Soul/R&B/Funk

Old School Friday – The Divas

By Kevin ⋅ July 17, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

Here I am, once again slipping in an OSF post at the last minute. This weeks theme is The Divas. Y’all know by now that when I kick it old school, I kick it real old school. So, here’s one of the originals, Billie Holiday, kicking it mellow.

And for a something a little more contemporary, I give you Tina Turner (Watch and learn, Beyonce. Watch and learn!).

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 – Dance for Me

By Kevin ⋅ June 19, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments

Wait a minute? Wasn’t the last OSF just yesterday? Damn if time doesn’t fly lately. So, this week’s theme is Dance for Me! Ahhh…this is a theme close to my heart. I’ve never understood those that don’t love to dance, every chance they get.

This one, I dedicate to Jay-Z. Hee hee.

Zapp – “I Can Make You Dance”

This is probably my old crankiness kicking in, but what happened to energy like this in music?

Sly and The Family Stone – “Dance to the Music”

Peaches and Herb – “Shake Yo Groove Thang”

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 – 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 – Something Old, Something New

By Kevin ⋅ January 30, 2009 ⋅ 13 comments

Happy Old School Friday, folks. This weeks theme is Something Old, Something New. It’s funny that this is the theme for this week, because I was just complaining yesterday with BlackAmazon over on Facebook about Scarlet Johannson’s gawd awful cover of Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye.” Really, unless you are as brilliant, if not more brilliant, than the artist whose work you seek to cover (or you’re covering something that was mediocre to crap to begin with), you need to just leave it alone. Some things are sacred.

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Old School Friday – 2 Hot 4 Radio

By Kevin ⋅ January 23, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments

Happy Old School Friday! This weeks theme is “Too Hot for Radio.” Now see, folks trying to get me in trouble with my moms or something now! She’s barely gotten over my tendency to drop F-bombs all over the place, and now I’m about to go and post…yeah, how can I not with this theme…”Darlin’ Nikki.”

Darling Nikki – Purple Rain Tour 1985
by samsarax

This isn’t, on the surface, “Too Hot for Radio,” but if you pay very close attention, you’ll find that yeah, maybe it really is. My Bloody Valentine’s “Cigarette in Your Bed.”