entire Blues and Country oeuvres to chose from. Then there are all those obvious, yet still classic choices: Billy Bragg, The Boss, Dolly Parton, Lee Dorsey, Johnny Paycheck, Sam Cooke. What to chose?

How about some Superchunk, “Slack Motherfuckers.” I’m workin’, but I’m not workin’ for you!

And last but not least, and even though this isn’t really about work (at least the day to day, pay the rent kind), but just because I have to read every damn day about executives at AIG or some other bunch of greedy asswipes getting rich at folks expense, while at the same time trying to blame those same folks for the messed up state they’ve found themselves in, I just have to drop the P.E., “Fight the Power.”

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – Child Singers

By Kevin ⋅ March 13, 2009 ⋅ 7 comments

Here we are and it’s Friday once again. Where does the time go? This weeks theme is Child Singers. So, let’s start this off with a little Miley Cyrus…just kidding. I love y’all too much for that. Here we have Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers performing “Why Do Fools Fall In Love.”

Aren’t those little boys cute as all get out? I’m feelin’ those sweaters with the “Ts”. Hahaha!

I can’t do this without some Lil’ Stevie. Here’s his first hit, also done at 13, “Fingertips.”

I can’t resist this one. New Edition’s first hit, “Candy Girl.”

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – Songs with Heart

By Kevin ⋅ March 6, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

Well, once again it’s Friday and time for some old school. My apologies for the hiatus, but I needed to step away from the tubes for a minute and take care of some of that IRL stuff. Happens. T

This week’s theme is Songs with Heart. I’m kinda mad at Shae for being quick on the draw and beating me to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” That was the first song I thought of. Oh well. I guess that means I’ll just have to go and once again drop that dancedy goodness that is Dee-Lite’s “Groove is in the Heart.” I’ll never be able to hear this song again without thinking of Portly Dyke getting her birthday dance on, and that’s a good thing, because either you love PD or you are dumb. I’m just saying. Also, I hereby declare anything that contains Bootsy Collins and Q-Tip as made of win. They could drop a silent joint like Pootie Tang and I’d be dancing my ass off.

Groove is in the Heart – Dee-Lite
by MovieFanQS

It took me quite some time to realize that The Beatles were the shit. I spent many a year being too punk/indie or something to realize that 80% of the bands I loved were ripping them off. Only in the deluded mind of the too hip can Big Star rule and The Beatles suck. Thankfully, one day I found myself grown up.

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”