Old School Friday – My Theme Song

By Kevin ⋅ July 24, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Happy Old School Friday, everyone! This week’s theme is My Theme Song. Ok, this is the truth. Often, when I wake up in the morning (er, afternoon) and I’m faced with the day’s travails, I’ll start to feel down, like I’m just not up to the tasks at hand. I’m sure this is something most folks who read here can relate to. Here’s what I use to get myself out of that mindset: “Can I Kick It?,” by A Tribe Called Quest.

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

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: If I Were a…

By Kevin ⋅ April 4, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

Here I am, once again slipping in an Old School Friday post at the last minute. So today’s theme is If I Were a Boy/Girl. I have no idea where to go with this one, truth be told. So I’m going to take a pass and just post some general old school goodness.

Ok, so this technically isn’t old school, but it’s got that old school 80’s vibe going on, and I’m digging it. I’m currently on the hunt for more of this (props to Amanda and Samhita for the heads up).

Dj Blagstarr and Rye Rye – “Shake It to the Ground”

Now, back to the real 80s. Y’all remember EPMD, right? Only two of the best MCs to ever touch a mic. Well, if you tired, then go take a nap…

EPMD – “You Gots to Chill”

I’ve been looking for a reason to post this one for a while. Mc Lyte simply owns on this one. Hit the road Sam…

MC Lyte – “Paper Thin”

Watch more Lyte as a Rock videos on AOL Video

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.”